Monthly Archives: September 2010

More on Recovery in Louisiana since H. Katrina

Posted on by
Reply

The advantage of writing a blog is that I have great literary license. Here goes a review of three different pieces on recovery in LA from Hurricane Katrina: two items are recently- issued research articles and one is a movie review.

(1) Recovery or Resilience Along the Gulf Coast. Public Manager magazine, Sept. 2010. See pages 24-49 for a set of articles about H. Katrina Recovery, mostly written by well-known public administration academics. The most unusual article — very bold and direct – is the article (p.38) titled The Ethinomics of  Leaking Louisiana. It describes aspects of the local culture and the endemic corruption that have interfered with an efficient and effective recovery.

(2) In the current issue of Public Administration Review ( Sept./Oct 2010) is an article titled Retrospectives and Prospectives on Hurricane Katrina: Five Years and Counting, and the authors are Louise Comfort, Thomas Birkland, Beverly Cigler, and Earthea Nance.  I am in agreement with some and disagreement with other parts of this article, but it is worth reading. It is only available to subscribers, so I cannot provide a copy here without violating the copyright. (Contact me offline if you have trouble obtaining it.)

(3) A recent  New Yorker magazine, August 30, has a review of Spike Lee’s new movie about New Orleans five years after Katrine: the article is “Unnatural Disasters” and the title of the movie is “If God is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise.”  The reviewer concludes:

Over all, you’re left thinking that New Orleans is a city that goes in circles, with its own rules and mysteries and unyielding contradictions, none of them plumbable by outsiders. You finish watching “If God Is Willing” not knowing where New Orleans, for better or worse, will never be the same or will be the same as it always was.

My take from all of this is we must learn to do a better job on recovery in this country and soon – we need to do it smarter, faster, and cheaper than we did in NOLA.  Otherwise, the future looks bleak.

 

Related Articles

Post-Mortem for the Gulf Oil (Macondo) Well

Posted on by
Reply
Fishery Closure Boundary as of 6pm Eastern Tim...

Image via Wikipedia

With Gulf well almost dead, what lies ahead? Cnn, Sept. 19.

The imminent death of BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico is a milestone that likely will draw only momentary celebration. As scientists debate how much oil remains below the surface, years of economic and environmental recovery in the region lie ahead. The federal government will press for answers on what went wrong April 20 and lawsuits — including those brought by the families of the 11 workers who died in the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion — will eventually make their way through the courts.

Some additional information from the Huffington Post.The well is dead, but Gulf challenges live on. And one more take on the demise of the “rogue well” and the ramifications comes from the Wall St. Journal.

Related Articles

NZ – cited as model of earthquake response and recovery

Posted on by
Reply

NZ sets disaster preparedness example, says Clark, NZ Herald, Sept. 16.

Former N.Z. Prime Minister, Helen Clark, praises the national preparedness efforts with minimizing the deaths and injuries in the recent Christchurch/Canterbury Earthquake, especially true when compared with the outcome of the Haiti earthquake of the same magnitude. Ms Clark also commented on the positive benefit of beginning recovery planning quickly.  The ready availability of insurance money for reconstruction is an important feature of the N.Z. system.

If you put in place the systems which anticipate what disaster might strike, then you can act to thwart the worst effects. She was critical of how international aid funding was targeted after large natural disasters like the Haiti quake or the recent Pakistan floods.   While the international community generally provided immediate humanitarian relief, early recovery schemes to help people rebuild were “the least funded part of any international appeal for help.

I think there is an immediate need for a comparative study of recovery in N.Z. and the U.S. , and I plan to engage in one. Please contact me if you are planning to research this topic.

Related Articles

Gas Pipeline Safety — another neglected hazard comes to the forefront

Posted on by
Reply

Another example of 20/20 hindsight. The pipeline safety issue has a lot in common with the deep sea oil drilling matter: regulations dominated by industry for their benefit.  ProPublica just published Fatal Pipeline Accident Turns Attention to Nation’s Aging Pipelines

…the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration [in the Dept. of Transportation], the federal agency that regulates 2.3 million miles of oil and natural gas pipelines, largely relies on standards written by the oil and gas industry. It has about 100 inspectors, leaving industry a great deal of latitude with inspections. (Even after the blast, state utility regulators ordered PG&E  to inspect its own network of gas pipelines.)

And according to The Washington Independent, federal regulators are required to inspect only about 7 percent [6] of the country’s natural gas pipelines. That percentage is based on how populated the surrounding area is, and not the actual conditions of the pipelines.

Apparently, the needed improvements to the regulatory system are known.

Related Articles

Administrative changes needed to improve federal preparedness and response

Posted on by
Reply
Oil spill containment boom, shown holding back oil

Image via Wikipedia

In an article titled All Together Now, there is a discussion of the coordination needed at the federal level for disasters generally and for an oil spill in particular.  The article is subtitled: Collaboration-minded feds discover that getting agencies to work together is easier said than done.

Also on Sept. 15th, the Washington Post had a short news item regarding the management consulting study now underway at the new a bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM), which formerly was the Minerals Management Service.  In case you forgot, that is the agency that mismanaged the BP Oil Spill.  The article notes that the McKinsey Co. study will not be completed until next year. A few more details are in this Wash Post note.

Let’s try not to have another spill until the results are know and implemented!

Related Articles

Worker Safety During Oil Spill Cleanup

Posted on by
Reply

Rarely is adequate consideration given to the health and safety of workers engaged in cleaning up after a disaster, and the BP Oil Spill Disaster is no exception.  From Ship to Shore: Reforming the National Contingency Plan to Improve Protections for Oil Spill Cleanup Workers

BP’s foul up is not the first significant oil spill in the nation’s history, nor even the first in the Gulf. The oil companies and government agencies with a stake in guarding against and cleaning up the spills that inevitably accompany oil drilling have had ample opportunity and motivation to devise and hone plans for protecting workers. And yet, thousands of cleanup workers began their work in the Gulf without the training and guidance necessary to ensure their safety in the face of hazardous conditions.

…OSHA and NIOSH eventually settled on policies for training workers and requiring appropriate safety gear. Their response undoubtedly helped limit the risks the workers faced. But the time it took to settle these policies put into sharp focus a significant problem in our nation’s emergency response policies: OSHA and NIOSH had only limited roles in the planning process and in the development of implementing regulations, a failing that badly slowed the government’s response on the worker-safety front. From this “original sin” flowed a number of negative consequences, some of which compromised the health and safety of cleanup workers.

The report also said that the National and Regional Contingency Plans shortchanged the role of worker protection agencies in planning for an oil spill response, leaving no mechanism for enforcing workplace safety.

Related Articles

Mixed Views from Scientists re Environmental Effects of BP Oil Spill

Posted on by
Reply
BP OIL SPILL Disaster

Image by The Latest Slub: via Flickr

Some good news is always welcome. Gulf Spill May Defy Darkest Predictions, NY Times, Sept. 13.

Nevertheless, not everyone is optimistic.  Some additional scientific work indicates significant amounts of oil have settled to the floor of the seabed. Scientists Find Thick Layer Of Oil On Seafloor.

A core sample from the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico shows a 2-inch layer of oily material. Researchers are finding oil on the seafloor miles away from the blown-out BP well.  Though researchers have yet to chemically link the oil deposits to the BP well, “the sheer coverage here is leading us all to come to the conclusion that it has to be sedimented oil from the oil spill because it’s all over the place,” says one scientist.

Related Articles

NZ plans to “fast track” the recovery in Canterbury/Christchurch

Posted on by
Reply
Christchurch earthquake

Image by nzgabriel via Flickr

In NZ, the transition is underway from response to recovery, after the Canterbury Earthquake. [Note: I have been calling it the Christchurch earthquake, but apparently the epicenter was closer to Canterbury.]  What is of special interest is local and national efforts to “fastrack” the recovery process. Hopefully, there will be some lessons for the U.S. to learn in that regard. PM: Quake NZ’s most costly natural disaster, NZHerald, Sept. 13.

The Canterbury earthquake will be the most costly natural disaster New Zealand has ever faced, Prime Minister John Key said today….The Treasury has put the overall cost at about $4 billion but the Government says that is a very early estimate and clearly expects it to rise. “We are moving from the response phase to the recovery and rebuilding phase and we don’t want work being slowed or stopped by needless red tape and filling out paperwork,” Mr Key said at his post-cabinet press conference.

“Legislation like the Building Act, the Local Government Act and the Resource Management Act aren’t designed for the special circumstances Canterbury faces.” To deal with that Parliament will tomorrow pass a bill under urgency allowing ministers to make special orders to fast track the recovery.

A second article in that same source indicates many details remain to be worked out. See Govt earthquake bill unclear – Brownlee

BP’s Oil Spill Disaster Study is Criticized

Posted on by
Reply

It is not surprising that BP’s credibility regarding its own analysis of the causes of the disastrous oil spill has been criticized.  Soon the independent panel, created by President Obama, should be issuing their report, which hopefully will be more highly regarded. Credibility of BP Oil Spill Study is Challenged, Wash. Post, Sept. 12.

The BP report spreads much of the responsibility  for the catastrophic blowout to other companies involved in the well operation, and it concludes that some of BP’s most widely criticized decisions in the construction of the well probably did not contribute to the disaster.

Other companies involved in the operation have challenged the report’s credibility, saying it is flawed and self-serving.

Related Articles

New Report – Urgent Recommendations re Gulf Coast Resilience

Posted on by
Reply
States that border the Gulf of Mexico are show...

Image via Wikipedia

Before the Next Katrina: Urgent Recommendations for the President & Congress on Gulf  Coast Resilience; Center for National Policy, August 27. In a compelling new report, authors Steve Flynn and Sean Burke address a few new problems, namely, the likelihood of a major hurricane affecting the same Gulf Coast area impacted by the B.P. Oil Spill and how to clarify, coordinate, and reconcile the two federal response systems that pertain.  The Oil Spill response and now the recovery process are proceeding under the authority of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, but a major hurricane is likely to get a Presidential declaration under the Stafford Act.  The authors do an excellent job identifying problem areas and issues that should be address before another big hurricane reaches the Gulf Coast this season, which could be quite soon. See this C-SPAN interview.

Related Articles