Monthly Archives: May 2013

Joplin, MO — a useful model for recovery

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Joplin as a model recovery example and one of the useful features of their efforts is the exemplary website the city has produced; see: www.joplinmo.org

I ran across it while trying to determine how Joplin is doing two years after its devastating tornado disaster event.  See this Fact Sheet for basic info re Joplin the damage, impacts, and outcomes of recovery.

I wish every city engaged in disaster recovery did this.  We would finally have the basis for some serious case studies, and cross case comparisons needed to build a significant recovery knowledge base.

Related articles

American Public Favors Providing Disaster Assistance

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From a blog on the Washington Post: The American public wants money spent on disasters — cost be damned. May 29.

Nearly six in 10 Americans believe that the federal government should provide funds to states affected by natural disasters without having to cut spending in other areas to do so, according to a new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll.

The full report from the Pew Foundation has a different title: Most Say Disaster Spending Does Not Require Offsetting Cuts; High Interest in Oklahoma Tornado

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CRS Report on Severe Thunderstorms and Tornadoes

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New report ( 26 pp.) by the Congressional Research Service on Severe Thunderstorms and Tornadoes in the U.S.: CRS on Storms May 2013. CRS Report # R40097.  The report addresses 3 issues: (1) forecasting and issuing warnings for several thunderstorms and tornadoes; (2) the role of mitigation; and (3) the effect of climate change.

Thanks to Bill Cumming for bringing this report to my attention.

Insurance – issues for the Moore recovery

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The Wall Street Journal had an article and a video clip this past week about how the insurance companies that cover hurricane and tornado damage are finding ways not to pay out as much or as often as had been true in the past.  Since I do not subscribe to the WSJ, I cannot provide any additional details.  The net result is more personal hardship for property owners in Moore, however.

Here is some additional information about insurance from CNBC, and this article is not kind to the U.S. insurance industry.  See:  Why Insurers May Be Unprepared for the Next Big Storm. Some excerpts follow:

Hurricanes, droughts, tornadoes, wildfires … extreme weather is threatening to take bigger chunks out of insurance companies and yet the industry, in the eyes of experts and consumer advocates, isn’t making any preparations … other than raising rates.

“I can’t think of another industry that’s more directly affected by the weather changes,” said Professor Anant Sundaram of Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. “They need to get out in front of this. It comes down to more than just raising premiums on customers. It’s being pro-active and thinking ahead.”

Eleven extreme weather events each caused at least a billion dollars in losses last year in the United States. Loss estimates for Hurricane Sandy alone are at $50 billion, of which insurance company damage payouts are said to be close to $20 billion.

 Insurers acknowledge that extreme weather or climate change has become the new normal. But a new survey says that many firms are not prepared for future super storms that could affect their industry, while homeowners and businesses suffer raising premium rates.

According to an industry wide report from Ceres, a non-profit group that works toward better business practices, only 23 of 184 U.S. insurance companies have comprehensive climate change strategies that could help mitigate the damaging costs from extreme weather to the industry and consumers. (Read More: World’s Best Places to Live)

“Insurers are starting to think about climate change from their losses but I’m not sure they realize how much of a financial threat it is to them,” said Peyton Fleming, a spokesman for Ceres.

Another Call for Safe Rooms and Mitigation

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Shortly after the tornadoes in Moore, media from all over the nation, as well as many professional associations, are adamant in their call for some mitigative measures so that the repetitive losses of life and property are reduced.  Since the means to do so are known, what is needed is the political will– something lacking so far in OK  None of us wants to watch while children are trapped in their schools and people buried in their homes, if it can be avoided.

From the Post Gazette (Pitsburgh), an editorial of interest: After the Storm; Safe Rooms Need to be mandated in Perilous Places. A few excepts follow; my favorites are highlighted in red:

As always in times of disaster, the humanitarian response of the American people was heart-warming. But the heart must now heed the head. There are obvious lessons that need to be taken if the wells of sympathy are not to be depleted.

Some 24 people were killed by the tornado, including seven 8- and 9-year-old students at Moore’s Plaza Elementary School — a school that had no safe room, just as most of the 1,200 homes damaged and destroyed did not. That is stupid to the point of scandalous. Oklahoma is situated in Tornado Alley and people are accustomed to the danger. According to the National Weather Service, Moore and its environs have seen at least 22 tornadoes killing more than 100 people since 1893.

The state is conservative and fear of overreaching government power is part of the culture. That’s fine as far as it goes, but it goes only as far as it affects other Americans whose tax dollars go to help places like Moore recover.

It rankles that Oklahoma’s U.S. senators, James Inhofe and Tom Coburn, have voted against federal funding for other disaster relief, including for victims of Hurricane Sandy. Yes, they had their reasons — concerns for wasteful federal spending and deficits — but a day of reckoning comes for ingrate behavior. In Moore, it came in a terrifying funnel cloud.

Political ideology should have been blown away in this storm. State and local governments in areas at risk should insist on safe rooms, at least in all new construction. The cost might be high, but so is the cost of repetitive tragedy. It is said that God helps those who help themselves; federal aid ought to be predicated on it.

OK is Leader in Disaster Declarations

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Seal of Oklahoma.Here are some interesting statistics regarding the no. of major disasters, and presidential disaster declarations, that OK has received over the years.  Those numbers surely make me wonder why the states’ politicians have the views they do re federal assistance!

Oklahoma gets far more than its share of disasters.  Here are the leadin sentences to the article:

Many states get hit frequently with tornadoes and other natural catastrophes, but Oklahoma is Disaster Central.The twister that devastated Moore, Okla., was the 74th presidential disaster declared in the Sooner state in the past 60 years. Only much-larger and more-populous California and Texas have had more.

The state is No. 1 in tornado disasters and No. 3 for flooding, according to a database of presidential disaster declarations handled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And those figures don’t include drought, which is handled by a different agency.

New Resources on Mitigation Measures re Tornadoes

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(1) A new page just went up on the website of the National Hazard Mitigation Association, dealing with the Moore, OK event and its aftermath.  The team has assembled a terrific list of resources on safe rooms and other related topics.

The Diva just joined the Association and urges others to do so too.

(2) The Institute for Building and Home Safety also has a number of useful resources, one of which is this tornado archive.

(3) American Society of Civil Engineers ( ASCE) also had a useful page of resources re Rebuilding After a Tornado. (Thanks to Chris Jones for this additional site.)

Moore, Oklahoma tornado damage, May 1999

Oklahoma – is it at the tipping point yet?

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Often I rail about the mounting number of federal requirements and mandates (funded or not) regarding disasters. But today, I am wondering why more of the guidance and requirements for mitigation have not taken hold in OK.

For example, when a governor signs a disaster declaration agreement with the federal government, he/she pledges to take mitigation actions regarding the disaster agent that just caused the destruction.  So if federal money, collected from us taxpayers, is going into Moore, OK, for at least the 3rd time in 14 years, wouldn’t it be smart and economic to have some of go for mitigative measures to reduce the fatalities and costs of the next disaster?

And while TV viewers are horrified at yet another disaster affecting elementary school children, shouldn’t more be done about the construction of schools and making provisions for sheltering? Last night on NPR, Judy Woodruff interviewed the Governor of OK and pressed very hard from an answer.  The Governor waffled and said something about the extra cost. Yet $2B. or more of damages just occurred!!!!  And the two Senators from OK are no help at all. Perhaps the federal government should grant their wish and provide no federal assistance!!!

I surely have reached my tipping point with this event. I am beginning to think federal assistance money should have more requirement for states attached to them.

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I am not the only one wondering about these things.  Here is some commentary from an economist on the topic:  Real World Economics: Government responses to disasters raise economic questions. May 23.

Update on May 24: article in Wash. Post titled Tornado Alley needs shelter from the storms.