About a week ago, I did a posting that indicated that major changes to FEMA’s public assistance program was underway — see Jan. 22 posting.

Also on that topic see the article in The Street titled Winter Storm Jonas Aftermath: FEMA Considers Plan to Tighten Disaster Funds Faucet. The article notes a report (and link) to an article titled Smarter Disaster Management, by Juliette Kayyem, in the Journal of Democracy. She discusses going beyond the need to repair the public assistance program and argues for major changes in the Stafford Act, the enabling legislation for FEMA.

Update: the Diva received a number of comments from readers, all of which were quite positive about Ms Kayyem’s recommendations.

And Quin Lucie provided some background, via a post on Homeland Security Watch, on the need for changes in the declaration process and reform of the Stafford Act. See that posting from 2013:  Where The Heck’s My Declaration?

The Domestic Preparedness Journal has devoted the whole January issue to the topic of Whole Community. (42 pages)

New release: the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2016. The report, undertaken in conjunction with the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center of the University of Pennsylvania, reports opinions of 750 experts who assessed 29 global risks for both impact and likelihood over a 10-year time horizon and is being released today in advance of the Forum’s annual meeting taking place in Davos.

• Chiefly, the report finds an increased likelihood of all risks – environmental, geopolitical, societal, economic, and technological, looks set to shape the global agenda in the coming year.
• Failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation is the number one global risk in terms of impact.
• Large-scale involuntary migration tops the list of risks in terms of likelihood and is the fastest rising in terms of both impact and likelihood.
• Cyberattacks are now considered the greatest risk to doing business in North America.

For more information:
• Read the Report at http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2016/
• Read the Executive Summary at http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2016/executive-summary/

From Politico, this analysis of why the small snow storm caused havoc in the DC metro area earlier this week. See DC’s Snow Disasters have Political Roots.

Don’t miss comment about local residents being intelligent, but self-serving, when it comes to failing to heed official warnings and recommendations!

Hopefully, when the predicted blizzard arrives later today, some lessons may have been learned by citizens and public officials.

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Updates:

In defense of the relative low level of experience and investment in Washington, DC. area see: It is totally rational to freak out about snow in Washington

In recent days, Flint Michigan received an emergency declaration from the President.  Here are some details, from CNN, on what is involved in remediating the crisis. No simple fix: Infrastructure, health issues loom large in Flint water crisis

Updates:

• Fix Flint’s Water Problem Now; Jan. 24.
• NY Times editorial notes Depraved Indifference. Jan. 22
• Huffington Post: How Flint’s Water Got Poisonous.
• Fortune magazine: Blames the Bureaucrats