A discussion of the question that has been asked since 2003 when FEMA was included in the Dept. of Homeland Security. From the National Interest: Should FEMA Be a Stand Alone Agency?
Should FEMA Be a Stand Alone Agency?
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Monthly Archives: October 2017
Temporary Housing Issues and Options
From the Wash Post: With thousands still in shelters, FEMA’s caution about temporary housing hinders hurricane recovery, An excerpt:
The triple-punch of the three hurricanes has created a housing challenge for FEMA that is unmatched since Katrina. In Texas, an estimated 1.2 million homes were damaged or destroyed. In Florida, where estimates are still being tabulated, the number is already in the tens of thousands. In Puerto Rico, about 250,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.
From Bloomberg News: HUD Explores Temporarily Housing Puerto Ricans on U.S. Mainland
Update on Nov. 1: Here is the FEMA info re transitional housing available in the U.S. mainland.
Reflections on Superstorm Sandy – 5 years later
(1) From the Claims Journal: Officials Reflect on Superstorm Sandy 5 Years Later
(2) From the Guardian: Hurricane Sandy, five years later: ‘No one was ready for what happened after’. Survivors of the 2012 storm remain haunted. As hurricanes continue to batter the US, many say plans to mitigate climate change have not gone far enough: ‘People need to open their eyes’
(3) From the New Yorker: The Fifth Anniversary of H. Sandy.
(4) From CNN.
(5) From the New York Times.
Medical Care in Puerto Rico
From the Harvard Medical School: Puerto Rico after Maria. Harvard doctor on providing critical health care in Puerto Rico.
Thanks to Peg Blechman for providing the citation.
Health Impacts After Disasters
From The Conversation: Scientist at work: Measuring public health impacts after disasters.
In Houston, recovery is under way across the city. Residents and volunteers are gutting and restoring flooded homes. Government agencies and nonprofit organizations are announcing cleanup programs and developing plans to distribute relief funds.
But many questions remain about impacts on public health. What contaminants did floodwaters leave behind? How many people are being exposed to mold – which can grow rapidly in damp, humid conditions – as they repair their homes? Will there be an increase in Zika, West Nile or other vector-borne diseases as mosquito populations recover? Or an uptick in reported cases of other illnesses?
Questionable Contract for PR Power Grid Restoration- updated on 10/29
As a follow up to an earlier posting about grants and contracts at FEMA see this one: Whitefish’s No-Bid Puerto Rico Contract Spotlights Troubled FEMA Grants.
The federal agency paying for a controversial no-bid, $300 million contract to rebuild Puerto Rico’s power grid has for years received scathing reports from government auditors for how it oversees the management of similar grants.
Members of Congress from both parties have raised questions about the selection last week of Whitefish Energy Holdings LLC to lead the rebuilding of Puerto Rico’s hurricane-ravaged electrical grid. The two-year-old Montana-based company had just two employees prior to beginning its work in Puerto Rico.
Update: Apparently, FEMA did not let the contract with Whitefish Energy Holdings according to this article: In its statement Friday, FEMA clarified that it was not involved in hiring the company to restore power to the island and hasn’t provided any reimbursement to the PREPA yet for its contract with Whitefish. See: FEMA Has ‘Significant Concerns About $300 M Utility Deal.
As of Oct. 29, it appears that the contract was let by the island’s utility co. The Governor is planning to cancel it. What took so long to figure this out? Here is an article from Huff Post on the subject; PR’s Contract with Whitefish Is As Bad As it Looks.
Opioid Emergency Declaration
It was slow in coming, and likely to be short on funds and duration, but here are some details about the Trump declaration of an emergency re opioids. Trump to declare health emergency over opioids but no new funds to help.
The president’s announcement of an emergency over the opioid epidemic may be more symbolic, with no plan to assign money for state’s proposed measures
Donald Trump is to order his health secretary to declare a public health emergency in response to the US’s escalating opioid epidemic. But while the announcement that the president intends to “mobilise his entire administration” to combat the crisis will be seen as an important symbolic moment, there will be no new funds to deal with an epidemic claiming 100 lives or more a day.
America’s opioid crisis: how prescription drugs sparked a national trauma
Aggressive marketing of painkillers made from opium poppy led to a generation of addicts and The declaration, which follows a report from the president’s opioid commission recommending he proclaim an emergency, is for 90 days and can be renewed.
Update: From the latest issue of Domestic Preparedness, this article: Implications of the Opioid Crisis During Disaster Response, by Dawn Thomas
The Potential for Recovery To Solve Problems
From the Huffington Post, this article: Disaster Recovery That Solves Regional Problems. [URl was added.]
The Diva thinks this article is not correctly titled. She would title it Disaster Recovery That Could Solve Regional Problems. To assume the many problems listed in the article will be tackled during recovery is quite optimistic at the present time.
New GAO Report Urges Action on Climate Change
Note that GAO is a Congressional agency and does not have the same restrictions that executive branch employees have — such as the recent muzzling of EPA scientists.
New GAO report: Congressional Auditor Urges Action to Address Climate Change
Fires, floods and hurricanes are already costing the federal government tens of billions of dollars a year and climate change will drive those costs ever higher in coming years, a new federal study warns.
The report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’s auditing arm, urges the Trump administration to take climate change risks seriously and begin formulating a response.
Health and Safety Concerns During Disaster Cleanup
One more aspect of disaster response and recovery that is suffering from federal neglect and budget cutbacks: Post-hurricane cleanup work could kill more workers than storms themselves.
The two hurricanes that battered Texas and Florida left 200 people dead but neglect of health and safety among mainly day laborers could exact a great toll
A man shovels seagrass from the entrance of his mobile home in the wake of Hurricane Irma at Tavenier Key, Florida.
Recovery Diva 