From the Wash Post: Trump administration sees a 7-degree rise in global temperatures by 2100. Here is one quoted opinion about the new report:
With this administration, it’s almost as if this science is happening in another galaxy,” said Rachel Cleetus, policy director and lead economist for the Union of Concerned Scientists’ climate and energy program. “That feedback isn’t informing the policy.”
The Cost of Natural Disasters in the U.S. Shows the cost of disasters by category. Note that the data used is from NOAA, so disasters are weather-related. It would be interesting to see the cost share of earthquakes, landslides, and other natural disasters.
Thanks to Eric Holdeman for the link.
From the WashPost, details of the report from the DHS Office of Inspector General; see; Brock Long’s Improper Use of FEMA Staff and SUVs.
Hurricane Florence’s “1,000-year” rainfall, explained. Massive downpours like these are no longer as rare as the name suggests.
Evacuation decision-making: How people make choices in disasters. An excerpt:
Based on preliminary analysis of post-hurricane responses, almost 50 percent of those who evacuated did not live in areas that received mandatory evacuation orders. In addition, fewer than one-third of individuals who were in a mandatory evacuation zone appeared to have evaluated this information accurately. Our analysis suggests that individuals’ perceptions were based on the amount of media they consumed before the hurricane, past experiences of loss from a hurricane, and other personal factors not tied to the recommendations of emergency response agencies.
From the Pew Trusts, this report (11 pages) on disaster mitigation. Natural Disaster Mitigation Spending Not Comprehensively Tracked. Most federal funding to help states manage cost growth is available only after an incident. Here is the concluding paragraph:
Because the federal government and state do not know how much they spend on mitigation in total, they lack the information to accurate compare proactive investments with post-disaster response and recovery Expenditures. All levels of government need a more comprehensive understanding of federal and state investment in order to better target funding to help manage the growing costs of catastrophic events.
FEMA used to have a program called Project Impact, which made money available for mitigation prior to a disaster. But the G..W. Bush administration killed the program. It is truly painful to see lessons forgotten or ignored.
Update: for those not familiar with Project Impact, which was notable and effective during its short life, I suggest you use Google Scholar with the search term “FEMA and Project Impact.” There you will find several studies and articles. See especially the study done by the Univ. of Delaware.
From HSToday: National Center for Disaster Fraud Helps Survivors Targeted as Crime Victims
My friend and fellow blogger, Eric Holdeman, has offered additional suggestions about helping victims after a disaster. The Diva also endorses the Red Guide to Recovery.
From HuffPost: Climate Change Comes Home To Roost In North Carolina
Breached swine lagoons. Overflowing coal waste ponds. Sewage in the streets. The hellish aftermath of climate-fueled Hurricane Florence.
FEMA has radically underestimated how vulnerable Americans are to flooding
Research claims that official estimates lowballed the risk by, uh, about a factor of three.
Recovery Diva 