Latest issue of EOS from the AGU: Natural Hazards Have Unnatural Imports; What More Can Science Do?

Thanks to Chris Jones for the citation.

From Pew Charitable Trusts to FEMA: Pew Recommends That FEMA Reconsider Proposed Federal Disaster Criteria . (6pp).

From the HSNW: The Disaster that Helped the Nation Prepare for Future Earthquakes: Remembering San Fernando.

“Over the years, NEHRP agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey, made research and policy recommendations that in part contributed to the City of Los Angeles enacting an ordinance in 2015 to retrofit weaker first-story wood-frame buildings and non-ductile, or brittle, concrete buildings, which are both more vulnerable to collapse during strong shaking. In 2013, San Francisco enacted the Mandatory Soft Story Retrofit Program, which was based in part on work sponsored by NEHRP and on the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.  

“NEHRP was founded on the belief that while earthquakes are inevitable, there is much that we can do as a nation to improve public safety, reduce losses and impacts and increase our resilience to earthquakes and related hazards, * * * “

From CNN: Texas disaster casts harsh light on America’s future, An excerpt:

“A nation starts losing ground when its leaders, instead of focusing on what’s best for their country, become more concerned with their personal interests. Disasters become catastrophes when partisanship overtakes patriotism; when ideological obedience turns policy into fanaticism; when political loyalty outranks competence in government staffing and when extracting political advantage becomes the overpowering goal of people who took office claiming they wanted to work for the people.”

From the GAO: Countering Violent Extremism: DHS Needs to Improve Grants Management and Data Collection. GAO-21-216: Published: Feb 1, 2021..

From CNN: Nation’s top governors under fire as three big states reckon with deadly crises, An excerpt:
“The devastating impact of the pandemic and the near collapse of Texas’ power grid has revealed the nation’s lack of cohesive planning for disasters — whether it is US readiness to treat and vaccinate millions of Americans in the grip of a deadly virus or to protect them from the alarming severity of major weather events, including winter storms, hurricanes and wildfires that have unfolded in the midst of a climate crisis.”

From The conversation: One Month In; How Biden Has Changed Disaster Management and the US Covid-19 Response, by Brian J. Gerber and Melanie Gall.

The Diva notes that Melanie Gall is one of the chapter authors in the book U.S. Emergency Management in the 21st Century; From Disaster to Catastrophe. the editors of which are Claire B. Rubin and Susan Cutter.

From the Converge group at the Univ. of CO/Boulder: Extreme Weather Events and Geohazards in a Time of COVID-19. The is a research-setting agenda paper.

This is one of the 90 Working Groups funded through CONVERGE. You can find all of them here: https://converge.colorado.edu/resources/covid-19/working-groups

Thanks to Dr. Lori Peek of the Univ of CO/Boulder for these citations..

From the WashPost: Opinion: A disaster expert died two days before he was set to be vaccinated. Here’s how to honor him.

From the National Academy of Sciences, free webinar on Feb. 25: Future of Electric Power in the United States: Public Briefing, by NASEM Energy and Environmental Systems