From Politico: People just give up: Low-income hurricane victims slam federal relief programs. Nine months after Harvey, middle-class Houston has recovered, but low-income neighborhoods are in disarray.
From the GAO Watch blog: Keeping the Lights On; Building Resilience in U.S. Electricity Grid.
Historic town suffered it second 1,000 year flood in two years. See: Do You return After Another 1000 year Flood? Some excerpts from the article about the rebuilding efforts there for the past two years:
Funding for water infrastructure programs finally did come through, just three weeks ago, with a little more than $1 million for flood-mitigation in Ellicott City from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
But that will barely get the front-end loaders cranking on a project that’s a $10 million event — for openers.
The planning folks warned everyone this would happen. They issued a 2014 report that detailed what needed to be done to tame those raging waters. And nothing happened. Then, after the 2016 flood, the report was rebooted last June as the “Ellicott City Hydrology/Hydraulic Study and Concept Mitigation Analysis. Conclusion: “The nature and scope of such improvements is significant in scope, impact and cost. It will require a long term planning and implementation effort.”
From CNN: Florida, Mississippi and Alabama declare emergencies ahead of storm Alberto.
Hurricane season doesn’t officially begin until June 1, but Alberto apparently missed the memo. The tropical system became a subtropical storm Friday, the hurricane center said. As it travels up the warm waters of the Gulf, it could well become a full tropical storm.
Already some are calculating $1B in economic losses in the Gulf Coast.
We know that some parts of the country are more vulnerable to disasters than others, and some communities suffer repetitive losses over the years. The article provides an amazing amount of detail, via data and maps, showing where those events and losses have occurred in the U.S.
From the NY Times: The Places in the U.S. Where Disaster Strikes Again and Again.
In the last 16 years, parts of Louisiana have been struck by six hurricanes. Areas near San Diego were devastated by three particularly vicious wildfire seasons. And a town in eastern Kentucky has been pummeled by at least nine storms severe enough to warrant federal assistance.
Update on May 29: After trying several times to print out a useful copy of this excellent article, I contacted the NY Times. They did not provide much help, but perhaps a reprint could be ordered. I did learn that some articles appear only in their digital version of the paper and not in the hard copy. Good to know for future reference for the researchers out there.
From the WashPost; Fresh from Hurricane Harvey’s flooding, Houston starts to build anew — in the flood plain
There has to be a better way to rebuild. Any suggestions from readers?
From RollCall: Opinion: As Hurricane Season Approaches, It’s Time to Fix Disaster Funding. “Our federal government should stop treating natural disasters as surprises.”
Among the recommendations are to fix the Stafford Act and the National Flood Ins. Program. We have heard those many times; hope it happens one of these days!
NIST Launches Study of Hurricane Maria’s Impact on Puerto Rico.
The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced it will study the impacts of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico, focusing specifically on the performance of critical buildings and their dependence on distributed infrastructure (such as electricity and water), as well as emergency communications and the public’s response to those communications.
The Diva highly recommends a recent article titled A Comparative Analysis of the Roles Governors Play in Disaster Recovery.
Link: Smith_et_al-2018-Risk_Hazards__Crisis_in_Public_Policy(2)
This 40 page article provides a useful summary of recovery research, mentions H. Katrina and the resulting PKEMRA, as well as the role of the states in recovery.
See also other useful materials are available for the UNC Coastal Resilience Center.
Citizens and politicians in Alaska are well aware of the effects on their state. From the NY Times, see Impossible to Ignore’: Why Alaska Is Crafting a Plan to Fight Climate Change.
Recovery Diva 