Thanks to the folks at the Natural Hazards Center in Boulder, CO. here is a recent book list they compiled for their conference now underway. It features books related to disasters and emergency management published in the past few years.
I know my readers are interested in new books and I thought this list would be useful to you.
Federal Government Survey Finds Employee Satisfaction in How Agencies Dealt with COVID-19. An excerpt:
Out of the 17 total large agencies, the Department of Homeland Security ranked last with an engagement score of 61.1. Of the department’s components, the United States Coast Guard is ranked 107 out of 411 of the total federal sub-departments with a score of 77.1 as the best federal workspace in DHS.
From the WashPost: The real damage: Why FEMA is denying disaster aid to Black families that have lived for generations in the Deep South. An excerpt:
More than a third of Black-owned land in the South is passed down informally, rather than through deeds and wills, according to land use experts. It’s a custom that dates to the Jim Crow era, when Black people were excluded from the Southern legal system. When land is handed down like this, it becomes heirs’ property, a form of ownership in which families hold property collectively, without clear title.
People believed this protected their land, but the Department of Agriculture has found that heirs’ property is “the leading cause of Black involuntary land loss.” Without formal deeds, families are cut off from federal loans and grants, including from FEMA, which requires that disaster survivors prove they own their property before they can get help rebuilding.
From Scientific American: Miami Building Collapse Could Profoundly Change Engineering. To pin down causes of the structure’s failure, investigators will probably gather its original design drawings, test its remains and run simulations of how well it could withstand forces.
New York’s patchwork recovery masks vast inequities laid bare by Covid
Economic recovery examined by The Guardian.
New CRS Report: Climate Change, Slow-Onset Disasters,and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Report is 5 pp.
From an Israeli perspective: Miami condo collapse shows how the U.S. keeps getting disaster response wrong. When every minute is crucial to saving lives, our inability to mandate an instant call-up of resources across city and state lines is literally killing people.
From HSToday: Lessons Learned from the Aftermath of Disaster
HSToday is proud to present a multi-part series from Emmy award winning director Christopher Allan Smith, a survivor of the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, and documentary filmmaker. Following the fire, Smith took his talents and devoted them to helping others learn from the tragedy on the Paradise Ridge, and the impact of disaster on families, communities and the first responders and disaster planners whose responsibility it is to take these lessons into the future. This series, Lessons Learned from the Camp Fire, describes how preparedness plays out in reality: from running for your life away from the danger to emergency finances to the aftermath, told only like a survivor could share. HSToday presents this series to bring a voice to the victims of disaster and add some personal texture and experience to the impact of disasters, terrorism, and other tragic acts of violence.
