Effects of Climate Change in Alaska

Posted on March 13, 2017 by recoverydiva

From Bloomberg Business Week: Alaska’s Big Problem With Warmer Winters. Juneau has no plan, little money for erosion or thawing permafrost. An excerpt:

Alaska is an extreme example of a national failure to prepare for climate change. Across the U.S., state funding for environmental projects, such as beach erosion control or upgraded sewage systems, peaked in 2007, even as capital expenditures have since risen 25 percent. States along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts have resisted adopting the latest model building codes designed to protect residents against storms and other extreme weather. And when the Federal Emergency Management Agency suggested last year that states take more responsibility preparing for natural disasters, the National Governors Association balked.

Today is Our 7th Anniversary

Posted on March 10, 2017 by recoverydiva

According to Word Press, this blog is now 7 years old. If you read it and like it, please make a donation to help the Diva keep it going.

Comments and suggestions are welcomed.

New Technology for Disaster Response

Posted on March 10, 2017 by recoverydiva

Disaster response goes digital – but not for all

At a conference on resilience in New Orleans this week, technology companies outlined the increasingly sophisticated tools they are offering – on an altruistic basis – to help people cope better when disasters strike.

They are also collaborating to advance the speed and efficacy with which those tools can be deployed, said Kellie Bentz, head of global disaster response and relief for online accommodation marketplace Airbnb.

Proposed Cuts to FEMA Budget

Posted on March 8, 2017 by recoverydiva

The title of this WashPost article does not mention FEMA, but if you read down to the second half of the article you can see what cuts the new administration proposes: To fund border wall, Trump administration weighs cuts to Coast Guard, airport security.

Updates:

Here is another version of the same story from Politico.
March 9, additional details from Natural Resources Defense Council.

Bear in mind, the cuts to EPA, NOAA, Coast Guard and other federal agencies also will have an impact on emergency management as we currently know it.

The Diva suggests you get ready to defend programs you want and to protest the cuts.

Better Communication re Earthquakes

Posted on March 7, 2017 by recoverydiva

From HSNewswire, Better communication key to reducing earthquake death toll

A major problem in conveying earthquake risks to the public is that scientists are unable to predict when, where, and with what strength the next earthquake will strike. Instead, they use probabilistic forecasting based on seismic clustering. Earthquake experts have long grappled with the problem of how to convey these complex probabilities to lay persons.

The full text version of this 31 page article is available here: The evolution of the operational earthquake forecasting community of practice: the L’Aquila communication crisis as a triggering event for organizational renewal, by Deanna D. Sellnow, Joel Iverson & Timothy L. Sellnow, Journal of Applied Communications Research.

The Diva does not usually use the term “academic” to mean dense and unclear, but I do mean it this time — it would be great if someone could write a short analysis of the full article ( about 3-5 pages) with the essentials that a practitioner would like to know.

NY State Initiates a Local EM Accreditation Program

Posted on March 6, 2017 by recoverydiva

See this article from a local paper: Emergency Management Initiative is Brainchild of Livingston County Official

Update: Thanks to the program staff for providing this press release with more details.

World Bank Report on Annual Cost of Natural Disasters

Posted on March 3, 2017 by recoverydiva

From the World Bank, Natural Disasters Cost $520B a Year. Some details:

Global natural disasters cost $520 billion of consumption loss annually, 60 percent larger than asset losses that are commonly reported, the World Bank said in a report.

The estimate is based on the impact of disasters such as floods, windstorms, earthquakes, and tsunamis on people’s well-being, measured by the decline in their consumption, …..

“The design of disaster risk management should, then, not rely only on asset losses,” the World Bank said. “Targeting poorer people with disaster risk reduction interventions — such as dikes and drainage systems — would generate lower gains in avoided asset losses but larger gains in well-being.”

The NAS Annotates Trump’s Speech to Congress

Posted on March 2, 2017 by recoverydiva

The National Academy of Sciences has annotated Pres.Trump’s speech to Congress with links to relevant publications it has completed. Go to this link to see how they did it. Here is their explanation:

The President’s Joint Address to Congress focused on topics including immigration, health care, and infrastructure. The National Academies Press provides resources directly related to these issues.

In keeping with our seven-year tradition of providing resources on the topics in Presidents’ State of the Union addresses, we’ve annotated the complete text of President Trump’s Address to Congress with relevant reports from the National Academies that provide authoritative, independent guidance on these issues.

New High Level Resilience Council

Posted on March 2, 2017 by recoverydiva

Atlantic Council Launches New Resilience Center in Face of Mounting Global Disruptions. Some details:

At the inaugural meeting of the Adrienne Arsht Center for Resilience, a high-level group of policymakers, experts, and local leaders urged governments to accelerate efforts to integrate resilience into decision-making as a critical component of effective policymaking at the local, national, and international level.

“A single event or disruption can spark any number of unexpected, reverberating consequences which make responding to the initial challenge ever more difficult,” declared the Atlantic Council’s Resilience Task Force members in a communique, noting that resilience is “a policy strategy to manage shocks, recover from the worst effects, and gain in the process.”