From Bloomberg News, August 22, A New Strategy for Climate Change? Retreat
An interesting presentation of the many forces at work regarding efforts to induce buyouts of risky properties.
The Realities of Buyouts
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Author Archives: recoverydiva
NIMS changes
Updated Federal Interagency Operational Plans Released
*** FEMA released updated Federal Interagency Operational Plans (FIOP) for three of the five mission areas outlined in the National Preparedness Goal: Mitigation, Response, and Recovery. In addition to the updated FIOPs, FEMA has released the first edition of the Protection FIOP. The fifth FIOP – the Prevention FIOP – contains sensitive information for the law enforcement community and is not publically available.
All five plans link together the range of activities conducted by all of the Federal departments and agencies involved in national preparedness. They specifically outline the concept of operations for integrating and synchronizing existing national-level Federal capabilities to support local, state, tribal, territorial, insular area, and Federal plans.
New Standards Proposed for Flood-Area Buildings
From the NYTimes on 8/24, this editorial titled After Louisiana Preparing for the Next Storm.
On 8/23, the Wall St. Journal had an article on the same topic titled New Rules for Flood-Area Buildings, but you need a subscription to get the full text.
Recovery Plans in the Works in LA
From the local newspaper, The Advocate, in Baton Rouge, LA:
- Much like post-Katrina, a major homeowner aid package could make or break flood recovery
- Louisiana congressmen look at a possible flood aid package similar to Katrina
Thanks to Laura Olson for the citations.
Lessons Have Been Learned!
I mostly discuss lessons not learned, so it is nice for a change to have something positive to say. Here are two recent articles that provide details about the improvements shown in the response to the floods in LA as compared with the responses to H. Katrina and H. Sandy:
Recovery Resources for Victims
Here are just a couple of the many resources for individuals:
- St. Bernard Project. Resources for Home Owners
- The Red Guide to Recovery
Serious Concerns re Seismic Safety Preparedness in Italy
Earthquake Investigators Probe Whether Negligence Led to High Death Toll. Efforts at retrofitting buildings and enforcing building codes are being questioned.
Advice on Improving Disaster Recovery
From McKinsey and Co, this article and a link to the full 24 page document from which is was taken. Improving Disaster Recovery Lessons Learned in the U.S. Not new (June 2015), but still useful.
I like the non-nonsense tone of this report. A couple of notable quotes:
Although more governments everywhere are experiencing natural disasters, the process of learning from these experiences had barely begun. Recovery remains surprising difficult of all governments…. What has been missing is a broad examination of government experiences coupled with analysis that can drive improved disaster-recovery outcomes in light of shared best practices and pitfalls.
The recommend “hard-charging, performance driven staff. “Staff for these roles… should be highly entrepreneurial, impact-oriented, and excellent project managers prepared for a high level of intensity in both work hours and public scrutiny for a sustains period of time. Governments should resist the temptation to fill line-accountable roles with external contractors. While contracts can be brought on board quickly, they will lead the decision rights necessary to perform their roles effectively…
Many thanks to David Campbell of www.hands.org for the citation.
A Huge Amount of Federal Funds Has Gone to LA
From Fortune magazine, see this article titled Top Ten FEMA-Funded Disasters
This is not an easy article to follow, but what jumped out at me from viewing the chart in the middle of the article was how much federal funding has gone to the state of LA.
Clearly, some major efforts to mitigate the hazards and threats in that state are needed, not only to to reduce human suffering and property loss, but to reduce the huge federal outlay.
Will Lessons Learned from New Orleans be Applied in Baton Rouge?
After Baton Rouge Flooding, Learning Lessons From New Orleans. Two quotes:
“The silver lining, if there is any silver lining, is that this sits in a large region that has a lot of experience with rebuilding and recovery,” said Mary L. Landrieu, a former United States senator from Louisiana, and a veteran of funding fights during the hurricane recovery. “They don’t have to go far to find experts.”
“The fact is, disaster recovery hasn’t worked well in America, ever,” said Zack Rosenburg, one of the founders of the group, which has done rebuilding work after floods in South Carolina and West Virginia. “It’s an extraordinarily challenging process.” [ Emphasis added by the Diva.]
Recovery Diva 