Oregon emergency managers’ map tool now online; RAPTOR offers real-time data, from fires to floods
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Author Archives: recoverydiva
Hurricane Evacuation Studies
Disaster evacuation; Looking for ways to predict response to hurricane evacuation orders
Millions of people will likely be in harm’s way as a new hurricane season unfolds in the United States. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts up to eight hurricanes in the 2016 season, and as many as four major storms with winds of 111 miles per hour or more. What people do – or do not do – to get out of harm’s way is of keen interest to disaster and emergency response officials. Plans and contingencies work best when they are based on reliable predictions.
Future of Drones in Disasters
Education Disrupted by Disasters
Thousands Of Schools Ruined By Disasters, Leaving Kids Without Education
Yet less than two percent of humanitarian aid is earmarked for education.This report seeks to shine a light on the continuing impact that disasters have on education by profiling five specific events that struck the Asia-Pacific region in 2015 – the earthquakes in Nepal, floods in Indonesia and Myanmar, Typhoon Koppu in the Philippines, and Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu. Some of the profiles are of large disasters such as that in Nepal, while others are recurring disasters that force children out of school on an annual or semi-annual basis, such as the typhoons in the Philippines or floods in Indonesia. Many of these are not identified as major disasters by any national or international declaration.
Direct URL to the report by the Save the Children Foundation.
Climate Change Reports re Boston and NYC
Boston and NYC have had many traditional rivalries, such as those between the Red Sox and the Yankees. Recently, there have been a series of articles about the climate change and coastal risks in both of these major northeastern cities. The NYTimes writes about climate change in the NY area frequently.
Far less is known and talked about publicly for the Boston area.Recently the local public radio station took on the topic. See: Why New York Is Better Prepared For Flooding Than Boston. A new research report from Univ. of MA/Boston indicates greater problems than have been discussed publicly to date. See: Climate change could be even worse for Boston than previously thought. The direct URL to the Climate Research Boston report is here. Both a 19 page summary and the full 60 page report are available at this location.
Expected Increase in Hurricane Damages
New 38 page report from the Congressional Budget Office: Potential Increases in Hurricane Damage in the United States: Implications for the Federal Budget; June 2, 2016.
How much will hurricane damage increase in coming years because of climate change and coastal development? This report examines the implications for the federal budget and three approaches for decreasing the pressure for federal spending.
Guide to Open-Access Materials in EM
The Diva is torn about which side to take in the debate about textbooks or free-access digital resources. As the editor of a textbook that took years of effort and dozens of experts to produce, she favors textbooks. [See: Emergency Management; the American Experience, 1900-2010] Yet, as the author of several blogs, she likes the ease and timeliness of sharing information in the digital format.
There are many high quality reports, documents, ebooks and the like available online. In that connection, The Diva has been writing this blog for more than 6 years, during which time about 2,000 postings have been published. Recently, we compiled a substantial index (41 pp) of the postings, with annotations and direct URLs.
If you want to use digital resources in lieu of or to supplement textbooks, this index will get you off to a great start. This Roundup of Recent Resources in Emergency Management (2010-2015) is an excellent resource for consultants, academics, and students. Where else could you get this many digital resources in one place ? This index can be yours immediately, if you donate $25. dollars or more to the blog. New: special rate of $10. for students.
Go to the Donate Now button in the upper right-hand column of the blog’s homepage.
FEMA Releases Updated National Planning Frameworks
Details from FEMA:
Today, FEMA and its partners released the updated National Planning Frameworks for each mission area: Prevention, Protection, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery. The National Planning Frameworks, which are part of the National Preparedness System, set the strategy and doctrine for building, sustaining, and delivering the core capabilities identified in the National Preparedness Goal of building a secure and resilient nation.
The Frameworks present a paradigm shift in the way we approach preparedness through a risk-driven, capabilities-based approach. Historically, preparedness was considered a separate, distinct mission area; but now the Frameworks address national preparedness as a whole, through the core capabilities that compose the five mission areas.
National preparedness is a shared responsibility—everyone has a role to play to ensure that our nation can address its greatest risks. FEMA supports the mission of strengthening the security and resilience of the nation by working to improve the ability of all to manage incidents, events and emergencies. The Frameworks do this by creating a shared understanding about how we, as a nation, coordinate, share information, and work together to achieve our missions, as well as define our roles and responsibilities from the fire house to the White House.
Recognizing the need for an all-of-Nation approach to preparedness, and an open and transparent government, input was gathered from the public, stakeholders and all levels of government. FEMA received thousands of comments during the various review and comment periods. As a result, the Frameworks offer practical, real-life examples of things people are doing to keep our nation safe and resilient.
The updated National Planning Frameworks also incorporate critical edits from the National Preparedness Goal refresh, including updated core capabilities, lessons learned from real world events and continuing implementation of the National Preparedness System, including an increased emphasis on cyber threats, and updates on the roles and responsibilities of coordinating structures in each mission area. The updated Frameworks also align with new policies and directives, such as PPD-21, Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience, and EO 13636, Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity.
FEMA is hosting a series of engagement webinars to highlight key changes to the Frameworks and to answer questions participants may have. All webinars are open to the whole community, including individuals and communities, the private and nonprofit sectors, faith-based organizations and all governments.
For a copy of the document, summary of changes, and webinar registration information visit: http://www.fema.gov/national-planning-frameworks. For more information on national preparedness efforts, visit: http://www.fema.gov/national-preparedness.
See also the comments from readers that follow this announcement from FEMA.
Digital Libraries
The Diva is a big fan of libraries and librarians! For those new to the field of emergency management, here are 3 of the many excellent sources of information available to you. The Diva wants to be sure that newcomers are aware of these library resources:
- The Learning Center at FEMA’s National Emergency Training Center. At the recent Higher Education in Emergency Management Symposium, Librarian Ed Metz and other EMI staffers led a tour of the library and its resources. It is a great place, located on the EMI campus in Emmitsburg, MD and online too, at this URL.
- Natural Hazards Center Collection. This is a joint project of the USF Libraries Special & Digital Collections and The Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute Research Library. This is the direct URL.
- The Disaster Research Center at the Univ. of Delaware. More information about the Quarantelli Research Collection is at this URL. Librarian: Ms Pat Young.
Update on June 17. Thanks to Bill Cumming for this direct link to some of the essential Emergency Management Reference documents on this page of the FEMA website.
EM Research Literature – Hardly Read or Used
As a long-time researcher and writer in the EM field, the Diva noted with interest and chagrin this presentation titled Utilization of Research Literature. Although this research was done in one university program at one point in time, the results probably are an indicator of major changes and problems in higher education in EM today. And they are quite distressing to me.
The author is Dr. Deborah Persell of Arkansas State University, who presented her study results at the workshop preceding the 2016 Higher Education in Emergency Management Symposium this past week. If you would like to talk to her about this study, her contact info is: dpersell@astate.edu.
The lack of interest in and utilization of research results in the EM field is not a new one. For example see: Knowing better and losing even more: the use of knowledge in hazards management (2001), written by Gilbert White, Robert Kates, and Ian Burton (all eminent and long-time researchers) in 2001. Given the emergence of the Internet and of online education in the EM field since 2001, major changes are likely to have occurred.
The Diva is very interested in this topic and would like to know if anyone else done a recent study or attempted to measure the utilization of EM literature and research? She would like to hear about some additional studies and experiences.
Recovery Diva 