HUD Report on H. Sandy Progress – update

Posted on June 21, 2014 by recoverydiva

As of July 2, I still cannot find any additional information about the National Disaster Resilience Competition.

But I did see this item of interest on the HUD website: HUD RELEASES PROGRESS REPORT ON SANDY REBUILDING STRATEGY; Report Tracks Progress On Recommendations of Sandy Task Force

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Sandy Program Management Office (PMO) today issued its first report tracking progress on the Sandy Rebuilding Strategy. The report is now available online.

Results of Climate Change Symposium

Posted on June 21, 2014 by recoverydiva

Re the symposium held at MIT this past week. Go to: http://seagrant.mit.edu/conferences/CCS2014/

H. Sandy Recovery — drags on and on

Posted on June 18, 2014 by recoverydiva

From an article in today’s Wall St. Journal:
Many Displaced by Superstorm Sandy Still Wait for Housing Help:
Rules, Including Some Tracing to Fraud Seen After Katrina, Slow Delivery of Billions in Federal Aid

Unaccompanied Alien Children at U.S. Borders

Posted on June 18, 2014 by recoverydiva

As noted about a week ago in this blog, FEMA has the new assignment of assisting with the children.

See this account from the HSDL: The Growing Issue of “Unaccompanied Alien Children” at U.S. Borders

See this CNN article for more details on the political aspects of the crisis.

National Disaster Resilience Competition

Posted on June 15, 2014 by recoverydiva

Apparently, this announcement was issued on Sat. June 14th. Given that timing, there has been little media coverage so far.

Today, President Obama will announce the National Disaster Resilience Competition. Responding to demand from state, local and tribal leaders who are working to increase the safety and security of their communities, the nearly $1 billion competition will invite communities that have experienced natural disasters to compete for funds to help them rebuild and increase their resilience to future disasters.

Here is the basic info from the White House site: FACT SHEET: National Disaster Resilience Competition.

UPDATE: The Fact Sheet does not provide a lot of details. It appears that HUD has the lead role. And the HUD website offers no additional details.

Not exactly a great kick off for this new effort.

Disasters and Displacement

Posted on June 14, 2014 by recoverydiva

From the Brookings Institution, Disasters and Displacement: What We Know, What We Don’t Know

Useful background about displacement of populations by disasters.

Reflections on Hurricane Sandy by HUD Sec. Donovan

Posted on June 13, 2014 by recoverydiva

The WashPost blog featured an interview with outgoing HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. See: Shaun Donovan on confronting hurricanes, homelessness and big banks. Only one question dealt with post-disaster recovery, and it is quoted it here:

How did your work on the Hurricane Sandy task force inform the administration’s disaster relief policies?

It’s important to look back to Hurricane Katrina, and the fact that when we took office, even though it was three and a half years later, it was fresh in the nation’s mind. One of my first trips there was with (then-U.S. Homeland Security Secretary) Janet Napolitano, and many of the neighborhoods looked like the storm had happened the day before. The president asked me to do a review with Janet on national recovery, which led to the National Disaster Recovery Framework that we use today to handle long-term recovery from these major disasters.

I am not sure why but I I find it fascinating that in order to get some serious federal attention to recovery, the President had to tell the Sec. of DHS and the Sec. of HUD to deal with it.

What has baffled me for many years is that FEMA had been in existence for about 35 years and not managed to come up with a recovery framework. The National Disaster Recovery Framework was issued in late 2012.

See comments from readers below…..

Canadian Emergency Powers article

Posted on June 12, 2014 by recoverydiva

For those who seek to understand the Canadian system of emergency management, I recommend the work of Prof. John Lindsay, Assistant Professor at Brandon University in Canada. For those of us most familiar with the U.S. system, it is essential to realize that our neighbor to the north has a very different system.

John has recently published a new article, titled The Power to React: Review and Discussion of Canada’s Emergency Measures Legislation, in the International Journal of Human Rights. His publisher has allowed him a limited no. of links to the full text of the article. If you have a serious interest in the topic, and do not have access to the journal, please contact him directly to request access to a copy: indsayj@brandonu.ca

Coastal Development and Mitigation News Items

Posted on June 12, 2014 by recoverydiva

Lots of news this week about efforts to deal with coastal development matters in NY and Boston. Also. an article about CT efforts.

From the Rockefeller Foundation, 6 Winners Announced for Rebuild By Design Competition, for coastal development projects.

From the City of Boston, their local efforts at planning for sea level rise and mitigation. See their Natural Hazard Mitigation website where all of the Technical Studies are listed on the right hand side of the page. Staff at the Boston OEM have attempted to integrate Natural Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation planning because of the city’s location on the Atlantic. The plan was approved by the State and is now pending FEMA review.