Sea Level Rise – some dramatic examples in 8 cities

Posted on April 5, 2013 by recoverydiva

I ran across this graphic and thought it was worth sharing. It does make sea level rise more real. I definitely can relate since I have lived in 3 of the 8 cities shown. Check out this site.

On April 6, the NYTimes published this article about melting icecaps, dealing with the topic of global warming..

You: Most in U.S. concerned about sea level rise, poll finds (latimes.com)
Louisiana coast faces highest rate of sea-level rise worldwide (louisianaweekly.com)
What America Will Look Like Under 25 Feet Of Sea Water (businessinsider.com)

Transportation and Disasters

Posted on April 4, 2013 by recoverydiva

A wealth of resources on transportation issues/need in the post disaster setting, from the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciencies.

As noted by the Univ. of CO/Boulder in their newsletter (April 5th):

When it comes to keeping citizens safe during transit, the Transportation Research Board has 101 ways to make it happen. Actually, make that 111 ways—and learn the status of them all in this monthly report. Since 2001, the TRB has been busy making sure travel in the United States is safe from terrorist threats and other dangers. So far, they and their partners have completed 111 research projects, with another 24 in progress and 10 in development. The report is a quick and easy way to keep tabs on $20 million devoted to keeping everything from railways to waterways terrorist-free.

The Arkansas pipeline failure incident

Posted on April 2, 2013 by recoverydiva

Given the current debate about the really big Keystone pipeline project, this latest incident is causing serious harm in a small community; and the event raises many issues that need to be faced about pipeline safety and the management of spills and accidents. See this news account.

More details will be coming from one of our readers.

What makes this incident unusual is that pipelines are the responsibility of the Dept. of Transportation. So the responsibility for managing this disaster event is with DOT. Most of the disasters experienced recently in the U.S., and talked about in this blog, have received disaster declarations and are the responsibility of FEMA. The major exception was the Deep Water Horizon disaster, which was a hazardous material disaster, hence was managed under the National Contingency Plan by the Environmental Protection Agency and NOAA.

News Clips re Hurricane Sandy Aftermath

Posted on April 2, 2013 by recoverydiva

N.J. Politics Roundup: Hurricane Sandy hurts towns’ tax bases

FEMA Flood Maps Engender Backlash

The new flood maps, if approved, would add more than 65,000 structures in New York and New Jersey to the 100-year-flood zones—areas that FEMA believes face a 1 percent-a-year change of flooding. Everyone in those zones is required to get flood insurance….

Learning from Hurricane Sandy and pooling funds for the next catastrophe: Opinion; by James Lee Witt and James Loy

The solution we support would result in a better and more proactive approach and leverage a stronger public-private partnership. This approach would strengthen America’s financial infrastructure by building a privately funded national catastrophe fund.A national catastrophe fund that is part of a comprehensive, integrated program will help address insurance affordability and expand coverage options for all homeowners while protecting taxpayers from the seemingly endless need to provide emergency relief.

NY City Recovery Information Website

Posted on April 1, 2013 by recoverydiva

For those of you tracking the progress of recovery from Hurricane Sandy, here is a link to the NYCity Recovery site, with current information about its CDBG plan.

What HUD is doing re H. Sandy (recoverydiva.com)

Please Tell Us What You Like

Posted on March 28, 2013 by recoverydiva

The Diva has been contemplating some changes in this blog and she needs your input. Among the considerations are one or more new blogs linked to this one. That expansion would allow for coverage of more topics and a broader array of emergency management content.

Thanks in advance for your help with this.

“H. Sandy Recovery Improvement Act”- a new analysis by CRS

Posted on March 26, 2013 by recoverydiva

I like this report because it fills two major information gaps:

Legislative Analysis: The new CRS report ( 31 pp.) is available here: CRS on Sandy

HUD’s Role Post Disaster: If you share my interest in HUD’s new role in response and recovery, the CRS document provides some helpful background information.

For some details on HUD’s performance after H. Katrina, and some recommendations for its greater involvement in disaster response and recovery, see this 2009 Senate report: Far From Home: Deficiencies in Federal Housing Assistance After Hurricane Katrina and Rita and Recommendations for Improvement. Special report of the Senate Ad Hoc Subcommitee on Disaster Recovery;Feb. 2009 (290 pages).

Leadership During Recovery- a Kiwi perspective

Posted on March 22, 2013 by recoverydiva

The Diva just learned about an interesting paper, written by Ms Elizabeth McNaughton of NZ, with the title Leadership, Wisdom and the Post-Disaster Recovery Process. This link will take you to the full text of her report (40 pp.) and some biographical information.

She clearly has walked the walk and talked the talk of long-term recovery. Plus she is an excellent writer. I highly recommend this paper.

Those folks down under have quite a unique sense of humor. Here is a sample:

“So leaders in recovery – when your tutu falls off you need to be sure your frilly knickers are enough. We need to plan for times when we are not at our peak, because no one can be at peak performance all the time. So, what are your plan B’s? How prepared are your understudies? And what are your resilience building strategies? Can you access the wisdom; yours and that of others?”

______________________________________________________

McNaughton was the National Recovery Manager at New Zealand Red Cross after the Christchurch Earthquake of 2011,and since then has traveled internationally to research recovery experiences in other countries.

Differentiating the Response to H. Sandy from H. Katrina

Posted on March 21, 2013 by recoverydiva

This week I have seen 3 sets of remarks from federal officials that try to make it clear that the response to H. Sandy did not repeat the problems from H.Sandy.

Senate Committee on Homeland Security, March 20. Hurricane Sandy: Getting the Recovery Right and the Value of Mitigation. See testimony by: (1) Sec. Donovan, HUD, and (2) Craig Fugate, FEMA

Also see (3) Sandy Shows How FEMA Has Changed, by Michael Byrne. Federal Coordinating Officer for New York.

Classic FEMA Documents Available from FAS

Posted on March 21, 2013 by recoverydiva

Thanks to the efforts of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS.org) and to Bill Cumming, a nice collection of about 60 classic documents related to FEMA is stored on the FAS website. The direct URL is here.

A note about a recent addition to that list, at the bottom. Bill Cumming asked the FAS to add the report titled Coping With Catastrophe; Building an Emergency Management System to Meet People’s Needs in Natural and Manmade Disasters, done by research team assembled by the National Academy of Public Administration in 1992-3. He and I recently reviewed and discussed this 20 year old report, which probably remains the only major assessment done of FEMA during its 25 years of existence as an independent agency. The report is a good example of the value of engaging professional public administrators when dealing with a “wicked” problem, as recommended in the previous posting on this blog. It’s insights and recommendations were used for many years and some are still current.

Recovery Diva

Long-Term Recovery from Disasters

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