All kinds of infrastructure problems occurred post Sandy. Here is an article on the transportation systems during and after post H. Sandy.
For a solid base of information about transportation and emergencies, see the many resources available from the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences.
On Nov. 30th, there was a free, half-day event in Washington, DC. The Diva attended that plus an invitational workshop in the afternoon. The NAS has issued a book on the topic of Disaster Resilience.
The book, Launching a National Conversation on Disaster Resilience in America, is available from the National Academies Press.
Bravo for the pro-active and far-reaching scope of the 3 new commissions created by Governor Cuomo of NY. All three of them are comprised of top flight members, whose mission is to “undertake a comprehensive review and make specific recommendations to overhaul and improve NY State’s emergency preparedness and response capabilities, as well as examine how to improve the strength and resilience of the state’s infrastructure to better withstand major weather incidents.” Interestingly, the word recovery does not show up anywhere.
The three organizations are:
More details about the commissions and their members are in THIS ARTICLE (Nov. 29, 2012)
The high cost of insurance for reconstruction is the theme of this article in the NYTimes, Nov. 28, 2012: Cost of Coastal Living to Climb Under New Flood Rules. (Also titled Post-Storm Cost May Force Many from Coast Life.) Some excerpts follow:
New York and New Jersey residents, just coming to grips with the enormous costs of repairing homes damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, will soon face another financial blow: soaring flood insurance rates and heightened standards for rebuilding that threaten to make seaside living, once and for all, a luxury only the wealthy can afford.
Homeowners in storm-damaged coastal areas who had flood insurance — and many more who did not, but will now be required to — will face premium increases of as much as 20 percent or 25 percent per year beginning in January, under legislation enacted in July to shore up the debt-ridden National Flood Insurance Program. The yearly increases will add hundreds, even thousands, of dollars to homeowners’ annual bills.
The higher premiums, coupled with expensive requirements for homes being rebuilt within newly mapped flood hazard zones, which will take into account the storm’s vast reach, pose a serious threat to middle-class and lower-income enclaves.
The heightened financial pressure has emerged as an unintended consequence of efforts to stop the government subsidization of risk that has encouraged so many to build and rebuild along coasts increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather. Supporters of the effort acknowledged that it would squeeze lower-income residents but said it was vital for the insurance program to reflect the risk of living along the shore.
“The irony is, if we allowed market forces to dictate at the coast, a lot of the development in the wrong places would never have gotten built,” said Jeffrey Tittel, director of the Sierra Club’s chapter in New Jersey. “But we didn’t. We subsidized that development with low insurance rates for decades. And we can’t afford to keep doing that.
[Thanks for Jude Colle for calling it to my attention.]
As the implementation planning for recovery begins, it is worth reviewing what the baseline is for national recovery guidance from FEMA. See the recent GAO testimony/report, titled Disaster Recovery; Selected Themes for Effective Long-Term Recovery; June 2012. A copy is attached here:Testimony-Czerwinski. It reviews the National Disaster Recovery Framework and the newly created position of Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator.
Also the National Preparedness Goal — npg — issued in Sept. 2011 by DHS, outlines the “core capabilities” needed for state and local governments to deal effectively with a catastrophic disaster event. The extent to which this document has contributed to capabilities for recovery in the states and municipalities affected by H. Sandy remains to be determined.
[Special thanks to Bill Cumming for calling these documents to my attention.]
The pending recovery from H. Sandy will allow us to watch the implementation of the NDRF, the role of the FDRC, and the new role created for HUD Secretary Donovan, who was named by the President as the overall manager of recovery for NY and NJ. The interaction among those 3 positions/persons will be most interesting, in my view.
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Six articles in the past week raise some of the the larger issues, at least from the media pundits and some academics. I am curious as to why we have not seen any recommendations from professional associations like APA, ICMA, ASCE and the like. [Feel free to write in if you have seen some.]
I view it as quite positive that so many observers are thinking ahead and are considering what changes are needed. Usually, the pressure to restore things to pre-event status (“snap back”) is very strong. It remains to be seem what the public officials will do over time.
The High Cost of Doing Nothing * * * ; Nov. 24
Rebuilding After Sandy Is Too Big A Risk; Nov. 24. CNN.
Disaster Economics, New Yorker, dated Dec. 3,2012.
NY Can Protect Itself Without Federal Aid, Nov. 27.
NEW CONCERN: Here is what I am worried about – repairs, restoration, and other near-term actions taken before longer-term decisions are made. See: Hurricane Sandy: New Jersey Rebuilding Ahead Of Thoughtful Decisions?
Some advocates fear that rebuilding efforts could take shape on New Jersey’s storm-devastated shore before thoughtful decisions can be made about just how the area should be rebuilt.
The federal government brought thousands of tons of stone, sand and riprap to repair an inlet that the storm ripped open, reconnecting the bay and ocean in a narrow section of barrier island in Mantoloking. The state is repairing Route 35 where it was washed away by that breach and two others nearby.
Also, state action has also made it easier to rebuild damaged infrastructure such as roads and water pipes.
Inside the Megastorm: This is a professional, intelligent account of the impact on H. Sandy on NY and NJ, It aired on Public Television on Nov. 18k from 7-8 pm.
Even though I watched countless TV programs about the storm when it happened, this video pulls it all together in a meaningful way. It would be a good teaching tool.
From the NY Times, an article about a type of modular housing made of shipping containers, under consideration for use after future disasters in urban areas. Nov. 23. The caption calls it “innovative and inside the box.”
This astute overview of the issues pending in the aftermath of H. Sandy. Vetoing Business as Usual After the Storm. NYT, Nov. 20. It gives you a good idea of why achieving an effective and visionary recovery is so hard after a major natural disaster. Quotes from the opening paragraphs:
Not a month after Hurricane Sandy there’s a rough consensus about how to respond. America is already looking to places like London, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Tokyo, where sea walls, levees and wetlands, flood plains and floating city blocks have been conceived.
New York clearly ought to have taken certain steps a while back, no-brainers after the fact. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority ought to have installed floodgates and louvers at vulnerable subway entrances and vents. Consolidated Edison should have gotten its transformers, and Verizon its switching stations, out of harm’s way, and Congress should have ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to study the impact of giant barriers to block parts of the city from the sea.
Scientists, architects, planners and others have, of course, been mulling over these issues for years. They’ve pressed for more parkland and bike lanes, green roofs and energy-efficient buildings, and warned about the need for backup generators, wetland edges along Lower Manhattan and barrier islands for the harbor to cushion the blow of rushing tides.
Hurricane Sandy was a toll paid for procrastination. The good news? We don’t need to send a bunch of Nobel laureates into the desert now, hoping they come up with some new gizmo to save the planet. Solutions are at hand. Money shouldn’t be a problem either, considering the hundreds of billions of dollars, and more lives, another Sandy or two will cost.
So the problem is not technological or, from a long-term cost-benefit perspective, financial. Rather it is the existential challenge to the messy democracy we’ve devised. The hardest part of what lies ahead won’t be deciding whether to construct Eiffel Tower-size sea walls across the Verrazano Narrows and Hell Gate, or overhauling the city’s sewage and storm water system, which spews toxic waste into rivers whenever a couple of inches of rain fall because the sea levels have already risen so much. These are monumental tasks
Here are some positive signs of learning from experience gleaned from articles this week:
LEADERSHIP: I cannot remember the last time such a positive rating for all levels of government occurred after a disaster. We must be learning something from past events! See: Superstorm was super-test for state and local leaders; Experts have given New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg good reviews for their performances after hurricane Sandy. Nov.19. In addition, I would give FEMA high marks for the response phase.
TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE FROM EXPERIENCE: California Learns From Hurricane Sandy In Northeast; Nov. 19
COMMUNICATION NETWORKS. For those of you who are interested in the technical details of disaster networks, see this posting from the iDisaster blog. It talks about the progress made since the Haiti earthquake.
Recovery Diva 