Author Archives: recoverydiva

Presidential Visits to a Disaster Site – Useful?

Posted on by
1

U.S. President George W. Bush and Nagin meet t...

From MyWay, Dept. 3, Another disaster brings candidates to Gulf Coast. In the wake of the visit of both a presidential candidate and a president visiting in LA after H. Isaac, locals question the value of such visits.

Mitt Romney wasted no time after accepting the GOP presidential nomination in heading to Louisiana to see the damage from Hurricane Isaac, changing his schedule on the fly to get there the very next day. President Barack Obama also tweaked his travel plans to make sure he gets there Monday, ahead of his own nominating convention.

This for a Category 1 storm that killed seven and swamped low-lying areas of Louisiana and dumped more than a foot of rain on its way north – a disaster, to be sure, but one that will never rival the biggest to hit the Gulf Coast. In a region with a storied culture and a history of human suffering, natural and manmade catastrophes, and struggles with government ineptitude and indifference, it’s just another turn in front of the cameras as the perfect political backdrop.

Call it the Katrina effect: Presidents, and would-be presidents, can’t afford to get panned like George W. Bush did in the days after Hurricane Katrina crippled New Orleans and the Mississippi and Alabama coasts in 2005, killing more than 1,800.

“We just want our lights on,” said Eddie Cooley, a 56-year-old chemical warehouse worker drenched in sweat as he worked on his truck’s engine in the Lower 9th Ward, the New Orleans neighborhood flooded to rooftops during Katrina. Over the weekend, parts of the neighborhood remained without electricity, days after Isaac passed.

“We don’t care who gets elected and who doesn’t,” Cooley said. “We just want power.” For Cooley, the 9th Ward resident, the benefit of having a Romney or an Obama see the problems in person remains as dubious as it was in Roosevelt’s day.

“What are both of them going to do? Come down here and look?” he said. “I need lights. I don’t need a president.”

The same question can be asked regarding the FEMA Director. Is is essential that he ( or she) visit a newly declared disaster site? What are your views?

One advantage to having a disaster during the two major national political conventions is that the topic of emergency management suddenly becomes part of the debate between the two parties. See this article in NOLA.com on Sept. 4th.

New Report on the State of the Humanitarian System

Posted on by
Reply

Thanks to the blog iRevolution, here are some details about a major new report on the international humanitarian services sector. Innovation and the State of the Humanitarian System. A few excerpts follow:

Published by ALNAP, the 2012 State of the Humanitarian System report is an important evaluation of the humanitarian community’s efforts over the past two years. “I commend this report to all those responsible for planning and delivering life saving aid around the world,” writes UN Under-Secretary General Valerie Amos in the Preface. “If we are going to improve international humanitarian response we all need to pay attention to the areas of action highlighted in the report.” Below are some of the highlighted areas from the 100+ page evaluation that are ripe for innovative interventions.

Accessing Those in Need. Operational access to populations in need has not improved. Access problems continue and are primarily political or security-related rather than logistical. Indeed, “UN security restrictions often place sever limits on the range of UN-led assessments,” which means that “coverage often can be compromised.” This means that “access constraints in some contexts continue to inhibit an accurate assessment of need. Up to 60% of South Sudan is inaccessible for parts of the year. As a result, critical data, including mortality and morbidity, remain unavailable. Data on nutrition, for example, exist in only 25 of 79 countries where humanitarian partners have conducted surveys.”

Aftermath of H. Isaac

Posted on by
1

MS River at the fly may 15

The stories are just coming in about the impacts and unusual effects of H. Isaac in the Gulf States. Here is one example: Hurricane Isaac Storm Surge Reversed Flow of Mississippi River. CSM, Sept.1

As hurricane Isaac reached southeastern Louisiana as a Category 1 storm earlier this week, it did something unusual to the Mississippi River: It threw the river into reverse.

For nearly 24 hours, according to the US Geological Survey, Isaac’s storm surge drove upriver at a pace nearly 50 percent faster than the downstream flow. This backflow produced a crest some 10 feet above the river’s prestorm height at Belle Chasse, La., in flood-beleaguered Plaquemines Parish southeast of New Orleans. The surge added eight feet to the river’s height at Baton Rouge, father north.

Other news: as of Sept. 4 a count of 13,000 home damaged from the hurricane in LA. The numbers probably will go up.

 

New Infrastructure Did Well in LA

Posted on by
1

It is still early to write about the effects of  H. Isaac, but here is one positive story from HLSecurityWire:  As Hurricane Isaac beats on New Orleans, new infrastructure is holding up; August 31,  2012. It is nice to know that a $14B federal  investment was worthwhile.

This week, as Hurricane Isaac was threatening to replicate the physical damage that Katrina inflicted, it has become apparent that $14 billion worth of changes and improvements in infrastructure, planning, and emergency response procedures have given the city of New Orleans and the Gulf states the ability to withstand the worst of the storm.

English: Hurricane Isaac

See also this article on Sept. 2 in the CSM.

One more on Sept. 3.

Drought-Related Health Effects

Posted on by
Reply

From the Disaster Information Management Research Center of the National Library of Medicine , a new web page focused on Droughts and Health. The webpage looks primarily at the human health effects of drought conditions as experienced in the United States.  Some of the health effects in the United States have historically included (or are speculated to include):

-Changes to water quality, especially private wells, with potential for increased waterborne disease
-Changes to air quality, increased dust, particulates with potential for increased respiratory distress
-Poorer personal hygiene due to decreased water availability
-Food crop or food processing contamination from use of recycled water
-Increased suicide rate (higher than national average) among farm families affected by drought-related economic concerns”

Positive Outcome of H. Isaac = drought relief

Posted on by
Reply

Two articles on the likely positive effects:

  1. From Accuweather; August 29, and
  2. From the Christian Science Monitor: Could tropical storm Isaac actually help break US drought?

Tropical storm Isaac is bearing down on the Gulf Coast, but once it gets inland, it is expected to bring much needed rain to drought-hit farmlands.

Although tropical storm Isaac is causing evacuations and is expected to lead to power outages when it comes ashore, there may be a silver lining for drought-pressed farmers farther inland.

Building to Deal with Sea Level Rise – the Maldives Islands

Posted on by
Reply
An enlargeable map of the Republic of Maldives

An enlargeable map of the Republic of Maldives (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In an article from HSWire, see Maldives to build floating islands to save country from rising sea levels
August 27,  2012. Afe details:

The Maldives Islands, a low-lying chain of twenty-six atolls in the Indian Ocean, are sinking; more precisely: due to global warming, the sea level is rising over the islands, most of which sit lower than three feet above the rising water; the Maldives government has embarked on an ambitious project: build floating islands, anchor them to the ocean floor, then relocate most of the population of 300,000 – and some of the tourist attractions – to them

Related articles

 

___________________________________

Please patronize our sponsor, the Disaster Bookstore.

Dems Continue to Hammer at Republicans’ Proposed Cuts to Disaster Funding

Posted on by
Reply

The red "GOP" logo used by the party...

You have to admit that when the week of the GOP convention is also the week of  H. Isaac, with its uncanny resemblance to H. Katrina, it’s the perfect opportunity to discuss positions on disaster aid and relief.  The Huff Post notes: GOP Convention Under Storm Threat Creates Opening For Democrats On Disaster Relief Cuts;8/27/2012

A new online ad campaign launched Monday targets Republicans for proposed cuts to disaster relief funding and weather monitoring systems. The ads, launched by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, coincided with Tropical Storm Isaac’s pass over the southwest of the state, where it caused widespread power outages and forced the GOP to cancel the first day of the Republican National Convention.

As of Monday morning, the storm had moved back over the Gulf of Mexico, where meteorologists expect it to build strength before slamming into the Gulf Coast on Tuesday night as a Category 1 hurricane. The storm is currently headed straight for New Orleans, where it’s expected to reach land on or before Wednesday, seven years to the day afer Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the city.

The ad, which will appear on hundreds of thousands of computer screens across the state, features images of Mitt Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), flanked by …Sen. Marco Rubio.

“Republicans voted against disaster relief,” it reads. “Thank them here.” A click-through web page cites Ryan’s budget, which the ad says would have “cut billions from disaster relief funding.”

Some additional details about the positions of the two parties are in this HuffPost article today.

Hurricane Isaac May Repeat Path of H. Katrina

Posted on by
Reply

The news from CNN this morning is eerie indeed. See : Eerie similarites: Isaac follows track of Katrina, evacuations ordered for coast. (August 27) .  If H. Isaac does in fact follow the path of H. Katrina 7 years later, it will be very interesting to EM researchers to see just how many lessons were in fact learned.

Related articles