Report Recommends Modifying Hurricane Relief Strategies

As cited in HSNews this report from GA Tech: Modify Hurricane Relief Strategies, National Academies Report Recommends.

Alleviating suffering more effectively in the wake of hurricanes may require a shift in relief strategies. In the immediate aftermath, relief agencies rush in survival supplies like water, food, medicine, and blankets. But instead of prioritizing and maintaining the relief supply chains, a transition to restoring a place’s normal supply infrastructure could help more people more quickly.

Humanitarian Aid Not Adequate for Global Needs

Humanitarian Aid Struggling to Meet Needs of Global Humanitarian Crises.

The 2018 World Disasters Report released by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) paints a bleak picture of the state of global humanitarian aid. This report describes a humanitarian sector ill-equipped to meet the needs of all people living in crisis globally. In 2017, humanitarian assistance supported less than half of people in need.

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted in October of 2015, pledged to “end poverty and hunger everywhere” by 2030, and claimed “no one will be left behind”. However, this IFRC report expresses concern for the millions that are and will be left behind by increasing humanitarian need.

FL Is “Ticking Time Bomb”

From Scientific American: Hurricane Irma: Florida’s Overdevelopment Has Created a Ticking Time Bomb. Disaster risk expert says intense population growth and urban coastal development have created a huge danger.

The title is a bit dramatic, but the message is one we are seeing in many articles these days. Both FL coastal cities and Houston have been growing with inadequate attention to risk.

A Tragedy Made Worse by Human Action

Explosion That Killed 15 at Texas Fertilizer Plant Is Ruled Intentional

The fire that set off one of the worst industrial disasters in Texas history — the deadly explosion of a fertilizer plant in West, Tex., in 2013 — was intentionally set, federal officials announced on Wednesday.

The announcement by investigators with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives came three years after the explosion at the West Fertilizer Company plant on April 17, 2013. In the years since, law enforcement officials had never revealed a cause. They had previously said three possibilities were under consideration, including faulty electrical wiring, a short-circuit in an electrical golf cart and an intentional act of arson.

” To Reduce the Impact of Disasters, Increase the Focus on Children”

From the HuffPost, an interesting article by the head of UNICEF. See: To Reduce the Impact of Disasters, Increase the Focus on Children.  Here are some numbers that indicate how big this segment of the population is:

The number of children affected every year by disasters is projected to reach 175 million over the next ten years — a figure that will have nearly tripled since the early 1990s. Children represent more than half of all people affected by disasters, and not surprisingly, the children at greatest risk are typically the poorest and hardest to reach.

Disasters and Poverty – new international report

Natural disasters ‘making poor poorer’ warn ODI is the heading for an article about a new report issued by the Overseas Development Institute. The data and the graphics in the report are quite sobering.  Some excerpts for the article:

The ODI has revealed 319 million poor people will be living in the countries most exposed to natural disasters by 2030.

 

Natural disasters in some of the poorest parts of the world pose a terminal threat to success in the global battle against poverty, says a new report.

The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) research, costing around £60,000, estimates that around a third of a billion extremely poor people will be living in countries highly exposed to natural hazards such as drought and flooding by 2030.

 

… the lead author Tom Mitchell, the ODI’s head of climate change, warned that by 2030 around 325 million people will be living in countries acutely vulnerable to volatile changes in the weather.

“We know that disasters entrench poverty – they don’t just end lives, they destroy shops, roads, crops, houses and hospitals in places where there are no safety nets such as insurance or social security,” he said. “Without meaningful change, talk of the end of extreme poverty is pie in the sky.”

The Full text of the report, which it titled Geography of Poverty, Disasters and Climate Extremes in 2030, is 88 pages and the executive summary is 6 pages.

Disaster Aftermath – changes in personal behavior, more “short fuses”

This article about Christchurch, NZ highlights some of the results of stress and anxiety from a major destructive earthquake and thousands of aftershocks. As you might expect, those conditions do affect people’s behavior.

And if you read some of the descriptive information, or see some of the post-quake videos, you will understand why people are so stressed. [Some of these articles are listed on the NZ page of this blog.]

See: Christchurch Fuses Shorter in Wake of Quakes. October 13.

Aftermath of September 4th Earthquake in Chris...