New website from the CDC: Natural Disasters, Severe Weather, and COVID-19
Thanks to Dorothy Schepps for the citation.
New Website from the CDC
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Category Archives: Natural Disaster
10 States at Greatest Risk for Natural Disasters
From InsuranceBusiness Mag: These states are especially at risk for natural disasters
2020 is shaping up to be a bad year for natural disasters, according to personal finance website ValuePenguin. At the end of April, the year ranked number two for most disasters – with peak hurricane and wildfire seasons still ahead.
Some states are especially at risk, according to ValuePenguin. In a recent study, the company found that 10 states pay for more than 80% of the cost of natural disasters in the US, with damage especially concentrated along the Gulf Coast.
Why It’s Time to Stop Calling These Hurricane Disasters “Natural”
From the WashPost, this opinion piece authored by an MIT professor: Why it’s time to stop calling these hurricane disasters ‘natural’
We must first recognize the phrase “natural disaster” for what it is: a sham we hide behind to avoid our own culpability. Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and wildfires are part of nature, and the natural world has long ago adapted to them. Disasters occur when we move to risky places and build inadequate infrastructure.
In the United States, we have in place a range of policies that all but guarantees a worsening string of Katrinas, Sandys, Harveys and Irmas as far as we can see into the future. Climate change acts as a threat-multiplier to these policy-generated disasters, making them progressively worse than they would have been in a stable climate.
Women More Affected by Natural Disasters
Women respond to the effects of climate change and natural disasters
Women generally suffer more than men do from the effects of climate change and natural disasters. This observation leads the SDC to develop a targeted strategy of supporting projects in which women play an important role in their own social and economic emancipation.
On the slopes of the Bolivian Altiplano, in Haiti and in rural India, women tend to bear the brunt of climate change and natural disasters. Because they attend to household duties, they depend on access to natural resources more than men do. When these resources become scarce, an entire way of life – and means of survival – collapses. Some women also lose the little financial independence they had gained.
Billion Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters: time series
“Natural Disasters as Threats to Peace”
From the US Institute of Peace, this new special report was recently released. The executive summary and details about the author are located here. A link to the full text ( 17 pages) also is provided.
I think I will have to add this topic to my list of What Keeps Me Up at Night. The current list was posted on Nov. 15th on this blog.
The main theme is fascinating and one that would make a great discussion topic at future conferences. The author makes a number of generalizations about disasters and emergency management systems used in recent years, which I find interesting and consistent with some of my observations. One example follows:
Most fundamental to stoic readiness is the political capacity of societies to mobilize in the face of crises. Such capacity includes the ability to make decisions quickly and cohesively, to redirect funding rapidly without corruption, and to deliver supplies and support efficiently. * * * In failed or failing states, government capabilities are especially lacking, and such political capacity is the most difficult set of skills and institutions to improve, even with major develop assistance from outsiders.”
A related report is this one from Harvard University: Climate Change As a National Security Issue. Feb. 2013. The full report ( 184 pp.) is here.
One more article on the topic, from the NY Times on March 3 in this review by Thomas Friedman of The Arab Spring and Climate Change.
Use of Social Media in Disasters – the Colorado wildfires-updates
With all the fire and flooding disasters going on presently, I thought I would pull up some practical resources for people to use. See this handbook created by residents of Joplin, MO with help from their state university: The Use of Social Media for Disaster Recovery. Note that the same two ladies who were the creative force in Joplin have created a Facebook page for the Colorado Wildfires.
Additional resources are on Kim Stephen’s blog: idisaster.wordpress.com
Be sure to check out the Resources page.
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Information:
From the Denver Post, resources and assistance available to evacuees.
Website for the CO Voluntary Agencies Active in Disasters.
From USA Today, some interesting facts about why the risk is so high in Colorado and other western states:
Throughout the West, firefighters have toiled for days in searing, record-setting heat against fires fueled by prolonged drought. Most, if not all, of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana were under red flag warnings, meaning extreme fire danger.
The nation is experiencing “a super-heated spike on top of a decades-long warming trend,” said Derek Arndt, head of climate monitoring at the National Climatic Data Center.
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I keep wondering how you shelter 32,000 people who have evacuated rapidly from an unexpected disaster event. If anyone has details, please let me know.
Razing 40,000 homes – final push on demolition in New Orleans
It is hard to imagine 40,000 homes needing to be razed, but that is the situation in New Orleans in the nearly six years since the catastrophic effects of Hurricane Katrina. See this Christian Science Monitor article for the details.
New Report on Natural Disasters and Resilience
Thanks to an organization called the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, Inc. (FLASH) and their contractor, Weather Predict Consulting Inc., we have the benefit of an excellent report on natural disasters with some recommendations re resilience. I especially like it because it presents a lot of hard scientific information about natural disasters and some useful observations re resilience, a topic that often sinks under the weight of platitudes and wishful thinking.
The 14 page report is titled: Impact 2011: Examining a Year of Catastrophes through the Lens of Resiliency. It is international in scope though the recommendations are meant for a U.S. audience.
Related articles
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Recovery in Louisiana – still ongoing in year 6
This article focuses on the slow drawdown of federal funds made available for recovery projects in Louisiana since the trio of hurricanes that hit in 2005. It highlights the financial management needed for the long, complicated recovery process. Check out: Another lesson learned from hurricanes Rita, Katrina; December 16, 2011. A couple of excerpts:
While recovery from hurricanes Rita and Katrina from 2005 has been steady, the money allocated by the federal government to Louisiana has not been all spent. There is almost $2 billion still unspent from the $13.4 billion that was given to the state for rebuilding from those devastating natural disasters, according to the state Division of Administration.
That doesn’t mean it won’t be spent, since it will probably take the state years to fully recover.
While we can be grateful for the aide from the federal government, among the lessons from hurricanes Rita and Katrina is how to make the recovery programs from natural disasters more efficient, while making sure the money is spent honestly and for the purposes intended.
Recovery Diva 