The new Yorker magazine has this feature article – The Plague Year– in its current edition. I believe it is free to download. I used the URL I received for the download. It is about the Covid-19 virus.

Fro the Congressional Research Service, this newly updated report: COVID-19 Relief Assistance to Small Businesses: Issues and Policy Options, updated Dec. 29.

The report is 50 pages.

This past weekend, a longtime friend and colleague passed away. She was a wonderful person and a pioneer in the emergency management field. Here are some details from the obituary in the local newspaper in TN:

Frances Avagene Moore, age 81, of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, passed away Thursday, December 24, 2020 at Huntsville Hospital in Huntsville, Alabama.  Avagene began her career in Emergency Management in Lawrence County, and continued to pursue opportunities to advance within state and national emergency management organizations   She served as President of the International Association of Emergency Managers and held many professional certifications in her field, including public speaking, leadership and consulting. In 2011, she was awarded the “Inductee to the International Women in Homeland Security and Emergency Management Hall of Fame” designation.  In a career that spanned over thirty-five years, she strongly influenced emergency management programs across the United States and abroad and left a legacy behind with her passion for her life’s work.

From NBCBoston: Rising Seas: Time for Mass. Towns to Retreat From the Coast?

“As climate change reshapes the coastline, some towns are weighing whether to protect vulnerable waterfront homes or encourage the owners to leave. Environmental experts say it’s a choice all coastal communities will face.”

From the WashPost: The Biden administration can’t stop wildfires. But it can make them less destructive.

“Rarely in recent memory has the United States seen a wildfire season as awful as in 2020. Scorching temperatures turned vast swaths of forest into tinder. Ferocious winds whipped small sparks into infernos, spinning up towering smoke clouds and terrifying fire tornadoes. Half the continent was suffocated by ash and smoke. By the time winter rain arrived, nearly 10 million acres had burned.

A century of poor forest management and unchecked climate change have pushed the West into a “new world of fire,” said Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment. Traditional methods of firefighting falter in the face of such huge, unpredictable blazes. Instead, fire experts and environmental groups are hopeful that President-elect Joe Biden will adopt a more scientific approach to the issue, removing fuels from forests and shoring up community defenses to make wildfires less destructive, rather than simply trying to put them out.”

A new set of threats, from Inside Climate News: Fueled by Climate Change, Wildfires Threaten Toxic Superfund Sites. Blazes at the imperiled hazardous waste sites could release toxins ranging from acid mine drainage to radioactive smoke.

From the Wash Post: The great acceleration. The virus isn’t transforming us. It’s speeding up the changes already underway.

Article from GovTech: NIST Issues Disaster Recovery Playbook for Community Resilience. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a guide to help emergency managers and community stakeholders ask the right questions to maintain and restore vital services after a disaster.

Here is the direct link to the NIST 50 page paper: COMMUNITY RESILIENCE PLANNING GUIDE FOR BUILDINGS AND INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEMS

Event Summary of the 2020 Understanding Risk Forum.

From Slate: How the Biden Administration Can Fix This Part of the Disaster Housing Crisis