From the Congressional Research Service, this 5-page report: 2019 Midwest Flooding: FEMA and Other Federal Programs and Resources
Another CRS Report on Agricultural Disaster Assistance.
New CRS Report on Midwest Floods
Reply
Catastrophic Flooding Explained
From the NYTimes: What Makes a Catastrophic Flood? And Is Climate Change Causing More of Them?
More information on the flooding: For a flooded Midwest, climate forecasts offer little comfort
Recovery in PR Mired in Politics and Mud
From the WashPost: ‘Enough with the insults’: Puerto Rico’s governor says Trump won’t meet about Hurricane Maria recovery
In the brutal months after Hurricane Maria, which killed an estimated 2,975 people in Puerto Rico, the island’s Democratic governor abstained from joining the local chorus lashing President Trump over a botched federal response. But that fragile alliance has disintegrated as Trump increasingly insists that aid to the island be cut off, a demand he reiterated to Senate Republicans on Tuesday.
In his strongest rebuke yet of the president, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló late on Tuesday called Trump’s comments “below the dignity of a sitting President” and “irresponsible, regrettable and, above all, unjustified,” while suggesting Trump has dodged meeting him.
Editorial in WashPost on March 27: The Trump administration has turned bigotry into policy in Puerto Rico
From Wash Post on March 26: HUD inspector general’s office says it’ll look into whether White House interfered with Puerto Rico disaster aid
Puerto Rico Gov Hits Back After Trump Whines About Hurricane Relief Funds
Serious Problems in HazMat Recovery
From the Guardian: Thirty years after Exxon Valdez, the response to oil spills is still all wrong. Chemicals used to clean up spills have harmed marine wildlife, response workers and coastal residents. The EPA must act.
The Diva wonders if the current EPA is likely to take action. Sorry to say, she does not have much confidence about their level of concern.
New GAO Report Critical of Federal Block Grants Pledged for Recovery
Disaster Recovery: Better Monitoring of Block Grant Funds Is Needed. Report ispages long; summary is available. Here is the direct link to the recommendations.
Use of the $35 billion in federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds for the 2017 hurricanes has been slow.Over a year after the first funds were appropriated, much of the money remains unspent because grantees in Florida, Puerto Rico, Texas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are still in planning phases. Also, the Department of Housing and Urban Development doesn’t have the review guidance and monitoring plans it needs for good grantee oversight. We recommended ways to improve the oversight of disaster funding and better meet disaster recovery needs.
Update on 3/26. Here is a another, hard-hitting account of the deficiencies at HUD: Key Federal Agency Doesn’t Have the Staff to Oversee $35B in 2017 Hurricane Recovery Money
A key agency charged with overseeing $35 billion in federal disaster aid Congress appropriated after the record-setting 2017 hurricane season lacks sufficient staff to oversee the funds and is not taking proper precautions against fraud, according to a new report.
A slow start to the Housing and Urban Development Department’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program has led to virtually none of the funds being disbursed, despite Congress approving the spending more than a year ago. HUD’s “ad hoc” approach to overseeing and monitoring the funds has created lags in four states and territories—Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands—providing relief to individuals affected by the hurricanes, the Government Accountability Office found.
Recovery Conference Materials
Regional Recovery Conference. a two-day event held in Portland Oregon. March 11-12, 2019. This website has a generous supply of slides and video presentations. An excellent resource.
Thanks to Dr. Alessandra Jerolleman, one of the presenters for this link. This blog will review her new book, titled Disaster Recovery Through the Lens of Justice, in the near future.
New Book on Measuring Resilience
This article in HSWire reviews a new book from the NAS. See: Measuring progress toward resilience more effectively
The article contains the link to the NAS site where you can download a free copy. A summary and the full book are available for download.
FEMA Resources for Recovery
From the FEMA website: The Community Recovery Management Toolkit (CRMT) is a compilation of guidance, case studies, tools, and training to assist local communities in managing long-term recovery post-disaster. This toolkit is managed by Community Planning and Capacity Building Recovery Support Function (CPCB RSF).
Worth Pondering
An article in the WashPost reviewed this paper from MIT: A Structured Approach to Strategic Decisions, by Daniel Kahneman, Dan Lovallo, and Olivier Sibony
It covers Leadership, Strategy, Leadership Skills, Developing Strategy, Executing Strategy. Reducing errors in judgment requires a disciplined process.
Disaster Victims Data Breach
FEMA ‘major privacy incident’ reveals data from 2.5 million disaster survivors
The Federal Emergency Management Agency shared personal addresses and banking information of more than 2 million U.S. disaster survivors in what the agency acknowledged Friday was a “major privacy incident.”
The data mishap, discovered recently and the subject of a report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, occurred when the agency shared sensitive, personally identifiable information of disaster survivors who used FEMA’S Transitional Sheltering Assistance program, according to officials at FEMA. Those affected included the victims of California wildfires in 2017 and Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, the report said.
In a statement, Lizzie Litzow, FEMA’s press secretary, said, “FEMA provided more information than was necessary” while transferring disaster survivor information to a contractor. “We believe this oversharing has impacted approximately 2.5 million disaster survivors,” said a Department of Homeland Security official who asked for anonymity to provide background information beyond the official FEMA statement.
Thanks to Bill Nicholson for the citation.
Recovery Diva 