Insurer goes bust from Camp Fire with millions in claims unpaid. How will it affect Paradise homeowners?
Here is more information about the insurance co. from the CA State Insurance Office.
Thanks to Laurie Johnson for these citations.
FEMA and its emergency management partner organizations today released Philip Mann’s PrepTalk “Public Works & Emergency Management: Restoring Lifeline Services,” the fourth PrepTalk release from the Sept. 6, 2018 symposium. Mann is the Public Works Director for Gainesville, Florida. He is the past Chair of the American Public Works Association’s (APWA) Emergency Management Committee and is APWA’s representative to the Public Safety Advisory Committee working on the FirstNet project.
In his PrepTalk Mann shares a career’s worth of public works experience, including response and recovery from many disasters. Mann explains that the lifelines managed by a public works department are essential to “allow the community to survive” before and after a disaster. These systems include transportation; supporting utilities to restore power and communications; water for homes, businesses, and fire suppression; waste and stormwater management; and solid waste management including debris removal.
Article in Wash. Post on Dec. 4: How the federal government became responsible for disaster relief. The Alaska earthquake that put Washington in charge of natural disasters.
As readers know, the Diva is an emergency management history buff. This article adds an interesting element to the emergence of the federal government in emergency management, but I think there are many other factors that contributed as well. Reference: Emergency Management; the American Experience, 1900-2010.
Coming up this Thursday in Washington, DC at the Carnegie Institution for Science: Dr. Lucy Jones. Their website will carry the broadcast. Scientist to discuss how we can adapt — and improve our survival — to future natural disasters
Opinion piece from Paul Krugman, in the NYTimes: The Depravity of Climate-Change Denial; Risking civilization for profit, ideology and ego.
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The Anchorage Earthquake Was Terrifying. But the Damage Could’ve Been Much Worse.
Experts said that while the quake was significantly less intense than the one in 1964, which was magnitude 9.2, its limited destruction was the result of the region’s growing smarter and much more resilient in the years since. Anchorage was much better prepared for a major earthquake; other cities may not have fared so well.
The Diva looked for TV coverage of the earthquake, but there was little to see over the past few days. News of the G20 Summit and the death of Pres. Bush got all the attention.
From TheHill: How to protect US communities from future disasters. Author is James L. Witt, former FEMA Director. An excerpt:
In early 2019, Project Impact 2 will launch — this time backed by the private sector. This project is a nationwide campaign with the goal of engaging community leaders and the public to tackle future impacts of increasingly frequent and severe weather events and climate change.
This initiative will provide the vehicle to create a community coalition, establish a process and blueprint for action within the community, and facilitate access to resources to implement community risk reduction actions.
Overlapping environmental disasters put a strain on Gulf communities.
Recovery planning requires substantial analysis and public debate of difficult tradeoffs as decisions are made about how to encourage economic stabilization and development, how to sustain cleanup and restoration of natural systems, what cost-effective hazard mitigation strategies to implement, and how to ensure equitable and just solutions for even the most vulnerable members of affected communities. Recovery efforts need to be carefully sequenced to avoid bottlenecks, enhance efficiency, minimize frustration, and build communities more able to withstand future disasters.
Recovery Diva 