Disasters Affected 8% of U.S. Population in 2017, FEMA Notes in Review of Historic Year.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) supported 59 major disaster declarations and 16 emergency declarations in 2017, a year during which unprecedented disasters affected more than 25 million Americans, almost eight percent of the U.S. population.

In its year-end review, FEMA notes it was a record busy year for FEMA employees and for state and local emergency responders across the country, as well for the federal flood insurance program, which FEMA manages. Thousands of emergency workers remain engaged in recovery efforts including in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

It’s Been One of the Worst Years Ever for Billion-Dollar U.S. Weather Disasters.
“There have been at least 15 weather and climate disasters in the U.S. this year that resulted in losses of more than $1 billion each. That’s one short of the record set in 2011.”

Some dramatic photos from some of the disasters that occurred in 2017.

Today the Diva wants to share an article of general interest rather than specifically related to disaster recovery.  See: The surprising thing Google learned about its employees — and what it means for today’s students

Project Oxygen shocked everyone by concluding that, among the eight most important qualities of Google’s top employees, STEM expertise comes in dead last. The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas.

The Diva has produced both a semi-annual and annual summary of significant postings in past years.  It is her hope that practitioners, consultants, and academics would find an annotated index, by topic of use.  Before embarking on that effort for the year 2017, she would like to hear from readers if they would find that a useful resource.

It has been a very busy year, and the Diva sometimes works on this blog 7 days a week. The Diva would appreciate your support for this effort. Specifically, she needs to hire  some assistance with fixing broken links and creating an index for this calendar year. Please donate via the PayPal link in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage.  Thank you.

Update: So far, with just one exception the donors are those who are consistently supportive. Where are you newbies?