Why It’s Time to Stop Calling These Hurricane Disasters “Natural”

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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.

Call for Better Hurricane Prediction

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From the WashPost: Hurricanes are menacing our economy. We have to invest in better prediction.

To protect our communities and our nation’s economy, we must make smart investments that will advance our forecasts. This would provide actionable intelligence for officials making evacuation decisions, utility crews positioning in advance to restore power to affected areas, and businesses safeguarding valuable inventory.

Although the scientific community has been mobilized to confront these challenges, the government in recent years has cut annual spending on its flagship hurricane forecast improvement program from $13 million to less than $5 million. Compared with the costs of Harvey and Irma, this is as though we own a $30,000 car and will not spend more than about 90 cents a year to protect it.

Other countries are outpacing us in weather prediction.

Support for Schools

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Resources to Support Education Agencies With Recovery and Continuity of Operations and Learning Following Hurricanes Harvey and Irma

Has your education agency been affected by Hurricanes Harvey or Irma? In collaboration with other federal agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Dept. of Education’s mission during this time is to ensure continuity of operations and learning via the provision of critical services to students, families, and educators and the restoration of the learning environment. To support this mission, ED has established a page to support you and your community partners with recovery and continuity activities.

For general hurricane support and for help with Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, visit: https://www.ed.gov/hurricane-help.

Review of Painful Lessons So Far

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This is a good recap of the response so far. Will the lessons be learned or just noted?

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma offer sobering lessons in the power of nature

William “Brock” Long, the FEMA administrator, has had two epic storms in his first three months on the job, and what he’s seen affirms his philosophy that the United States needs a fundamental change in disaster preparedness.
“We don’t seem to learn the lessons over and over again from past hurricanes,” he said. He cited the many people who refused to evacuate from storm-surge zones, “which blows my mind.”

FL Is “Ticking Time Bomb”

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From Scientific American: Hurricane Irma: Florida’s Overdevelopment Has Created a Ticking Time Bomb. Disaster risk expert says intense population growth and urban coastal development have created a huge danger.

The title is a bit dramatic, but the message is one we are seeing in many articles these days. Both FL coastal cities and Houston have been growing with inadequate attention to risk.