Lessons learned from Fort McMurray wildfire.
The need for more collaboration between various municipalities and the consequences of poor land use policies were just two lessons learned from the Fort McMurray wildfire, a speaker said on Wednesday at the Canadian Insurance Financial Forum.
Thanks to Chris Jones for the link.
The U.S. Has Forgotten How to Do Infrastructure. The nation once built things fast and cheaply. Now experts are puzzled why costs are higher and projects take longer than in other countries. A key explanation:
That suggests that U.S. costs are high due to general inefficiency — inefficient project management, an inefficient government contracting process, and inefficient regulation. It suggests that construction, like health care or asset management or education, is an area where Americans have simply ponied up more and more cash over the years while ignoring the fact that they were getting less and less for their money. To fix the problems choking U.S. construction, reformers are going to have to go through the system and rip out the inefficiencies root and branch.
BP oil spill did $17.2 billion in damage to natural resources. This is a sad story and a record that no one would want to match.
The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill did $17.2 billion in damage to the natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico, a team of scientists recently found after a six-year study of the impact of the largest oil spill in U.S. history. This is the first comprehensive appraisal of the financial value of the natural resources damaged by the 134-million-gallon spill.
From Bloomberg News, this rather startling article: Rising Seas May Wipe Out These Jersey Towns, but They’re Still Rated AAA
Few parts of the U.S. are as exposed to the threats from climate change as Ocean County, New Jersey. It was here in Seaside Heights that Hurricane Sandy flooded an oceanfront amusement park, leaving an inundated roller coaster as an iconic image of rising sea levels. Scientists say more floods and stronger hurricanes are likely as the planet warms.
Yet last summer, when Ocean County wanted to sell $31 million in bonds maturing over 20 years, neither of its two rating companies, Moody’s Investors Service or S&P Global Ratings, asked any questions about the expected
Here are some excellent documents from the European Commission:
Thanks to Chris Jones for the citations.
Regarding the first document, here is a short summary of Knowing More and Loosing Less; the Role of Science in Disaster Management from The Homeland Security News Wire.
NOAA predicts active Atlantic hurricane season with 5 to 9 hurricanes. The federal government predicts an unusually active 2017 hurricane season for the Atlantic Basin, with five to nine hurricanes expected to form.
Overall, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts 11 to 17 named tropical storms will develop in the region, which includes the Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, the agency announced Thursday. The season officially begins June 1 and runs through Nov. 30.
Of the hurricanes, two to four could be major, with wind speeds of 111 mph or higher and rated as Category 3, 4 or 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale of Hurricane Intensity. An average season typically spawns six hurricanes and peaks in August and September.
From Reliefweb, this account of a session at the UN conference in Mexico: Preserving heritage boosts disaster resilience.
Cultural heritage and indigenous knowledge are key resources of community and national disaster resilience across the world.
However, much of this heritage and knowledge is being lost to both sudden and slow-onset disasters, weakening the resilience capacity of future generations.
To reverse the trend, a session at the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction has made a series of recommendations to strengthen investment in such ‘human infrastructure’.
Presently, in Mexico the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction is going on. Here is more on the conference:
The Global Platform in Cancun Mexico is in its final day. Don’t miss the live webcasts http://unisdr.org/gp2017, and see over 120 videos of all sessions – already available on the Global Platform website http://unisdr.org/go/gp2017/programme, and on the UNISDR YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/UNISDR/playlists
An interesting new concept and brief paper on Culture-Based Disaster Risk Reduction will be handed out at that conference. Thanks to Dr. Laura Olson, one of the authors, for the information.
How social ties make us resilient to trauma. Excerpt:
Hardening our society is one way to make us more resilient to hazards – that is, to allow us to bounce back from adversity more quickly. But we cannot armor our societies against all threats. Millions of people in cities like Boston, Mumbai, Ghana, Tel Aviv and Tokyo use public transportation systems, attend concerts, go to parks, visit malls and walk in public daily. All of these locations are vulnerable to those who would do us harm, and we cannot police them all. Further, protecting against one type of physical threat, such as an active shooter, does little to shield society against other types of dangers, such as vehicular attacks. My research on the role of social networks during and after crises provides an alternative approach. Rather than focusing on hardening our physical infrastructure, our societies become more resilient when we deepen and broaden our social infrastructure. Social ties provide emotional support, information and collective action at critical times.
Thanks to Dan Aldrich, the author, for calling this article to my attention.
Ten Must Have Items for Your Office Emergency Kit
Addendum: One astute reader commented that some bars of chocolate are essential. The diva agrees; it definitely would help the businessperson during a prolonged event.
Recovery Diva 