Accurate tools can help vulnerable areas prepare for disasters, recover afterward
Assessments that tell policy makers how vulnerable and resilient their communities are to devastating floods and other destructive events aren’t always accurate, according to the first-ever validation of a wide range of available tools.
Louisianans spurn government and crowdsource aid in wake of floods. Cajun Army harnesses power of social media to rescue people and locals have turned to sites such as Amazon to raise necessities and distribute them.
The Diva does not think that flood victims are spurning government aid, since that is the source of big bucks, but that they are exploring new options. As noted in earlier posts, the large number of damaged structures without flood insurance must be forcing people to try new prospects. Let’s here from some of you folks working the event….
Pace of Earth’s warming “unprecedented in 1,000 years”: NASA
The warming of the planet is proceeding at a pace not experienced within the past 1,000 years, making it “very unlikely” to keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius – the goal agreed by nations at the Paris climate summit last December. Recent research found that continuing current levels of carbon dioxide emissions for just five more years will eliminate any chance of restraining temperatures to a 1.5C increase and avoid runaway climate change.
Lest you get too optimistic about recovery in LA, here is an article about health and other problems still a concern 11 years after H. Katrina. See: Forgotten People of the New Orleans’s 9th Ward. Toward the end of this article is a brief explanation of the fundamental problem, which is conservative state property laws make it difficult to tear down blighted and vacant structures.
That has serious implications for the recovery in Baton Rouge.
From Bloomberg News, August 22, A New Strategy for Climate Change? Retreat
An interesting presentation of the many forces at work regarding efforts to induce buyouts of risky properties.
Updated Federal Interagency Operational Plans Released
*** FEMA released updated Federal Interagency Operational Plans (FIOP) for three of the five mission areas outlined in the National Preparedness Goal: Mitigation, Response, and Recovery. In addition to the updated FIOPs, FEMA has released the first edition of the Protection FIOP. The fifth FIOP – the Prevention FIOP – contains sensitive information for the law enforcement community and is not publically available.
All five plans link together the range of activities conducted by all of the Federal departments and agencies involved in national preparedness. They specifically outline the concept of operations for integrating and synchronizing existing national-level Federal capabilities to support local, state, tribal, territorial, insular area, and Federal plans.
From the NYTimes on 8/24, this editorial titled After Louisiana Preparing for the Next Storm.
On 8/23, the Wall St. Journal had an article on the same topic titled New Rules for Flood-Area Buildings, but you need a subscription to get the full text.
From the local newspaper, The Advocate, in Baton Rouge, LA:
Thanks to Laura Olson for the citations.
I mostly discuss lessons not learned, so it is nice for a change to have something positive to say. Here are two recent articles that provide details about the improvements shown in the response to the floods in LA as compared with the responses to H. Katrina and H. Sandy:
Here are just a couple of the many resources for individuals:
Recovery Diva 