Earthquake Investigators Probe Whether Negligence Led to High Death Toll. Efforts at retrofitting buildings and enforcing building codes are being questioned.
Serious Concerns re Seismic Safety Preparedness in Italy
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Advice on Improving Disaster Recovery
From McKinsey and Co, this article and a link to the full 24 page document from which is was taken. Improving Disaster Recovery Lessons Learned in the U.S. Not new (June 2015), but still useful.
I like the non-nonsense tone of this report. A couple of notable quotes:
Although more governments everywhere are experiencing natural disasters, the process of learning from these experiences had barely begun. Recovery remains surprising difficult of all governments…. What has been missing is a broad examination of government experiences coupled with analysis that can drive improved disaster-recovery outcomes in light of shared best practices and pitfalls.
The recommend “hard-charging, performance driven staff. “Staff for these roles… should be highly entrepreneurial, impact-oriented, and excellent project managers prepared for a high level of intensity in both work hours and public scrutiny for a sustains period of time. Governments should resist the temptation to fill line-accountable roles with external contractors. While contracts can be brought on board quickly, they will lead the decision rights necessary to perform their roles effectively…
Many thanks to David Campbell of www.hands.org for the citation.
A Huge Amount of Federal Funds Has Gone to LA
From Fortune magazine, see this article titled Top Ten FEMA-Funded Disasters
This is not an easy article to follow, but what jumped out at me from viewing the chart in the middle of the article was how much federal funding has gone to the state of LA.
Clearly, some major efforts to mitigate the hazards and threats in that state are needed, not only to to reduce human suffering and property loss, but to reduce the huge federal outlay.
Will Lessons Learned from New Orleans be Applied in Baton Rouge?
After Baton Rouge Flooding, Learning Lessons From New Orleans. Two quotes:
“The silver lining, if there is any silver lining, is that this sits in a large region that has a lot of experience with rebuilding and recovery,” said Mary L. Landrieu, a former United States senator from Louisiana, and a veteran of funding fights during the hurricane recovery. “They don’t have to go far to find experts.”
“The fact is, disaster recovery hasn’t worked well in America, ever,” said Zack Rosenburg, one of the founders of the group, which has done rebuilding work after floods in South Carolina and West Virginia. “It’s an extraordinarily challenging process.” [ Emphasis added by the Diva.]
Why Was the Damage So Great in LA?
From a professor of geography at LSU: Suburban Sprawl and Poor Preparation Worsened Flood Damage in LA
* * * based on my experience studying risk and resilience in this region, I see parallels between the damage of current flooding and the damage caused by Katrina. In both cases, human decisions magnified the consequences of extreme natural events. Planning and permitting enabled development in areas that had experienced repeat floods, and agencies had failed to complete projects designed to mitigate flood damage before the storms hit.
The Role of Government in Rebuilding After Disaster
From the Huffington Post, the perspective of a scientist from Columbia Univ.: The Role of government in Rebuilding After Disasters.
A Fundamental Dilemma
As Louisiana floods rage, Republicans are blocking modest climate action. If a common sense proposal for federal agencies to consider climate change in their decisions on the environment is shot down, what hope is there?
If we needed a reminder of the importance of taking climate change seriously, the floods in Louisiana are providing a big one on a daily basis. When it comes to the big environmental issues, our country’s polarization is historically unusual, and it’s already gone way too far. That’s why the latest fight to break out in Washington over climate issues needs more attention.
Looking for Federal Funds for LA
As I noted in an earlier posting, serious problems will surface in LA when the reality of no insurance for many of the estimated 60,000 homes damaged is fully realized.
See: Louisiana residents without flood insurance face uncertainty. Some details:
In Louisiana, an estimated 42 percent of homes in high-risk areas have flood insurance, according to FEMA. Only 12.5 percent of homeowners in low and moderate-risk zones do.
Many of the areas hit hard by record rainfall last week were not considered at high risk for flooding.
Those residents without flood insurance are eligible for up to $33,000 in FEMA individual disaster assistance funds, although most will likely receive less than that, based on payments following other major disasters.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, FEMA paid $6.6 billion to approximately 1.07 million households and individuals in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, an average of just over $6,000 per grant, according to agency figures. Superstorm Sandy in 2012 produced an average payout of under $8,000 for about 180,000 residents of New York and New Jersey.
NOTE: See comments from Ed Thomas, President of Natural Hazards Mitigation Association.
Book on the History of Emergency Management in the U.S.
A word from our sponsor – the Diva is editor of this book
Just in time for the fall semester, this popular text book has just been marked down. See: Emergency Management; the American Experience, 1900-2010. Details about the table of contents, authors, and contents can be seen on the publisher’s website. If you go to either Amazon or Barnes and Noble and then to DisasterBookstore.com, you will see the lowest price for the book presently.
And for those of you who want to know the origins and history of FEMA, this book tells all!
Free Mapping Services from ESRI
Here is a nice gesture from a corporation to communities experiencing a disaster. See: ESRI offers free aid to agencies battling disasters.
GIS vendor Esri says it will offer free help to agencies dealing with a major disaster — whether or not that organization is an Esri customer. The company is currently providing help to governments coping with flooding in Louisiana and wildfires in California.
“Esri’s Disaster Response Program provides software support, data support, and consulting/technical support for active disasters,” Russ Johnson, director, global director for emergency response at Esri said in an emailed statement
That can include creating real-time maps with road-closing and evacuation-route information, mapping affected areas and available relief supplies, and incorporating social media posts from disaster areas with useful on-the-ground information.
Anyone at a government or non-profit agency dealing with a disaster such as fire, flood, hurricane or earthquake can request help at the Esri website.
Recovery Diva 