The most horrific hazmat incidents in the world occurred in Bhopal India 30 years ago. Here is one account of the event and its aftermath: The Bhopal disaster and its aftermath: a review.
See this article from Newsweek re the blight caused by the disaster.
Another take on the suffering from the Wall St. Journal.
New York City’s dense population and geographic location make it especially vulnerable to emergencies caused by natural and man-made hazards. While it is important for you to protect yourself and your families from emergencies, it is also important to protect your property. ***
Be sure to click through to the NYOEM’s Hazard Mitigation: Risk Landscape tool.
Thanks to David Pollack of the NY Jewish Community Relations Council for calling this resource to my attention.
Here is a useful document from the EPA titled FLOOD RESILIENCE; A Basic Guide for Water and Wastewater Utilities (Sept. 2014). This 48 page document is in an unusual, 4-part interactive format. Issued Sept. 2014.
The Diva is curious about how you like the format. Is it worth duplicating for other documents?
Thanks to Don Watson for the link. He describes the format as an instructional slide deck.
Update: thanks to reader John Plodinec for the addition of this related EPA resource: Infrastructure/Water Security Techtools.
From the NYTimes on Nov. 30th, Grim Reality Amid Optimism Ahead of Climate Talks. Excerpts from the article:
After more than two decades trying but failing to forge a global pact to halt climate change, United Nations negotiators gathering in South America this week are expressing a new optimism that they may finally achieve the elusive deal.
But underlying that optimism is a grim reality: No matter the outcome of the talks, experts caution, it probably will not be enough to stave off the increasingly significant, near-term impact of global warming.
For the next two weeks, thousands of diplomats from around the globe will gather in the desert metropolis of Lima, Peru, for a United Nations summit meeting to draft an agreement intended to stop the global rise of planet-warming greenhouse gas pollution.
From reader Joshua Sinai a copy of his recent book review, originally published in the The Washington Times, 11/17/13. The Resilience Dividend: Being Strong in World Where Things Go Wrong by Judith Rodin; Public Affairs, $27.99, 384 pp.
Note: Ms Rodin is President of the Rockefeller Foundation, which has actively been supporting resilient cities. Mr Sinai, the reviewer, is with Resilient Corporation. From the leadin of the review:
Resilience, as defined by Judith Rodin, the author of the important book “The Resilience Dividend: Being Strong in a World Where Things Go Wrong,” is the capacity of any entity, ranging from an individual, a corporation or a society, to pre-emptively prepare for sudden disruptions that were unpredicted, to recover from them and then to take advantage of new opportunities produced by the disruption for further growth and expansion.
It is the latter part of this equation that the author terms as the “resilience dividend.” Thus, although it is critical for the affected entities to return to “normal functioning” following a major disruption such as a catastrophic terrorist attack, earthquake, hurricane or financial collapse, one of the crucial benefits of the “resilience dividend” is that it enables organizations that are truly resilient to significantly transform themselves in a beneficial manner “even when disruptions are not occurring.”
The Australian organization called Risk Frontiers publishes an interesting newsletter quarterly. In the July issue of their newsletter, see page 3 for the article titled Reinsurance Lessons from the Christchurch Earthquake.
Don’t miss the joke in a text box at the bottom of the last page titled: “Always ask, never assume.”
The Diva got a nice note from Jennifer Shafer. a staffer at LMI Research Institute, noting that she and her team are followers of this blog and calling my attention to two major new products they offer. A Disaster-Recovery-Brochure (2 pp) is available here. Here are more details that she supplied:
We are pleased to announce two products, the Disaster Recovery Staffing Guide (24 pp) and the Disaster Recovery Positions Library (104 pp) , are now publicly available for disaster recovery personnel. These products were developed as part LMI’s FY14 disaster recovery project, funded by the LMI Research Institute.
You can download the two products at LMI’s website. The Disaster Recovery Staffing Guide begins where the NDRF leaves off by outlining the process and practices to effectively staff community disaster recovery activities. It is paired with the Disaster Recovery Positions Library, which describes more than 50 positions that may be used to conduct the full range of local recovery activities. The guide and position descriptions are scalable (for the size of community and recovery effort) and designed for communities to use during proactive planning or post-disaster.
From a quick review of the materials, I think a lot of people engaged in recovery will be grateful for these guides. As always, comments from those of you who have worked disasters will be appreciated.
US, Canada officials seek to improve joint emergency response through simulations.
The United States and Canada recently completed the initial phase of a cross-border, information-sharing experiment to improve responses to emergencies that might affect both nations.
The initiative called the Canada-U.S. Enhanced Resiliency Experiment, or CAUSE, involves both the Homeland Security Department’s Science and Technology Directorate and the Defence Research and Development Canada’s Centre for Security Science.
New report (54 pp) titled Believers, Sympathizers, & Skeptics: Why Americans are conflicted about climate change, environmental. policy, and science. Findings from the PRRI.AAR Religious Values and Climate Change Survey.
As noted recently in Emergency Management magazine’s blog, the federal government has created a new Climate Resilience Toolkit. The direct URL is here.
Recovery Diva 