Archive for EM Forum

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For those of you familiar with the excellent series of  presentations and discussions that the EMForum.org provided, the historic archive for that service is now available on the website of the Quarantelli Collection at the Disaster Research Center, Univ. of DE.

As noted by one of the co-producers, Avagene Moore,

The Archive is a valuable tool as proven by the thousands of downloads and many personal testimonies of practitioners in diverse disciplines. We are grateful to the DRC and extremely pleased that this resource will be accessible to all interested persons for the foreseeable future.

As stated by Dr. James Kendra, Director, and Patricia Young, Resource Collection Coordinator, of the Disaster Research Center:

The Disaster Research Center is very grateful to Avagene Moore for reaching out to us to suggest this perfect partnership. We are also grateful to Amy Sebring for all of the behind the scenes work that she did to ensure that the EMForum  archive was in such excellent shape when turned over to our guardianship. The DRC welcomes this wonderful opportunity to further enhance what is already widely recognized as a premiere collection of information on the social science aspects of disasters by adding this stellar and eclectic collection of presentations that span EIIP’s 17 year history. We appreciate our role as custodians of this collection and we look forward to the new connections with the emergency management community that it will foster.

In the archive you will find additional background information regarding DRC’s partnership with the EIIP and a link to the full collection of EMForum.org transcripts and recordings.

“Understanding Risk in an Evolving World”

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Excellent new report on risk, including some best practices, resulting from a recent conference.  The report – – Understanding Risk in an Evolving World: Emerging Best Practices in Natural Disaster Risk Assessment was prepared by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery.  A 16 page policy summary is available here.

Update: The full report is 224 pages, so I guess only the truly serious will download it!  Thanks to John Coleman for sending me the URL.

“Living With Water” – new report from ULI/Boston

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From the Urban Land Institute, Boston chapter, a new report titled
The Urban Implications of Living With Water; report is 52 pages.

From the Executive Summary:

How does one protect and enhance the value of a real estate asset, community, and infrastructure as the climate changes and sea levels rise?
Building on the climate preparedness work done for the Mayor of Boston’s Green Ribbon Commission, ULI Boston’s“The Urban Implications of Living with Water” charrette was convened as an opportunity to explore resilient design solutionsfor development in the region. The charrette explored how to help land owners, developers, designers, and public officialsact to protect their assets and communities from the risks associated with sea level rise and climate change

Major Criticism of FEMA Spending by DHS OIG

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The Diva does not usually do breaking news flashes, but a couple of fresh emails from the DHS Office of Inspector General regarding financial matters at FEMA probably are of special interest to this audience. For a full list of DHS/OIG reports dealing with FEMA, go to this website.  The two most recent releases are as follows:

OIG Audit Cites Millions in Unaccounted-for Funds

A New Orleans nonprofit that received more than $19 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for damage sustained during Hurricane Katrina has so far accounted for only $5.3 million and engaged in prohibited contracting practices, according to an audit by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), Department of Homeland Security.

The OIG found that the University Of New Orleans Research and Technology Foundation (Foundation) did not follow Federal contracting guidelines, which call for “open and free competition,” as well as opportunities for small business and those owned by women or minorities. On that basis, the OIG questioned more than $9.6 million in contract payments.
OIG auditors further determined that the Foundation, which was originally awarded $12 million by FEMA, ran up $7 million in cost overruns without obtaining required permission from FEMA.

They also noted that the Foundation’s accounting for taxpayer funds was still far from complete, eight years after Katrina and an average of four years after all repair projects were completed.

Flawed FEMA System Could Hamper Disaster Relief

After spending more than $247 million on a high
tech system, the Federal Emergency Manage- ment Agency (FEMA) may still not be able to efficiently deliver emergency supplies to survivors of a catastrophic disaster, an Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit has found.

The report, “FEMA’s Logistics Supply Chain Management System May Not Be Effective During a Catastrophic Disaster,” found the system, developed over nine years, cannot interface with those of its partners and suppliers, making it difficult to track and locate emergency supplies. The report also noted that FEMA does not have enough trained employees to manage the system.

 

Major New Report on Effects of Climate Change

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From the National Geographic, Human-Caused Climate Change Worsened Heat Waves in 2013, Study Says. The climate connection to storms and droughts is less clear.

A new report attributes heat waves around the world in 2013 to human-caused climate change, but finds the link between climate change and other extreme weather events—including the California drought—to be much less certain.

The peer-reviewed report [108 pp]“Explaining Extreme Events of 2013 From a Climate Perspective” examined the causes of 16 extreme events that occurred on four continents in 2013. The special report, published by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, includes 22 separate analyses prepared by groups of scientists from the U.S. and U.K.

Thomas R. Karl, the director of NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, said in a press briefing that “being able to physically understand extreme events is absolutely critical for our ability to predict future extreme weather and understand our role in changing the climate.”

Karl noted that “extreme events are very complex and are often caused by multiple factors.” Natural variability often plays a role, he said.

This is the third annual report on the connections between individual extreme weather events and climate change, led by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Another take on the same report is this article from the Smithsonian.

“Forget Sandy, Worst is Yet to Come”

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The article titled Forget Sandy, the Worst Is Yet to Come is a news account of a Swiss Re Insurance Co. report. Some excerpts:

The chilling insurance company report * * * cautions that Hurricane Sandy was nothing more than a harsh reminder that more powerful storms – like the 156-mph Norfolk-Long Island Hurricane of 1821 – await the Jersey Shore.

Hurricane Sandy was mild compared to the 1821 Hurricane

Such a storm today as the 1821 Norfolk-Long Island Hurricane could swamp Atlantic City under a 15- to 25-foot storm surge, according to “The Big One: The East Coast’s 100 billion Hurricane Event,” produced by Swiss Re American Holding Corp.

The report breaks down the potential impact of another 1821 Hurricane in South Jersey’s Atlantic and Cape May counties a well as across the Southeast, Middle Atlantic and Northeast states. The outlook isn’t good, according to Swiss Re, the world’s second-largest insurance company.

Here is the direct link to the Swiss Re report, which is titled The big one: The East Coast’s USD 100 billion event. This 21 page publication draws on history to paint a scenario that will help plan for the future.

Update: the Washington Post wrote this article on Oct. 2 about the Swiss Re report.

New Resources from Australia

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Two papers from down under that you might find interesting. From the Australian Business Roundtable site, here are two new white papers:

  •  Building an Open Platform for Disaster Resilience Decisions (released July 2014) or see the media release.
  • Building our Nation’s Resilience to Natural Disasters’ (released June 2013) or see the media release.

 

Thanks to Dudley McArdle for sending me the citation.