For the past couple of months The Diva has been working on a new blog. The new blog is called Disasters and Faith, for short, and it located here:  http://disastersandfaith.wordpress.com/

Now that FEMA has the federal lead for assisting with the many children trying to enter the U.S. without proper authorization, it seems likely that State and local offices of emergency management will also become involved.  Additional community resources will be needed as well.

My original intent in starting the new blog was to cover what assistance localities can get from houses of worship and also what local offices of emergency management can do to assist these organizations when disaster strikes. That may change over time.

Your comments, suggestions, and offers of help/donations are welcome.

From an RMS press release: RMS Partners with the United Nations and The World Bank to Advance Global Catastrophe Resilience.

Thanks to Franklin MacDonald for this info.

I am out of my league on this topic, but the RMS website has some additional information about their product called RMS (one).

Two Articles on the Negative Outcomes of Oil Extraction in Canada:

• Oil sands pollutants contaminate traditional First Nations’ foods: report
• An earlier article on related matters: Environmental health risks of Alberta oil sands likely underestimated: study

Thanks to Pierre Picard for the citations.

An interesting think piece from Brandon Greenberg, who is a doctoral student at The Geo. Washington University.  He is looking for some feedback, so please contact him directly if you have comments or suggestions.

Go to his website, DisasterNet.co for the short paper.

Thanks to the folks at HSDL for this description of the new CRS report and a link to the full text. See: Physical Security of the U.S. Power Grid: High-Voltage Transformer Substations [June 17, 2014]

The report was mentioned in the Wall St. Journal today. The lead in said two research groups claim the industry’s efforts at protection are insufficient. But I do not have a subscription and cannot provide any more details.

The Australian Journal of Emergency Management, which is nicely done, is available electronically at no cost. It also is available in hard copy, for a fee.

Thanks to Mr. Dudley McArdle for providing me with the direct link.

Below are a couple of articles about the event and actions taken since. I would be glad to hear more from our Canadian readers.

From Al Jazeera America, an account of the event and the steps taken since.

From the CTV news in Canada, an article titled Are We Any Safer provides some details re oil tank car shipments

From the Wall St. Journal: After Lethal Crash, Quebec’s Lac-Mégantic Fears Return of Oil Trains Town Remains Dependent on Rail, a Year After Catastrophe and

Another WSJ article on changes in the past year.

The World Bank has issued a couple of new reports. One report is titled Two Years After the Tsunami; Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management