As noted about a week ago in this blog, FEMA has the new assignment of assisting with the children.
See this account from the HSDL: The Growing Issue of “Unaccompanied Alien Children” at U.S. Borders
See this CNN article for more details on the political aspects of the crisis.
Apparently, this announcement was issued on Sat. June 14th. Given that timing, there has been little media coverage so far.
Today, President Obama will announce the National Disaster Resilience Competition. Responding to demand from state, local and tribal leaders who are working to increase the safety and security of their communities, the nearly $1 billion competition will invite communities that have experienced natural disasters to compete for funds to help them rebuild and increase their resilience to future disasters.
Here is the basic info from the White House site: FACT SHEET: National Disaster Resilience Competition.
UPDATE: The Fact Sheet does not provide a lot of details. It appears that HUD has the lead role. And the HUD website offers no additional details.
Not exactly a great kick off for this new effort.
From the Brookings Institution, Disasters and Displacement: What We Know, What We Don’t Know
Useful background about displacement of populations by disasters.
The WashPost blog featured an interview with outgoing HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. See: Shaun Donovan on confronting hurricanes, homelessness and big banks. Only one question dealt with post-disaster recovery, and it is quoted it here:
How did your work on the Hurricane Sandy task force inform the administration’s disaster relief policies?
It’s important to look back to Hurricane Katrina, and the fact that when we took office, even though it was three and a half years later, it was fresh in the nation’s mind. One of my first trips there was with (then-U.S. Homeland Security Secretary) Janet Napolitano, and many of the neighborhoods looked like the storm had happened the day before. The president asked me to do a review with Janet on national recovery, which led to the National Disaster Recovery Framework that we use today to handle long-term recovery from these major disasters.
I am not sure why but I I find it fascinating that in order to get some serious federal attention to recovery, the President had to tell the Sec. of DHS and the Sec. of HUD to deal with it.
What has baffled me for many years is that FEMA had been in existence for about 35 years and not managed to come up with a recovery framework. The National Disaster Recovery Framework was issued in late 2012.
See comments from readers below…..
For those who seek to understand the Canadian system of emergency management, I recommend the work of Prof. John Lindsay, Assistant Professor at Brandon University in Canada. For those of us most familiar with the U.S. system, it is essential to realize that our neighbor to the north has a very different system.
John has recently published a new article, titled The Power to React: Review and Discussion of Canada’s Emergency Measures Legislation, in the International Journal of Human Rights. His publisher has allowed him a limited no. of links to the full text of the article. If you have a serious interest in the topic, and do not have access to the journal, please contact him directly to request access to a copy: indsayj@brandonu.ca
Lots of news this week about efforts to deal with coastal development matters in NY and Boston. Also. an article about CT efforts.
From the Rockefeller Foundation, 6 Winners Announced for Rebuild By Design Competition, for coastal development projects.
From the City of Boston, their local efforts at planning for sea level rise and mitigation. See their Natural Hazard Mitigation website where all of the Technical Studies are listed on the right hand side of the page. Staff at the Boston OEM have attempted to integrate Natural Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation planning because of the city’s location on the Atlantic. The plan was approved by the State and is now pending FEMA review.
From the HSDL, details re the final report from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.
This CRS report is out for review is my understanding. I am not sure how the review and response process works, but am posting this FYI.
Go to the FAS website for a line to the new, 54-page report titled Deployable Federal Assets Supporting Disaster Response Operations.
From the Huff Post, article titled Shocking Photos Of Humanitarian Crisis On U.S. Border Emerge. Some details from the article:
Disturbing images of children warehoused along the border by the federal government emerged on Friday, posted by Breitbart Texas reporter Brandon Darby.
The haunting pictures show a system overwhelmed by children and families detained by Customs and Border Protection, reflecting a growing humanitarian crisis. ****
“The President has directed Secretary Johnson to establish an interagency Unified Coordination Group to ensure unity of effort across the Administration in responding effectively to this humanitarian situation.
This effort, lead and coordinated by FEMA, is quickly marshalling resources across the government to provide humanitarian relief to affected children. Addressing the rising flow of unaccompanied children crossing our southwest border is an important priority of this Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
From the Christian Science Monitor, this article explaining the sudden influx of children.
Update on June 11: See the discussion of this topic by the Secretary of DHS today.
Seas Rise, Florida GOP Leaders Balk At Climate Change. From the article:
There are few places in the nation more vulnerable to rising sea levels than low-lying South Florida, a tourist and retirement mecca built on drained swampland.
Yet as other coastal states and the Obama administration take aggressive measures to battle the effects of global warming, Florida’s top Republican politicians are challenging the science and balking at government fixes.
Among the chief skeptics are U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush, both possible presidential candidates in 2016. Gov. Rick Scott, who is running for re-election, has worked with the Republican-controlled Legislature to dismantle Florida’s fledgling climate change initiatives. They were put into place by his predecessor and current opponent, Democrat Charlie Crist.
Recovery Diva 