From Emergency Management magazine, some details about a new Disaster Assessment and Assistance Dashboard, under development by a contractor for FEMA, is coming. It is to be piloted in San Francisco and the date of its public release is not given.
I keep hearing accounts of dashboards under development. If any readers know of any systems that are operational, I would like to hear about them.
A NJ state senator discusses the true costs of relief and recovery from Hurricane Sandy and suggests a better national system to assist those affected by a major disaster. See NJ Needs a New Way to Pay for Disaster Relief.
Recently my posts have featured a retrospective on several topics, earthquake science, the condition of our infrastructure, and the like. Here is a short, interesting history of flood insurance and moral hazards. From The Hill, this article titled Natural floods, unnatural disasters
The source I often go to for flood and flood insurance analyses is the Association of State Flood Plain Managers.
See this NYT feature on the Alaska Earthquake and the Chile earthquakes. Those two places have the distinction of the largest magnitude earthquakes ever to affect the U.S. and the world.
See also the blog posting by Eric Holdeman who discusses the Cascadia Fault in Washington state.
Slow-onset disasters usually do not get much attention, and the CA drought is no exception. But for those of you who are concerned with such matters and are in for the long term, here is a website that the State of CA set up that provides ongoing information about the drought.
Thanks to Martin Kalis for the link.
Latest report card for America’s Infrastructure –a hint: the grades are really bad!
A service of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
See the website for the Canadian Risk and Hazards Network for their latest newsletter.
Thanks to Larry Pearce for this citation and news.
Also on that homepage, see the online textbook in progress re emergency management in Canada, in the lower left column. I like that idea and would like to see some U.S. authors use that format for a book.
This article in the weekend edition of the Wall St. Journal highlights some of the unforeseen consequences of the recent landslide in Oso. Actually, these consequences are not unique to that location. See: Mudslide Victims in Washington State Grapple With Debt Burden; Some Residents’ Lack of Insurance Leaves Potentially Millions in Unpaid Mortgages, Auto Loans. The lead in paragraphs follow:
Washington state officials estimate nearly $10 million of property damage from the blanket of earth and rock triggered by last month’s Snohomish County mudslide. Still up in the air is what will be done with potentially millions in unpaid mortgages, auto loans and other outstanding debt owed by residents of the slide area.
Those with standard property insurance against fire or theft wouldn’t have been covered against damages from the mudslide, which has caused 30 known deaths. For some, that could mean losses of hundreds…
As you no doubt noticed The Diva recently promised that for a donation of $25. or more the donor would be sent a copy of the Recovery Roundup, which is a 23 page annotated index of key resources noted in the blog over the past 3 1/2 years. Probably about 50 people have received a copy of that index, either for a donation or other assistance.
We would appreciate some feedback on the useful of that index, since we are considering doing an update on that product soon. Please let us know if you find it helpful or have any suggestions for improving it. Either post a comment at the end of this posting, or email me directly: cbrubin at yahoo dot com. Thanks…..
Update: since I posted this note, I have received several more donations ( thanks!!!) but still no feedback. I really would appreciate knowing if providing an index is useful to readers.
The new report from Harvard University re the Boston Marathon bombing has some useful findings for the emergency management community. See: Why Was Boston Strong? Lessons from the Boston Marathon Bombing
As one might expect, some things went well, but others did not.
Recovery Diva 