NIST Workshops on Resilience – reminder

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I mentioned these last month, but I think they warrant a reminder note. See: NIST’s April 7 Workshop Launches Effort to Improve Disaster Resilience of Communities.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Md., will host the first of six workshops devoted to developing a comprehensive, community-based disaster resilience framework, a national initiative carried out under the President’s Climate Action Plan.* The workshop will be held at the NIST laboratories in Gaithersburg, Md., on Monday, April 7, 2014.

Focusing on buildings and infrastructure lifelines such as communications and electric power, the planned framework will aid communities in efforts to protect people and property and to recover more rapidly from natural and man-made disasters. Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, and other recent disasters have highlighted the interconnected nature of buildings and infrastructure systems and their vulnerabilities.
The six workshops will focus on the roles that buildings and infrastructure systems play in ensuring community resilience. NIST will use workshop inputs as it drafts the disaster resilience framework. To be released for public comment in April 2015, the framework will establish overall performance goals; assess existing standards, codes, and practices; and identify gaps that must be addressed to bolster community resilience.

H. Sandy Recovery – blame at every level

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There is no shortage of people/organizations to blame for the slow and costly process of recovery in NJ and NY. Regarding NJ, recently Governor Christie blamed FEMA. Today, Senator Menendez blames the state government in Trenton. See: Sen. Menendez Blames Trenton for Slow Hurricane Sandy Recovery. Also, under consideration is a proposed Bill of Rights for recovery coming from a State Senator and aimed at the head of the Dept. of Community Affairs in NJ. Here are some excerpts from the news article:

US senators from New Jersey and New York today questioned the head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development about the slow pace of recovery from Hurricane Sandy.

At a hearing held by a subcommittee of the Senate Banking Committee in Washington, DC, HUD secretary Shaun Donovan (below) insisted his agency has changed current rules to speed things up.

This pace of spending is 48 percent faster than after Hurricane Katrina,” Donovan told senators Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), “and more than 2½ times faster than after Hurricane Ike.”

Menendez was complimentary of HUD’s role but suggested there has been a lot of bureaucratic footdragging at the state level.

“I thought it was a good idea to give states the flexibility and discretion that seemed reasonable, assuming we would all rise to the occasion,” he said, “and now, frankly, I question the wisdom of that assumption.”

No state officials accepted an invitation to testify but, during the hearing, the Christie administration announced plans to streamline release of funds to distressed homeowners still waiting for help.

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NOTE: I highlighted in red some interesting facts that I have not seen before.  I hope this is a positive indicator of improved federal capabilities and performance during recovery.

See Level Rise and its Effect on NJ coast

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In a recent interview with a reporter, the diva discussed some of the many reasons that recovery is hard to do and why there is no template to guide officials responsible for recovery.

Here is one aspect that complicates rebuilding along the NJ coast. See Projections show sea level at Jersey Shore could rise 31 inches by 2050. Even if the number of inches is not precisely accurate, sea level rise as a factor for the planners is sobering.

PS: The Diva tried to reach the author of the article to try to get a primary source of that info but has not yet succeeded.

Sea Level Rise Report – not optimistic about action

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Political Cooperation in Tackling Sea Level Rise Unlikely

 A large scale response to the problem of sea level rise in the New York City area seems unlikely to emerge at this stage of the recovery from Superstorm Sandy, according to a report just released by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. Co-authors Rockefeller Institute Senior Fellow James Fossett and University at Buffalo Research Professor Kathryn Friedman argue that a response will be delayed by differences in policy preferences between governors and mayors that aren’t likely to be negotiated under current arrangements and political difficulties in securing funding for federal agencies to take a leadership role. To access the report, go to www.rockinst.org.

Thanks to Wanda Headley for the link.

FEMA’s Budget for 2015 – revised on March 13th

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New: On March 13, FEMA Director Craig Fugate testifired at a Senate Committee re the FEMA budget. His testimony is available from this website.

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From Fierce Homeland Security:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency would receive $10.38 billion under President Obama’s fiscal 2015 budget, up from $9.96 billion enacted for this year.

The Disaster Relief Fund would receive an $813 million increase to $7.03 billion. That would cover costs for past catastrophic events including Hurricane Sandy as well as enough funding for new non-catastrophic disasters, based on the 10 year average. The request assumes that Congress would pay for catastrophic disasters that occur in 2015 through emergency supplemental funds.

Additional details for those who really want to dig into the numbers:

The White House released more budget documents on Monday, including a breakdown of Homeland Security funding by agency and budget account, an analysis of homeland security funding and a table of historical funding.

 2015 Homeland Security Budget Request Breakdown
Homeland Security Mission Funding by Agency and Budget Account
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2015/assets/homeland_supp.pdf

Table of Historical Funding
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2015/assets/hist.pdf

Wildfires in the West

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From the Washington Post:  Housing developments near drying forests a deadly combination in the West. From the lead in:

As the climate warms, forest fires in the West increasingly will feast on acres of dry brush, growing into giants. In a cycle that will become routine, homeowners will flee, while firefighters will rush toward their houses — and away from areas where they could be putting out wildfires.

Bigger, unwieldy burns — megafires — are becoming the new normal, according to a new report, which points to several reasons: States such as California are getting parched more frequently by drought; housing developments are pushing more deeply into forests; and the U.S. Forest Service is generally suppressing fires rather than letting them burn naturally, which would reduce the brush that fuels future fires.

As the climate warms, the West will dry, providing an ecological buffet for giant fires.
“That’s one of our biggest conundrums,” said Scott L. Stephens, a professor of fire science at the University of California at Berkeley. “We continue building. We make fire management so much more difficult. The first thing you’re going to do is run and protect people’s homes.”

News from Canada — Special Winter Edition of CRH Net

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Thanks to intrepid journalist Larry Pearce, here is a copy of the latest newsletter from the Canadian Risk and Hazard Network. [I have the utmost respect for anyone who can survive a Canadian winter!]  A copy of the 45-page newsletter is Special Feature -Winter 2014.

Note: Larry welcomes news articles, so consider sending him an article about your projects or research.

Compassion Fatigue

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This is a topic we rarely talk about.  Not only do the victims get tired of trying to get assistance but those people  whose job it is or who make voluntary efforts to help victims of a disaster get fatigued also. See this article about compassion fatigue in the post-Sandy environment.

Last March, I posted an article from a NZ Red Cross official about her personal experience with burn out after the Christchurch earthquake. That post can be found here.

I invite your comments and any experiences you care to relate.

Additional Thoughts From the Diva: I think that the trend toward increasing use of young, inexperienced people as FEMA Corps staffers and more reliance on volunteers by the Red Cross is going to result in a many more people experiencing not only fatigue but distress from their disaster duties.  Are their sponsors/employers prepared to help them deal with it, before and after deployment?