Disaster cities: after tragedy strikes, what next? The Guardian’s New Cities: back from the brink site analyses the motivations and reality of rebuilding homes and communities after they have been torn apart. The series includes the following cities that are recovering from a major-to-catastrophic disaster:
From Bloomberg News: FEMA: Caught Between Climate Change and Congress . This is a complex issue, with many facets. and FEMA is only partly to blame. Please read the entire 5-page article for more details. Some excerpts:
Thanks to climate change, extreme weather disasters have hammered the United States with increasing frequency in recent years—from drought and wildfires to coastal storms and flooding. It is perhaps surprising, then, that the U.S. agency in charge of preparing for and responding to these disasters, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), doesn’t account for climate change in most of its budget planning and resource allocation or in the National Flood Insurance Program it administers.
“Climate change is affecting everything the agency does, and yet it isn’t given much consideration,” said Michael Crimmins, an environmental scientist at the University of Arizona who is leading a project to try to improve FEMA’s use of climate science data. “FEMA has to be climate literate in a way that many other agencies don’t have to be.”
A main problem, he and other experts say, is that FEMA doesn’t use short- or long-term climate science projections to determine how worsening global warming may affect its current operations and the communities it serves. Instead, FEMA continues to base its yearly budget and activities almost entirely on historical natural disaster records. That practice is exacerbated by the fact that the agency is at the mercy of economic and political pressures. In addition to having to deal with years of recession that ate into its budget, FEMA has repeatedly been caught in the crosshairs of partisan politics that forced funding cuts and blocked proposed increases.
This article in HuffPost/Canada today really got my goat: Naheed Nenshi Tells World Economic Forum Clear Communication Key After Natural Disasters. Once again, the well-meaning but free-lance style of emergency management used in Calgary Alberta after the floods this past spring leave me wondering why the basic tenets of emergency management are so unknown or ignored by public officials in a major city. [And he got invited to Davos to talk about his maverick version of emergency management!]
The Calgary Mayor’s personal version of disaster response might have worked, at least once, in Calgary, but most of what he recommended makes no sense for efficient and effective emergency management; e.g.,
In reading a second press account of what the mayor said – Naheed Nenshi discusses resilience to flood at Davos forum – I am even more infuriated. Here he is quoted as saying the recovery process went well. Too bad no one else had a chance to speak to that statement, since that does not appear to be true by traditional emergency management standards, in my opinion. Plus the term resilience seems to be used in an imprecise and not helpful way..
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My first take on this topic was back in June 2013, when I did a posting that was critical of the use of debits cards as a means of providing disaster assistance to disaster victims. See: https://recoverydiva.com/2013/06/24/disaster-response-canadian-cowboy-style/.
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In this past year, two big Canadian Cities — Calgary and Toronto — have displayed a remarkable lack of preparation for disasters and have used mainly ad hoc means to muddle their their way through major disaster events. Some innovation is to be expected after a disaster, but more strategic thinking and planning seems to be needed.
For those of you wondering about the underlying authorities and response systems in place for a disaster event like the chemical spill in the Elk River in WV, this recent 25 page report from the Congressional Research Service should help you understand the system used for oil and chemical disasters.
Among other things, it explains the National Contingency Plan and its relationship to the National Response Framework. Useful document to have for reference.
This nice, 11-page compendium of resources was put together by IAEM. It is a good addition to one’s personal library. Compendium of Faith-Based Organization Resources, from the International Association of Emergency Managers’ December 2013.
For example, #17 deals with Long-Term Recovery. This fact-packed 2 page guidance document should be helpful; for getting started with long term recovery.
Thanks to Mr. Gregory T. Banner of Dept. of HHS for this info.
Yet another dimension of disaster studies that is becoming a field of its own. See: Disaster Psychiatry Emerges as DOD Field of Study
At the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, experts in the emotional toll of disasters help the Defense Department, government agencies and first responders worldwide understand how best to help communities struck by terrorist attacks, mass casualties and natural disasters.
The center is part of the psychiatry department at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. The USUHS serves the Army, Navy, Air Force and U.S. Public Health Service by educating health professionals for DOD and USPHS career service.
“The center was established essentially to address concerns by the Department of Defense about psychological impacts and health consequences that might result from the potential use of weapons of mass destruction during combat [and] acts of terrorism or hostage events,” Dr. Joshua C. Morganstein told American Forces Press Service during a recent interview.
World Economic Forum. Global Risks Report for 2014 ( 9th ed.)
This is a 60 page report
Thanks to Bill Cumming for providing the URL
What intrigues me about this moderately severe disaster is how complicated the response has been. Gradually, underlying problems/issues like plant ownership and management, crisis communications, and state and federal environmental regulations all have come under scrutiny and criticism. Seemingly basic and routine matters have not gone well.
January 31: A recap of the multiple disasters, from Newsweek
January 23: What’s the matter with West VA? from the Baltimore Sun
January 21: From the Washington Post
January 20: useful roundup of news from Huff Post.
January 19:
From the Christian Science Monitor, January 19, 2014. Once again a reminder that recovery from a major disaster is a slow process.
See: Christchurch Cathedral a Flash Point for Quake Hit NZ “In some ways Christ Church Cathedral is a proxy in the debate over how best to rebuild from the 2011 earthquake that left 185 dead and $30 billion in damages.”
Big news of the day: January 17:
The “responsible party” has filed for bankruptcy. See this article from Huffington Post, late on Friday: Freedom Industries, Company Behind West Virginia Chemical Spill, Files For Bankruptcy, Here some more details from an article in the Huff Post, on Jan. 18.
Background info: Under the National Contingency Plan, which is used for hazmat incidents, rather than the National Response Plan, which is used for natural disasters, the responsible party is identified and is financially and legally responsible.Often that party cannot withstand the law suits and response expenses and seek bankruptcy. The big exception was the BP Oil spill; that co. could afford the billions of dollars the cleanup and restitution payments needed.
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Some additional items that I found interesting. From watching Nightly News on PBS, it appears that the lax regulatory environment in the state of WV regarding the coal and chemical industries there is a large part of the problem. As a storage facility rather than a production facility, the chemical plant was not inspected by the state.
January 13: West Virginia Is Just The Beginning For Chemical Spill Disasters
Thanks to the mass privatization of public water systems and the fake rhetoric of “clean coal,” we’re all at higher risk for disasters like the Elk River chemical spill.
CNN’s account of the “loose regulation” in WV.
January 15: From an editorial in the Washington Post:
A combination of state regulators using a bot of sense – like asking about an old tank farm next to a drinking water facility- and better federal law – like requiring more information on chemical safety – might have prevented or limited the damage and dislocation the people of Charleston have seen. “
January 17: In the current issue of Business Week, they note that presently 20 law suits are pending.
Recovery Diva 