Considering how many hot topics are going on in Washington this week, this item did not get any attention. From the Sat. edition of the WashPost, see Obama signs executive order to improve federal response to climate change.

A year after Superstorm Sandy devastated the East Coast, President Barack Obama signed an executive order Friday to make it easier for states and local governments to respond to weather disasters.

The executive order establishes a task force of state and local officials to advise the administration on how to respond to severe storms, wildfires, droughts and other potential impacts of climate change. The task force includes governors of seven states — all Democrats — and the Republican governor of Guam, a U.S. territory. Fourteen mayors and two other local leaders also will serve on the task force. All but three are Democrats.

The task force will look at federal money spent on roads, bridges, flood control and other projects. It ultimately will recommend how structures can be made more resilient to the effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and warming temperatures

The direct link to a factsheet on the E.O. is here.  UPDATE:   It is now E.O. #13653.

Actually, I am fuzzy about many details. As might be expected, Fox News had some serious concerns in this article. But their article mentions the author or a recent study without making it clear what study they are referring to. So, I am still confused about more aspects.

I think this new E.O. and the new Task Force are important changes, but more details are needed about both.  I welcome info from readers.

This 4 page article provides a useful list of resources and also describes several peer-to-peer exchanges that have proven useful to public officials in disaster-stricken communities. See Elected Officials are Rarely Educated About Emergencies, by David Silverberg in EM magazine.

2013 World Disaster Report; Focus on technology and the future of humanitarian action
Full report is 284 pages.

UK and Europe:

• Estimated Losses on the continent

Canada:

• Alberta introduces legislation to minimize future flood catastrophes
• Official News Release on the subject

• Recently the Province of Ontario, Canada made some changes to the organization that is responsible for emergency management. One article is on Building Safer Communities. A second one describes the linkage between emergency management and the fire marshall. See this one for general background. and another on Legislation and Regulations. Thanks to Franklin McDonald and Pierre Picard for their news gathering assistance. I keep hoping they will create a Canada news blob!

I think the title of this article is unnecessarily antagonistic, but the point about the need for more and more effective regional planning efforts is worth considersing. See

How Local Governments Hinder Our Response to Natural Disasters. Some excepts follow:

Unfortunately, there was little successful inter-jurisdictional coordination in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. New York City’s Office of Emergency Management was theoretically responsible for coordinating the different city agencies. But it was quickly sidelined by the Mayor’s Office. The result was a haphazard approach that led to some notable failures with respect to evacuations and the safety of public housing residents.

On a larger scale, emergency managers from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania created a Regional Catastrophic Planning Team for precisely this kind of emergency. But when the storm hit, the RCPT’s plans stayed on the shelf, particularly in New York City. As one NYC emergency manager described it to me, “The federal government spent millions of dollars on [the regional plan] and…we did not do anything. All the planning and all the dollars that were
spent on regional planning [and] not once did we open the book to say, ‘Let’s do it this way.'”