From Grist: Biden’s FEMA director tried to fix the agency. Did she succeed?
In an exclusive interview, Biden FEMA chief Deanne Criswell discusses her attempts to create a “very different” disaster agency.
From the WashPost: Why landslides are suddenly tearing homes apart in Southern California. Landslides have damaged or destroyed homes atop Palos Verdes’s picturesque bluffs, and threaten hundreds of them.
Here is the direct link to the full explanation on the FEMA website.
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From HSToday, this article: FEMA Establishes National Disaster & Emergency Management University. Some excerpts:
“FEMA has announced the agency is establishing a new university called National Disaster & Emergency Management University (NDEMU) to help train emergency managers to keep pace with the rapidly changing threat environment.
By growing into a university model, NDEMU will offer comprehensive education and training programs spanning various disciplines within disaster and emergency management across the entirety of an emergency manager’s career, closing an identified gap in mid- and advanced career professional development that exists between EMI’s traditional technical training and the theoretical-based education programs. The NDEMU will partner more with other higher education institutions and the disaster research community to ensure emergency managers receive the most relevant and updated knowledge in the face of the ever-changing risk landscape.”
New Report from FEMA on National Resilience Guidance. It is 44 pages long.
This topic first surfaced in June at the Higher Education Conference at FEMA’s Training Academy. The opposition was almost immediate. It has been spearheaded by Carol Cwiak and Samantha Montano.
See this posting for details and suggestions for action:
And this is the blog post from Samantha she is talking about
https://disasterology.substack.com/p/disasterology-june-2024
Your comments are invited.
General Accounting Office Report on Priority Open Recommendations: Department of Homeland Security (35 pp) A very detailed report.
New from the Congressional Research Service: Emergency Management in the U.S., Sharing the Costs. This document has a Unique graphic format.
From NBC News: FEMA has run out of money in the middle of hurricane season. Here’s what that means.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has run out of disaster relief funding for the second year in a row before the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season has even arrived.
The agency, which is funded by Congress, uses the disaster relief fund to aid state and local governments in preparing and recovering from natural disasters including earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires and hurricanes. The DRF also provides financial assistance for the Individuals and Households Program which helps eligible disaster survivors with funding for temporary housing and other disaster-related expenses.
The United States has already faced 19 climate disasters this year with losses exceeding $1 billion each, according to FEMA.
Recovery Diva 