Resilience Within the DHS Workforce – new report from the NAS

Posted on by
Reply

One again the folks at the HSDL have a jump on a new report, so I will share their abstract and URLs. The full report. titled Resilience Within the Department of Homeland Security Workforce, is 330 pages, so you may want to download the TOC or the summary version.

From the HSDL blog:

This report stresses the importance of strong leadership, communication, measurement, and evaluation in the organization and recommends content for a 5-year plan that will promote centralized strategic direction and resource investment to improve readiness and resilience at the department. While all DHS component agencies share a common mission, each have distinct roles with different stressors attached, making implementation of an organization-wide resilience or wellness program difficult. The recommendations of ‘A Ready and Resilient Workforce for the Department of Homeland Security’ outline how DHS can focus its efforts on creating a common culture of workforce readiness and resilience, while recognizing the distinct, proud, celebrated cultures of its component agencies.

Millions Allocated But Not Spent for Recovery

Posted on by
4

Considering how hard it is to get money for recovery from the federal government, it comes as an unpleasant surprise to read about how much money is not getting used in a timely or appropriate way. Here are two examples that came to my attention this week:

(1) Money not spent post Katrina:  8 Years After Katrina MS has 872M in Federal Recovery Funds Unspent.  Thanks to Laurie Johnson, who wrote “I find it so interesting how political the process can still be even at this late date in the recovery. Congress mandated an early closeout after 9-11, but …

(2) HUD Faces Heat for Waste/Questionable Spending.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development disburses more than $40 billion in taxpayer money a year. Like a lot of federal agencies, HUD took a hit with mandatory budget cuts under sequestration. But even at a time of financial belt-tightening, the agency is facing heat for waste and questionable spending.

***. The agency’s inspector general criticized a program that gave many Louisiana residents $30,000 apiece to prepare their homes for the next hurricane. Twenty-four thousand people spent the money on something else, but no one knows on what.

“We spend three quarters of a billion dollars to pay people to elevate their home that didn’t do it,” McHenry said.

And there are billions of dollars in disaster relief sitting in bank accounts unused, including money for Hurricane Katrina relief dating back to 2005.

Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, argues that sequestration has left HUD with fewer people to do oversight.

“I don’t think we can overlook the fact that HUD is understaffed. I don’t think we can overlook the fact that sequestration has had an impact on HUD and is having an impact on many of HUD’s programs,” he said.

HUD Inspector General David Montoya, who uncovered the waste, says states and cities that receive the billions are also to blame for lax controls.

“It is our fundamental belief — and, I believe, HUD’s – that these localities should also take responsibility for proper oversight in the management of those programs.

HUD wouldn’t agree to an interview but told us it carefully “monitors the activities” of recipients all over the country and promptly fixes any problems.

Meantime, as of the end of March, not one penny of $5.4 billion in HUD money for Superstorm Sandy relief had been spent. And believe it or not, more than $500 million meant for the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks still hasn’t been touched – 12 years later.

NOTE: I added the emphasis in the quotes above, to show there is blame to be placed at every level of government. Sadly, the secondary effects of sequestration include eroding competence and accountability. 

A Note on Selection of Reports

Posted on by
2

The Diva wants you to know that she does not write a posting about a new report unless she thinks it contains significant new information, is reasonably well written, and makes a contribution to knowledge. In the past week or so, two new reports I read did not meet those criteria.

Every once in a while a report from a reputable think tank or even governmental organization turns out to be a not-very-informative rehash of existing information. And on occasion a junior or not-well- informed staffer is the lead author of a report. It might be news but it is not necessarily new knowledge. Sometimes, I talk to my friends and colleagues about a new report and get a sort of informal peer review.

The bottom line:  I do not write about everything that I learn about. I select the reports that meet my standards.

9/11 – Remembrances and Assessments

Posted on by
Reply

English: 9/11 Commision Report cover. Español:...Re the memory of the events of 9/11/2011, see this NYT article titled Homeland Confusion. [Thanks to Bill Cumming for calling this article to my attention.]

(1) The editorial mentions a new report to be released today from the 9/11 Commission chairs and other members of a blue-ribbon panel. The title is Streamlining and Consolidating Congressional Oversight of the U.S. DHS, and I think this is a very significant report.  It has taken several hours, but here is the full, 28-page report. [Thanks to Tom Antush.]

(2) Also, this morning there will be a Senate Hearing on Challenges and Achievements since 911.

(3) Personal Observation: The EM and HS communities have not become integrated over the past 12 years and probably never will be.  The Diva just came from a one-day meeting on counter-terrorism, sponsored by the START program at Univ. of MD.  Of the roughly 200 people in attendance, the Diva did not recognize a single person. And she knows a lot of people in both communities!

“Connecting Grassroots to Government for Disaster Management”

Posted on by
Reply

From the Homeland Security Digital Library, where they have the luxury of full-time staff!, see the abstract and source info for this new report from the Wilson Center:  Connecting Grassroots to Government for Disaster Management

The full report is 139 pages, and the executive summary is on pages 4-5.  Looks like a lot of good material in there.

Rethinking Grid Infrastructure

Posted on by
2

From the Huffington Post, see: Microgrids: Hurricane Sandy Forced Cities To Rethink Power Supply

Hurricane Sandy and the havoc it wreaked on New York City and the rest of the Northeast in 2012 could prove to be a turning point in how people think about the way electricity is produced and distributed, particularly in storm-prone areas, with some states and cities starting to turn to what are known as microgrids.

When Sandy roared ashore last October, it knocked out power for 8.5 million people, and kept more than 1.3 million people in the dark a week after the storm hit. It seared an image of Manhattan, half lit, half dark, into the national consciousness — the nation’s largest and most powerful city rendered powerless by the weather. It also jump-started a discussion about how climate change is amplifying the devastating effects of hurricanes and their storm surges. Some communities began to investigate ways to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from coal and natural gas-fired power plants that contribute to climate change.

Some Optimism re Scientific Achievements

Posted on by
Reply

From the blog of Bill Hooke at the American Meteorological Association, in a posting on Sept. 7 titled titled Stepwise:  Ever the optimist, Bill writes:

These days it’s easy (fashionable, even) to be depressed by the news reports on Earth observations, science and services on the one hand, and the actions of the world’s leaders and governments with respect to resource, environmental, and hazards issues on the other. The former narrative is often about budget cuts, unfilled staff positions, increasing bureaucracy in the proposal process, threats to research universities, and scientists engaged in an unbecoming war with each other and with political leaders over the implications of their work. The latter story line concentrates on political gridlock, the obstinate refusal of countries and their leaders to find common ground to deal with pressing problems and with long-range threats, the focus instead on emergencies such as the current Syrian crisis

.But such pessimism is misplaced.

Got to the rest of the article to find out why he says that!

New Research Standards for Emergency Management – update

Posted on by
2

The Diva was one of the participants in the focus group effort, sponsored by FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute, that produced this document. A copy is provided here: DRAFT Research Standards for the Academic Discipline of Emergency Management.

New:  The standards and some related documents are now available on a page titled EM Theory and Research, on FEMA’s Higher Education website.  Note that it is it considered a review draft.

So far, a few people have commented to me offline that the standards are useful and welcomed.

Confusion re Costs of Calgary Flood

Posted on by
Reply

It is usually easier to determine the cost categories for disasters than it is to determine who will pay for what.  It appears that various Canadian officials are trying to sort it out presently.

Alberta finance minister totes up flood costs in update

Alberta’s finance minister says the bills are coming in for flood recovery in southern Alberta and the price tag is “very high.”Doug Horner says $148 million has been spent so far on flood relief and another $556 million has been allocated for the coming months.

Horner …confirmed Premier Alison Redford’s earlier estimate that the final bill to be shared by insurers and three levels of government will be around $5 billion.“This was an unprecedented disaster and it comes with a very high price tag,” Horner told a news conference. “The June floods precipitated the immediate evacuation of about 100,000 people from their homes (and) more than 14,500 homes have been damaged.”

About $1.7 billion of the $5-billion cost is expected to be covered by insurance companies, he said. The rest will be up to governments, but it hasn’t been determined who owes what.

The final quote in the article gets to a point I made months ago, shortly after the disaster happened and promises were flying!

When the premier promised at the outset to pay every dime of every cost for everybody in the province, I thought it was pretty thoughtless of her.”

Thanks once again to Franklin McDonald, my Canadian contact who forwards news clips about their disasters.