A new, 11 page report from GAO titled DHS:Oversight and Coordination of Research and Development Efforts Could Be Strengthened. Following up on their 2012 recommendations, GAO is still pressing DHS to develop a more strategic effort to reconcile R & D spending.
The Diva and co-author Ann Patton wrote a article for Emergency Magazine on the Moore, OK tornado. Go to this site for the article titled OK Tornado Prompts Discussions on Surviving, Rebuilding, in the July/August edition of the magazine.
The conference in Colorado was very useful for picking up news and new contacts. I will be blogging about a number of things I learned there in the next few days.
It was nice to meet some of the readers and fans of the blog, some of whom gave me some feedback on the aspects they like best. And I have at least two new blog sites to recommend.
(1) Bill Hooke’s blog, Living on the Real World. Bill has done a nice job commenting on some of the sessions at the CO conference, including the session I moderated on resilience.
(2) Richard Little, who blogs in various places; see his posting on this site.
I have been thinking that it would be great to see someone in Canada start a blog that features the events and issues going on there, especially since the events in Calgary and Quebec are raising a lot of issues about Canadian laws, issues, and needs. I would be glad to work with anyone who wants to blog about Canadian disasters on how to set up a new site.
The Diva will be attending the Annual Conference sponsored by the Hazards Center of the University of Colorado at Boulder. She will be moderating a panel on Resilience Revisited at the conference.
Recently, I have seen two articles on different aspect of chemical hazards and emergencies:
Probe of Texas fertilizer plant blast finds industry under lax regulation
A federal agency investigating a deadly explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant will tell a Senate committee Thursday that regulation of the dangerous chemicals used in the industry fall under a “patchwork” of standards that are decades old and are far weaker than rules used by other countries.
Somewhat related to this topic is the concern is the possibly toxic sludge that has been revealed after the flood waters recede in Calgary, Alberta. June 8.
Thanks to Chris Jones, here is an article re the U.K. experience in floodplains: Why do People Buy Houses in Places Prone to Flooding?
Here is a current account of Americans discounting, or ignoring, fire risk: Homes Keep Risking Despite Growing Wildfire Threat.
Note that both articles deal with expensive properties and seemingly intelligent and well-to-do owners.
Post-Sandy Development Efforts May Endanger New Jersey Residents
The New Jersey Association for Floodplain Management (NJAFM) wrote a letter to the Governor, asking him to veto the bill given its “inconsistencies with building codes and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
[We are] greatly concerned that this legislation may very well result in noncompliant rebuilding, jeopardizing the eligibility of every New Jersey community to remain in the NFIP.”The Association of State Floodplain Managers, (ASFPM) has also written a letter to the Governor on behalf of its 35 State Chapters and more than 15,000 members urging him to veto the bill. The ASFPM makes a strong appeal to the Governor to block this attempt to allow risky construction along New Jersey’s coasts.
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This bill is just the tip of the (melting) iceberg when it comes to unwise use of federal disaster relief to rebuild in the garden state. New Jersey’s CDBG-DR action plan was critiqued by New Jersey Future, a nonprofit promoting responsible land management, for not adequately addressing flood risks tied to sea-level rise, as required by HUD. Yet HUD still approved New Jersey’s plan even though it did not address these issues.
Don’t miss this article ( 8 pp.) by two of the best and most experienced disaster researchers in the U.S. See The Road to Recovery; Governing Post-Disaster Reconstruction, by Laurie A. Johnson and Robert B. Olshansky.
This article “… summarizes ongoing research into the roles of various government levels in successful disaster recovery and rebuilding…. It represents the synthesis of two decades of recovery research and planning practice following some of the of the larges disaster of our time….”
The focus of the article is national organizations established for governance after a major disaster.
For those interested in recovery research, be sure to read the last section titled “Next Steps in Our Research.”
As is typically true of the recovery phase, in the weeks following the disaster realistic assessments of the damage and impact of the event start to become known. As the bad news sinks in with victims they get cranky, overwhelmed, and begin to complain. Here are a few examples of the major outcomes now known:
Thanks to Franklin McDonald for providing some of these newsclips.
Update on July 5: the City of Calgary has done an interesting Infographic re the flood disaster.
Shelter from the Superstorm; How Climate Preparedness and Resilience Saves Money and Lives
The full text of 25 page report for Center for American Progress is here.
This is a thoughtful, well-written report. It remains to be seen if the federal agencies responsible will heed the recommendations.
Update on July 3. New report (22 pp.) out from the World Meteorological Organization, titled The Global Climate, 2001-2010; A Decade of Climate Extremes.
Recovery Diva 