The Congressional Budget Office Explains Sequestration: CBO report. Feb. 28.
ProPublica has done a series of graphics to help people visualize the effects. March 1.
More on Sequestration
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NJ Plans Mediation of Disputes Between Consumers and Insurance Companies
One of the impediments to recovery often is due to disputes between homeowners or business owners and insurance companies. We saw that after H. Katrina and we saw it more recently in Christchurch, NZ. This artiele explains a pending action by Gov Christie of N.Y. NJ Plans to Set up Mediation of Disputes with Insurance Companies . Some excerpts:
New Jersey’s Department of Banking and Insurance is setting up a mediation program to give consumers the chance to settle insurance disputes without the time and expense of litigation. The department currently is seeking proposals from companies to provide mediation services, and interested firms have until March 7 to submit a bid.
The program would sit an experienced mediator between policyholders and their insurance companies in order to review the case and assist in settlement discussions. Similar efforts were undertaken with success in Gulf Coast states after hurricanes Katrina and Rita slammed the region in 2005, Kenneth Kobylowski, commissioner of the insurance department, said yesterday.
More Resources on Floods – from ASFPM
Forum 4 – 2013 – Gilbert F. White National Flood Policy Forum
Human Adjustments in Coasts – Adaptive Management in Response to Changing Hazards, Risks, and Ecosystems
The 4th triennial assembly of the ASFPM Foundation Gilbert F. White National Flood Policy Forum was held on February 19-20, 2013, at George Mason University’s Arlington VA Campus. This Forum will address “Human Adjustments in Coasts – Adaptive Management in Response to Changing Hazards, Risks, and Ecosystems”. One hundred invited experts – the brightest minds on flood policy, law, governance, engineering practice, biological sciences, transecting disciplines, sectors, landscapes, and US regions – spent a day and a half developing recommendations on approaches the nation can use to adjust human occupancies and management of the coasts. These suggestions should prove instructive to decision makers at all levels of government as we prepare the nation for increased coastal population, diminishing resources, and increased storms and risk. A background paper about the Forum topic is below, along with the Program Agenda.
Lifting a Town – a dramatic approach to floodproofing
Lifting a Town to Escape the Next Storm
But four months after Hurricane Sandy almost obliterated downtown Highlands, an unlikely idea with one enormous historical antecedent seems to be taking hold here: Don’t just raise the buildings. Raise the town.
After all, officials in the modest, largely working-class community note, something quite similar was done, with the most rudimentary technologies, to save Galveston, Tex., which was raised as much as 17 feet after more than 6,000 people perished in the great hurricane of 1900. Yes, even the proponents here concede, it will be a long shot to persuade the federal government to spend more than $25 million to raise Highlands’s downtown 10 feet as a permanent solution to flooding, storm damage and rising seas.
Update on Likely Effects of the Sequester on Public Safety Services
New:
Feb. 27: From Gov Exec.com.
Feb. 26: this article about disaster preparedness the effects of less funding.
Flood Mitigation Efforts in Other Countries
QUEENSLAND AUSTRALIA
The U.S. is not the only country trying to think ahead and find ways to mitigate future flood damage. Queensland has experienced many devastating floods in recent years and is working to anticipate and aboid future flood damamges. Here are two sources of more information about their present efforts:
Government Report: http://www.premiers.qld.gov.au/publications/categories/reports/assets/gov-response-floods-commission-inquiry.pdf
One more article, citing additional reports that explain the Australian approach to flood management. Feb. 15.
UNITED KINGDOM
Article covers several decades of flood experience in the U.K.
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Thanks for Chris Jones for point out these resources to me.
How Good Land Use Planning Can Aid Recovery
SPUR
I recommend this new report from SPUR in San Francisco: On Solid Ground; How Good Land Use Planning Can Prepare the Bay Area for a Strong Disaster Recovery; issued February 2013.
This excellent 80 page report was prepared by an eminent task force. The executive summary and a link to the full report are located at the URL noted above.
You might want to check out the Spur.org website for other documents that may be of interest.
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Thanks to Prof. William Siembieda for bringing this report to my attention.
“Natural Disasters as Threats to Peace”
From the US Institute of Peace, this new special report was recently released. The executive summary and details about the author are located here. A link to the full text ( 17 pages) also is provided.
I think I will have to add this topic to my list of What Keeps Me Up at Night. The current list was posted on Nov. 15th on this blog.
The main theme is fascinating and one that would make a great discussion topic at future conferences. The author makes a number of generalizations about disasters and emergency management systems used in recent years, which I find interesting and consistent with some of my observations. One example follows:
Most fundamental to stoic readiness is the political capacity of societies to mobilize in the face of crises. Such capacity includes the ability to make decisions quickly and cohesively, to redirect funding rapidly without corruption, and to deliver supplies and support efficiently. * * * In failed or failing states, government capabilities are especially lacking, and such political capacity is the most difficult set of skills and institutions to improve, even with major develop assistance from outsiders.”
A related report is this one from Harvard University: Climate Change As a National Security Issue. Feb. 2013. The full report ( 184 pp.) is here.
One more article on the topic, from the NY Times on March 3 in this review by Thomas Friedman of The Arab Spring and Climate Change.
Philanthropy and Government Working Together
For those of you thinking of teaming government agencies with non-profit and philanthropic organizations, here is a new report that may be of interest. Issued by the USC Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy, the full title is Philanthropy and Government Working Together; The Role of Offices of Strategic Partnerships in Public Problem Solving. The report is 35 pages long; it was released in 2013.
Related articles
- *Why Philanthropy Matters* (marginalrevolution.com)
- Philanthropy being folded into traditional business models (agbeat.com)
List of Federal Disaster Recovery Programs – from CRS
See the CRS report titled Federal Disaster Recovery Programs; Brief Summaries. CRS report RL31734. This 11 page report, dated August 2012, should be available soon via OpenCRS.com, but in the meantime I have included the full text of the report here: CRS-DisasterRecovery-Aug2012
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Recovery Diva 