Entrepreneurial Approach to Japan’s Disaster Recovery

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From HS Newswire, October 24, an interesting account of how Japan uses business people to facilitate disaster recovery. Their approach does share some similarities with the U.S. use of reservists and FEMA Corps, but emphasizes business and entrepreneurial skills. Some excerpts:

The 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit off the east coast of Japan in March 2011 killed more than 12,000 people, sent tsunami waves six miles inland, and damaged or completely flattened more than a million buildings; combined with the tsunami and the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, it was the most economically damaging disaster in world history, costing Japan an estimated $235 billion, according to the World Bank; a Japanese organizations tries a new approach to disaster recovery: entrepreneurship

The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, tsunami, and reactor meltdown spread havoc and destruction on the east coast of Japan, and more than a year later some areas are still recovering. A major contribution to the recovery has been the Tokyo-based Entrepreneur group called ETIC. Unlike more traditional recovery efforts, the group emphasizes an entrepreneurial approach to recovery.

ETIC was created in 1993 with the entrepreneur internship program. The program has placed 2,000 interns at startup companies and social enterprises in Japan.

Triplepundit reports that ETIC has created the Disaster Recovery Leadership Development Project. The biggest corporations in Japan have combined to send about 200 fellows to the recovery region for from three months to one year in order to help run temporary housing units, rebuild transportation systems,and help companies affected by the disaster recover and start-up again.

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Disaster Aftermath – changes in personal behavior, more “short fuses”

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This article about Christchurch, NZ highlights some of the results of stress and anxiety from a major destructive earthquake and thousands of aftershocks. As you might expect, those conditions do affect people’s behavior.

And if you read some of the descriptive information, or see some of the post-quake videos, you will understand why people are so stressed. [Some of these articles are listed on the NZ page of this blog.]

See: Christchurch Fuses Shorter in Wake of Quakes. October 13.

Aftermath of September 4th Earthquake in Chris...

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Five-Fold Rise in Weather Disasters in Last 30 Years.

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From Bloomberg News, Oct. 17. North America Has Biggest Rise in Weather Catastrophes

Climate change contributed to a fivefold increase weather-related natural disasters in North America over the past three decades, according to Munich Re, the world’s biggest reinsurer.

“Nowhere in the world is the rising number of natural catastrophes more evident than in North America,” Peter Hoeppe, head of Munich Re’s Geo Risks Research unit, told reporters in Munich today. There was a four-fold gain in disasters in Asia, while the number doubled in Europe, the reinsurer said.

In a related article, insurance and reinsurance are  likely to cost more.

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Some personal comments on the FEMA workforce issue

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Initially, I created the posting on the FEMA workforce to highlight some of the problems that graduates of Higher Education programs have in trying to obtain appropriate full-time emergency management positions.  To my surprise, that was not the audience most interested in the postings that began on Sept. 14th. Most of the comments, concerns, and frustration expressed came from current and former reservists.

My second surprise was the depth and breadth of the problems with the FEMA workforce. The number of hits over the past 3 days was extraordinary for this blog; the hits exceed any other posting for the past 3 years. And the passion for emergency management work is quite obvious.  I know that some FEMA officials are aware of the postings. Let’s hope some corrective actions are taken.

Third, I  think that reservists should have their own blog or other outlet for their issues, since the issues need more attention.  This blog mainly deals with recovery matters and only tangentially with workforce issues. (I would be glad to give some guidance on using WordPress.)

Review of Sendai Disaster – at IMF/World Bank Conference in Japan this week.

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Some of the press clips re this meeting now going on in Japan:

World Bank Meeting on Sendai Disaster, October 10, 2012.

Lessons from Sendai Disaster- WSJ Oct. 10

Planning for Disaster Can cut Costs. World Bank, Oct. 10

 

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Assessment of Earthquake Response in Christchurch, NZ – new report

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A new, in-depth report on the response to the major earthquake in Christchurch, NZ is now available. The circumstances and issues noted should be of interest to other countries with seismic risk.

Titled  Review of the Civil Defense Emergency Management Response to the 22 February Christchurch Earthquake, it was produced by Ian McLean Consultancy Services Ltd., under a contract from the Director of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, NZ.

Completed in June 2012 and released to the public on October 4, this 243 report provides a detailed account of the 2011 earthquake event and its impacts, focusing on the response phase. (There is an 8 page Executive Summary in the report.)

The assessment was done by a team of experienced, independent experts: three team members are from N.Z., one from Australia, and one from the U.S. (Disclosure, Claire Rubin is the American member of the team.)

Because I think the issues are important and should be of interest to other countries, I have mounted a new page, named NZ (see top right-hand button on this homepage)  to this blog site to provide additional commentary.

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Risky Business: Modeling Catastrophes

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From Earthquake Magazine, an interesting description of  risk modeling — Risky business: Modeling catastrophes, Oct. 2012. Some excerpts:

Natural hazards — earthquakes, tropical cyclones and thunderstorms, for example — occur with considerable frequency around the world. Fortunately, most events are either not intense enough or too remote to cause damage. But the probability that a given natural hazard could become a natural disaster is higher today than at any previous point in history.

This rise in the probability of catastrophes is primarily a result of population growth, as opposed to changes in the frequency or intensity of natural hazards. As the number of people grows — currently about 7 billion — so does the infrastructure associated with the population, such as houses, bridges and cars. Thus, if a natural hazard strikes, there are simply more people and more things in harm’s way. Additionally, people are continuing to move to areas of high hazard, including wildland-urban interfaces such as in the canyons of Southern California and the hills of Boulder and Colorado Springs, Colo., and coastlines. Nearly 67 percent of the world’s population currently lives within 160 kilometers of a coastline, and that number is expected to reach 75 percent in the next couple of decades, according to the U.S. National Academies of Science.

Using Social Media for Community Involvement

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DHS has issued a new document  (22 pp.) that provides guidance on the use of  social media for community engagement; Sept. 2012. Basic information provided in a document with a dull title and a less-than-exciting format.

NOTE: the URL is rather peculiar and is giving some readers trouble.  To be helpful, I have loaded a text file to this site, so you can Virtual Social Media Working Group Community Engagement

If anyone from DHS reads this, please take note of the problems identified.