Two excellent new reports are now available:
In a recent posting by Phil Palen, one of the authors the blog HLSWatch, he attached a copy of a Resilience Index for Plaquemines I found that graphic quite compelling and think it could be considered an interesting way to predict how well t a community is likely to fare during recovery.
This community is unusual — both in terms of its extreme vulnerability as well as the amount of federal funding and governmental attention it has received in recent years. Note that the parish has a recovery plan in place, which is both unusual and commendable.
Your comments and observations are invited.
From the Hazards Center in CO, information about the National Disaster Recovery Fund for Archives. According to the website for this project:
The Society of Southwest Archivists and the Society of American Archivists created the SSA-SAA Emergency Disaster Assistance Grant Fund established to address the stabilization and recovery needs of archival repositories directly affected by major disasters. Any repository that holds archival records or special collections is eligible to apply for a grant. The repository need not be a member of SSA or SAA. Grant monies may be used for the direct recovery of damaged or at-risk archival materials; such services as freeze drying, storage, transportation of materials, and rental facilities; supplies, including acid-free boxes and folders, storage cartons, cleaning materials, plastic milk crates, and protective gear; and to defray the costs for volunteers or other laborers who assist with the recovery.
The Congressional Research Service has issue a report on Resilient Infrastructure; August 2012. As is true of CRS reports it is an impartial assessment. At the very end, the interesting question of incentives is dealt with briefly. Thanks to the Federation of American Scientists for making the report public.
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Check out the back-to-school bargain books at Disaster Bookstore.com.
This type of news does not usually get much press coverage, but it is worth noting that many corporate efforts go on behind the scenes before and after a disaster.
From MyWay, Dept. 3, Another disaster brings candidates to Gulf Coast. In the wake of the visit of both a presidential candidate and a president visiting in LA after H. Isaac, locals question the value of such visits.
Mitt Romney wasted no time after accepting the GOP presidential nomination in heading to Louisiana to see the damage from Hurricane Isaac, changing his schedule on the fly to get there the very next day. President Barack Obama also tweaked his travel plans to make sure he gets there Monday, ahead of his own nominating convention.
This for a Category 1 storm that killed seven and swamped low-lying areas of Louisiana and dumped more than a foot of rain on its way north – a disaster, to be sure, but one that will never rival the biggest to hit the Gulf Coast. In a region with a storied culture and a history of human suffering, natural and manmade catastrophes, and struggles with government ineptitude and indifference, it’s just another turn in front of the cameras as the perfect political backdrop.
Call it the Katrina effect: Presidents, and would-be presidents, can’t afford to get panned like George W. Bush did in the days after Hurricane Katrina crippled New Orleans and the Mississippi and Alabama coasts in 2005, killing more than 1,800.
“We just want our lights on,” said Eddie Cooley, a 56-year-old chemical warehouse worker drenched in sweat as he worked on his truck’s engine in the Lower 9th Ward, the New Orleans neighborhood flooded to rooftops during Katrina. Over the weekend, parts of the neighborhood remained without electricity, days after Isaac passed.
“We don’t care who gets elected and who doesn’t,” Cooley said. “We just want power.” For Cooley, the 9th Ward resident, the benefit of having a Romney or an Obama see the problems in person remains as dubious as it was in Roosevelt’s day.
“What are both of them going to do? Come down here and look?” he said. “I need lights. I don’t need a president.”
The same question can be asked regarding the FEMA Director. Is is essential that he ( or she) visit a newly declared disaster site? What are your views?
One advantage to having a disaster during the two major national political conventions is that the topic of emergency management suddenly becomes part of the debate between the two parties. See this article in NOLA.com on Sept. 4th.
Thanks to the blog iRevolution, here are some details about a major new report on the international humanitarian services sector. Innovation and the State of the Humanitarian System. A few excerpts follow:
Published by ALNAP, the 2012 State of the Humanitarian System report is an important evaluation of the humanitarian community’s efforts over the past two years. “I commend this report to all those responsible for planning and delivering life saving aid around the world,” writes UN Under-Secretary General Valerie Amos in the Preface. “If we are going to improve international humanitarian response we all need to pay attention to the areas of action highlighted in the report.” Below are some of the highlighted areas from the 100+ page evaluation that are ripe for innovative interventions.
Accessing Those in Need. Operational access to populations in need has not improved. Access problems continue and are primarily political or security-related rather than logistical. Indeed, “UN security restrictions often place sever limits on the range of UN-led assessments,” which means that “coverage often can be compromised.” This means that “access constraints in some contexts continue to inhibit an accurate assessment of need. Up to 60% of South Sudan is inaccessible for parts of the year. As a result, critical data, including mortality and morbidity, remain unavailable. Data on nutrition, for example, exist in only 25 of 79 countries where humanitarian partners have conducted surveys.”
The stories are just coming in about the impacts and unusual effects of H. Isaac in the Gulf States. Here is one example: Hurricane Isaac Storm Surge Reversed Flow of Mississippi River. CSM, Sept.1
As hurricane Isaac reached southeastern Louisiana as a Category 1 storm earlier this week, it did something unusual to the Mississippi River: It threw the river into reverse.
For nearly 24 hours, according to the US Geological Survey, Isaac’s storm surge drove upriver at a pace nearly 50 percent faster than the downstream flow. This backflow produced a crest some 10 feet above the river’s prestorm height at Belle Chasse, La., in flood-beleaguered Plaquemines Parish southeast of New Orleans. The surge added eight feet to the river’s height at Baton Rouge, father north.
Other news: as of Sept. 4 a count of 13,000 home damaged from the hurricane in LA. The numbers probably will go up.
It is still early to write about the effects of H. Isaac, but here is one positive story from HLSecurityWire: As Hurricane Isaac beats on New Orleans, new infrastructure is holding up; August 31, 2012. It is nice to know that a $14B federal investment was worthwhile.
This week, as Hurricane Isaac was threatening to replicate the physical damage that Katrina inflicted, it has become apparent that $14 billion worth of changes and improvements in infrastructure, planning, and emergency response procedures have given the city of New Orleans and the Gulf states the ability to withstand the worst of the storm.
See also this article on Sept. 2 in the CSM.
From the Disaster Information Management Research Center of the National Library of Medicine , a new web page focused on Droughts and Health. The webpage looks primarily at the human health effects of drought conditions as experienced in the United States. Some of the health effects in the United States have historically included (or are speculated to include):
-Changes to water quality, especially private wells, with potential for increased waterborne disease
-Changes to air quality, increased dust, particulates with potential for increased respiratory distress
-Poorer personal hygiene due to decreased water availability
-Food crop or food processing contamination from use of recycled water
-Increased suicide rate (higher than national average) among farm families affected by drought-related economic concerns”
Recovery Diva 