Author: From Brassville to...

A career public servant, an adjunct professor, SME in policy analysis, program evaluation, emergency management, local government, amateur and youth baseball, and the interdependences and inter-connectedness if these.

Infrastructure design is the hidden architecture of disaster risk

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-infrastructure-hidden-architecture-disaster.html

“‘…the built environment acts as the hidden architecture of disaster risk. Roads, housing, drainage systems, power grids, and health care facilities quietly determine how hazards are experienced long before an emergency declaration is issued. “‘

How Smart Tech Can Transform The Disaster Recovery Process In Jamaica

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dianneplummer/2025/11/28/how-smart-tech-can-transform-the-disaster-recovery-process-in-jamaica/

“‘…a return to “normal” is no longer a viable strategy, normal is precisely what failed.”‘

Nailed it!

8 American cities sitting on dangerous fault lines – discoverwildscience

https://discoverwildscience.com/8-american-cities-sitting-on-dangerous-fault-lines-1-376665/

The article not only points out the hazards in these specific urban areas, but identifies the aspects that need mitigation/resilience

“”…challenges a lot of casual assumptions about American geography and safety. Earthquake risk is not confined to the West Coast, and it is not simply a matter of whether a city lies near a single famous fault line.

Instead, risk emerges from a mix of geology, building practices, infrastructure age, population density, and community awareness. A moderate quake beneath an older Midwestern city with brittle buildings can be just as devastating, or worse, than a larger but better-planned event in California. Thinking only in terms of magnitude without considering soil conditions, construction standards, and emergency preparedness gives a dangerously incomplete picture.””

Article (Forbes) Climate Resilience Tech Is Becoming Big Business In Disaster Recovery

https://www.forbes.com/sites/monicasanders/2025/11/18/climate-resilience-tech-is-becoming-big-business-in-disaster-recovery/

Bottom Line: Technology is not a solution to climate risk itself, but it is becoming a key factor in reducing the economic drag of rebuilding.

The Case For Mitigation –

The economic case for disaster tech is increasingly strong. The National Institute of Building Sciences has long reported that every $1 invested in mitigation saves up to $13 in avoided recovery costs. Newer disaster tech firms now apply that same logic to speed. Shorter outages mean less business interruption. Faster debris removal means quicker rebuilding. Accelerated claims processing means families and business owners return to stable housing faster, reducing secondary economic shocks. Recovery speed is no longer just a humanitarian metric, it is a financial one.

On understanding “risk” – Scientists Find Evolutionary Explanation for “Irrational” Dread Risk Behavior

https://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20251111-scientists-find-evolutionary-explanation-for-irrational-dread-risk-behavior

People often respond to low-probability, high-consequence events like terror attacks or nuclear accidents with a Dread Risk response. This intense fear of the perceived sources of dread leads to extreme avoidance behavior, which often means that people expose themselves to higher risk of dying in more common incidents like traffic accidents.

“Our findings suggest that it doesn’t matter how well-informed people are, they are likely to have an evolved tendency to bias their behavior against exposure to rare but mass mortality events, which we term environmental or aggregate risks,”

ICE agents have new tools to track and ID people : NPR

https://www.npr.org/2025/11/08/nx-s1-5585691/ice-facial-recognition-immigration-tracking-spyware

Nightmare fuel.  Exhibit- infinity + 3

I heavily contributed to a late-2023 GAO report on DHSs detection / Observation/ Monitoring technologies.  It is probably obsolete and stale.