Articles as of 12/16/19

All-Hazards:

 

Resilience:

 

Public Health / Biosurveillance:

 

Critical Infrastructure & Cyber:

 

Innovations & Interconnections(?…!):

 

Articles from the week of 10/17/19

Socioeconomic Effects of Coastal Flooding in California (HSNW)

Floods: With Coastal Waters Rising: First-Ever National Assessment of FEMA Buyouts (HSNW)  A new study is the first to examine nationwide data on FEMA’s buyout program.

PG&E Put the Burden of Halting Fires on Millions of Californians (EM / Gov Tech) …the biggest planned power outage in state history leaves a flurry of questions: What really created this mess — climate change, drought and building too close to wildlands jacking up fire danger, or incompetence by PG&E? What can be done to prevent shut-offs, or to at least conduct them better?

Zombie Prep, Emergency Prep: FEMA Partners with Sony for ‘Zombieland’ PSA  (HS Today) ‘“Zombies don’t plan ahead. You can. Make your emergency plan.”’

What’s Your Landslide Risk? USGS Maps Out Danger in New Database (HS Today) The U.S. Geological Survey today unveiled a new web-based interactive map that marks an important step toward mapping areas that could be at higher risk for future landslides. In collaboration with state geological surveys and other federal agencies, USGS has compiled much of the existing landslide data into a searchable, web-based interactive map called the U.S. Landslide Inventory Map.

Are We Doing Enough About Biosecurity? Looking To Tech and One Another For How to Protect Human Health and Prosperity In The Bioeconomy (SynBioBeta)

FBI Says Don’t Pay the Ransom (FEMA) FBI urges all individuals or organizations that have been infected with ransomware not to pay the ransom but, instead, to contact their local FBI field office and report the incidents to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) www.ic3.gov  as soon as possible.

How Texas Used Its Disaster Playbook After A Huge Ransomware Attack  (State Scoop)

Overcoming Challenges of Hospital Preparedness Plans (Dom Prep)

Richer Nations Urged To Boost Protection Against Wild Weather As Losses Jump (Reuters)

Best Practices for State And Local Governments To Improve Natural Disaster Preparedness (Am. City & County)

Algorithm Projects Final Size of Wildfire Just After Start (Governing)

The Next Big Technology to Transform Government (Governing)

It’s called blockchain. Some say it will have a bigger impact than the Internet.

Fireproofing: Whole-House Fire Blanket Protects Buildings from Short Wildfires (HSNW)

Floods: With Coastal Waters Rising: First-Ever National Assessment of FEMA Buyouts (HSNW)  A new study is the first to examine nationwide data on FEMA’s buyout program.

School Safety: Keeping Students Safe Is a Growth Industry Struggling to Fulfill Its Mission (HSNW)

What Will Happen to Bay Area Refineries When the ‘Big One’ Hits? (EM / Gov Tech)

Earthquakes Still Surprise Us, Even with All the Science (EM / Gov Tech)

Unprecedented movement detected on California earthquake fault capable of 8.0 (LA Times)

Bank Regulators Present a Dire Warning of Financial Risks From Climate Change (NY Times) “The associated risks and effects of climate change are relevant considerations for the Federal Reserve,” according to the director of the San Francisco Fed’s Center for Community Development Investments.

As Waters Rise, So Do Concerns For Sports Teams Along Coast (Wash Post)  Editor’s Note: This could be considered a case-study example of the financial battle between the Public and Private sectors over who receives the “benefits” of a project and who takes on the “costs.” (John Vocino)

Note: as water in the atmosphere rises with rising temps,  it could create more rainouts for outdoor sports in the US (Baseball, Soccer, Football).  Could this create greater demand for domed-stadium – especially a demand by leagues and teams to (e.g.: MLB) demand that their communities pay for these next-gen facilities?  It would be an easy-to-understand example of corporations socializing the costs onto the public, while capitalizing the benefits for themselves.  

 Insightful article! But…

“’You missed a spot!”’  

 Unfortunately, this article is short on the issue of financial risk and cost burdens.  The article identifies the multi-million dollar price tags for some recently build stadia.  But that leaves the reader to think that it is the pro teams that have spent their own capital to build the existing facilities, or will pony-up to build these new ones. 

 Not so much.

 As we’ve seen right here in Washington DC, the upfront costs were borne on the locality, not to mention ownership periodically returning to the original deal when it wants stadium upgrades or the community to cover the costs of upgrades to the surrounding infrastructure.  

By adding that additional data point, we now have an easy-to-understand example of corporations socializing the costs onto the public, while capitalizing the benefits for themselves.

Prof. Vocino

National Homeland Security Consortium Releases State Case Studies on HSGP Effectiveness (NEMA)

Article – food for thought…

Disaster management issues are looked by many, many different actors with different lenses:

https://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/page1-econ/2018/05/03/the-economics-of-natural-disasters/

“What has so often excited wonder [is] the great rapidity with which countries recover from a state of devastation; the disappearance, in a short time, of all traces of the mischiefs done by earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and the ravages of war.”

 

Fall 2019 – UDC Wed class discussion on National Household Survey

OK Students – Let’s discuss the results of this survey.  Here’s some questions to lead us off:

So, what? — what does this mean?

What are the 2 or 3 most important issues this study point out, in your opinion.

Then, given your thought on the above questions, what do we (which ‘we’ are you talking about…) do about these important issues?

National Household Survey – FEMA Report

FEMA released the results from the 2018 National Household Survey (NHS), which measures individuals’ attitudes and behaviors regarding preparedness and assesses what influences them to begin preparing for a future hazard. Every year, FEMA surveys the American public to assess how the culture of personal disaster preparedness and resilience has changed over time. Approximately 5,000 adults in the U.S. were surveyed in both English and Spanish. The survey includes both a nationally representative sample and hazard-specific oversamples, including tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes and urban events. Visit the FEMA website (https://community.fema.gov/AP_2018_National_Household_Survey) for more information and a full list of results. For more about preparedness research, please visit Ready.gov (https://www.ready.gov/preparedness-research).

Articles, Events, Resources: 9/30/19

For National Preparedness Month, FEMA has weekly themes focusing on different aspects of preparedness, including emergency planning, saving early for unexpected costs of disasters, and community preparedness efforts. This week, the theme deals with the importance of youth preparedness on building cultures and communities of preparedness. FEMA released two important resources, including a podcast and the launch of the updated Kids Prepare webpage. The updated website is a one-stop shop with interactive search features, tools and resources to help engage kids and young people on emergency and disaster preparedness. It also includes games and activities for kids to teach them about being prepared for disasters. Check it out and make sure to share with your kids! We especially enjoyed the Prepare with Pedro activity book.

News & Publications

Banks Worth $47 Trillion Adopt New U.N.-Backed Climate Principles (Rueters) Banks with more than a third of the assets of the global industry, adopted new U.N.-backed “responsible banking” principles to fight climate change on Sunday that would shift their loan books away from fossil fuels.  “These principles mean banks have to consider the impact of their loans on society – not just on their portfolio,” according to the United Nations Environment Finance Initiative.

Integrating Jurisdiction Plans (Dom Prep) Many emergency managers consider the emergency operations plan (EOP) the foundation of emergency and disaster plans, but the Comprehensive Preparedness Guide 101 (CPG 101) acknowledges that it is not the only plan that supports emergency management within a jurisdiction.

Zero-Carbon Cities Could Be Worth $24 Trillion (Coalition for Urban Transitions) A new report finds that if cities worldwide transitioned to zero-carbon, the worldwide benefits would be enormous: nearly $24 trillion in economic returns, millions of jobs, and better health

‘Sonic Weapon’ Used On Diplomats In Cuba May Have Been Pesticide, Study Finds (Fox) The mysterious high-pitched buzzing sound associated with the so-called “sonic attacks” on nearly 40 U.S. and Canadian diplomats living in Cuba may have been caused by a neurotoxic agent used to kill mosquitoes, a new study commissioned by the Canadian government claims.

30 Years After Hugo, South Carolina Danger Zones Are More Built-Up (The State.com) Despite causing $7 billion worth of damage on Sept. 21-22, 1989, Hurricane Hugo did little to discourage new or more intense development on many stretches of South Carolina’s coast. More people than ever are living in the path of storms and rising seas.

We Cannot Plan For Disaster Recovery Based On Unpredictable Federal Aid (The Hill)

Flood the Market: What to do with Houston’s Perpetually Flooded Homes (Grist)

‘We cannot wait.’ Sinking Alaska village Finds New Home (E&E news)

Wildfire Risks Spark a Move to Microgrids in California (Future Structure)

This Tech Could Completely Change How We Predict Volcanic Eruptions (Pop Mechanics)

Device Offers a Way to Communicate During Disasters (Nextgov)

Federal Flood Policy Is, and Isn’t, Addressing Climate Change (Curbed)

Former Emergency Managers: Act Now Before the Next Storm (Rt. Fifty)

Types of Information Compromised in Breaches of Protected Health Information (Annals of Internal Medicine)

 

Training & Professional Development

Webinar:  How Cities Are Paying for Climate Resilience (Security and Sustainability Forum) Join city leaders, authors of the recent report “How Cities Are Paying for Climate Resilience: Playbook 1.0,” and professionals supporting resilience in hundreds of cities around the globe to explore the strategies that reflect the leading-edge of urban climate-resilience financing practices

  • Date/time:  Thursday, Oct 10, 2019 1:15 PM – 2:45 PM EDT

 

 Webinar: “How To: Next Generation Emergency Response (Rt. Fifty) Route Fifty will explore the role information gathering and sharing across both traditional and new platforms such as social media play in emergency response and take a deep-dive into the technologies enabling state and local governments to better prepare for and respond to disasters.

  • Date/time:  Thurs, Oct 10, 2019 2:00PM – 3:00 PM EDT  REGISTER

 

Key Resources

Executive Order on Modernizing Influenza Vaccines in the United States to Promote National Security and Public Health (White House)

A World At Risk: Annual Report on Global Preparedness For Heath Emergencies (Global Preparedness Monitoring Board / World Health Organization) The Board commissioned seven review papers that explore the challenges of preparedness through various lenses: governance and coordination; country preparedness capacities; research and development; financing; enhancing community engagement and trust; preparing for and managing the fallout of a high-impact respiratory pathogen pandemics; and lessons learned and persistent gaps revealed by recent outbreaks of Ebola virus disease in Africa.