Thanks to the efforts of Ernesto Arias, Department of Environmental Design, University of Colorado and, especially, Rafael Oreamuno and Federico Salazar of the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Costa Rica:
Disaster Research is now available in Spanish
A distribution system is currently being worked out. For now, to obtain a copy, just send an e-mail message to hazctr@colorado.edu requesting the Spanish version of DR; include your name, affiliation, and, of course, your e-mail address. Issue #146 is currently available and other issues will be available soon. Future issues will include supplemental information particularly pertinent to Latin American countries.
A revised and reformed National Flood Insurance Program was signed into law on September 23, 1994, as part of the Reigle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act of 1994. Title V of the act makes numerous changes in federal efforts to mitigate flood damage under the National Flood Insurance Program. The details of administration have yet to be worked out; in the coming months the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be formulating rules to implement the act. A few of the highlights include:
Mitigation insurance: Mitigation coverage will be included with each flood insurance policy so that insurance payments can be used to bring substantially damaged or repetitive loss structures into compliance with state or local flood hazard regulations or codes.Mitigation funding: A new National Flood Mitigation Fund has been established. The fund will provide grants to states and localities, on a 75%-25% cost-share basis, for planning and implementing mitigation projects.
Disaster assistance: The act prohibits waiving the requirement to purchase flood insurance as a condition of receiving federal disaster assistance. Further, it directs that no federal disaster relief assistance, including loans, shall be provided for a property if the owner was previously required to purchase flood insurance as a condition of receiving prior disaster assistance and failed to do so.
Erosion hazard: The act directs FEMA to study communities subject to coastal erosion, and assess the costs and benefits of mapping, regulating, and insuring them. The study also is intended to determine the effect of such regulation and insurance on property values, tax revenues, employment, economic development, and the need for future federal and state disaster assistance. The erosion hazard in a representative sample of communities is to be mapped with $5 million authorized in the act.
Lender compliance: The new law requires lenders to notify residential real estate purchasers about the flood insurance purchase requirement. Lenders are authorized to purchase flood insurance on behalf of borrowers and to charge them the premiums and fees for doing so. Civil penalties may be assessed against lenders who fail to meet the flood insurance notice requirements.
Waiting period: Purchasers of new flood insurance policies (except those that are purchased when real estate changes hands) must wait 30 days for their policies to become effective. This prevents the phenomenon of people buying insurance as the river crest approaches, and then letting it lapse when the immediate danger passes.
Copies of Public Law 103-325 may be obtained from:
Office of the Doorkeeper
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3874
fax: (202) 226-4362
The public law number must be specified.
The University of Newcastle Centre for Architectural Research and Development Overseas has recently begun publishing a newsletter, "Studies on Reconstruction After Disaster." The first issue includes a proposal to establish an International Network for Studies on Reconstruction after Disaster. For subscription information or to obtain more details about the international network, contact:
Adenrele Awotona
University of Newcastle
Centre for Architectural Research and Development Overseas
Department of Architecture
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, England
tel: 091 222 6024
fax: 091 261 1182
Are you a public administrator? Is your community subject to hazards? (Answer: yes!) Then join ASPA's Section on Emergency and Crisis Management
The American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) has a very active subgroup of members interested in the problems associated with disaster management. ASPA's Section on Emergency and Crisis Management has been around for about ten years now and, besides sponsoring numerous discussions at ASPA's annual national conference, also publishes its own newsletter - the Emergency Management Dispatch - which comes out 4-6 times a year and is full of interesting stuff. The Dispatch is available to members only, but all interested persons are invited to join, and the annual cost of membership in the Section on Emergency and Crisis Management is only $10; membership in ASPA itself is available on a sliding scale. ASPA's address is:
ASPA
1120 G Street, N. W.
Suite 700
Washington DC 20005-3885
More information on the Section on Emergency and Crisis Management and the newsletter is available from:
Prof. Rick Sylves, Editor
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DISPATCH
Dept. of Political Science
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716
(302) 831-1943 priv. office line
(302) 831-2355 dept. messages
Fax: (302) 831-4452
E-mail: sylves@brahms.udel.edu
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has published an expedient flood fighting program under a special arrangement with Quark Management Service of Racine, Wisconsin. FEMA obtained the duplication and distribution rights to this program which details the proper methods to use in the construction of emergency sandbag levees. The package consists of an Instructor Guide, reproduction masters for over 40 B&W overheads and master sheets for student handouts. The program is designed to be presented in the field to flood control work forces in 45 minutes or less. This training package may be ordered through normal FEMA supply channels by requesting copies of IG 270.3, Expedient Flood Training. Color slide and overhead sets are commercially available from:
Quark Management Service
1341 Lathrop Avenue
Racine, WI 53405-2834
(414) 632-5751
e-mail peterjqms@aol.com
A second emergency flood fighting program is scheduled for release in the Spring of 1995. It will deal with more advanced flood control works, as well as information on flood fighting organization and management. For further information on this release contact: Peter R. Jensen at the Quark Management Service address above.
[Thanks to Larry Laufman, Baylor College of Medicine, who forwarded the following:]
September 27, 1994
NEW INTERNET SERVICE!! Effective October 1, 1994, EPA will open a pilot ListServe Network to distribute selected FEDERAL REGISTER documents automatically on the day of publication. Documents will be extracted directly from the Government Printing Office (GPO) WAIS data base to establish an electronic Federal government-wide "Environmental Sub-Set" of the daily issue accessible via Internet. This effort is part of the Agency's paperless information initiative. The ListServes will provide ASCII files with graphic notes. Both ASCII files and the corresponding TIFF graphics will also be accessible via the EPA public access gopher (gopher.epa.gov).
There are too many EPA lists to describe here, but for a list of lists send the one word message "lists" to Listserver@unixmail.rtpnc.epa.gov, or send the message "help" for details about how to subscribe, etc.
[Adapted from NHS Newsletter, a publication of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards.]
At its 19th General Assembly last April, the European Geophysical Society established a subgroup on "pre-instrumental seismicity" under its Interdisciplinary Working Group on Natural Hazards. The new group will explore earthquakes that occurred before the 20th century. Using historic and geological data, the group hopes to reconstruct these seismic events and develop new methods for identifying and studying pre-instrument earthquakes.
Eventually they want to answer such questions as, What are the long-term seismicity rates for different regions of the globe? How can repeat times of strong or large earthquakes be reliably assessed? How does the geophysical information about pre-instrument earthquakes compare with that obtained since instruments have become widely used? The group's first symposium, "Pre- Instrumental Seismicity: Historical, Archaeological, and Geological Record ofEarthquakes," will be held during the European Geophysical Society's General Assembly in Hamburg, Germany, April 3-7, 1995. Persons interested in joining the new group and/or attending the meeting should contact:
G.A. Papadopolous
Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization
226 Messogion Avenue
15561 Athens, Greece
(301) 6521451
fax: (301) 6519899
[Also adapted from NHS Newsletter]
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe agreed in March 1993 to establish a European Advisory Evaluation Committee for Earthquake Prediction (EAECEP), charging it with the task of "providing authorities with enlightened and interdisciplinary scientific advice" about earthquake predictions that may be issued by scientists in the future. The EAECEP, whose advice can only be sought by national authorities through established Council of Europe procedures, consists of 13 scientists, appointed by the Committee of Ministers. More information about the EAECEP is available from:
L. Mendes-Victor
Instituto Geofisico Universidade de Lisboa
Rua da Escola Politecnicia
58, P-1200 Lisbon, Portugal
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR) have recently established a Universities Water Information Network (UWIN). UWIN is an electronic clearinghouse for water resources information, and there is no charge to either post information or use the system. Current services include: a searchable expert directory; the USGS WRSIC database - a directory of abstracts of water resources since 1967; the National Institutes for Water Resources publications directory and information. Upcoming services include a directory of ongoing research, a directory of computer models, an events calendar, job listings, a graduate education directory, a list of funding opportunities, and bulletin board capabilities. UWIN can be accessed over the Internet with a gopher client or by telnet, or via modem on a dial-up system. For information on how to access UWIN, contact:
Faye Anderson, UWIN
c/o UCOWR Headquarters
4543 Faner Hall
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL 62901
fax: (618) 453-2671
e-mail: Faye@uwin.cwr.siu.edu
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Floodplain Management Assessment (FPMA) team is holding a series of discussions on floodplain management alternatives for all interested parties in November. The group will be "refining the framework" that it will use to evaluate floodplain management options. For more information, contact:
Dave Loss
FPMA team manager
(612) 290-5435
Below are the scheduled meetings. Unless stated differently, all locations will include an afternnon session at 2:00 p.m. for agencies and interest group representatives and an evening session at 7:00 p.m. open to everyone.
[These are the latest announcements we have received regarding upcoming conferences. Additional announcements appear in almost all previous issues of Disaster Research.]
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