Seeking Help with Disaster Preparedness Plan for Volunteer Fire/Rescue Company
I am putting together a Disaster Preparedness Plan for a VolunteerFire/Rescue Company on the east coast. I am basing much of our plan on agood size hurricane hitting the area. My assumption is we should be selfsufficient for 3 days for 30 people. My current dilemma is providing forfood and water assuming contaminated water and no electricity or gas forcooking or sterilizing. As a volunteer organization (combined with theeconomy, esp. given departure of federal $ locally) funds are short, soavenues for donations would be appreciated. Answers to the followingquestions would be helpful in developing the plan:
- MREs look like a good food type. How long can they be stored? Whereto procure? What other food programs might be better?
- Are there water filtration/purification systems similar to those forcamping that are reliable, cost eefective that can handle large volumes,and will provide adequate purification of water? I assume if the waterneeds to be boiled before use, the contaminant is biological and notchemical, therefore filters may be adequate to purify the water.
- I understand that FEMA will reimburse the salaries for localitiesthat 'activate' volunteers as part time workers. The people and timeworked must be accurately documented. I need documentation from aquotable source so I can address the issue and make it part of our plan.
Would appreciate replies to these questions, please include referencesif available as I am required to present them with the plan. E-mailwould be best way for me to receive responses. Any other input would beappreciated.
Thank you -- Bill Pollock
Wdpollock@aol.com
Seeking Information on Disaster Policy and Management in Japan (and Elsewhere)
I am currently researching in the area of natural disaster policy andmanagement in Japan. At this stage, I am interested in collecting thegeneral theoretical material on this topic. I would appreciate the namesof any references which would give me an insight into the workings ofgovernments in the area of disaster policy and planning. I am mostinterested in the Japanese case. However, I require information fromother nations' government disaster policy agencies to give a solidtheoretical base to my study.
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Sue Collier
Research Assistant
Department of Asian Languages and Studies
University of Queensland
Brisbane Q 4072
Australia
S.Collier@mailbox.uq.oz.au
Seeking Risk Assessment Methods
I am looking for a global method of risk assessment which could be usedin emergency planning. By global, we mean one that would encompassindustrial risks as well as natural ones within a specific aera (i.e.territory such as municipality or community). In other words, the methodneeds to consider both types of risks with regards to the territorywhere they are found and for which emergency planning is required.
Thank you.
Andre Hervieux
Crisis and disaster research unit
University of Quebec in Montreal
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
fax (514) 987-0216
E-mail: m150760@er.uqam.ca
NOAA Seeking Proposals
Within the context of the National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration's Climate and Global Change Program, the Economics andHuman Dimensions of Climate Fluctuations program seeks to support a fewresearch projects in FY 1996 that will provide an integrated assessmentof the direct impacts and related effects of episodic climate variations(such as those related to the El Nino - Southern Oscillation phenomenon,e.g. floods, droughts, increased incidence of severe events), takinginto account opportunities for societal adjustment based on new advancesin climate analysis and prediction. We expect that these end-to-endassessments will reveal greater understanding of social and economicvulnerability as well as begin to identify options for adjustment,mitigation, and adaptation.
The natural hazards research community has contributed substantially toimproving our understanding of human vulnerability to extreme events. Bybuilding on this knowledge base, natural hazards research offers avaluable foundation from which to assess the socioeconomic systems mostvulnerable to climatic variability and to determine the degree offlexibility in those systems for the most effective use of skillfulclimate predictions.
Climate-related events (e.g., the 1988 Midwest drought, 1993 MississippiBasin floods, 1994 Southeast floods, 1995 California floods) of the lastseveral years in the U.S. alone highlight the need for improving ourunderstanding of how societies and economies are affected by season toseason, year to year, and intradecadal climate fluctuation.Understanding what it is about existing land use practices, watermanagement strategies, or patterns of energy demand that make societyrelatively more or less vulnerable to seasonal or annual departures fromthe mean will be a key to reducing vulnerability and to enhancingefficiency. A more complete picture of how climate impacts reverberatethrough an economy will contribute to understanding the range of costsassociated with vulnerability to severe events. Furthermore, if longerterm climate change is either underway or on the horizon, there isreason to believe that it may affect the incidence and magnitude ofextreme seasonal climate. The lessons we have to learn through adjustingto year to year climate fluctuation in the near term may prove valuableshould we begin to experience more extreme climate variability in thelonger term.
Due to limited funding and the necessity of involving multidiscplinaryteams of researchers to fully understand the dynamics of the climate andsocioeconomic systems, the program will seek to fund only a fewmultidisciplinary proposals focused on the impacts of and humanvulnerability to climatic variability, including the use of climateinformation for adjustment and mitigation. Letters of intent are dueJune 7, 1995, while full proposals must be received by August 8, 1995.For an information sheet that includes further details on the programand climate prediction, investigators should contact: ClaudiaNierenberg, 301-427-2089 ext. 46; e-mail: nierenberg@ogp.noaa.gov; orCaitlin Simpson, 301-427-2089 ext. 47; e-mail:simpson@ogp.noaa.gov.
EERI Kobe Slides Available
The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) has two annotatedslide sets on the Hyogo-ken (Kobe) earthquake available fordistribution. The first is an overview comprising 60 slides that covereverything from geotechnical aspects of the quake to emergency response.The second set of 20 slides focuses on geotechnical aspects, especiallyliquefaction. Kobe-I, "Overview," costs $90 ($75 for EERI members);Kobe-II, "Liquefaction," costs $35 ($30 for members). Californiaresidents must add 8.25% sales tax. For shipping outside the U.S., add10% of the total order amount. Available from EERI, 499 14th Street,Suite 320, Oakland, CA 94612-1934; (510) 451-0905; fax: (510) 451-5411.
New Bay Area Earthquake Maps On-line
I suspect many have already seen the newspaper accounts of the newAssociation of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) Earthquake reports andseisimic maps, to be found at
http://www.agab.ca.gov
They are incredibly sobering. I quote just one small comment:
"THE BAY AREA IS EARTHQUAKE COUNTRY...
The fact that a devastating earthquake occurred in 1906 - the SanFrancisco earthquake - is common knowledge. Larger earthquakes generallyaffect larger areas; the San Francisco earthquake caused extensivedamage in Oakland, San Jose and Santa Rosa. More recently, the 1989 LomaPrieta earthquake caused extensive damage in the Santa Cruz Mountains,as well as in Oakland and San Francisco tens of miles away. But manymoderate to great earthquakes (over magnitude 6.0) have affected the BayArea; 22 such events have occurred in the last 160 years -- for anaverage of one every seven years.
Note that the level of earthquake activity in the last 15 years iscloser to the period prior to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, whilethe 1911 to 1979 period, when most of the Bay Area developed, isexceptionally quiet. ---"
Frank Cox
Free Computer Software Booklet Available
The 1995 edition of the booklet "Computer Software for EarthquakeEngineering" is now available from the National Information Service forEarthquake Engineering/Computer Applications office of the EarthquakeEngineering Research Center, University of California at Berkeley. Thebooklet includes abstracts of 70 software programs. Categories includeeducational software, structural analysis, nonlinear structuralanalysis, bridges, dams, geotechnical, strong-motion data processing,earthquake hazard analysis, and miscellaneous subjects. A price list isincluded. To receive a free copy of the booklet, call (510) 642-5113;fax (510) 643-5264; or e-mail nisee@cmsa.berkeley.edu.
Seeking Mass Care Plans
I'm interested in learning how other Red Cross Chapters approach the mass care planning process. Does anyone have any mass care plans that they can share? I'm also intrerested in what hazards the chapter has identified in the planning process.
Thanks,
Dana Larkin
c/o Tidewater American Red Cross
611 West Brambleton Avenue
Norfolk, VA 23510
dlarkin@infi.net
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