Disaster Research 194

April 17, 1996

This newsletter is reprinted with the full knowledge and consent of the Natural HazardsResearch and Applications Information Center in Boulder, CO.

Table of contents

1. From the U.S.: Seeking Information on Nursing Home and School Emergency Planning
2. From Colombia: Seeking Information on Vulnerability and Risk Assessment in Digital Formats
3. From Trinidad: Seeking Landslide Mitigation Plans
4. From the U.S.: Seeking Help with GIS Hazards Research
5. From Canada: On Siting Canada's Emergency Medical Stockpile
6. Berkeley Moving East
7. GEOWARN Studies End
8. FEMA on the FEMA Web Site
9. Four More Sites to Check Out
10. Russian Tsunami Center Established
11. $$$ Available for Environmental Research
12. Conferences and Training

Larry Clark
PO Box 6412
Panama City, FL 32404
Clarklt@aol.com

Thanks for your time.
Doris Moreno.
vfranco@infantas.ecp.com

Thanks for your assistance.
Cassandra Rogers
crogers@eng.uwi.tt

Thank you,
Brett M Vaughan
vahnz@interramp.com

For more information contact Jim Gordon at the Environmental HealthAssessment and Safety Branch, B.C. Ministry of Health, 7-1, 1515Blanshard Street, Victoria, B.C., V8W 3C8, Canada; e-mail:jagordon@bcsc02.gov.bc.ca; phone: (604) 952-2272.

John Laye, Program Coordinator:
Phone: (510) 631-0400
Fax: (510) 631-0403
E-mail: johnlaye@aol.com

After June 1:
Diane Wolcott or Elisabeth Lamoureaux
Department of Environmental Management
1995 University Avenue, Suite 300
Berkeley, CA 94720-7012
(510) 642-7537
Fax: (510) 643 8290
E-mail: dlw@unx.berkeley.edu

East Coast POC:
Michael R. Zanotti, CEM
Phone: (301) 601-8281
Fax: (301) 428-0145
E-mail: michael_zanotti@ccmail.saic.gmt.com

http://mercury.hq.nasa.gov/office/mtpe/

The GEOWARN concept originated as a team design project effort of the1993 International Space University Summer Session Program. Theconcept was deemed credible and sound in a feasibility study conductedby a study team at MSFC. Based on the results of the MSFC-sponsoredfeasibility study, OMTPE provided seed money for an initial conceptstudy conducted during fiscal year 1995. This study was furthersubsidized by MSFC internal funds. The final reports from thesestudies are available upon request directed to the undersigned. TheGEOWARN home page will remain online until September and can bevisited at

http://wwwghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/GEOWARN/GEOWARN.homepage.html.

On behalf of the MSFC study team, our sincere appreciation is extendedto all who supported our efforts.

Angie Bukley
Space Science & Applications Projects Office
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
bukleap@pdalpha.msfc.nasa.gov

http://www.fema.gov

For user convenience, the homepage has a keyword search engine linkedto the main subject index.

A primary goal of this project was to provide our country's rapidlygrowing computer-literate audience with an Internet source forimportant news on disaster response and recovery operations anddisaster-preparedness material on all types of hazards. A look at themain subject index (http://www.fema.gov/fema/index.html) gives a goodindication of the broad scope of information now available.

The system is updated daily ...sometimes hourly... with news releases,and additional material is always under development. During thehurricane season, the Tropical Storm Watch page provides links toweather satellite images, forecasts and advisories. As a hurricaneapproaches landfall, situation reports, news releases and FEMA mapsare added. The current disaster response and recovery section focuseson the "Floods of 96" (http://www.fema.gov/DIZAS/ws96.htm).

FEMA has also developed a "Global Emergency Management System (GEMS)"page. GEMS (http://www.fema.gov/fema/gems.html) gives users Internetlinks to other Web sites with related material. Additionally, aninnovative emergency news distribution service is now available. Itallows users to subscribe and receive news releases, fact sheets,advisories, and abridged major incident situation reports from FEMA.

Response to FEMA on the Internet has been phenomenal. For example,during Hurricane Opal (between October 1 and October 8), there were229,928 Internet connections to the FEMA computer. Users can and doleave messages, comments, and requests for information on manyemergency management topics every day. User feedback has also resultedin FEMA offering emergency management training materials and courseson line. The first FEMA on-line home study course is now available(http://www.fema.gov/netc/is7.html).

The Oklahoma City bombing last April was the first disaster for whichFEMA produced and distributed special edition situation reports. Thesewere posted on the Web site and sent out to the over 1,000 usersaround the world who have subscribed to FEMA's electronic newsservice. Pictures of Urban Search and Rescue teams were also receivedelectronically and posted to FEMA's World Wide Web site. Users thenredistributed the reports throughout their organizations orcommunities. During Hurricane Erin in August, this service wasexpanded to include maps and graphics that charted the storm's pathand projected rainfall and wind damage.

Since going online, FEMA has had over one million users access theemergency information posted on Internet. FEMA's Web users range fromprofessors to paramedics, local fire chiefs to average citizens, andhave included customers from around the world.

This Web site is a work in progress. In addition to constantly addingnew information, the site is currently being redesigned to take betteradvantage of the latest Netscape graphic enhancements.

A) The Electronic Volcano
http://www.dartmouth.edu/pages/rox/volcanoes/elecvolc.html

The Electronic Volcano bills itself as "a window into the world ofinformation on active volcanoes." The site is a source of many typesof materials on active volcanoes worldwide - such as maps,photographs, full texts of dissertations, and a few elusive documents.It also provides a guide to resources in libraries or on otherinformation servers.

To preserve its cosmopolitan ambience, the Electronic Volcano offersintroductory material in Chinese, German, Spanish, Italian, French,and Russian. The site then offers guides to catalogs of activevolcanoes and datasets for literature citations relative to activevolcanoes, electronic versions of text material available in theelectronic volcano, an index of journals that contain articles onactive volcanoes, tables of contents of journals, visual information,maps of active volcanoes, a list of volcanic observatories andinstitutions, abstracts and excerpts from theses related to activevolcanism, descriptions of volcanic hazards, a section on currentevents and research, and a volcano name and country index.

B) Seismosurfing - Surfing the Internet for Earthquake Data
http://www.geophys.washington.edu/seismosurfing.html

Seismosurfing provides an index of known Internet connections whereseismic data or seismic research information are available. The sitesare categorized under

• Global or Composite Catalogs and Maps
• California Institutions
• Institutions in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest
• Institutions in the Inter-Mountain US
• Institutions in the Eastern US
• North American Institutions (Outside the US)
• Institutions Outside North America
• Seismic Information Relating to Volcanic Activity
• Links to More General Volcanology Information
• Other Useful References

C) Tsunami! - An On-Line Interactive Resource of Tsunami Information
http://tsunami.ce.washington.edu/tsunami/counter.acgi?view

This site contains extensive background information, intendedprimarily for the general public, about the mechanisms of tsunamigeneration and propagation, great tsunamis in history, the impact oftsunamis on humankind, tsunami warning systems, and tsunami hazardmitigation. The site also includes more detailed material about recenttsunami events and ongoing studies that will be of interest to tsunamiand interdisciplinary researchers. Finally, Tsunami! provides numerouslinks to other World Wide Web pages containing tsunami data.

D) Science of Tsunami Hazards
http://www.ccalmr.ogi.edu/STH

If you're looking for more scholarly information about tsunamis andthe latest scientific research, abstracts from the internationaljournal of the Tsunami Society, "Science of Tsunami Hazards," are nowalso available on the Web. In the future, special issues of thejournal will include full papers from this Web site. The site alsoincludes general information about the Tsunami Society, conferenceannouncements, and, of course, links to other sources of tsunami data.

A Tsunami Center has recently been organized in Moscow to coordinatethe efforts of Russian tsunami researchers, to collect and distributeinformation among Russian scientists, and to promote cooperationbetween those scientists and the international tsunami community. Thecenter is currently soliciting papers (both recent and older), otherpublications, charts, videos, etc. related to tsunamis for itscollection. Conversely, the center will be glad to distributeinformation on tsunamis that it has collected from Russian sources.The administrators of the center ar Dr. Evgueni A. Kulikov, Director(eugene@mplus.msk.su, eugene@tsucen.msk.ru) and Ms. Olga Yakovenko,Acting Director (olga@tsucen.msk.ru). The permanent address of thecenter is: Tsunami Center, IORAS, Kraskikova 23, 117218 Moscow,Russia; fax/phone: (7095) 124-6388; e-mail: olga@tsucen.msk.ru.

Hydrosphere Data Products Inc., a Boulder, Colorado, environmentaldata company, recently announced that it will award $20,000 in grantsduring 1996 to support environmental research and data collectionworldwide. Researchers may immediately contact the company for grantapplications; applications will be evaluated as they are received. Thecriteria for grant awards will be the potential of proposed or ongoingresearch to yield theoretical advances or technological innovationsthat encourage the establishment of sustainable development publicpolicies or professional practices. Applicants must also demonstratethe inability to obtain necessary data with existing researchresources. Grant recipients will receive free use of titles fromHydrosphere's commercial library of environmental data bases onCD-ROM. Sample research areas previously supported by Hydrosphereinclude the fate and transport of contaminants, watershed ecosystems,hydrologic decision support systems, and wetlands restoration. Thecompany has indicated that grants could be used to support relevantnatural hazards research. For an application or further information,contact Tim Smith, Hydrosphere Data Products, Inc. 1002 Walnut Street,Suite 200, Boulder, CO 80302; (303) 443-7839; fax; (303) 442-0616;e-mail:

Conferences and Training

These are the latest announcements we've received. Most previousissues of DR contain additional notices. For a *comprehensive* list ofupcoming disaster-related conferences, see our World Wide Web page:

http://adder.colorado.edu/~hazctr/Home.html

Restoring Mobility and Economic Vitality Following Major UrbanEarthquakes: Lessons From Two California Quakes Within Five Years.Sponsors: UCLA Extension Public Policy Program and Institute ofTransportation Studies, UC-Irvine and UCLA. Los Angeles, California:April 25-26, 1996. Contact: Kate Edwards, UCLA Extension Public PolicyProgram, 10995 Le Conte Avenue, Room 613, Los Angeles, CA 90024; (310)825-7885; fax: (310) 206-5066.

Public Risk Management Association (PRIMA) Annual Conference.Baltimore, Maryland: June 2-5, 1996. Contact: Lynn Armstrong, PRIMA,1815 North Fort Myer Drive, Suite 1020, Arlington, VA 22209; (703)528-7701

Florida Governor's Hurricane Conference. Tampa, Florida: June 3-7,1996. Call (813) 586-7686.

Emergency Planning Society Third Annual Conference: "Protecting thePublic by Working Together." Scarborough, U.K.: June 24-26, 1996.Contact: Peter Daly, Conference Chairperson, County Emergency PlanningOfficer, County Hall, Martineau Lane, Norwich, Norfolk NR1 2DH, U.K.;tel: 01603 222019; fax: 01603 223010.

International Workshop on Tsunami Mitigation and Risk Assessment.Sponsors: IUGG Tsunami Commission and others. Petropavlosk-Kamchatskiy, Russia: August 19-23, 1996. Deadline for registration isMay 1. Contact: Viacheslav K. Gusiakov, Computing Center, Pr.Lavrentiva 6, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia; tel: 7-3832-324892; fax:7-3832-324259; e-mail: slava@comcen.nsk.su; or Boris W. Levin,Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Leninskiy Prospect 32a, Moscow117334, Russia: fax; 7-095-938-1931; e-mail: levin@rfbr.ru.

Atlantic and Gulf Coasts Mitigation Conference. Sponsor: NorthCarolina Division of Emergency Management. Wilmington, North Carolina:September 8-11, 1996. Call Tammy Russo, North Carolina Division ofEmergency Management, 116 West Jones Street, Raleigh, NC 27603; (919)733-3617.

Fifth U.S./Japan Workshop on Urban Earthquake Hazard Reduction.Sponsors: Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) and JapanInstitute of Social Safety Science (ISSS). Los Angeles, California:January 1997. Abstracts due July 31, 1996. Contact: Susan Tubbesing,EERI, 499 14th Street, Suite 320, Oakland, CA 94612-1934; (510) 451-0905; fax: (510) 451-5411; e-mail: eeri@eeri.org.

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