Disaster Research 214

January 9, 1997

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

Table of contents

  1. Looking for Information on Hospital Disaster Planning
  2. Information on the Hazards of Flood Cleanup
  3. An Example of Using the Net for Real Time Disaster Management: California Real-time River Level Charts On-line
  4. A New National Center for Disaster Management in India
  5. Hazard Slides: An Offer from One of Our Readers . . .
  6. Our Latest Adventures in Web Wandering
  7. NSF/EPA Grants Available for Environmental Research
  8. Conferences and Training


Looking for Information on Hospital Disaster Planning

The FDNY 911 Ambulance Destination Advisory Committee has a DisasterSubcommittee that assists hospitals in planning for disasters. Thecommittee is comprised of Emergency Department Personnel (physicians,nurses, and administr ators). If any DR readers can provide assistancewith Hospital Disaster Planning, possible web sites, etc. pleasecontact:

John McFarland, EMT-P
Director
Medical Systems Management
FDNY 911 Evaluation Unit
Bellevue Hospital Center
4 72 First Avenue, Room CD402
New York, NY 10016
jmcfarl990@aol.com


Information on the Hazards of Flood Cleanup

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIO SH)warns workers and volunteers involved in flood cleanup that they facea number of hazards associated with cleanup activities. These hazardsinclude: structural instability, confined spaces, electricity, heavyequipment, bacteria and mold in moist mate rials, heavy lifting, andhazardous materials. Workers also need to be aware of the hazards ofusing small gasoline-powered engines. Using these engines indoors,even with doors and windows open, can result in carbon monoxidepoisoning and even death.

Because the level of experience varies among workers, information oncleanup safety needs to be widely disseminated. More information canbe found in the NIOSH Update "NIOSH Warns of Hazards of Flood CleanupWork" available on the NIOSH Web site under "U pdates" at
www.cdc.gov/niosh/homepage.html
or in quantities from NIOSH by calling 1-800-356-4674.

[Editor's Note: We were recently asked by NIOSH to pass along thisinformation. Additional useful material on flood recovery is availablefrom the FEMA Web site (www.fema.gov) and from the American Red Cross(www.redcross.org/disaster/comm_ed/community.html).]


An Example of Using the Net for Real-Time Disast er Management: California Real-time River Level Charts On-line

Netmeister Art Botterell (acb@incident.com) recently noted, via the"Networks in Emergency Management" e-mail listserve, a good example ofreal-t ime information available via the Net to aid disastermanagement. To quote:

Another outstanding (partly because it's so darned simple) example ofthe Web in emergency management...
cycl one.water.ca.gov/sanjStages.html
I know several people along the Russian River who used the page fortheir area to help plan for their evacuation...

[Editor's note: To subscribe to "Nets," send an e-mail message to:
majordomo@sfu.ca
with the subject line blank and the single command:
subscribe nets-em [your name]
in the body of the message.]


New National Center for Disaster Management in In dia

[Adapted from the "INCEDE (International Center for Disaster-Mitigation Engineering) Newsletter"]

A new National Centre for Disaster Management (NCDM) has beeninstituted by India's Ministry of Agriculture. The center, establishedwithin the Indian Institute of Public Administration, has as itsprimary objectives, 1) providing training programs for senior- andmiddle-level administrative government officials and increasing theirawareness of the need for disaster mitigation, and 2) coord inating research on different aspects of disaster management at the nationallevel. For more information, contact NCDM, IIPA, Indraprastha Estate,Ring Road, New Delhi 11002, India: fax: (+91-11) 331-9954.


Hazard Slides: An Offe r from One of Our Readers . . .

1997 on its first day of operation did not spare the Pacific Northwest from terrible natural disasters of snow, torrential rains andmudslides, floods, etc. With this kind of a start the big Quake cannot be far o ff.

I have a few sets of Hazards Teaching Slides returned after successfulfield testing in universities and colleges . . . in case any readersare interested. Happy New Year to you all,
Spense Havlick
havlicks@ci.boulder.co.us


Our Latest Adventures in Web Wandering

www.floodplain.org
The Floodplain Management Association (FMA) has established thisWeb site intend ed to serve the entire floodplain management community.It includes sections containing full-text articles, a calendar ofupcoming events, a list of positions available, an index ofpublications available free or at nominal cost, a list ofassociations, a list of firms and consultants in floodplainmanagement, an index of newsletters dealing with flood issues (withhypertext links to them if available), a section on the basics offloodplain management, a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) onfloodp lain management, and, of course, a copious catalog of Web links.

www.disaster-resource.com
This is the on-line site of the "Disaster Resource Guide" - adirectory of companies, products, and serv ices available to supportdisaster recovery and business continuity. It also includes selectedarticles on disaster management.

www.serve.com/NESEC
The New England States Emergency Consortium now offer s this Webpage, which includes sections describing NESEC, surveying the varioushazards of the region and actions that can be taken to limit theireffects, listing regional resources to aid mitigation, outliningcurrent NESEC projects, and providing othe r news about the agency.NESEC has also just begun publishing an agency newsletter - forinformation on subscriptions, contact NESEC, 607 North Avenue, Suite16, Wakefield, MA 01880; (617) 224-9876; fax: (617) 224-4350; e-mail:nesec@serve.com.


NSF/EPA Grants Available for Environmental Research

NSF, together with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), willsupport a special awards competition in fiscal year 1997 in thefollowing three research areas:

- Water and Watershed (W/WS) - Competition requires proposals thatintegrate research in the ecological sciences, physical sciences, andsocial sciences in a systems approach to study watershed-scale issuesthat are transferable in scope.

- Technology for a Sustainable Environment (TSE) - Invites proposalsthat advance the development and use of innovative technologies andapproaches directed at avoiding or minimizing the generation ofpollutants at the source.

- Decis ion-Making and Valuation for Environment Policy (DMVEP) -Gives priority to fundamental and methodological research onbenefit-cost analysis, ecosystem valuation, and normative behaviorsand environmental decision-making.

The deadline for submission o f proposals is January 31, 1997. Aprogram announcement is available on the EPA Home Page atwww.epa.gov/ncerqa. Paper copies can be obtained by callingEPA's automated hotline at 1-800-490-9194 and leaving a fax n umber;the text will be faxed overnight.

This is the third year of this interagency initiative. Awards listsfrom previous years and other related information are available on theNSF Home Page at www.nsf.gov/stratare/egch/envresop.htm. Formore information, contact the appropriate EPA program manager listedbelow:

W/WS - Contact Barbara Levinson, phone: (202) 260-5983; e-mail:levinson.b arbara@epamail.epa.gov.

TSE - Contact Stephen Lingle, phone: (202) 260-5748; e-mail:lingle.stephen@epamail.epa.gov.

DMVEP - Contact Deborah Hanlon, phone: (202) 260-2726; e-mail:hanlon.deborah@epamail.epa.gov.

Note: NSF has a redesigned Home Page and a new search capability thatmakes the NSF Web site much easier to navigate. Users now have quick,easy access from the front page to NSF directorates and programs andare able to conduct full-text searches across the entire NSF site.


Conferences and Training

These are the latest conference announcements we've received. Mostprevious issues of DR contain additional notices. For a*comprehensive* list of upcoming disaster-related meetings andtraining, see our World Wide Web page:
adder.colorado.edu/~hazctr/Home.html

Monitoring Dam Safety. Course offered by the School of Civil andEnvironmental Engineering and the Water Resources Center, GeorgiaInstitute of Technology. Atlanta, Georgia: April 23-25, 1997. Contact:Georgia Institute of Technology, Distance Learning, ContinuingEduca tion and Outreach, P.O. Box 93686, Atlanta, GA 30377-0686; (404)894-2400; fax: (404) 894-8925.

Hydrologic Engineering for Dam Design. Course offered by the School ofCivil and Environmental Engineering and the Water Resources Center,Georgia Institut e of Technology. Atlanta, Georgia: April 28-30, 1997.Contact: Georgia Institute of Technology, Distance Learning,Continuing Education and Outreach, P.O. Box 93686, Atlanta, GA 30377-0686; (404) 894-2400; fax: (404) 894-8925.

Analysis and Management of Geological Risks - PostgraduateCertificate. Offered by the Centre d'Etude des Risques Geologiques(CERG), University of Geneva. Geneva, Switzerland: April 28-June 18,1997. Contact: CERG, Secretariat, Departement de Mineralogie, 13, ruedes Maraicher s, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland; tel: +41 22 702 66 02;fax: +41 22 320 57 32; telex: 421 159 SIAD; e-mail: CERG@sc2a.unige.ch: WWW: www.unige.ch/hazards/cerg/.

Retr ofitting Floodprone Residential Structures Short Course. Sponsors:Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) and Federal EmergencyManagement Agency. Little Rock, Arkansas: May 2-3, 1997. Held inconjunction with the ASFPM Annual Conference. Contac t: Wallace Wilson,Land and Water Management Division, Michigan Department ofEnvironmental Quality. P.O. Box 30458, Lansing, MI 48909-7958; (517)335-3194; fax: (517) 373-9965; e-mail: wilsonw@deq.state.mi.us.

1997 Congress of the Insurance Institute for Property Loss Reduction(IIPLR). Cosponsors: Federal Emergency Management Agency and AmericanRed Cross. Irvine, California: June 18-20, 1997. Contact: IIPLR, 73Tremont Street, Suite 510, Boston, MA 02108 -3910; (617) 722-0200: fax:(617) 722-0202.

Seventh World Conference on Disaster Management. Hamilton, Ontario,Canada: June 22-25, 1997. Contact: Canadian Centre for EmergencyPreparedness, P.O. Box 2911, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8N 3R5; (905)546- 3911; 1-800-965-4608; fax: (905) 546-2340; e-mail: ccep@netaccess.on.ca; WWW: www.netaccess.on.ca/~ccep/ccep/.

"Earth - Ocean - Atmosphere, Forces for Chang e": 1997 Joint Assembliesof the International Association for Meteorology and AtmosphericSciences & International Association for Physical Sciences of theOcean, and Symposia of the International Tsunamis Commission,International Association of Geodesy , International Association ofHydrological Sciences, International Association of Volcanology andChemistry of the Earth's Interior. Sponsors: The Australian Academy ofScience and others. Melbourne, Australia: July 1-9, 1997. Contact:IAMAS/IAPSO Secret ariat, 224 Rouse Street, Port Melbourne, Victoria3207, Australia: tel: 61 3 9646 4122; fax: 61 3 9646 7737; e-mail:convnet@peg.apc.org; WWW: www.dar.csiro. au/pub/events/assemblies/.

10th World Congress on Emergency and Disaster Medicine. Mainz,Germany: September 24-27, 1997. Contact: WCEDM Congress Office, Klinikfur Anasthesiologie, Langenbeckstr., 1, D-55131 Mainz, Germany; fax:49-6131-17-6649.< p>Survive! Fourth Annual Conference and Exposition. San Francisco,California: October 21-24, 1997. Contact: Survive Business ContinuityGroup, 1201 Mt. Kemble Avenue, Morristown, NJ 07960-6628; 1-800-787-8483; fax: (201) 425-0750; e-mail: info@survive.com; WWW:www.survive.com.

American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 1998 Specialty Conferenceon Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics. Seattle,Washington: A ugust 3-6, 1998. Abstracts due March 1, 1991. Contact:Professor Panos Dakoulas, Publication Committee Chairman, CivilEngineering Department, MS 318, Rice University, 6100 South MainStreet, Houston, TX 77005-1892; (713) 527-4667; fax: (713) 285-5268;e- mail: dakoulas@rice.edu.


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