Disaster Research 234

September 24, 1997


Table of contents

  1. Seeking Software for Emergency/Disaster Resource Manual
  2. FEMA Launches Effort to Rewrite Coastal Construction Manual
  3. FEMA Recruiting BPAT Members
  4. First Disaster Resistant Community Announced
  5. FEMA Drafts Strategic Plan
  6. FEMA Offers El Nino Information and Mitigation Conference
  7. A Couple of Additional El Nino Web Sites
  8. FEMA and States Planning Response 98

Join the 1997 IDNDR Internet Conference
"Floods, Drought, Issues for the 21st Century"
http://www.quipu.net:1997


Seeking Software for Emergency/Disaster Resource Manual

I am the Emergency Services Manager for Eaton County, Michigan. Currently, my office is compiling a database to use as a resource manual in the event of an emergency or disaster. The resource manual would include materials, services, and personnel. Do you know of a source for a reasonably priced (or free) Windows/IBM-compatible program for such a resource manual?

Thank you for your assistance.
Sincerely,

James Welbes
Program Manager
Eaton County Emergency Services
E-mail:
jwelbes@co.eaton.mi.us


FEMA Launches Effort to Rewrite Coastal Construction Manual

The Federal Emergency Management Agency's Mitigation Directorate has begun the process of revising FEMA's well-known Coastal Construction Manual (CCM). The consulting engineering firm of Greenhorne & O'Mara, Inc. was recently awarded the contract to undertake this effort. The revised document is intended to present state-of-the-art engineering techniques for building coastal family residential structures.

The revised CCM will include case studies highlighting proper design and construction practices, innovative use of materials, and other building successes. Particular emphasis will be placed on design and construction capable of withstanding the simultaneous actions of high velocity flow, wave actions, debris impacts, high winds, and erosion. Multihazard issues, such as the use of open foundations systems (also known as soft understories) beneath coastal buildings in seismically active areas, will be explored.

Currently, an international effort is underway to identify the state-of-the-art in coastal residential construction. Architects, engineers, building officials, contractors, trade groups, material suppliers, floodplain managers, and coastal zone managers are encouraged to provide information that can be used by others to reduce the vulnerability of coastal construction. Materials should be received no later than January 31, 1998. Please send comments, information, or literature to:
Vince DiCamillo
Greenhorne & O'Mara, Inc.
9001 Edmonston Road
Greenbelt, MD 20770
(301) 220-1873
E-mail:
Eletvin@G-and-O.com


FEMA Recruiting BPAT Members

In response to hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and other disasters, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) often deploys Building Performance Assessment Teams (BPATs) to conduct field investigations at disaster sites. BPATs inspect disaster-induced damage incurred by residential and commercial buildings and other structures; evaluate local design practices, construction methods and materials, building codes, and building inspection and code enforcement processes; and make recommendations regarding design, construction, and code issues. With the goal of reducing the damage caused by future disasters, the BPAT process is an important part of FEMA's hazard mitigation activities.

The ability to quickly form and deploy BPATs whose members have the required skills and expertise is essential to the success of the BPAT process. Therefore, FEMA created a national database of experts who are available for rapid deployment (within 48 hours of notification). The database is maintained by Greenhorne & O'Mara, Inc., an engineering firm based in Greenbelt, Maryland. G&O also provides the technical and administrative support required for the BPAT process. Private sector members of BPATs work as consultants to G&O.

The BPAT database also serves as a source of experts who can support FEMA's other hazard mitigation activities, such as conducting research and providing technical support to state and local governments in structure vulnerability assessment, hazards-resistant design and construction, and hazards awareness and mitigation training.

BPAT members have expertise in one or more of the following fields: structural and civil engineering, building design and construction, coastal construction, flood-, wind-, and earthquake-resistant design and construction, shoreline and coastal erosion, building inspection, building code development and enforcement. If you are an expert in one of these fields, can be available for temporary field assignments on short notice, and would like to be considered for BPAT assignments, send your name, area of expertise, company/affiliation, address, phone, and fax number, to Greenhorne & O'Mara, Inc., 9001 Edmonston Road, Greenbelt, MD 20770, attn: Vince DiCamillo; or fax the information to (301) 220-2606. G&O will then contact you for additional information.


First Disaster Resistant Community Announced

Evansville, Indiana, along with surrounding Vanderburgh County, is the first officially designated Disaster-Resistant Community in the United States. In July 1997, the Evansville City Council and the Vanderburgh Board of County Commissioners approved resolutions to implement a comprehensive disaster protection program, as specified by the Institute for Building and Home Safety (IBHS) (formerly the Insurance Institute for Property Loss Reduction) and other representatives of the insurance industry to showcase the benefits of risk reduction. The program supports the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Disaster Resistant Communities initiative, which promotes community responsi- bility for dealing with natural hazards. The Evansville area in southern Indiana is threatened by earthquakes, flooding, tornadoes, and severe summer and winter storms.

IBHS notes that this showcase initiative is intended to demonstrate to other communities that mitigation efforts, if well-planned and well- supported by community leaders, can be successful.

Under the agreement, Evansville and Vanderburgh County will assign responsibility to a single official to coordinate the project; undertake a variety of education, training, and outreach programs; incorporate natural hazard awareness and reduction programs into school curricula; maintain up-to-date emergency response and recovery plans; and modify existing city and county land-use practices to incorporate hazard vulnerability considerations into land-use decisions.

For further information on the Disaster Resistant Community Initiative, contact IBHS, 73 Tremont Place, Suite 510, Boston, MA 02108; (617) 722-0200; fax: (617) 722-0202; e-mail: info@iiplr.org; WWW: http://www.iiplr.org.

For more information on the FEMA effort, contact the FEMA Office of Emergency Information and Media Affairs, FEMA, 500 C Street, S.W., Washington, DC, e-mail: eipa@fema.gov; or see WWW: http://www.fema.gov/home/NWZ97/focus97.htm.


FEMA Drafts Strategic Plan

The Federal Emergency Management Agency wants "to change the emergency management culture from one that reactively responds to disasters to one that proactively helps communities and citizens avoid becoming disaster victims." In order to accomplish this, the agency will bring together private industry, the insurance industry, mortgage lenders, the real estate industry, home builders, and others to create model disaster-resistant communities in high-risk areas (see the article above); overhaul FEMA's public assistance process to reduce red tape and time; establish a federal predisaster response fund; and continue to build and strengthen public-private partnerships for emergency management.

These objectives, along with specific, quantified goals, are listed in the agency's draft version of "Strategic Plan: Partnership for a Safer Future." The plan outlines FEMA's goals for fiscal years 1998 through 2007 and operations objectives through fiscal year 2002. FEMA is interested in receiving written comments, and copies can be found on the FEMA Web site: http://www.fema.gov/nwz97/spln_1.htm

In addition, the General Accounting Office (GAO) has published a review of FEMA's plan entitled "Results Act: Observations on the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Draft Strategic Plan" (GAO/RCED- 97-204R, 1997, 14 pp., free). Copies can be ordered from GAO, Document Distribution Center, P.O. Box 6015, Gaithersburg, MD 20884-6015; (202) 512-6000; fax: (301) 258-4006; e-mail: info@www.gao.gov; WWW: http://www.gao.gov. The complete text of the report is also available via the Web at http://access.gpo.gov.


FEMA Offers El Nino Information and Mitigation Conference

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently issued a press release urging U.S. residents [and, we presume, other citizens of the Pacific/Indian Ocean rim] to prepare for the effects of the strong El Nino event currently developing in the Pacific Ocean. This climate pattern, characterized by the emergence of warm, long-lived currents in the eastern Pacific can mean heavier than normal precipitation and above normal temperatures for many areas of the U.S. In other parts of the world (Australia, southern Africa, for example) it can have other consequences, including reduced precipitation and even drought. FEMA has established an "El Nino Loss Reduction Center" Web site http://www.fema.gov/nwz97/elnino.htm that includes much information about mitigating El Nino hazards, as well illustrations of the phenomenon itself, news releases, and many links to additional information on El Nino available through the World Wide Web.

In addition, on October 14, in Los Angeles, California, FEMA is hosting an "El Nino Summit" for community and state officials concerned about the possible impacts on their regions. For additional information, see the Web site above or contact the FEMA Office of Emergency Information and Media Affairs, 500 C Street, S.W., Washington, DC 20472; (202) 646-4600; fax: (202) 646-4086; e-mail: eipa@fema.gov.


A Couple of Additional El Nino Web Sites

There are numerous locations on the World Wide Web where one can find El Nino information, but the sites below, as well as the FEMA site mentioned above, provide good places to begin browsing.

http://nic.fb4.noaa.gov
Via this site the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra- tion's Climate Prediction Center offers information about the current El Nino with advisories and forecasts.

http://www.ceres.ca.gov/elnino
The California Resources Agency has created the California Environmental Resources Evaluation System (CERES) as a means to disseminate information and link people to information sources on a particular environmental resource topic. The CERES El Nino section includes *numerous* links that provide information on everything from the physical phenomenon of El Nino to its potential economic impacts.


FEMA and States Planning Response 98

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will conduct its annual response exercise - "Response 98" - April 20-23, 1998. The exercise is designed to test the Federal Response Plan, as well as federal and state coordination - in this case, in response to a hurricane hitting the Northeast/New England area. This exercise will be unique in that four Canadian maritime provinces will also participate. For more information, contact the FEMA Office of Emergency Information and Media Affairs, FEMA, 500 C Street, S.W., Washington, DC 20472; (202) 646-4600; fax: (202) 646-4086; e-mail: eipa@fema.gov.


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