Workshop Abstracts
Managing for Long-Term Community Recovery in the Aftermath of Disaster
Daniel J. Alesch, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
Lucy A. Arendt., University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
James N. Holly, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
This research is intended to help local officials and community leaders in the U.S. understand the less obvious, yet critically important, consequences of extreme events and to provide guidance on how to help ensure long-term community recovery. We argue that long-term community recovery consists of restoring or rebuilding the social, political, and economic elements of the fabric that maks a community viable over the long haul. Such recovery goes well beyond emergency response, initial restoration of basic services, and rebuilding of the community’s pre-disaster physical structures.
Our research draws on interviews with public officials, business owners, and others in more than two dozen U.S. communities that experienced disasters in the last 15 years. We found many local officials and civic leaders faced three major obstacles when working on recovery. First, while they typically know what kinds of physical damage to expect, only rarely do they understand the full extent of the consequences that cascade into the social and economic life of the community. Second, few officials at any level of government have much understanding of community recovery processes and how to help them. Third, most local officials have relatively little knowledge about what happened in other communities after a disaster.
We address each of these three obstacles in the summary of our research, currently under review at the Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI), which is the primary sponsor.
Evelio Astray-Caneda III, Florida International University
Mobruka Azad, Florida International University
While significant research has been conducted on the migration of people from disaster-afflicted areas, scholarly examinations of demographic changes are lacking. Following disasters, people often continue to build in the same high-risk places where others just lost their homes. In fact, an influx of aid might actually encourage economic growth and reconstruction in afflicted areas. While some experiences, such as Hurricane Katrina, show people tend to flee these areas, other cases, such as Yungay Norte in Peru, show people will remain and/or relocate there.
On August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew swept through south Miami-Dade County. The hurricane caused more than $25 billion in damage and destroyed more than 47,000 homes. In 1992, we examined demographic changes along the path of Hurricane Andrew in Miami-Dade County using GIS software and U.S. Census data from 1990 and 2000. We used ArcGIS to select census block groups within three miles of Hurricane Andrew’s path and selected an equal number of block groups from outside of this three-mile zone as controls. In 1990, both groups had similar characteristics. Our analysis concluded, of the variables studied, the only significant demographic change between the hurricane-affected group and the control block was a change in the Hispanic proportion of population—which from 1990 to 2000 increased more in hurricane-affected block groups. This research exposes an interesting demographic phenomenon and opens the door for future research to ascertain why the Hispanic population grew faster in hurricane-affected areas.
Implementing National Mitigation Policy:
An Assessment of State and Local Plans and Capacities
Philip Berke, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Gavin Smith, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
This Department of Homeland Security-supported study will examine the quality and variability of the effects of local coastal hazard mitigation plans produced under the federal Disaster Mitigation Act (DMA) of 2000. We will use multiple sources of data, including: a survey of local governments determining local capacity to plan and incentives and disincentives enacted; content analysis determining the quality of local mitigation and land use plans; content analysis of state mitigation policies; and census data.
A sample of 180 local coastal governments will be drawn from two groups—states that mandate mitigation in local land use plans and states without mandates. Contrasting local capacity, plan quality, and implementation by type of state policy will enable us to specify patterns of local mitigation efforts under different inter-governmental partnerships. Six local case studies will provide an in-depth examination of mitigation planning process and outcomes.
Key products will include a description of state mitigation plans, laws, and programs; an assessment of the quality and outcomes of local hazard mitigation plans; a determination of the most important determinants explaining variability in local mitigation plan variability and outcome effectiveness; and development of theoretical and policy-relevant recommendations.
Improving Early Warning Systems in India—A Collaborative Program between India and the United States for Managing Hydro-Meteorological Hazards
A.K. Bhatnagar, India Meteorological Department
Robert Jubach, NOAA/Hydrologic Research Center
S.K. Roy Bhowmik, India Meteorological Department
Scott Spratt, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Nina Minka, USAID India
India is exposed to many natural hazards, such as tropical cyclones, floods, thunderstorms, wind storms, heavy mountain snowfall, heat and cold waves, and fog. These conditions affect a large population in different parts of the country and result in heavy loss of lives and property each year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States and the India Meteorological Department (IMD) have begun the Climate Forecast System project, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The project aims to improve capabilities in weather forecasting and early warnings in India for tropical cyclones, severe storms, floods, and heat and cold waves. It provides for exchange of knowledge, information, and technology in numerical weather prediction and will try to establish a comprehensive and integrated warning and response system for weather hazards. Included was a diagnostic study of existing warning procedures and communication systems, with particular reference to user needs, including media.
Workshops and surveys with users at different locations were conducted and a detailed analysis was done to find gaps affecting timeliness through various stages—from collection of data to communication of warnings. Appropriate suggestions are made to reduce the total time between observation and warning delivery to less than an hour. Issues relating to forecast accuracies, warning content, formats, presentation and communicating uncertainties and how these affect the user response, have been addressed and analyzed through case studies. The outcome of this collaborative project is holds promise in future IMD planning and implementation.
Coastal and Floodplain Habitat Conservation Opportunities Where People and Property Are at High Risk of Flooding and Other Storm Damage
Philip Berke, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
David Salvesen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Peter Zambito, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Rebecca Kihslinger, Environmental Law Institute
Kathryn Mengerink, Environmental Law Institute
The University of North Carolina Institute for the Environment and the Environmental Law Institute initiated a study supported by the National Council for Science and the Environment to examine joint opportunities for wildlife conservation and hazard mitigation. We will explore the prospects of implementing state wildlife action plans in hazard prone areas by (1) identifying areas where flood and other storm hazards overlap priority habitat; (2) facilitating coordination among federal and state agencies in these areas; (3) exploring opportunities to apply mitigation funding and other policy tools to protect or restore wildlife habitat; (4) proposing national and state policy changes that influence development or protection of natural hazard areas to address climate science and wildlife conservation; and (5) examining impacts on habitat as a result of predicted sea-level rise and increased flooding due to climate change.
Final products will demonstrate opportunities to implement state habitat goals in hazard prone areas and guide improved agency coordination to achieve multiple objectives—including the protection or restoration of wildlife habitat and hazard mitigation. Findings will be of interest to federal, state, and local managers and policymakers working in coastal and riverine communities–especially those vulnerable to climate change.
Research from Department of Homeland Security Centers for Excellence
National Survey of Disaster Experiences and Preparedness (NSDEP)
Linda Bourque, UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters
Dennis Mileti, University of Colorado at Boulder Natural Hazards Center
Megumi Kano, UCLA
Michele Wood, UCLA
The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (NC START), centered at the University of Maryland, examined the causes, processes, and psycho-social effects of terrorism. Under START funding, UCLA developed, fielded, and is analyzing the National Survey of Disaster Experiences and Preparedness (NSDEP).
Between April 2007 and April 2008, telephone interviews were conducted with 3,300 households, selected using random digit dialing from a stratified sample that allowed viable estimates of preparedness activities to be made for high visibility areas (Los Angeles County, New York City, Greater Washington, DC, area). List-assisted sampling was conducted to increase the number of respondents who self-identified as African American, Hispanic, or Asian American/Pacific Islander. The data set is weighted for analyses.
Preliminary descriptive analyses will be presented on the types and numbers of preparedness activities reported, reasons given for the activity, and predictors of preparedness.
Larry S. Buss, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Historically, this nation has done a very poor job of communicating flood risk. This is in no small part due to politics at all levels. The focus has been on short-term economic and political gain from floodplain development, which ultimately manifests in long-term economic and political losses when floods come.
Nationally, efforts have “hidden” the risk and taken the position “this area is safe for development” and “this area is no longer in a flood plain.” If this nation has any hope of minimizing flood risk by the year 2050 and beyond, sound flood risk communication and education is the key. Suggestions for focus include:
- Flood risk maps must be accurate and current within five years or less.
- Residual flood risk must be fully conveyed annually—as a minimum—in areas protected by flood risk reduction measures.
- Flood risk communication and education must receive the highest funding priority.
- Signs clearly stating the residual risk must be placed in areas protected by flood risk reduction projects. This should be standard practice and part of the implementation, operation, and maintenance of every project.
- Unacceptable operation and maintenance of flood risk reduction projects must be clearly communicated to those in the protected area.
Role of Faith Based Organizations
Steve Cain, Purdue University
At national and state levels, Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOADs) help faith-based organizations communicate and coordinate—but local faith-based organizations are not often in that loop. Local faith-based organizations react more quickly to real and perceived needs because they do it out of compassion for humankind and because they are located at the disaster. All disasters are local. But compassion shouldn’t be just reactionary; compassion can lead and anticipate. That’s why faith-based organizations can actualize compassion for a society that ignores disaster planning.
There needs to be more coordinated training for faith-based organizations, so they understand what role they might have to serve when disaster strikes in their communities. Experience shows that local faith-based organizations will respond to community needs before disaster organizations. But they might not understand how working with local and state emergency management and experienced relief agencies can enhance relief and recovery efforts.
Faith-based organizations are a cornerstone of a community when disaster hits, but the way they react depends on how involved they are with state and national organizations and/or how those organizations inform them. The National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVAOD, www.nvoad.org) is growing and will continue to supply more training and information. Another national resource is Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN, http://eden.lsu.edu/LearningOps/), which provides educational resources for planning, such as Pandemic Influenza Preparedness for Faith-Based Organizations.
Urban Flood Loss Sharing and Redistribution Mechanisms among the Impoverished Industrial Population of Mumbai
Monalisa Chatterjee, Rutgers University
This study focuses on the distribution of relationships and practices—adopted spatially, between, and/or within economic sectors—to address flood risks suffered by members of the informal slum population living in and around industrial facilities and included in industrial activities.
At the theoretical level, the study addresses relevance of local loss-sharing processes and establishes the cultural, social, and economical methods that evolved as response mechanisms of poor populations. Furthermore, it examines how globalization affects vulnerability of poor local communities in cities and its impact on the scale and nature of human security networks.
In the applied sense, the study highlights the need to develop a basis of knowledge about such matters and calls for examination of loss mitigation methods and economic assistance devices applied at micro level. These should be capable of becoming sustainable mechanisms for distributing the risk and reducing vulnerability of low-income population in cities of developing countries.
FloodSmart Flood Insurance Marketing Campaign
Kamer Davis, JWT/FEMA Floodsmart Program
The FloodSmart campaign has a vested interest in helping people understand the risk of flooding behind levees—only when they accept risk and relate to it on a personal level, will they purchase and retain flood insurance. Through focus group research and collaboration with levee-protected communities, FloodSmart has developed an understanding of barriers to purchasing flood insurance and how to overcome them.
When dealing with high consequence, low probability events like major floods, stressing probability might not be the best approach. What instead appears to move people to protect themselves is personal consequences. The message will vary depending on the condition of the levee:
- When a levee is about to be decertified, communication should address the nature of the risk, the consequences of failure or overtopping, and the value of purchasing flood insurance early.
- When a levee has been strengthened, communication should address remaining risk from more serious flooding. Local officials don’t often want to hear this, but there is risk behind levees and just because flood insurance isn’t required doesn’t mean it isn’t needed.
- When a levee is provisionally certified or when no change is expected, communication should address risk existing behind all levees, consequences of failure, and the resulting personal financial devastation.
Ways to increase the number who will hear and respond to the message include:
- Keep it simple.
- Stress personal relevance.
- Assure cultural resonance.
- Deliver the message through multiple, credible messengers. It is important to have community associations, insurance agents, realtors, and other groups informed and on board.
New Horizons in Dutch-American International Cooperation:
Water and Emergency Management
Eelco H. Dykstra, George Washington University Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management
International free trade has brought ever-higher levels of sophistication (and vulnerability) of global critical infrastructures and a steep increase the in numbers, mobility, and migration of people. Threats, risks, and hazards have shifted from being local to being global. Concerns and considerations about prevention, preparedness, response, recovery, rehabilitation, legislation, and advocacy of emergencies and crisis management are as international now as they were once local.
Using a scenario where a Hurricane Katrina-type super storm creates havoc in Europe, this interactive session will explore conclusions and recommendations from either side of the Atlantic Ocean. “Reality-fiction” will be used to bridge the divide between research, policy, and practice. Participants in this session will be actively engaged in discussing four questions:
1. What lessons might Europe draw from the operational experience of the United States and other countries in terms of planning, preparing, responding, and recovering from these “super storms?”
2. What benefits—if any—could be derived from increased U.S.-E.U. cooperation in science, engineering, and technology?
3. What are the current state and future prospects for transatlantic co-operation in areas such as critical infrastructure engineering, remote-sensing, earth observation, early warning systems, public broadcasting, or net-centric information technology?
4. How could a merger of American and European knowledge and experience in crisis management benefit other parts of the world?
San Francisco Bay Area Disaster Preparedness Initiative
Richard Eisner, Fritz Institute
Nongovernment organizations (NGOs) provide a critical safety net of support for vulnerable populations, yet little is known about their capacity to respond and sustain operations during disasters. The Fritz Institute’s Bay Area Preparedness Initiative is undertaking a program to assess and strengthen the capacity of community- and faith-based service providers and develop preparedness consensus standards that meet the needs of vulnerable urban populations—the physically vulnerable, ethnic and cultural minorities, new immigrants, non-English speakers, and the economically disadvantaged.
In the summer of 2006, the Hewlett Foundation, San Francisco Foundation and PG&E asked the Fritz Institute to provide an objective, third party assessment of disaster preparedness in the Bay Area and identify gaps that might be remedied through funding by the philanthropic community. The common concerns were, while preparedness was viewed as vitally important, no single sector—including government, corporate, philanthropic or nonprofit community-based organizations—could provide clear “evidence” of preparedness.
This presentation will describe the Bay Area Preparedness Initiative (BayPrep), including research on the capacity of the civic infrastructure (the NGO sector); a community of preparedness comprised of government, NGOs, philanthropic, business and academic sectors supporting NGO capacity building; and a disaster resilient organization program to provide training to NGOs and develop standards for NGO preparedness in collaboration with the United Way Bay Area, Red Cross, SF CARD and San Francisco Emergency Management.
Tools for Change? A Critique of Gender Mainstreaming Resources
Elaine Enarson, Brandon University
With each new disaster, calls are heard from the field for more “gender tools,” although major humanitarian relief organizations such as IFRC and Oxfam, some national actors (e.g. Canadian International Development Agency), and United Nations agencies such as OCHA, WHO, FAO and others have developed extensive guidelines for gender mainstreaming in disasters (see Sections 2 and 3, Gender and Disaster Sourcebook: www.gdnonline.net). The new IASC Gender Handbook: Women, Girls, Boys and Men, Different Needs - Equal Opportunities, for instance, offers guidance through the cycle and across all sectors. Steps are suggested for reconstructing schools and education to reach girls and boys equally, to take just one example. The companion guide on gender violence in disasters emphasizes planning ahead, following up, and immediate intervention. Preparedness guides can be found specifically for women’s shelters and childcare centers, and many researchers in the field make an effort to translate their gender findings into proscriptive action guides. The tools in the mainstreaming kit still mainly focus on response, but mitigation and recovery are not neglected.The most current also address gender issues faced by boys and men.
This is all good, but at least five concerns arise:
1. Who uses these and how?
2. Why are they not used more often and widely?
3. How well do the tools translate across scale and context?
4. Who benefits when they are used?
5. What changes are really needed?
A handout will be provided with links to existing tools, as well as an alternative checklist focusing on changing workplace culture.
Impediments and Opportunities for Better Using Climate Variability Informationfor Water Resources Decisionmaking
David L. Feldman, University of California at Irvine
There is significant need and opportunity to expand applications of climate-related data and decision-support tools for drought-protection, in-stream management, aversion of flood damages, and other water management needs. Constraints that limit information use include the range and complexity of water resources decisions; inflexible policies and organizational rules inhibiting innovation; different spatial and temporal frames for decisions; and disregard for the magnitude of potential vulnerability to climate impacts. This presentation discusses what has been learned about how decision-support systems can become better integrated into planning and management activities.
We examine four lessons. First, decision makers must understand the types of predictions that can be made and the tradeoffs between longer-term predictions at the local or regional scales and potential decreases in accuracy. Second, scientists should aim to generate findings that are accessible and viewed as useful, accurate and trustworthy by stakeholders. Third, tool developers must engage a range of participants—including those who generate tools and those who use them—to ensure products are relevant and useful. Finally, tool development must be inclusive, interdisciplinary, and provide ample dialogue among researchers and users. Further progress in boundary spanning—translating tools for many audiences—requires organizational skills and is critical to this effort.
Community and Regional Resilience Initiative (CARRI)
Andy Felts, College of Charleston
Tom Lansford, University of Southern Mississippi
Arleen Hill, The University of Memphis
Tom Wilbanks, Oak Ridge National Lab
What is resilience? How is resilience expressed in communities and regions? Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s CARRI project is a program within the Southeast Region Research Initiative that seeks to describe and document evidence of what resilience is and how it operates in communities. The regional program has national implications and ultimately will develop tools that communities and regions can use to better withstand natural and human-induced disasters.
The CARRI approach is one of collaborative learning and research in three partner communities: Charleston, South Carolina; Gulfport, Mississippi; and the Memphis Urban Area in Tennessee. CARRI researchers and partners are collecting lessons learned, best practices, traditional data and analysis, as well as participatory research and focus group dialogs. Lessons learned and experiences gained in these partner communities will provide the basis for a community resilience framework to be developed and tested. The framework and tools will be available to help communities, regions, or even organizations assess resilience and adopt resilience-enhancing actions.
For more information, or to contribute to this work in progress, please visit www.resilientus.org.
Mad Mothers and Shaking Bulls: How Spiritual Traditions Influence
Policy, Protocols, and Preparedness
Suzanne Frew, CirclePoint
Risk perception and social capacity to effectively respond and recover from disasters are highly influenced by individual spiritual beliefs. But while cultural differences are often accounted for through differences in languages, it’s more challenging to identify, assess, understand—ultimately incorporate—unique lifestyles, social dynamics, and spiritual traditions and beliefs into the command and control nature of disaster management. Yet these traditions dramatically influence deeply-rooted decision-making processes that often guide pre-disaster risk behavior and influence post-disaster response and recovery actions. Disaster managers rarely consider how faith traditions impact the obscure, complex decision-making processes of individuals, as well as the “group think” of communities-at-large, especially prevalent in high-risk, vulnerable populations and subcultures such as San Francisco’s Chinatown.
All too often when establishing policies and recovery strategies, disaster managers refer to “community” and “stakeholders” only in the broadest sense. This planning gap negatively impacts educational outreach campaigns, evacuation orders, and especially mitigation strategies such as relocating homes and businesses away from high-risk riverbanks or the ocean’s edge. Religion and spiritual traditions need no longer be considered the “softer” side of disaster management, but a dynamic, political driver that requires field intelligence and the implementation of savvy, people-driven solutions. This session will highlight field experiences that point to these challenges and offer ideas for developing an integrated approach to more effectively serve the wide range of communities served.
Communicating Flood Risk–Behind Levees
Gerald E. Galloway, University of Maryland
Most emergency managers are well aware of the hazards and risks facing those who work and live behind levees in their communities. In many cases, however, they find it difficult to convince leaders and the public that when levees do overtop or fail, the consequences are catastrophic and they must be prepared to deal with it.
Natural hazards professionals must meet this challenge by better understanding what motivates people to take appropriate pre-flood mitigation measures and learning what tools work best to get the levee hazard message across. Current flood insurance rate maps offer some assistance, but technologies are arriving that will make it easier to generate effective hazard messages.
NEHRP Scenario Workshop
Marjorie Greene, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
EERI recently received funding from the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) to convene a national workshop promoting the development and use of earthquake scenarios and creating guidelines that will enable jurisdictions in developing their own scenarios.
The invitational workshop will be Fall 2008 and bring together individuals involved in the development of recent scenarios with those who are just beginning to move forward, as well as with representatives from communities beginning to consider embarking on the journey.
The workshop will draw upon the skills developed during recent efforts, enabling participants to determine the scope and goals of their own scenarios. Following the workshop, EERI and the project steering committee will prepare a report on the workshop and issue a revised version of the EERI publication Guidelines for Developing an Earthquake Scenario. EERI will also establish a Web-based resource center to provide assistance to those who would like to develop scenarios in their communities. For more information or to receive information on the revised guidelines or the resource center, please e-mail Marjorie Greene at mgreene@eeri.org.
World Housing Encyclopedia and USGS PAGER Project
Marjorie Greene, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
EERI’s World Housing Encyclopedia (WHE) is participating in the development of the U.S. Geological Survey’s PAGER model. PAGER, which stands for Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response, is a tool to help people making humanitarian aid decisions gain an initial understanding of the human impacts of earthquakes in the hours and days before media or other ground-truth information becomes available. Information on non-U.S. types of construction and occupancy are important in building this model.
In 2007, participants from more than 25 of the countries in the WHE provided either expert opinion or the synthesis of empirical evidence about vulnerability of construction classes and the relative quantities of those classes in their countries. These country-specific forms are known as Phase 1. Work is now underway in Phase II, providing more detailed engineering information on several important non-U.S. construction types and resolving major discrepancies in Phase 1. This project is an exciting opportunity to share data across many different countries and hopefully will lead to a more systematic understanding of global construction types.
For more information, to contribute a form on a country, or to contribute engineering-based information on a non-U.S. construction type, e-mail WHE Managing Editor and EERI staff member Marjorie Greene at mgreene@eeri.org.
Revealing Resilience in the Memphis Urban Area: A Community Research Project
Arleen Hill, The University of Memphis
Sarah Walen, Meridian Institute
Dave Lannom, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
The six-county Memphis Urban Area (MUA) serves as one of three focus communities for Oak Ridge National Lab’s Community and Regional Resilience Initiative (CARRI). In collaboration with partner organizations and community advocates, the CARRI-MUA Research and Community Engagement team is learning what resilience means to stakeholders; how that resilience is expressed at the neighborhood, community and regional level; and what steps might be taken to enhance or reinforce resilience.
Our learning approach is a complement of traditional scholarship and engaged or participatory scholarship, where local expertise, relationships, and the social fabric of place are actively integrated. Focus group discussions over the summer will inform the case study wherever key characteristics of resilience and the resilience of place are documented and described. Focus groups, identified by community advisors, include volunteers, schools, medical professionals, leaders, and businesses. Preliminary findings emphasize communication, relationships, training and planning, identification of at-risk residents pre-disaster, and managing and informing expectations across the community. While details may be place specific, the lessons will inform the resilience framework for the larger CARRI program.
For more information or to contribute to this work in progress please visit www.resilientus.org or contact us.
Real-Time Loss Estimates with Online Mapping Applications
Charles Huyck, ImageCat, Inc.
Beverly Adams, ImageCat, Inc.
Shubharoop Ghosh, ImageCat, Inc.
Ronald Eguchi, ImageCat, Inc.
Web-based applications (Web 2.0) have democratized the way information is processed and disseminated, particularly in the widespread use and acceptance of the remotely sensed data served by online mapping applications such as Google Maps and Virtual Earth. These Web applications can be customized to serve loss estimates. One such application, Internet-based Loss Estimation Tool (InLET)—developed as a part of the NSF-sponsored RESCUE project with the University of California, Irvine—provides California building damage and casualty estimates.
The Web site allows users to run custom scenarios. ShakeCast alerts for earthquakes over a magnitude 5.5 trigger real-time loss estimates. Although the system is not highly customizable by end users, it provides a robust centralized platform assessable throughout an organization. Approved updates to the centralized databases cascade to all users, reducing issues of data reliability. Because a Web Map Service (WMS) serves the data, there are few concerns about access to sensitive data sets and results can be calculated and presented in aggregate without providing users with visual locations of sensitive facilities.
Online loss estimation programs have the potential to provide tools for planning, mitigation, resource allocation and response, all served through Web portals enabling situational awareness. Remote sensing will play a key role in expanding online loss estimation tools as a source for building inventories gleaned from SAR and optical satellites; a post-event source for damage assessment; and a visual backdrop, providing context to loss estimates and response activities.
Business Continuity as an Adaptive Social Process
Alan (Avi) Kirschenbaum, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
Carmit Rapaport, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
We argue that business continuity is primarily a social, rather than economic, process. By examining the actual behavior of both managers and employees in work organizations during an actual crisis, we were able to better predict the organization’s preparedness and ability to maintain operations during a disaster. This argument is based on evidence from a study completed during the 2006 Katyusha rocket bombardment of northern Israel and included 13 work organizations in public and private sectors. The results show organizational response to a disaster includes adaptation to new and changing conditions.
Organization managers react according to their values, culture and past experience. Day-to-day operations, however, are maintained as employees adapt their behavior to the changing demands of the situation. Analysis further showed it was employees’ adaptive behaviors that contributed to maintaining business operations—although plans, drills and emergency guidance are important to determine desirable performance behaviors during emergencies. These adaptive work behaviors depended on a series of socially related predictors such as past experience, family and community attitudes, and social networks in the workplace. Overall, the evidence demonstrates successful business continuity is best predicted by a series of social processes and depends primarily on employee ability to adapt to dynamic emergency situations.
Fear & Preparedness: Student Views of Disasters & Reactions to the Union University Tornado
William E. Lovekamp, Eastern Illinois University
Sara McMahon, Eastern Illinois University
In this research, we examine college students’ perceptions of risk, fear, awareness and preparedness for disasters at a Midwestern University through focus groups. Subjects were generated for this study using a non-probability, convenience sample of students enrolled in Sociology and Anthropology classes during the Spring 2008 semester.
We conducted eight focus groups in which 35 students participated (25 female and 10 male). Since the focus groups began the day after the Jackson, Tennessee storms and tornado that significantly damaged Union University, we showed the students two to three minutes of CNN video footage that included tornado damage and interviews with Union students at the end of the focus groups, then measured their reactions and changes in their views after seeing the video clip.
We found students generally are aware of the risks and have only indirect experience with disasters. Furthermore, we found female students were more fearful than male students and male students went out of their way to ensure everyone knew they were not fearful. Third, students did not indicate they were very prepared and some adopted fatalistic attitudes about the importance of preparedness. They also could not identify many ways in which the university was prepared. Students also stated the government is not prepared and often cited Hurricane Katrina as evidence of this claim. After seeing CNN footage of the devastation at Union University, students changed their views, stating they believe this is an important issue for students and that they were much more concerned about university preparedness. They started highlighting actions the university could take to ensure students were safeguarded and expressed much higher levels of anxiety (particularly female students).
Integrating Mitigation Decision into Asset Management Systems
Sue McNeil, University of Delaware Disaster Research Center
Transportation asset management is a systematic process supporting strategic decision making for physical assets such as roads and bridges. Recognition of budget constraints, development and use of deterioration models, development of strategies and policies, and project selection are important elements of the process. More sophisticated systems for asset management decision support also recognize inherent process uncertainty and challenges in allocating resources spatially and in a socially equitable manner during the assets’ service lives. System engineering provides the science, models and analysis tools, and more recently, visualization tools to understand and quantify the impacts of these decisions. In the United States, however, little systematic attention has been paid to large-scale hazards and mitigation measures.
Opportunities and strategies to integrate risks associated with large-scale hazards into mitigation-related decisions and improved network performance are explored. Examples are drawn from simulation work, some research on asset management for interstate highway systems and specific projects in New Zealand.
Cognitive Underpinnings of Resilience: A Case Study of Group Decision in Emergency Response
David Mendonça, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Yao Hu, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Observations of group decisions at the frontier of human experience promise insights into how human collectives anticipate and respond to highly non-routine events. In the case of decision-making by emergency response organizations (EROs), prior experience is expected to be relevant—despite sometimes considerable differences between that experience and the situation at hand. Understanding how knowledge gleaned from these experiences is used (or misused) during emergency response should deepen our insights into how collective creativity and joint expertise contribute to organizational resilience.
This research develops models of the cognitive processes underlying decision-making by EROs following the onset of highly non-routine situations. The particular type of incident considered here is an industrial accident where a breach has occurred in the engineered system (in this case, of a ship). This work focuses on explaining the effect of event severity on cognitive and decision processes among a group of response personnel as they dispatch resources to mitigate this type of an emergency.
A review of prior research explains the expected impact of event severity on divergent and convergent thinking by EROs during emergency response. Specific research questions address the impact of event severity on the relationship between alternative solutions considered by the group; recommendations of group members regarding decisions to be made; and the decisions themselves. Data from one group is then examined in considerable detail. Results of the study suggest how group decision processes contribute to—or detract from—resilient performance following disaster.
Improvisation in Emergency Response: Linking Cognition, Behavior, and Interaction
David Mendonça, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Gary Webb, Oklahoma State University
Carter Butts, University of California at Irvine
Large-scale disasters—whether human, technological, or natural—require society to plan for and respond to substantial disruption. As agents of sometimes profound change, disasters require integrated planning and response at multiple levels. Historical experience has demonstrated the salience of improvisation—serial creativity executed under time constraint—in responding to disasters and how skill in improvising might complement skill in following plans.
This study investigates the role of improvisation in the response to two highly non-routine events: the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on the World Trade Center in New York City and the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. The primary goal of this study is to uncover (and model) the cognition, behavior and interaction (via verbal communication) underlying decision-making by first responders following these attacks. The study draws on communication and dispatch logs from fire, police, medical and other services and is supplemented by after-action reports, photos, diagrams and other materials. It therefore creates a detailed picture of the dynamics among response personnel during this crucial period.
The second goal is to present and make publicly available the machine-readable data and tools produced by the research project, thus enabling further exploration and analysis of these two events. The third goal is to develop materials to support training and policy regarding organized response to disaster.
Modeling Community Disaster Resilience
Scott B. Miles, Western Washington University
Resilience is reflected in how quickly and how thoroughly a community recovers from a disaster. The pace and quality of recovery, moreover, are linked closely to the initial damage suffered, the ability of the system to weather this damage, and the actions taken to respond to it. Potentially, recovery can occur at different rates and ultimately attain different stable states. I will discuss a computer model of community disaster resilience.
The model recently was updated and implemented for the case of the 1994 Northridge (Los Angeles, California) earthquake. The model is now being extended to model aspects of ecological and cultural capital in modeling recovery in the Gulf Coast region of the United States. The model simulates the recovery dynamics of socio-economic agents (households and businesses), neighborhoods, and communities during and following a disaster. Modeled agent-scale indicators of recovery include shelter and facility serviceability, employment, debt, household health, and business production capacity.
This model is distinctive and unique in its emphasis on recovery timepaths, spatial disparities, and links between different sectors of the community. I will discuss what modeling can be performed to gain insight into indicators of resilience based on the measurable aspects of community capital, particularly ecological and cultural capital. I will also ask about the expected and appropriate roles for computer models for building community resilience.
Early Warning for Extreme Hydrometeorological Events
in India—Present and Future Practices
Nina Minka, USAID, India
India is one of the most hazard-prone countries in South Asia. Disaster statistics often rank it among the top five countries in the world in lives lost, people affected and economic impact. The most frequent disasters are hydrometeorological in nature. Major rivers flood every year. Drought is a recurring phenomenon. Cyclones threaten nearly 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of coastline. Predictions for greater frequency and intensity of extreme weather events due to climate change suggest an even greater need for effective early warning systems to save lives and reduce economic impacts.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the India Meteorological Department (IMD), and the International Resources Group (IRG) have been working together under a Disaster Management Support (DMS) Project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to improve forecasting and early warning for tropical cyclones, severe storms, floods and heat waves. They developed a Climate Forecasting Systems (CFS) roadmap in consultation with key Indian institutions.
The focus of the CFS has been on training, support for data analysis and improved models, and a review of current early warning systems. Scientists have been trained in the United States and India on forecast modeling, data assimilation, and computer applications. Improved forecast models for severe weather detection and rainfall, cyclone, and flood forecasting are being used in a new all-hazards approach to warning systems. An early warning study has highlighted the strengths and limitations of the current system.
Nursing’s Disaster Preparedness in Colorado
Mary F. Moorhouse, TNT RN Enterprises
James I. Burns, Disaster Science
One of the healthcare-related lessons learned from Katrina is there are occasions when resources are scarce and hard choices must be made regarding delivery of patient care. This realization has raised serious questions regarding the ethics and standards that apply to healthcare decisions made during extreme conditions such as natural or man-made disasters.
Emergency management leaders have chosen an all-hazards approach to disaster response. When providing nursing care there are no plans or pre-determined answers that fit all scenarios. The major challenges—loss of essential services and infrastructure, shortage of healthcare workers and support personnel, number of people affected, abruptness of onset, duration of event, and possible relocation to inadequately equipped alternate care sites—can occur in any combination.
The American Nurses Association has stated “no emergency changes the basic standards of practice, code of ethics, competence or values of the profession.” The ANA has also stated:
- The responsibility of every professional is to maintain a state of professional readiness for emergency response.
- The responsibility of every institution or organization is to plan for and practice emergency response.
Although position papers have been written, disaster curriculum developed, and articles written about disaster preparedness, questions remain as to whether individual nurses are personally prepared to respond.
This fall, a group of Colorado nurses will be surveyed to determine:
- Personal preparedness;
- Involvement in developing institutional disaster response plans;
- Awareness of legal statutes in Colorado regarding professional practice during a disaster;
- Understanding of battlefield triage and austere care.
Behavioral Response to Hurricane Mitigation Measures in Florida
Dario Moreno, Florida International University
Maria Ilcheva, Florida International University
The Laboratory for Social Science Research at the International Hurricane Research Center and the Metropolitan Center at Florida International University in Miami received dedicated recurring funds from the state of Florida. Professor Dario Moreno, a political scientist who heads the lab and is the director of the Metropolitan Center is spearheading this research effort.
State funding was used to examine hurricane preparedness across Florida and attitudes toward different mitigation measures. The research objective was to better understand what measures residents and businesses are taking to mitigate the effect of hurricanes, to identify barriers for preparedness, and to help local and state officials in efforts to prevent loss of life and property. The research, which is to be completed in June 2008, includes surveys and focus groups conducted with residents and businesses.
In our presentations, we compare the longitudinal data collected from 2006, 2007 and 2008 surveys with Florida residents and present the results of statewide focus groups conducted specifically to gauge use of and interest in a variety of mitigation measures and incentives.
Crisis Informatics
Leysia Palen, University of Colorado at Boulder
Jeannette Sutton, University of Colorado at Boulder Natural Hazards Center
We are developing a new interdisciplinary perspective—crisis informatics—that studies and designs for disaster-related concerns in a networked world. Crisis informatics concerns itself with the extended social arena of disaster (public-side and agency-side activity) to account for the changing information space that spans preparation, warning, response, and recovery. It includes the study of ICT-enabled crisis communication with the public. Crisis informatics—through interdisciplinary computational and real-world empirical research—strives for socially- and behaviorally-informed development of ICT for crisis situations.
We are currently working from an unconventional though well-substantiated perspective on disaster-related social behavior. Instead of focusing only on official agency disaster response activity—the sphere that receives the most technological and policy-making attention—we focus our analytic lens on the significant and under-researched topic of self-organizing behavior within the public realm.
The growing ubiquity of ICT means the ability of members of the public to self-organize and collectively generate information useful to disaster response is expanding and accelerating, with results that are highly accurate. The connectivIT lab, the Natural Hazards Center, and other researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder are working on a range of empirical and innovation activities in this space.
Linking Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation Policy
Douglas C. Pattie, UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction
Climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction span all sectors and require attention by relevant ministries to ensure integration into development. Collaboration and coordination are critical to both policy fields. In this respect, the national disaster management office is a natural ally of the relevant environment ministry or national climate office and a useful first step is to build links between the two relevant offices.
Like adaptation, disaster risk reduction requires national policy and local-level implementation. The need to systematically integrate disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation into national development strategies has emerged as a key conclusion from a number of recent international policy forums. In particular, the “Stockholm Plan of Action for Integrating Disaster Risk and Climate Change Impacts in Poverty Reduction” and the recent Oslo Policy Forum on “Changing the Way We Develop: Dealing with Disasters and Climate Change” reiterated this view.
National platforms for disaster risk reduction should typically explore common trade-offs between present and future action; identify synergies to best make use of available funds, including those for short- to longer-term adaptation to climate risks, as well as tapping into additional funding sources; share human, information, technical, and practical resources; make best use of past and present experience addressing emerging risks; avoid duplication of project activities; and collaborate on reporting requirements.
Hazard Warning and Responses to Evacuation Orders: The Case of
Bangladesh’s Cyclone Sidr
B.K. Paul, Kansas State University
S. Dutt, Kansas State University
Cyclone Sidr, a Category IV storm, struck the southwestern coast of Bangladesh on November 15, 2007. Despite providing early cyclone warnings and issuing emergency evacuation orders for coastal residents, thousands of individuals stayed in their homes. This study examines the Sidr warning dissemination process, assesses the nature of warning responses, and explores reasons for non-compliance with evacuation orders.
Based on field data collected from 257 Sidr survivors living in four severely impacted coastal districts, this study found more than 75 percent of all respondents were aware of cyclone warnings and evacuation orders before the Sidr’s landfall. Despite sincere efforts of the Bangladesh government, there were lapses in cyclone warnings and evacuation procedures. Field data also reveal several reasons cited by respondents for not complying with evacuation orders.
These reasons can be classified into three broad groups: those involving shelter characteristics, attributes of the warning message itself, and respondent characteristics. Based on the findings of this study, a number of recommendations have been made to improve cyclone warnings and the use of public shelters for similar future events.
Children, Youth and Environments Special Issue on Children and Disasters
Lori Peek, Colorado State University
A new issue of the journal Children, Youth and Environments explores the vulnerability and resilience of children in disasters. The issue contains a unique collection of 20 papers from around the world, which examine children’s reactions to drought, tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, climate change, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Some of the contributions also consider the experiences of children who live in a constant state of disaster as a result of chronic poverty, violence, or unsafe living conditions.
Contributors from several disciplines explore a number of topics, including children’s risk for illness, injury, and death in disaster; psychological effects of traumatic events; negative educational impacts; and the effects of post-disaster displacement on health and well-being. Authors also examine post-disaster child protection responses in the United States and in international contexts; the importance of family and school support; and the need for post-disaster child care. Some of the papers focus specifically on children as active agents and the roles they may play in terms of communicating risk, engaging in household and community preparedness activities, and participating in post-disaster rebuilding efforts.
With disaster risk on the rise worldwide, this special issue highlights the critical importance of focusing scholarly and applied attention on the special vulnerabilities of children, while also working to understand how children can contribute to disaster preparedness, response, and recovery initiatives.
Children, Youth and Environments is an on-line journal published by the University of Colorado at Boulder. Check http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/ for a full listing of papers and other resources that appear in the special issue on Children and Disasters (volume 18, number 1).
Toxic Disasters: Long-Term Mental Health Consequences
RoseMarie Perez Foster, University of Colorado at Boulder Natural Hazards Center
This session highlights relevant findings from post-disaster recovery research on the long-term mental health consequences of toxic disasters. Given the increasing complexity of using hazardous materials industry and the global proliferation of terrorist activities, the threat of toxic catastrophes has increased.
The need for understanding the parameters of stress-mediated health and behavioral effects in exposed communities is clear. Literature suggests toxic catastrophes are uniquely stressful events that linger as harbingers of potential disease well into the future. Post-disaster health, mental health, and behavioral sequelae have been reported up to 15 years after toxic exposure. Such outcomes will be described for the Bhopal industrial accident, Sarin gas attacks, SARS outbreaks, Three Mile Island radiation leak, and Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster. Presenters and participants will actively discuss the implication of these findings on mediating influence of social risk perception; the construction of appropriate public risk communications; the definition of populations at risk; and the execution of isolation/quarantine protocols in toxic disaster contexts.
Learning the Lessons of Katrina
William R. Freudenburg, University of California, Santa Barbara
Policymakers have generally "learned" the wrong lessons from Katrina. Too many see Katrina as an example of what nature can do to people, and as being "about" the uniqueness of New Orleans—as distinctive as Mardi Gras parades and Creole cuisine. In fact, the disaster in New Orleans was about what people did to nature—and how it came back to haunt us. Katrina offers lessons that need to be learned elsewhere, as well.
In Mississippi and along much of the Gulf coast, Katrina was a legitimate "natural" disaster. In New Orleans, it was an un-natural disaster. The reasons have to do not just with ineffective defenses, from the Levees to FEMA, but with disastrous offenses.
Katrina's real looting wasn't done by poor black people, but by rich white ones—politically connected interests that managed to carve a giant channel called MRGO (Mississippi River Gulf Outlet) straight through the marshes that formerly protected the city from storm surges. MRGO was supposed to bring huge economic benefits, but after hundreds of millions of dollars of investments, it was only being used by about a dozen ships per year. Meanwhile, it devastated the wetlands that had protected New Orleans up through the 1960s, which is part of the reason why Hurricanes Betsy and Camille could follow similar tracks, without creating similar damage. By the time Katrina hit, the wetlands were in tatters—and afterwards, so was New Orleans.
Gender and Social Justice Issues in Emergency Health Care
Roxane Richter, University of the Witwatersrand
As emergency medical service providers, we take the needs of many special populations into account in a disaster—infants, the elderly, the disabled, and so on—but healthcare providers should not overlook women’s specific needs, which are based not only on their physiology, but also in a psycho-social framework.
My published work and research highlights and identifies some critical distinctions in female disaster care, including twelve gender “risk factors” affecting vulnerability, impact, and exposure; heightened risks and differing clinical manifestations of post-traumatic stress disorder and pain presentation; pregnancy status triage screening; and gender-sensitive supplies and services (such as private breastfeeding and OB/GYN exam areas, birth control, feminine hygiene, and pre-natal nutrition advocacy).
In 2006, I embarked upon a year-long survey of 105 female Hurricane Katrina evacuees. That research supported the contention many gender-sensitive services were needed in the post-hurricane Katrina clinical settings, but were inadequate or non-existent.
My doctoral research at the University of the Witwatersand in South Africa identifies healthcare, gender and social justice issues in emergency health care among Zimbabwean and Mexican women. The research also emphasizes feasible interventions that could significantly reduce pain, suffering, and long-term post-disaster care costs. This would allow disaster healthcare planners and providers to take a more cognizant and proactive approach to gender-specific care in triage, psycho-social needs assessment, medical care, and advocacy.
Assessing Spatio-Temporal Human Vulnerability to Flash Floods
Isabelle Ruin, National Center for Atmospheric Research
Flash floods are floods characterized by suddenness, fast and violent movement, rarity, small scale, and high damage level. They are particularly difficult to forecast accurately and leave very little lead time for warnings.
Flash floods can surprise people in the midst of their daily activities, with particularly serious impacts when people travel across flooded roads. Hydrometeorological research allows longer prediction lead times and reduced uncertainty. But social vulnerability remains an outstanding focus. The first step in correcting that situation is to better understand the hydrometeorological circumstances of accidents, as well as the behavior of the populations during crisis. On September 8 and 9, 2002, a storm produced more than 36 cubic inches (600 millimeters) of rainfall in less than 24 hours and triggered a series of flash floods on the Gard River basin in the South of France. This catastrophic event took 23 lives in 16 distinct sub-catchments.
Based on this experience, the author combines analysis of the physical and human response to Mediterranean storms by using both the results of hydrometeorological simulations and qualitative research tools, such as in-depth interviews of flood victims. This talk focuses on human exposure and adaptive capacity over scale as a critical problem affecting flood risk. It stresses the specificity of small catchments, which appear to be the more dangerous for both physical and perceptive reasons. It also shows the need for deeper thinking on post-event investigations and analyses that could be achieved by a broader development of transdisciplinary contributions.
Information and Disaster Risk Reduction: A Survey of Memphis Organizations
Abdul-Akeem Sadiq, Georgia State University
Christopher M. Weible, Georgia Institute of Technology
This paper examines the role of disaster-related information in reducing organizational disaster risks. The data come from a survey of 227 organizations in Memphis, Tennessee. We explain organizational involvement in ten risk-reducing activities by trusted sources of disaster-related information, worry level, and organizational obstacles, such as lack of financial resources, support, and information about the frequency, magnitude, or disaster impact and unclear organizational benefits from disaster planning and mitigation.
Findings show information plays a secondary role for some, but not all, risk-reducing activities. Interestingly, we find negative associations between the use of media as a source of disaster information and involvement in risk-reducing activities. The paper concludes with policy recommendations and future research strategies.
Dealing with the Dead
Joseph Scanlon, Carleton University
Thanks to National Science Foundation funds supporting studies of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, there is now a lot of research on handling large numbers of disaster dead. But disaster death research ignores tsunami death and extensive pandemic literature skims over handling the dead.
At first glance, the two types of mass death are different. Bodies must first be located and then identified after a disaster. During a pandemic, the location and identification of the dead is not an issue. There are two other significant differences. One is disasters sometimes, but rarely, impact emergency personnel, while pandemics always do. The second is, while dead bodies do not constitute a threat to the living in neither disasters nor pandemics, certain social customs associated with mourning, such as wakes and funerals, may be inappropriate during a pandemic in contrast to after disaster. That is because the living present the threat of increasing the spread of the disease to each other when they gather.
Those Goo-Goo-Googley Eyes
Pamela S. Showalter, Texas State University-San Marcos
In the past, remote sensing characteristically has taken second place to Geographic Information Systems in popularity as a risk, hazard, and/or disaster analysis tool, however, the times, they are “a’changing.”
A number of Web sites from Google Earth to your local weather station now offer an unblinking “eye in the sky”—continuous access to a variety of remotely sensed images. When disaster strikes; these Web sites interact. For example, last month Google Earth posted a note on the World Wide Help Group’s blog directing readers to post-earthquake satellite imagery of Sichuan, China and its surroundings—imagery that precipitated a number of comments.
The broader implications of such ready access in terms of how remote sensing is used to communicate risk and other disaster-related information to non-professionals will be discussed.
Improving the United States Disaster Assistance Framework: Planning for Recovery
Gavin Smith, University of North Carolina Center for the Study of Natural Hazards and Disasters
The purpose of this research is to develop a model that improves our understanding of the disaster recovery process. Characteristics that help define recovery and provide a frame of reference for action include the nature of the rules governing assistance; the timing of program delivery; the level of horizontal and vertical integration within and across organizations; and the understanding of local needs before and after disasters. In the United States, three types of aid—financial, policy-based, and technical assistance—are provided by a fragmented network of differing stakeholder groups. Planning provides the means to positively influence the defining characteristics of the recovery framework over time—amending overly prescriptive policies; improving the link between pre- and post-event resources and local needs; better coordinating the timing of disaster assistance; and increasing the level of horizontal and vertical integration among members of the assistance network.
Center for Natural Disasters, Coastal Infrastructure, and Emergency Management
Gavin Smith, University of North Carolina Center for the Study of Natural Hazards and Disasters
The Center for the Study of Natural Disasters, Coastal Infrastructure and Emergency Management (NDCIEM) is structured to conduct innovative research on natural hazards and disasters and translate that knowledge into practice. The Center achieves its mission through four research focus areas: coastal hazard modeling; engineering to enhance the resilience of the built and natural environment; disaster response and social resilience; and planning for resilience.
Core research is facilitated, advanced, and disseminated through two cross-cutting integrating programs: advanced information systems and education. Development of data management tools support research in all focus areas and provide the vehicle through which research findings are transferred to practitioners. Education activities provide links to current and future generations of hazard scholars and practitioners.
RIMOFTHEWORLD.net
Scott Straley, Rim of the World
RIMOFTHEWORLD.net transformed from a simple aggregate information site for the San Bernardino County mountain communities to a site for critical fire information during the fires of 2003. Amazingly, growth was purely word-of-mouth as evacuees—and later regional and national media—became aware of the site. In the years leading up to the 2007 Slide and Grass Valley Fires, its popularity continued and it evolved to serve day-to-day community needs.
With 40 percent of area residents visiting RIMOFTHEWORLD.net at least once per month, it is the most widely used community information Web site serving the San Bernardino County mountain communities. During the October 2007 fires, site usage spiked to nearly nine million page views during one week and “rimoftheworld.net” was the 19th most-popular search term on Google on October 22, 2007.
By focusing efforts on accurate information gathering, reliable eyewitness reports, and direct patrols of the affected areas, RIMOFTHEWORLD.net was able to provide constant fire updates to affected residents and other concerned people around the globe. They did this with a staff of only three people and a handful of self-appointed volunteers.
RIMOFTHEWORLD.net soon became a primary source of disaster information regarding the October 2007 fires for news organizations, government agencies, and non-government relief organizations. Vicinitas, LLC, is leveraging this expertise to provide effective crisis information tools for media, community and government agencies, and relief and insurance organizations.
Mass Fatality Incident Management for Hospitals
Tamiza Z. Teja, Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency
A mass fatality incident (MFI) results in a surge of deaths above what is normally managed by the medicolegal systems. In the event of a major disaster within the Los Angeles County (LAC), it may be several days before the Department of Coroner, County Morgue, or private mortuaries can respond, process and recover decedents.
In response to After Action Report recommendations from a June 2007 Pandemic Influenza Mass Fatality Incident Tabletop Exercise (TTX), a collaboration between LAC partners developed Mass Fatality Incident Management: Guidance for Hospitals and Other Healthcare Entities. This guidance was developed to aid hospitals in their response to an MFI. A final draft was premiered at a follow-up MFI II TTX in June 2008, and a final version will be available in August 2008.
While this guidance is intended for use during a countywide MFI, the principles can be applied any time a hospital is experiencing a surge of deaths. This guidance includes information on preserving and safeguarding decedents, property, and evidence, as well as the processes for decedent identification, next of kin notification, death certificate processing, tracking, storage, and final disposition.
The goal of these guidelines is to enhance the ability of Los Angeles County and its healthcare partners to respond to and manage a surge in the number of decedents as a result of any disaster, including an influenza pandemic. While the importance of psychosocial considerations is recognized, it is not addressed here. These guidelines focus on decedent processing for medical and legal reasons.
State and Local Multi-Hazard Mitigation Planning Under the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000
Kenneth C. Topping, Topping Associates International
Michael Boswell, California Polytechnic State University
William Siembieda, California Polytechnic State University
The Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA 2000) was passed by Congress to reduce preventable disaster losses by creating a financial incentive system to improve local performance. Under DMA 2000, states must examine local hazard mitigation plans (LHMPs) as part of the state hazard mitigation plan. Preparation of an LHMP is a precondition for local government receiving hazard mitigation grants and local governments must demonstrate proposed grants are based on sound planning.
In 2007, California Polytechnic University-San Luis Obispo partnered with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) to prepare the 2007 State of California Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan. The 2007 plan has been designated an Enhanced State Mitigation Plan by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), assuring California’s eligibility for larger mitigation grants after disasters than the 2004 plan, which it revised. Relatively few state plans have this designation.
The 2007 Plan profiles hazards, assesses vulnerabilities and risks, and promotes mitigation strategies and actions. It describes the distribution of primary hazards (earthquakes, wildfires, and floods) through GIS modeling and addresses emerging threats such as climate change, tsunamis, and potential Bay Delta Area levee failure. Innovations of the updated plan include an assessment of the content and quality of FEMA-approved LHMPs prepared by over 400 California cities, counties, and special districts so improvements can be required in succeeding five-year local planning cycles, as well as the State Mitigation Assessment Response Team (SMART) system, which field teams will use to assess post-disaster effectiveness of previously completed mitigation projects.
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute’s Learning from Earthquakes Program
Susan K. Tubbesing, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
The primary purpose of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute’s (EERI) Learning from Earthquakes (LFE) Program is to observe and document the effects of earthquakes on the built environment and the resulting social, economic, and policy impacts. For more than 30 years the LFE Program has provided a mechanism worldwide to capture perishable information in the immediate aftermath of destructive earthquakes. This has enabled significant changes in earthquake engineering research and practice and ultimately resulted in safer design and construction, as well as improved emergency planning, response, and recovery procedures.
Over the years, EERI has improved the overall coordination of National Science Foundation-funded post-earthquake research efforts and incorporated new technologies to improve the collection and management of perishable data. EERI is continuing to develop a Virtual Clearinghouse to share information on earthquakes when a physical clearinghouse is not established and to increase the involvement of students and young professionals in the field research experience.
At the heart of the LFE Program is EERI’s ability to leverage the involvement of highly trained earthquake professionals and researchers who volunteer hundreds of hours of time and expertise to carry out research under extremely difficult conditions. The information they gather stimulates further research and contributes to changes in fields as diverse as structural, geotechnical and lifeline engineering, emergency management, public health, and urban planning.
Applying the Concepts of Vulnerability and Resilience to Urban Spatial Planning and Management Policies in Taiwan
Jie-Ying Wu, Ming-Chuan University
Urban spatial planning and management policies need to be adjusted to cope with increasing disasters caused by climate change. This project reviews literature on vulnerability and resilience and establishes the framework of their relationship.
This project links the concept of vulnerability with urban spatial planning through mitigation measures such as zoning and acquisition. The concept of resilience was linked to urban management by a variety of policies such as capital improvement programs (CIP), hazards insurance, taxation and fees, information release, education, and database establishment.
This project suggests local governments should be encouraged to acquire and hold property for public benefit and use. The central government should release flood hazard maps and establish a hazards insurance mechanism. All levels of government should apply CIP to infrastructures and public facility investments.