2013 National Preparedness Report
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has released its annual National Preparedness report and the outlook is sunny. The report, which is mandated byPresidential Policy Directive 8, recounts progress made on the core capabilities outlined the in the directive’s National Preparedness goal. According to the report, the nation’s ability to respond to disaster is improving, although challenges such as cybersecurity and resilient infrastructure still need to be addressed.
Open for Business EZ
The Institute for Business and Home Safety is making it even easier than ever to stay open for business following a disaster. The group has taken its Open for Business program, designed to help small businesses implement business continuity planning, and made it even simpler to use. The free tool kit allows business owners to evaluate eight business areas that, once completed, will form the basis of a continuity plan that can help make their companies more resilient to disasters.
Killer Tornado Map
Disasters such as the recent EF5 tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma, last week always draw the inevitable question: can it happen here? Now Slate has created a visual representation of the answer. Using National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data, the magazine mapped all the U.S. tornadoes since 1950 that have killed one person or more, including representations of each tornado’s size and start and ending coordinates. It’s a sobering (and crowded) map.
Acts of Witness—Natural Disasters Issue
As disaster researchers, practitioners, and humanitarians, we are often forced to see the havoc wreaked by natural hazards, but this issue of the Ochberg Society for Trauma Journalism’s journal is different. Focused on stories of survival and resilience, it gathers tales of the many silver linings that can be found in clouds of disaster.
Severe Thunderstorms and Tornadoes in the United States
The Congressional Research tackles issues of improvements needed to reduce U.S. vulnerability to thunderstorms and tornadoes. The report outlines possible strategies for mitigation, forecasts and warning improvements, as well as the role of the National Weather Service. It also ponders links between severe weather and climate change, as well as what measures to mitigate climate change might reduce future losses from hazards such as tornadoes.