ops.fhwa.dot.gov

Executive Summary

Almost 5 years after hurricanes Katrina and Rita battered Louisiana and Texas, respectively, public officials remain focused on the Nation's ability to safely evacuate large numbers of people. As a part of the Fiscal Year 2010 U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) appropriations (Public Law 111-117), the U.S. Congress requested the DOT, in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to:

A home destroyed and abandoned after Hurricane Sandy is seen on Fox Beach Avenue in the Oakwood Beach section of Staten Island in New York City, New York, March 25, 2013.  Credit: Reuters/Mike Segar

submitted by John Wysham

reuters.com - by Hilary Russ - June 11, 2013

(Reuters) - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday announced a $20 billion plan to prepare for rising sea levels and hotter summers expected as a result of climate change in the coming decades.

The ambitious proposal - which could become the benchmark for other cities dealing with climate change - could reshape Lower Manhattan's waterfront, with the possible addition of a "Seaport City" out of the East Side.

The more than 400-page plan, which follows widespread destruction wreaked by Superstorm Sandy last year, included about 250 recommendations ranging from new floodwalls and storm barriers to upgrades of power and telecommunications infrastructures.

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The color scheme ranges from green (least subjected to surveillance) through yellow and orange to red (most surveillance). Note the '2007' date in the image relates to the document from which the interactive map derives its top secret classification, not to the map itself.

mashable.com - by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai - June 8, 2013

The NSA has a tool that records and analyzes all the flow of data that the spy agency collects around the world. Think of it as a global data-mining software that details exactly how much intelligence, and of what type, has been collected from every country in the world. It's aptly called "Boundless Informant."

The tool's existence was revealed on Saturday by The Guardian, which obtained a series of top-secret documents that explain what Boundless Informant is and does.

Image: Flickr/John

submitted by Robyn Wyrick

Congress is grappling with the benefits and risks of using Facebook, Twitter and other social media during emergencies

scientificamerican.com - by Dina Fine Maron - June 7, 2013

When Hurricane Katrina ravaged the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, Facebook was the new kid on the block. There was no Twitter for news updates, and the iPhone was not yet on the scene. By the time Hurricane Sandy slammed the eastern seaboard last year, social media had become an integral part of disaster response, filling the void in areas where cell phone service was lost while millions of Americans looked to resources including Twitter and Facebook to keep informed, locate loved ones, notify authorities and express support.

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Overview

The inaugural Rising Seas Summit will bring professionals from national and local government, industry, academic institutions and environmental NGOs together to highlight the interrelationships between sea level rise, climate change and extreme events.

Image: It is crunch time on tar sands. (photo: Greenpeace)

readersupportednews.org - May 11th, 2013 - Dr. James Hansen

Today 36 Norwegian organizations sent an open letter to Prime Minister Stoltenberg expressing opposition to development of Canadian tar sands by Statoil (the Norwegian state is majority shareholder of Statoil). Signatories include not only environmental organizations, but a broad public spectrum, including, appropriately, many youth organizations. It is encouraging that Norwegian youth press their government to stop supporting tar sands development, given the fact that Norway saves much of its oil earnings for future generations and given the fact that Norway is not likely among the nations that will suffer most from climate change.

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A human shadow is seen on a dried out field after drought in Germany. Photograph: Patrick Pleul/EPA

guardian.co.uk - by Fiona Harvey - May 19, 2013

Some of the most extreme predictions of global warming are unlikely to materialise, new scientific research has suggested, but the world is still likely to be in for a temperature rise of double that regarded as safe.

The researchers said warming was most likely to reach about 4C above pre-industrial levels if the past decade's readings were taken into account.

That would still lead to catastrophe across large swaths of the Earth, causing droughts, storms, floods and heatwaves, and drastic effects on agricultural productivity leading to secondary effects such as mass migration.

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Study - Energy budget constraints on climate response
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v6/n6/full/ngeo1836.html

First responders to a bioterror attack drill collecting samples // Source: baike.com

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - May 22, 2013

A three day drill called the Portland Area Capabilities Exercise (PACE), simulating a terrorist attack involving a biological weapon, will take place across fifty different facilities and sixty-five jurisdictions in the state of Oregon.

Officials say the exercise is the largest to be conducted since 2007.

“Exercises such as this are critical to identifying strengths and weaknesses in our response capabilities and to understanding the complexities of multi-state, multi-agency incident response operations,” Scott Porter, director of Washington County Emergency Management and co-chair of the exercise process, told the Oregonian.

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submitted by Samuel Bendett

(SEE LINKS TO CONFERENCE AND DECLARATION BELOW)

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - May 28, 2013

A conference of 500 leading water scientists from around the world, held last week in Bonn, issued a stark warning that, without major reforms, “in the short span of one or two generations, the majority of the nine billion people on Earth will be living under the handicap of severe pressure on fresh water, an absolutely essential natural resource for which there is no substitute. This handicap will be self-inflicted and is, we believe, entirely avoidable.”

The scientists pointed to chronic underlying problems led by mismanagement, and offered a prescription to policy makers in a 1,000-word declaration issued at the end of a 4-day meeting in Bonn, Germany. The conference, Water in the Anthropocene, was organized by the Global Water System Project (GWSP).

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(THE U.S. RESILIENCE SYSTEM IS ASSISTING WITH RELIEF EFFORTS FOR THIS DISASTER THROUGH THE ADMINISTRATION OF A FACEBOOK PAGE TITLED "MOORE OKLAHOMA TORNADO INFO".  CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE "MOORE OKLAHOMA TORNADO INFO" FACEBOOK PAGE.)

MOORE.RECOVERS.ORG

CITY OF MOORE - SERVEMOORE.COM

MOORE TORNADO HOUSING RELIEF - DOCUMENT-AVAILABLE PROPERTIES

CRISIS WIKI - 2013 MOORE (OK) TORNADO

OK STRONG DISASTER RELIEF

OKLAHOMA DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

FEMA - REGION VI

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE - BROCHURE ON BASE AND LOCAL HELPING AGENCIES - (9 PAGE .PDF FILE)

THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA - TORNADO RELIEF

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cbsnews.com - May 20, 2013

OKLAHOMA CITY - A mix of volunteers and first responders began combing through debris in the Oklahoma City area Monday evening to look for survivors after neighborhoods were flattened by a mile-wide tornado.

The National Weather Service says the devastating twister, one of several created by a storm system that swept through nation's midsection the past 36 hours, reached winds up to 200 mph.

Television footage on Monday afternoon showed homes and buildings that had been reduced to rubble in Moore, Okla., south of Oklahoma City.

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Image: Center of helium activity in the U.S. // Source: blm.gov

Submitted by Luis Kun

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - May 1st, 2013

Helium is an essential resource in technologies such as medical imaging, rocket engines, and surveillance devices. In response to the element’s scarcity, the United States has been stockpiling helium since the 1960s in a National Helium Reserve called the Bush Dome, a deep underground reservoir outside of Amarillo, Texas. In 1996 the Helium Privatization Act mandated that the Department of the Interior sell off all the stockpiled helium by 2015.

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submitted by Luis Kun

thehill.com - by Elise Viebeck - May 15, 2013

The federal Health department announced a new initiative to bring down healthcare costs and improve care delivery through $1 billion in grants and evaluations.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the second round of Healthcare Innovation Awards will target new areas for improvement, including care for special needs populations.

The awards are also meant to reduce costs for Medicare and Medicaid patients in outpatient hospital settings, test new care and financial models for specific provider groups, and ensure care delivery accounts for preventive and population health.

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