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Disaster Management

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This working group is focused on discussions about disaster management.

The mission of this working group is to focus on discussions about disaster management.

Members

Kathy Gilbeaux Maeryn Obley mdmcdonald

Email address for group

disaster-management@m.resiliencesystem.org

Verizon: Sandy Victims Should Be Customers, Not Guinea Pigs

      

publicknowledge.org - by Harold Feld - May 9, 2013

Verizon wants to replace copper landlines destroyed by Hurricane Sandy with a new fixed wireless service called Voice Link. But should victims of natural disaster be guinea pigs when fundamental basic services are at stake? Especially when it means losing access to broadband?

Ever since Hurricane Sandy destroyed huge pieces of its landline network last October, Verizon made it clear it did not want to rebuild its traditional copper network. Most folks assumed that meant replacing damaged copper with fiber. While some consumers have grumbled about being upgraded to a more expensive service, no one doubts fiber to the home represents a step up – especially on the broadband side. 

But what about those communities where Verizon does not want to spend the money upgrading to FIOS? Turns out, rather than an upgrade to fiber, these communities will play guinea pig for Verizon’s new, cheaper, more limited wireless alternative called “Voice Link.”

Search for Survivors Begins After Massive Oklahoma tornado

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.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

NEJM - Research as a Part of Public Health Emergency Response

            

nejm.org - March 28, 2013

In the past decade, a succession of public health emergencies has challenged preparedness and response capacities of government agencies, hospitals and clinics, public health agencies, and academic researchers, in the United States and abroad. The epidemic of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the anthrax mailings stand out as signal examples in the early years of the decade. In addition to natural disasters such as the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the 2012 Superstorm Sandy, other recent events — including the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor emergency in Japan — illustrate the diverse and complex forms that threats to public health can assume. Figure 1 displays some examples over the past decade or so and highlights the diversity and frequency of events that can be expected to occur in the foreseeable future.

OCHA - Japan: An Earthquake, a Tsunami – and a Handwritten Newspaper

      

A rescue worker uses a two-way radio transceiver during heavy snowfall at a factory area devastated by an earthquake and tsunami in Sendai, northern Japan, 16 March 2011. Credit: REUTERS/KIM KYUNG-HOON

unocha.org - March 15, 2013

When one of the most technologically sophisticated countries in the world is hit by a triple emergency, should we count on web platforms and social media to deliver lifesaving information? Not necessarily, according to a new report by Internews into the communications aspects of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan.

. . . instead of their usual high-tech operation, local newspaper reporters went back a few decades in time and produced a handwritten newspaper.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Internews Report - Connecting the Last Mile: The Role of Communications in the Great East Japan Earthquake
http://www.internews.org/research-publications/connecting-last-mile-role-communications-great-east-japan-earthquake

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Florida County Taps Faith-Based Community for Preparedness

Illustration by Tom McKeith

submitted by Samuel Bendett

emergencymgmt.com - by Lauren Katims - March 11, 2013

Miami-Dade County, Fla., emergency management officials have been praised for their effective preparedness and recovery in a hurricane-and flood-prone area. Now the county is serving as the pilot for a federal program to better engage members of the community who haven’t been as easy to reach.

Communities Organized to Respond in Emergencies (CORE), a program launched by the Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, is designed to better engage faith-based and community organizations in planning for, responding to and recovering from disasters.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Verily: Crowdsourced Verification for Disaster Response

                   

irevolution.net - by Patrick Meier - February 19, 2013

Social media is increasingly used for communicating during crises. This rise in Big (Crisis) Data means that finding the proverbial needle in the growing haystack of information is becoming a major challenge.

QCRI and Masdar have launched an experimental  platform called Verily. We are applying best practices in time-critical crowd-sourcing coupled with gamification and reputation mechanisms to leverage the good will of (hopefully) thousands of digital Samaritans during disasters.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Veri.ly
http://www.veri.ly/

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Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) Updates Reports from Tornado Damage

(U.S. RESILIENCE SYSTEM MEMBERS ARE ASSISTING WITH RELIEF EFFORTS FOR THIS DISASTER THROUGH THE ADMINISTRATION OF A FACEBOOK PAGE TITLED "HATTIESBURG, MS TORNADO - DO YOUR PART".  CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE "HATTIESBURG, MS TORNADO - DO YOUR PART" FACEBOOK PAGE.)       

      

Hardy Street in front of the University of Southern Mississippi campus is obstructed by debris blown by an apparent tornado in Hattiesburg, Miss., Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. (AP Photo/The Student Printz, Jana Edwards)

hattiesburgamerican.com - February 11, 2013

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency has received reports of damage from nine counties as a result of severe weather that moved through the state on Sunday.There were at least 63 injuries, two critical and the rest minor. There are no reported deaths.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Why 58 Representatives Who Voted for Hurricane Katrina Aid Voted Against Aid for Sandy

      

Damage in the Rockaway neighborhood in Queens, N.Y., where the historic boardwalk was washed away during Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 31, 2012. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

propublica.org - by Theodoric Meyer - January 18, 2013

When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, Congress passed two relief bills almost unanimously. But when it comes to Hurricane Sandy, some in Congress seem to have had a change of heart.

In total, 58 representatives voted against bills this month similar to ones that they had supported after Katrina.

Here's a breakdown of how each of them voted on the two Katrina bills and the two Sandy ones:

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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