The Clason Lecture, presented Thursday, March 26, 2015. Slides
Category: Disasters
Catastrophe Modelling and Climate Change – Lloyds Risk Report
Catastrophe Modelling and Climate Change – Lloyds Risk Report While the evidence for climate change is ‘conclusive’, risk models may not account for the phenomenon,says new Lloyd’s research. The Catastrophe Modelling and Climate Change report finds that while climate change…
Evacuation Risks on the Louisiana Coast
Kent, Joshua D. “Assessing the Long-Term Impact of Subsidence and Global Climate Change on Emergency Evacuation Routes in Coastal Louisiana,” 2012. Subsidence forecast models for coastal Louisiana were developed to estimate the change in surface elevations of evacuation routes for…
Overwhelming Risk – Rethinking Flood Insurance in a World of Rising Seas
Union of Concerned Scientists Our coasts face growing risks from sea level rise. Today’s flood insurance system encourages development that increases these risks — and taxpayers nationwide pay the price. Sea level is rising and increasing the risk of destructive…
New York City Plan for Climate Change
Read the Report On June 11, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced “A Stronger, More Resilient New York”, a comprehensive plan that contains actionable recommendations both for rebuilding the communities impacted by Sandy and increasing the resilience of infrastructure and buildings citywide.…
Water Resources Development Act of 1974
Water Resources Development Act of 1974
Annual Disaster Statistical Review 2011
Annual Disaster Statistical Review 2011: The numbers and trends Debby Guha-Sapir Femke Vos Regina Below with Sylvain Ponserre (UNISDR) (WHO) 2012.07.05.ADSR_2011 In 2011, 332 natural disasters were registered, less than the average annual disaster frequency observed from 2001 to 2010 (384).…
Evacuation Roulette
The Isaac track continues to veer toward the mouth of the Mississippi and through New Orleans. The US model puts it right on that track. The average of the other models pulls it east, but those are changing. The gulf…
Blowing the Mississippi Levee – 2011
This post reviews the ongoing legal issues in the blowing of the levee at Birds Point. While the levee has not been blown since 1937, this was also litigated in 1984.
The Worst Case in Disaster Planning
The Worst Case in Disaster Planning – Editorial, NOLA. – Good points in the editorial. I also think that we should look at the worst cases. However, politicians, and the disaster planners who work for them, usually do not want to admit that their plans do not cover the worst cases because that would require very unpopular actions[…]
Coast Guard Report on Response to BP Spill
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY For the nation, the Deepwater Horizon oil well blowout and release was unprecedented in scope,scale, and duration. While the response system established by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990(OPA 90) has effectively dealt with approximately 1,500 oil spill…
Children and Disasters
An interesting report on the special problems of children in disasters[…]
Hurricane Katrina – Was Flooding Really a Surprise?
(Hurricane Katrina resources) One of the post-Katrina myths is that no one expected the city to flood. It is true that no politician ever used the f-word when calling for evacuations. This was the single deadliest mistake in the response…
Community Resilience – Lessons from Katrina
This report was published in 2008. While there are problems with some of the assumptions, New Orleans is no better prepared today than in 2008 because none of the sociological factors have changed – denial is still the operative planning…