Disasterology: August 2023
This newsletter is a compilation of recent disaster ~things~ that I think are cool, important, or otherwise of interest to people who are intrigued with disaster (broadly defined).
There’s a little something for everyone!
The State of Emergency Management is… Rapidly Checking Off Bingo Squares.
This month’s newsletter is going to have 75% fewer rants and 75% more links to news stories because the news has been news-ing.
A cruel summer, indeed.
The Maui Fire
Here is what I’m going to (very carefully) say about the response to the response in Maui.
We need to stay in our lanes – researchers and practitioners. It is okay to say that you don’t know enough about a place or its specific siren system, for example, to know if something was done incorrectly. Hawaii’s attorney general is slated to lead an investigation into the fire. I have not seen an announcement yet of who will be doing the investigation but after Buffalo’s snowstorm “investigation”, I’m not holding my breath. This is exactly why we need a National Disaster Safety Board staffed with people who have actual expertise in emergency management and are independent.
The second thing I’m going to say is that FEMA has got to do something about the TikTok situation. Misinformation in a disaster is not new but the speed of spread on TikTok is unlike what we’ve seen in the past. This is a massive problem that is very clearly only going to get worse. FEMA’s reaction to the Maui conspiracies/ misinformation was far, far from adequate, IMO. That said, do I know what to do about the TikTok situation? Absolutely not. There is no possible way for local emergency management agencies to take on this problem. There has to be a bigger, national response.
Finally, there has been a massive amount of media coverage of this particular event. I’m not going to share any of it because, frankly, almost all of it is problematic in some way. Disaster coverage is always a minefield but this one stood out as being overrun by incorrect or misleading narratives that were not rooted in an accurate understanding of the disaster context and/or the local context. Journalists need to do better and the excuses for not doing so are running out.
Hurricane Hilary
There was much ado about Hurricane Hilary in Southern California both because it was unusual and also because conditions were ripe for significant impacts. The 5.1 earthquake in the middle of the storm further conjured disaster movie comparisons. When the storm passed there seemed to be an assumption among many that because the Randy’s Donuts sign wasn’t floating away, the storm had been “overhyped”. In reality, there were many communities like Cathedral City and Thermal that were significantly impacted.
Brutal Heat
Phoenix made it through a full month of record heat. Here’s a piece about how Southerners are miserable. These conditions are also helping to fuel wildfires across Louisiana. Farmworkers are again taking the brunt of the heat. We need to be thinking bigger and differently about how emergency management can respond to needs related to heat waves.
Bad Emergency Management News
As is the case in Florida, Texas Emergency Management is the agency in charge of coordinating the barbaric “migrant relocation program”. This month a 3 year old child died while being shipped off to Chicago by the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
Neo-Nazis are using climate disasters to recruit new members.
If you heard a rare moment of collective laughter coming from emergency managers across the country it was probably when news broke that The White House is considering putting the National Security Council in charge of recovery. This is, frankly, a tremendously bad idea and also a very silly idea that should not be given even another minute of consideration. What I love about this is that it really exemplifies the common approach to emergency management reform: how can we take this thing that’s not working and make it even worse despite there being obvious and relatively easy ways to make it better. Cheers!
Congress is trying to cut the National Weather Service budget by a shocking amount of money. This would have immediate negative effects on emergency management across the country. Here is a letter put together by IAEM that has some specifics if you want to call your representatives (you should).
Something to keep an eye on in Pennsylvania that could negatively impact emergency management is a bill that would allow local governments to hire firms as managers. Don’t love it.
Finally, CONGRESS LET THE DISASTER RELIEF FUND GET DOWN TO ABOUT $3 BILLION AT THE HEIGHT OF HURRICANE SEASON. Administrator Criswell made the necessary decision to implement Immediate Needs Funding. The short explanation of this is that FEMA is now focusing on funding response and has hit pause on mitigation and recovery for events pre-Maui. Exact repercussions for various communities across the country are still being sorted out last I heard. Al;skdjf!!!!!!
I’m trying not to rant this month so let me stop here.
Meme Break
Other Media Coverage This Month
Preparedness
Local climate justice group creates hurricane guide to help queer and transgender people survive storms for Verite
The gender gap in disaster preparedness in Policy Options
Airline close calls happen far more often than previously known in The New York Times
FEMA maps said they weren’t in a flood zone. Then came the rain. for Grist
There are no U.S. ‘Climate Havens’ from heat and disaster risk in Scientific American
Response
Amid heavy smoke, wildfire crews work without practical respirators for Crosscut
Sacramento announces incident management team to tackle homeless crisis for CBS News
Recovery
Utilities are getting sued over wildfires. Who’s bearing the cost? for Grist
The End Bits
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