Disasterology: January 2021
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!
Welcome to 2021!
January has been a goddamn marathon.
The State of Emergency Management
The state of emergency management is that we finally got a FEMA administrator nomination and it’s not even the biggest emergency management news this month. Lol. Okay, let’s do this.
On January 6th, an event that was a long time in the making came to fruition in Washington D.C. What to call what happened depends on who you ask and their understanding of various words that all come with heavy baggage. It was a violent insurrection, a white supremacist riot, an attempted coup, a siege on Congress, and a terrorist attack in the heart of democracy. There’s been so much said and written about what happened, but I want to draw your attention to this extremely important and gut-wrenching interview with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal about her experience. In the weeks since some have looked to the agency that you might expect to be interested in the security of the homeland. Perhaps now is a good time to drop the pretenses.
Speaking of… there have been three different people in charge of DHS in the past two weeks which is surely some kind of record for a federal agency??? Emergency management was absolutely rocked this month with the last-minute announcement that the DHS Acting Secretary, Chad Wolf, was stepping down in the very short window of time between the insurrection and the inauguration. Cue me starring at Twitter saying to no one in particular, “wait… does that… does that mean that… IS PETE GAYNOR GOING TO BE THE HEAD OF DHS?” In fact, it did. FEMA administrator Pete Gaynor became the sixth secretary of DHS during the Trump administration. When we said we wanted the FEMA administrator in the Cabinet, this is not what we meant.
Anyway, this then immediately lead to another round of panic as I pulled out the FEMA org chart to figure out who would take over FEMA with so many top positions vacant. Poetically, it fell to Bob Fenton, who began as Acting Administrator for the initial months of the Trump presidency.
Meanwhile, Biden had nominated Alejandro Mayorkas for DHS. Craig Fugate has an op-ed in The Hill in support of Mayorkas from FEMA’s perspective. On the day before the inauguration, Senator Josh Hawley pulled another stunt and blocked the expedited confirmation. Mayorkas still has yet to be confirmed. This all posed a bit of a problem as Pete Gaynor was scheduled to step down at noon the next day.
Enter the third head of DHS in January: David Pekoske. As Gaynor stepped down, Pekoske the TSA administrator took over. As of this moment, he’s still in charge, but this feels like a never-ending game of hot potato so stay alert or you yourself might end up in charge of DHS.
While we’re talking about heads of agencies… we got a FEMA nomination! The Knotting Hill meme worked! Biden announced he has nominated Deanne Criswell to the position. She has been serving as the head of New York City Emergency Management and, assuming confirmation, will become the first woman to lead FEMA (!!!). Here’s to hoping she can bring stability and vision to FEMA. Tom Frank wrote the most extensive piece for E&E News on the nomination thus far.
Anyway, as you all know, Joe Biden did actually become president which is good news for emergency management. He took office with strong, “YOU GET AN EXECUTIVE ORDER! YOU GET AN EXECUTIVE ORDER! EVERYONE GETS AN EXECUTIVE ORDER,” energy.
A significant portion of these executive orders were, in some way, related to emergency management. There were the COVID ones and the climate ones (Bonjour, Paris!) I’ll point out a few that are particularly relevant for us.
Biden reinstated the national flood standard that Trump had revoked. This is the bare minimum, of course, but we celebrate bare minimums these days. Story from E&E News.
Biden initiated a change at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs that could totally change the approach the federal government uses for doing a cost-benefit analysis. Story from Huffington Post.
Biden signed an executive order that dealt what is hopefully the final blow to Keystone XL. An endless thank you to the Indigenous water protectors and activists who made it possible. Story from Atmos.
Speaking of COVID, the pandemic is still going badly. The U.S. sailed past 400,000 deaths this month. New variants are a concern. People still have not received the help they need. My unofficial assessment is that everyone, generally, is miserable.
The good news is that the Biden administration released a new National Strategy for the response which you can read in full here (or do what I did which was skim the whole thing and just ctrl+F for FEMA).
This month has been an absolute journey for vaccine news. At the beginning of the month, The Washington Post reported that although the Trump administration said they were going to release a reserve of vaccines, the reserve didn’t actually exist. Some people seemed to think there might be some secret vaccine distribution plan that the Biden administration would find when they got in office… there was not. The new plan, though, calls for FEMA to run mass vaccination sites across the country which, in my opinion, is a completely appropriate use of the agency. We’ll have to wait to learn more about how this all plays out but you can read more at The Washington Post.
As I said, January has been a marathon.
~MEME~ Break:
You thought you were getting a Bernie meme but honestly, let that man rest. He’s been all over the internet and surely needs a nap!
Special Focus: Build Back Better
I really really really want you to read this piece from Dr. Ksenia Chmutina and Dr. Wesley Cheek in Current Affairs on the baggage that comes with the term “Build Back Better”. Anyone who has done disaster work in the past 20 years will recognize the term. It was popularized following the 2004 tsunami and has become ubiquitous. From the outside looking in, Building Back Better is an innocuous term. It’s actually what I would call a disaster dog whistle. This is why when Biden began using it as his campaign slogan last year, the jaw of every disaster researcher hit the floor. Chmutina and Cheek do a phenomenal job providing the history and context for the term so please give it a read!
On the subject of Build Back Better, Colleen Hagerty also wrote an article this month explaining how some conspiracy theorists are interpreting the administration’s slogan which is also not good. So, just all-around best to steer clear of the phrase.
Disaster Conspiracy Theories
I regret to inform you that the Build Back Better conspiracy theory isn’t even the most concerning disaster conspiracy theory this month. Disaster-related conspiracy theories, unfortunately, seem to be having a moment with two high ranking elected official perpetuating them publicly.
DeSantis, the governor of Florida rejected the Biden administration’s plan for federally assisted vaccine distribution which in and of itself is infuriating given the current state of Florida. In the process the governor said:
“I saw some of this stuff Biden’s putting out, that he’s going to create these FEMA camps, I can tell you, that’s not necessary in Florida”
The comment is absolutely chilling for those familiar with the FEMA camp-related conspiracy theories. It also comes just months after the Governor of Ohio was forced to address COVID-camp-related conspiracy theories. The comment from DeSantis was dangerous not only for the harm it could bring to people who are administering vaccines, but also in potentially discouraging people from going to vaccine sites to be vaccinated.
Then we have Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene who apparently wrote a post blaming the deadly record-breaking 2018 Camp Fire on a secret Jewish space laser. This is in addition to her belief that 9/11 was an inside job and that several mass shootings in the past decade were staged. These kinds of conspiracy theories are deeply dangerous and horrific for the family members of the victims of these events to hear. That a sitting member of Congress holds these views is reprehensible. Disaster denialists cannot be allowed to hold positions that allow them to influence disaster policy.
Emergency Management Policy Suggestions
As the Biden administration gets settled and works to address the numerous pressing crises across the country, folks in emergency management are pointing out some of the important changes that need to be addressed ASAP. So far adaptation broadly and emergency management specifically, have not been a focus. Here are some ideas of where they should start:
I wrote up a quick overview of how I expect the Biden administration to approach emergency management. Read it here.
Jeff Schlegelmilch wrote up a few pressing needs for the first 100 days. Read it here.
A new group, Resilience 21, put out a longer 100 day agenda. Read it here.
Rob Moore pointed out some emergency management gaps that need to be addressed. Read it here.
There have been renewed calls for a national climate adaptation strategy. Read it here.
A discussion of some reform needed specifically for wildfires. Read it here.
The Book of the Month:
“Catastrophe: Stories and Lessons from the Halifax Explosion” by T. Joseph Scanlon and Roger Sarty (Editor)
Some disasters have a disproportionate number of books written about them — the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, the Titanic, Katrina & the Levee Failure, and the Halifax explosion. People LOVE to write about these disasters and they aren’t wrong to do so. There is a lot to say. A hundred books could be written about each and you still would not quite capture everything. Still, once you have read five or ten books on any one event you do start to lose stream and think perhaps you don’t need to read anymore. If you find yourself with this belief regarding the Halifax explosion, I want you to reconsider. This new book is a contender to join the disaster cannon.
This book is a product of many decades of research conducted by Joe Scanlon and published posthumously by his family and editor. The book reviews the response to the Halifax explosion in great detail. I will warn you it is more academic in its writing and does not take a narrative form. What this book does is reevaluate the popular narrative of the catastrophe using a modern-day disaster framework. In other words, it applies the findings of research that has been learned about emergency management and human behavior in the century since the Halifax explosion.
I had the great fortune of hearing Professor Scanlon speak at the University of Delaware several years ago. He mentioned something that has stuck with me and changed the way I think of history and was re-emphasized through this book: Just because the findings of a research study are viewed to be wrong now doesn’t mean they were wrong at the time it was written. Our thinking evolves and that’s good.
The Disasterology Monthly Newsletter gives this 10/10 stars.
You can read more here and buy it from a Halifax bookstore here.
Important Disaster Related Media Coverage This Month:
Here are just a few more bits if you haven’t already crashed your browser opening tabs…
Response
Wildfire Today reported that a shortage of firefighters contributed to a slow response to fires in San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties.
Speaking of having a shortage of firefighters, Justice Democrats put out this excellent short video that explains the injustices of using prisoners to fight fires and how we can eliminate barriers to people getting firefighting jobs.
Salon reported on vaccine centers are using volunteers to help get folks vaccinated.
As reported in The Wall Street Journal FEMA convened the major producers, distributors, and buyers last week to talk supply chain. That’s a good thing.
Mitigation
In The New York Times: The Biden administration might allow COVID declarations to go towards mitigation which would open up about $10 billion for mitigation funding. We are a long way from that money actually making its way into communities, but surely an announcement that inspires cautious optimism.
In The Guardian: The UN issued yet another warning that the world is not adapting to climate change quickly enough (which is something you would know if you looked out your window).
From CBS News: NOAA released more data on the number of billion-dollar disasters. Yes, last year was as bad as you think it was… See the aforementioned article about the need to DO ADAPTATION.
From E&E News: Baltimore is trying to sue over climate-related flood impacts.
From E&E News: In the final days of the Trump administration, a couple of climate-denying political appointees tried to publish false, cherry-picked climate data and then were promptly fired. Relatedly, the New York Times looked at how, despite their best efforts, the Trump administration was never successful in undermining the National Climate Assessment. We are forever indebted to the federal employees and scientists who protected it.
There are so many people on Biden’s climate team that Grist had to make us flashcards!
Recovery
From Atmos: A look back at the one year anniversary of Australia’s bushfires. As will sound familiar to those with recovery experience – the recovery has been reactive, slow, and unequal.
Disasters & Art
I’m sure you heard Amanda Gorman’s phenomenal poem at the Inauguration. I was disproportionately excited about the exceptional line about catastrophes. She also wrote a climate poem entitled “Earthrise” that will just fully leave you with chills. Thanks to Eric Holthaus’ newsletter The Phoenix I learned that she also wrote a poem about hurricanes entitled “In the Eye of”. You can hear her read it here.
We love poets. We love climate poets. We love poems about disasters.
You did it. You made it to the end. I’m going to go take a nap now.
Here’s to hoping that February’s newsletter is much shorter!
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