Disasterology: November 2020
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!
Happy Stay-At-Home Holidays!
You all are staying home for Thanksgiving, right?
Do not let me catch you traveling in the middle of a pandemic!
I’ve tried to put together a chiller newsletter this month because it seems everyone, including myself, is deeply exhausted.
The State of Emergency Management
As anticipated we are seeing COVID cases grow exponentially and healthcare workers, especially, are overwhelmed.
Hurricane Eta brought extensive flooding throughout Florida and in North Carolina. Hurricanes Eta and Iota followed a very similar route causing extensive damage, especially in Honduras and Nicaragua. Iota is considered to be the strongest hurricane in Nicaraguan history. In the Philippines Super Typhoon Goni became the strongest storm of 2020 and Tropical Cyclone Gati broke the record for the strongest storm on record to make landfall in Somalia. I am sensing a pattern…
One Thousand Letters
I have an ask for you this month!
Dr. Lori Peek, the director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder is heading up a “One Thousand Letters” campaign and needs to hear from you.
Dr. Peek has asked us all to write a brief letter for the Biden transition team about what we believe needs to be prioritized related to their four priorities: COVID-19, economic recovery, racial equity, and climate change.
Disaster work, generally, and emergency management, specifically, cross all four priorities, so this is a particularly important moment for our voices to be heard. I suspect that everyone reading this newsletter has some expertise/ interest in at least one of these areas so it would be great to hear from you.
Once you’ve written your letter please email it to 1000Letters@colorado.edu by Tuesday, December 15th. You can read the instructions in full here.
I hope you’ll take the time to participate.
~MEME~ Break:
The Book of the Month:
“Words Whispered in Water” by Sandy Rosenthal
Something I don’t think is discussed enough is the courage of people who not only live through disaster but fight back afterwards. Sandy Rosenthal is exactly this kind of courageous person. After Katrina and the federal levee failure, she created an organization called levees.org. Their purpose was to hold the Army Corps of Engineers accountable for their central role in the flood. Rosenthal’s book is gripping, shocking, and infuriating. It’s an absolute must read for anyone interested in understanding the role of the Corps in the creation of our national risk.
The Disasterology Monthly Newsletter gives this 10/10 stars.
You can read more about the book and buy it from Octavia Books here.
Important Disaster Related Media Coverage This Month:
I’ve basically read nothing except Biden transition articles this month.
This month the U.S. was formally removed from the Paris Agreement, per the request of the Trump Administration. In an effort to stay positive, there has been a lot of discussion about how Biden can jump right into climate policy. For example, he just announced John Kerry will be fulfilling the new role of Special Presidential Envoy on Climate. We’ve also heard about how it may be difficult for the Biden administration to act without the Senate and also what they can do without the Senate. There have been a few articles on what Biden needs to do related to environmental justice and already some disappointing news about one of his first climate picks.
There’s also been a wave of articles on how COVID is completely out of control and numbers are skyrocketing in the United States. This one from Ed Yong in The Atlantic has stuck with me. I also wanted to highlight this article in Vox on how Vermont has been able to successfully direct resources to high-risk populations. There’s been a lot of focus on Biden’s COVID-19 task force but also some expectation setting about how difficult it will be for Biden’s administration to get the pandemic under control.
There’s was some debate on who Biden would pick to lead DHS but yesterday they announced it would be Mayorkas. Unfortunately, there’s been nearly nothing written about a potential FEMA pick other than local Florida outlets getting excited about the prospect of Jared Moskowitz. Related to the federal bureaucracy some have been advocating for the creation of some kind of “Department of Climate”. I have many questions about this.
The incredibly chaotic and slow transition is disturbing for many reasons but particularly for those who remember the findings of the 9/11 Commission which found that the shortened transition in 2000 had dire effects for the federal government.
A bit of levity to end on: This whale sculpture accidentally mitigated a train derailment in the Netherlands earlier this month. Art saves lives. Garrett Graff summarized the damage being done in a Washington Post op-ed.
Weird Disaster Thing
Why do an ugly Christmas sweater when you can do a Christmas Jaws t-shirt? I stumbled upon this while working with my colleague, John Carr, on a “Disaster Gift Guide”.
The End Bits:
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Finally, this newsletter is ~FREE~. I plan on keeping it that way because eliminating barriers to disaster knowledge is important. However, several people expressed an interest in financially supporting this work. I’ve created a “paid subscriber” option for $5 a month or whatever you’d like to give. The only difference between a free sign-up and a paid subscriber option is that you’ll be able to see the full archives of the newsletters. Really, this is just a way for those who want (and can) to support the newsletter. I’ll use the money to cover administrative expenses, do things like buy books to review, and maybe one day hire a research assistant to help. Thank you to everyone who has already supported financially!