by admin | Aug 30, 2020 | Agriculture, Chicago, Climate, Disaster, Emergency Management, Geography, Government, Hazard Mitigation, History, Natural Hazards, Public safety, Resilience, Urban forest, Weather
What in the U.S. Midwest would spur comparisons to a hurricane? What could spread damage over an equally wide area? It is a good bet that most people are unfamiliar with the word “derecho,” which comes from Spanish, meaning “straight,” but such a storm made itself...
by admin | Aug 20, 2020 | Climate, Coastal Management, Disaster policy, Earthquake, Emergency Management, Environment, Floodplain management, Government, Infrastructure, Natural Hazards, Nature, Public policy, Resilience, Wildfire
One of the long-standing questions concerning national disaster policy is why a state or community needs to suffer a presidentially declared disaster in order to be eligible for federal hazard mitigation grants to help improve its resilience against storms, floods,...
by admin | Jul 20, 2020 | Activism, Business, Chicago, Coronavirus, Disaster, Disaster policy, Government, Healthcare, Natural Hazards, Politics, Public health, Public policy, Racism, Resilience, Transportation, Urban Planning
In recent years, the development of local or regional recovery plans following major natural disasters has become increasingly common. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has long encouraged such planning, and I led the production of two major FEMA-funded reports...
by admin | Jun 28, 2020 | Climate, Coastal Management, Disaster, Government, Infrastructure, Natural Hazards, Public policy, Resilience, Science, Transportation, Urban Planning, Water
This summer, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is at last rolling out its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, and its first Notice of Funding Opportunity will likely be issued in September. In July, FEMA is airing a series of...
by admin | Feb 19, 2020 | Careers, Climate, Coastal Management, Disaster, Emergency Management, Floodplain management, Government, Natural Hazards, Resilience, Urban Planning
An example of wind mitigation in action in Marathon, Florida: The remnants of the home in the foreground were from an older structure, while the homes in the background were built to code. The home in the foreground was sadly unable to withstand the destruction of...
by admin | Feb 13, 2020 | Books, Climate, Coastal Management, Disaster, Disaster policy, Environment, Floodplain management, Government, Housing, Natural Hazards, Politics, Public policy, Resilience, Uncategorized, Urban Planning, Water, Weather
In the days shortly after World War II, writes Gilbert M. Gaul in The Geography of Risk, Morris Shapiro and his family were busy building their own version of Levittown, the famed suburban tract housing development of Long Island, on a barrier island in southern New...
