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IAEM
Do you want to attend the IAEM 67th Annual Conference but your employer has not approved your travel because of funding or other issues? No worries, register today to lock in savings with the early bird rate and pay when funds are available. Select “pay by check” and you will have secured your spot for the conference. In addition, you can use our 5-step plan to gain approval by justifying your time and the money for attendance at the IAEM 67th Annual Conference & EMEX in Savannah, Georgia, Nov. 15-20, 2019.
IAEM
[Note: IAEM apologizes for misidentifying our Wednesday Plenary speaker in last week’s issue of the Dispatch. The corrected article follows.]
Join Paul Johnson, director, Omaha/Douglas County Emergency Management Agency, Nebraska, on Nov. 20, 2019, at the 8:25 a.m. plenary session, “Stranded in Freezing Waters – If Only We Would Have.” On Mar. 9, 2019, intense and prolonged severe rains fell on frozen lakes, rivers and ice-covered ground. Rivers quickly flooded, dams and levees broke free, and severe weather challenged all rescue operations, leaving access by car, truck, boat and aircraft virtually impossible for two-and-a-half days. The agricultural economy was devastated due to cropland damage and death of livestock. Paul will provide a frank and transparent discussion of why and how a new planning approach to dealing with severe incidents needs to be implemented. For more information about the conference and to register, visit iaemconference.info
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IAEM
The last IAEM Bulletin special focus issue of 2019 will be based on the theme of the 67th IAEM Annual Conference & EMEX, to be held Nov. 15-20, 2019, in Savannah, Georgia. The IAEM Editorial Committee seeks articles related to the conference theme, which is “Honor the Past, Treasure the Present, Shape the Future.” Obtain details on the IAEM Bulletin web page for examples of the types of articles sought. The deadline for article submissions for the conference issue is Sept. 10, 2019, and articles should be 750-1,500 words. Contact Editor Karen Thompson at Thompson@iaem.com with any questions.
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Everbridge
With severe weather season intensifying, counties and cities across Florida share their perspective on hurricane preparedness and the benefits of leveraging Everbridge as their statewide mass notification platform, including improved situational intelligence, communication, and mutual aid. Watch Now.
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IAEM
The IAEM-USA Board and the IAEM-USA Bylaws Committee have recommended that two proposed amendments be made to the IAEM-USA Bylaws. Proposed Bylaws Amendment 1 addresses a streamlined voting/notice period. Proposed Bylaws Amendment 2 addresses changes in Student membership; these changes are supported also by the IAEM-USA Student Region. All bylaws amendments must be offered to the IAEM-USA voting members (Individual, Affiliate, and Lifetime member categories) for their consideration. The review period lasts for 30 days, which began on Sept. 3, 2019, with the distribution of an email to all voting members. Voting will begin during the week of Oct. 7, 2019. At that time, voting members will receive an email from IAEM Headquarters with a link to the online ballot. Visit the informational web page to review the proposed amendments.
EfficientGov
The National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) and International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) today released a joint statement on the reported reprogramming of $155 million in federal funds from the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to establish temporary locations for court hearings for asylum-seekers along the southern border of the United States.
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Emergency Management
Evacuation planning is one of the most difficult tasks in emergency management, and on evacuation routes, bottlenecks in recent disasters have resulted in loss of life.
That was the impetus for StreetLight Data to conduct a national (plus Canada) analysis of small towns and their evacuation risks in situations like floods, fire, dam breaks, hurricanes, tornadoes and other emergencies.
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The Hill
Former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Brock Long warned Sunday that Congress, local institutions and individuals must help FEMA for it to complete its mission effectively.
"FEMA faces unrealistic expectations by Congress and the American public," Long told CBS’s Margaret Brennan on "Face the Nation."
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The Mid-Atlantic Center for Emergency Management & Public Safety combines accredited college expertise and practitioner experience to offer cutting-edge academic, training, and credentialing opportunities. MORE
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POLITICO
Hurricane Dorian is forecast to make landfall on the Atlantic coast without a Senate-confirmed FEMA administrator to oversee relief efforts — and President Donald Trump says he’s OK with that.
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NextGov
Shoddy IT and poor leadership hurt the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s ability to respond to a string of devastating hurricanes and wildfires in 2017, according to an internal watchdog.
In 2017, FEMA found itself responding to destruction on a historic scale.
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Nextgov
Nearly two years after Hurricane Maria devastated most of Puerto Rico, uprooting many and ravaging much of the island’s infrastructure, the National Institute of Standards and Technology is looking for a contractor to comprehensively analyze and identify deaths that were directly and indirectly connected to the storm.
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Domestic Preparedness
When there is a need for sheltering animals, there are several options – each comes with advantages and disadvantages. Conditions, agency policies, experiences, resources, or timing typically drive the decision as to what type of shelter is used. Regardless of the type of shelter utilized, the primary goal is to provide quality daily care until animals are reunited with their families or rehomed to new families.
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The Conversation
We all expect hospitals to be open and operating when we need them, but extreme weather events like hurricanes are a strain on resources and pose significant challenges for hospitals.
Closing a hospital is an extreme action, but several hospitals in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina did just that before the arrival of Hurricane Irma in 2017.
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| CLIMATE/WATER/WEATHER UPDATES |
Forbes
Here is something that you can take to the bank. We will not see the name "Dorian" used in the Atlantic basin for any future hurricane. The names of particularly destructive or impactful storms are retired.
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Prevention Web
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mami Mizutori, today expressed her condolences to the Government and people of The Bahamas following the reported loss of life as a result of Hurricane Dorian, an unprecedented storm which continues to batter the Bahamas and threaten the US mainland.
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Brookings
Hurricane Dorian has left a trail of devastation over the last few days, but an onslaught of destructive floods have hit communities all across the country this summer. From small towns in the Midwest and Southeast to large cities like Washington and New York, torrential rains have inundated homes, cut power, and disrupted lives. It’s no accident either.
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Homeland Security News Wire
“Managed retreat” is a controversial response to climate change. It’s the idea that communities and governments should be strategic about moving people away from areas that have become too waterlogged to live in safely. Retreating from coastlines and riversides might have once been considered unthinkable.
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IAEM
As Hurricane Dorian began to strengthen, IAEM member Eric Kant, in partnership with IAEM, launched a portal that consolidates all open source information related to the hurricane: Hurricane Dorian Unified Information Portal. The portal provides current situation updates from NOAA, FEMA, NHC, state EM departments, and others providing reports. Other information provided includes:
- Real-time information on shelters
- Power status
- Traffic maps and updates
- USGS Hazards Portal Information
Other information will be added as available.
Questions about the portal may be directed to UnitifedPortal@TrustedOps.com.
IAEM
FEMA released the updated “Devolution Plan/Annex Template and Instructions” document for use by the continuity planning community. The document incorporates the concepts found in FEMA "Federal Continuity Directive 1 and Continuity Guidance Circular” into a template for individuals tasked with the creation of continuity plans that support their organization’s (government, or non-government, public or private sector) continuity program. The template may be helpful to organization planners but is not mandatory. Organizations are encouraged to tailor their devolution plan to meet their specific operational needs. To view the document, access the references listed above, and obtain additional information about continuity and continuity planning, please visit the continuity toolkit. Once in the toolkit, click on “Templates” to view the document.
Route Fifty
There’s not much to do when a hurricane or tropical storm is inbound—dropping nuclear weapons on them isn’t really an option. Evacuate if ordered, make sure you’ve stocked up on water, canned food, and batteries, and then sit down and begin a robust round of political recriminations.
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Domestic Preparedness
The 35-day government shutdown of 2018-2019 became the longest in U.S. government history. Food banks, firefighters, and community services agencies ramped up their food and other care services. Much like during natural disasters, a significant number of federal workers and contractors did not have sufficient savings to cover expenses during this hiatus in pay and experienced uncertainty in insurance and other financial considerations during such a lengthy and uncertain time, occurring during the Christmas holidays.
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Reuters
It's the size of a credit card and about as slim.
But if you're trapped under rubble after an earthquake, it just might save your life.
A trio of Indonesian university students has invented a device that uses high-frequency signals to help locate victims after a natural disaster.
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Homeland Security New Wire
The Homeland Security Department’s Science and Technology Directorate is kicking off a pilot program that will test the integration of smart city technologies in St. Louis, Missouri. Working in collaboration with the city and the Open Geospatial Consortium, agency insiders will use the pilot to research, design and assess Homeland Security’s Smart City Interoperability Reference Architecture, or SCIRA.
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Government Technology
Facebook is rolling out a new service for local governments with urgent news to share.
After a test with 350 agencies that included Miami Beach, Fla., the social-media giant is making its emergency-alerts tool available to any government Facebook page that wants to use it.
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IAEM
IAEM announces a complimentary breakfast for current AEMs and CEMs at the IAEM Annual Conference in Savannah, Georgia. This event requires tickets, so be sure to reserve them as part of the conference registration process. Space is limited so don’t delay.
IAEM
IAEM-USA Region 1 has scheduled the next event in its 2019 series, “The Future of FirstNet and Opportunities for Emergency Managers,” for Sept. 25, 2019, 2:00-3:00 p.m. EDT. The webinar speaker will be Gary McCarraher, the senior public safety advisor for New England. The topic will be the future of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) and opportunities for emergency managers. Register online.
Prevention Web
A new study published in Geology presents the detailed observation of a tsunami-generating volcano collapse by remote sensing. The paper by Rebecca Williams of the University of Hull and colleagues analyzes the 2018 collapse of Anak Krakatau, which triggered a tsunami that claimed over 430 lives and devastated coastal communities along the Sunda Strait, Indonesia.
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Japan Today
Annual disaster drills were held across Japan on Sunday, with the central government's exercise based on a scenario that a massive earthquake originating in Tokyo had rocked the capital and surrounding regions.
Local governments also conducted their own drills assuming major quakes and tsunami in a bid to improve preparedness for natural disasters in the disaster-prone country.
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| IAEM-LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN NEWS |
Reuters
When Maria Augusta Almeida, 45, heard her grandson cough incessantly, she knew what was to blame: the fires raging in the Amazon forest, some of them more than 200 miles (322 km) away from Porto Velho.
The smoke permeating the city, the capital of Brazil's northwestern state of Rondonia, is leading concerned parents to wait for hours in line at local hospitals to get help for their children who are struggling to breathe.
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Construction Week Online
Dubai Police held a two-day workshop at Dubai Police Officers Club on 2-3 September, named Making Dubai Resilient, in association with United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s (UNDRR) regional office for Arab States to build and enhance awareness within more than 22 Dubai Government stakeholders working on disaster risk reduction at the local level.
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The Weather Channel
Images began to emerge Tuesday of flattened homes, submerged neighborhoods and desperate residents being rescued as Hurricane Dorian finally began to move away from the northwestern Bahamas.
Aerial video from Great Abaco Island, where Dorian made a second landfall, provided an idea of how widespread the destruction is.
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The Associated Press via TribLive
High school students, a science teacher and his daughter, an adventurous marine biologist and a family of five celebrating a birthday are among those presumed to have died when fire tore through a scuba diving boat off the Southern California coast, trapping dozens of sleeping people below deck.
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CNN
The death toll in Sunday's flash flooding in a national park in Kenya has increased to six and rescue teams are still looking for one tourist, Kenya's Wildlife Service said on Monday.
The tour group of seven people -- five Kenyans, a local tourist guide and a "non-resident foreigner" -- had been caught in the flash flood Sunday in Hell's Gate National Park.
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