This article highlights discussions at the New York State Association for Affordable Housing’s (NYSAFAH) 14th Annual New York State Affordable Housing Conference. They found that post Sandy, developers should be looking at current buildings, even those unaffected by the storm, and retrofit them to include new weather precautions as well as preparing community staffs for… Read more
The Hurricane Sandy Task Force lays out suggestions such as building a more resilient and modern electric grid, new flood-protection and more stringent building standards in affected areas. The Task Force voiced strong opposition to simply rebuilding to match the pre-Sandy landscape, and encourages the private sector to investigate less vulnerable fuel distributions routes and… Read more
Despite early forecasts and preparations for disasters such as Sandy, our failure to accept and deal with the long-term effects of climate change, specifically global warming, will be an ongoing problem. Political and economic pressures discourage long-term planning, especially at the federal level. The author highlights the lack of water proofing of the NYC subway… Read more
New flood models predict repeat, and possibly more significant, flooding in areas hard hit by Sandy. Five key lessons are offered to guide rebuilding: Protect existing natural borders such as beaches and dunes. Build the natural barriers higher. Rezone flood areas to prevent new home building. Build parks in their place. Be mindful about building… Read more
After Sandy made landfall, Unitil was able to restore all impacted customers in 2.5 days, with the Capital region completed in less than 52 hours and the Seacoast region completed in 60. The response demonstrated the effectiveness and flexibility of its ERP and ability to handle events of differing sizes. Not only did Unitil complete… Read more
The report provides an overview on how social media was used in preparation for, in response to, and in recovery from Hurricane Sandy (“Sandy”) in late October 2012. It also discusses processes identified by the first-responder community as best practices; presents examples, themes in applications, and lessons learned; identifies gaps in technology, process, and/or policy; and… Read more
This report follows extensive research by the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) of after action reviews from major disasters of the past decade into lessons learned. The disasters studied were weather-related events that required responding firefighters to assume duties for which they were unprepared or for situations they never anticipated. From analysis of post-incident operational evaluations,… Read more
This report highlights the efforts of two communities to strengthen regulations after catastrophic flood events: Cedar Falls, Iowa and Waveland, Mississippi. Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) are created to guide insurance premiums based on historical floods occurring within either 100 or 500 years, and these case studies are designed to help communities consider how they… Read more
The American Chemistry Council (ACC)-sponsored Chemical Sector Emergency Preparedness Tabletop Exercise (TTX) provided a forum to facilitate discussion and document roles, responsibilities, processes, protocols, and systems used to support an effective public-private response to emerging threats and incidents impacting the Chemical Sector. The purpose of this is to analyze exercise results, identify strengths and potential… Read more
Six-hundred million dollars of federal Sandy recovery funds have been dedicated to 750 buyouts of homes on flood-prone, low lying coastal areas of Staten Island and Long Island. Rising insurance costs and future threats are driving homeowners to accept the buyout offers. Environmentalists hope that the demolitions will allow the nature to act as a… Read more
Stay up to date with all the latest IBTS news.