Archive for the ‘Earthquakes’ Category

Disaster DVDs from National Archives

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

(I need a tag for this item called “not-sure-how-I-feel-about-this”)

In case you don’t get enough storm stories from the Weather Channel’s “When Weather Changed History” series, the National Archives has produced a boxed set of DVDs, available at your local Sam’s Club or Costco:

Washington, DC…The National Archives announces the release of Natural Disasters, the first collection in a new series of boxed DVD sets entitled Our Planet Earth. Produced in partnership with Topics Entertainment, Our Planet Earth will focus on the preservation and conservation of our natural resources and the protection of our environment. The series will feature motion pictures created by the Bureau of Land Management, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Selected by film archivists from the National Archives vast motion picture holdings, Natural Disasters chronicles some of the world’s most devastating earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, forest fires, and volcanoes—random acts of nature that have altered the world’s economy, threatened and disrupted millions of earth’s inhabitants, cost thousands of human lives, and at times changed the course of history. Also recounted are the heroic efforts of relief workers to return cities to normal and the attempts of local governments to better prepare for future events.

Included among the gripping documentaries are:

  • Loma Prieta Earthquake (1989), an examination of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake that destroyed the Oakland Bay Bridge and the Cypress Street Viaduct and disrupted the World Series.
  • Day of the Killer Tornadoes (1978), the story of 147 deadly tornadoes that swept across Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, and other states in a 24-hour period.
  • A Hurricane Called Betsy (1966), which recounts Hurricane Betsy’s 3,000-mile trip from the Caribbean through the Bahamas, Miami, the Florida Keys, and along the Gulf Coast to New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
  • Eruption of Mt. St. Helens (1980–81), featuring reenactments, personal recollections, and narration of the historic eruption of Mt. St. Helens.
  • The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936), a classic film about the Dust Bowl that includes a climactic dust storm sequence in which day suddenly becomes night and the landscape changes from moment to moment.

Seeing the tag line, “24 Intense Films” gave me pause – I don’t think it’ll be on the Christmas list for our 7-year old budding meteorologist, much as he would probably enjoy them….

Posted in Earthquakes, Floods, Weather Emergencies | No Comments »

Search and Rescue throughout history

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

American Heritage magazine features an interesting article, “Heavy Rescue”, describing the history of search and rescue, and looking into the future.

The article covers both the improvements in technology and management of crises such as building collapse over time. This description of search and rescue operations in London during WW2 caught my attention, for instance:

Out of such chaos came timeless lessons in crisis management. Quickly discovering that a major collapse would turn out any number of local and regional units who sometimes began arguing over the next steps, British authorities invented the role of the “new incident officer,” typically an air-raid warden with good judgment who knew the neighborhood. After filing an initial report, he would set up a portable desk complete with blank forms. The desk flew a blue flag and also mounted a blue battery-powered lamp for night work. The incident officer wore a blue cloth cover on his hard hat. To all other emergency personnel arriving, the blue meant “check here before doing anything,” thus prioritizing critical tasks and preventing one team’s work from endangering another’s. One of the most important jobs—neglected by amateurs —was to fan out through the neighborhood to gather information on how many people might be trapped below. Without such information, rescue parties were sure to waste their efforts. Similar systemization can still be seen today at some emergency sites, where the incident commander works from a portable desk unfolded from the rear of his vehicle … often sporting a green or blue lamp.

The author, James R. Chiles, is also the author of Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the Edge of Technology. The review from Publisher’s Weekly: “In a book that is much more than a litany of disaster and tips on survival, Chiles also offers fascinating, detailed analyses of “system fractures” chains of events yielding catastrophes.” If you are a U of R student or faculty member, take advantage of our distance education delivery service and have the book sent to you.

Posted in Earthquakes, Emergency Communications, Weather Emergencies | No Comments »

GAO report on post-disaster collaboration

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

This item came to my attention a while ago (it was first published in July 2009), but I finally got a minute to actually look at it.

DISASTER RECOVERY
Experiences from Past Disasters Offer Insights for Effective Collaboration after Catastrophic Events

Highlights of GAO-09-811, a report to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate

In the wake of the 2005 Gulf Coast Hurricanes, coordination and collaboration challenges created obstacles during the government’s response and recovery efforts. Because of the many stakeholders involved in recovery, including all levels of government, it is critical to build collaborative relationships. Building on GAO’s September 2008 report which provided several key recovery practices from past  catastrophic disasters, this report presents examples of how federal, state, and local governments have effectively collaborated in the past. GAO reviewed five catastrophic disasters—the Loma Prieta  earthquake (California, 1989), Hurricane Andrew (Florida, 1992), the Northridge earthquake (California, 1994), the Kobe earthquake (Japan, 1995), and the Grand Forks/Red River flood (North Dakota and Minnesota, 1997)—to identify recovery lessons. GAO interviewed officials involved in the recovery from these disasters and experts on disaster recovery. GAO also reviewed relevant legislation, policies, and the disaster recovery literature.

What GAO Recommends
GAO recommends the Secretary of Homeland Security direct the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) to create a mechanism focused on sharing information and lessons learned regarding disaster recovery, including good collaborative practices. The Department of Homeland Security concurred with our recommendation.

The idea of looking for ‘lessons learned’ across a different types of disasters struck me as interesting. We tend to see research done on the after-effects of hurricanes, for example, but why shouldn’t there be lessons for emergency planners in all types of disaster recoveries?

Posted in Earthquakes, Emergency Communications, Research Links, Weather Emergencies, government information | No Comments »

Earthquake “Meta-”post

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

(One more, and then I’ll move on. I promise…)


The USGS website is a gift that keeps on giving as far as historic information on earthquakes is concerned. Need a list (with descriptions) of the earthquakes which caused 1000 or  more deaths since 1900? Here you are. What about US National Seismic Hazard Maps (so people can keep arguing about whether or not earthquakes are predictable events)? Here, along with Seismic Design Values for Buildings, a Java-based calculator which can provide Hazard Curves, design parameters from ASCE and international building codes, and “uniform hazard response spectra”. How about an estimate of the number of people and the names of cities exposed to severe shaking following significant earthquakes worldwide? Yup, that’s here too, under the “PAGER – Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response” heading. Because I’m working on a loaner computer, I can’t look at the Google Earth tools, but I’ve bookmarked them for later because so many of them look interesting. Finally, a page of preparedness-related website links gives great resources for students in our ESM/Disaster Science program, including the LA City Fire Department Earthquake Preparedness Handbook, the NEHRP (the Federal Government’s earthquake risk reduction program), and others.

Posted in Earthquakes, Resources, government information | No Comments »

Hospital Evacuations

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

Today’s story should be an earthquake one, given the recent events in Italy, but this story was an interesting link between the flooding in ND and the disaster unfolding in L’Aquila. The WHO marked World Health Day by focusing on the theme of “Safe Hospitals Save Lives”. More information on their “Safe Hospitals” initiative, including information on the “Hospital Safety Index,” case studies, and a photo gallery, can be found here.

This Propublica story lauds the preparedness of the Fargo and Moorehead hospitals and nursing homes. They were able to evacuate between 500 and 600 residents safely, in an orderly and timely fashion. Voice of America’s story relating to this makes the connection explicitly.

And if you happen to be interested in this topic, the Central United States Earthquake Consortium (who knew?) is offering a free class on “Disaster Medicine 201:  Post-Earthquake Medical Challenges in the New Madrid Seismic Zone”, May7-8 at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center in Memphis, TN.

“This class is a big-picture overview of medical issues related to the earthquake threat in the New Madrid Seismic Zone.  It was developed through the cooperation of CUSEC and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  The class is presented with the invaluable assistance of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.  The primary instructors are doctors with extensive backgrounds in emergency and disaster medicine.”

Actually, the New Madrid Fault Line has a long history of causing trouble in this part of the country (although it’s been quiet of late); an excellent book on that topic is “When the Mississippi Ran Backwards: Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes“, by Jay Feldman. Dr. Walter Green includes it in his “50 Books” for Emergency Services Management list.

(2007-08) Feldman, Jay; When The Mississippi Ran Backwards: Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes; [book]; New York, New York, United States of America; Free Press; 2005.

Studies of disasters often focus on the technical issues of the disaster itself, and occasionally on the immediate political and social fallout of the event.  Feldman has written a book that takes the series of New Madrid earthquakes and puts them in two other contexts.  At the macro level he recounts the relationship of the earthquake in the much larger context of the American frontier, examining its interplay with Tecumseh’s campaign against United States expansion into Native American tribal lands.  On the micro level, he examines the relationship of the disaster to the murder of a slave by two of Thomas Jefferson’s nephews, and to the eventual downfall of their family.   The result is an interesting read that broadens your understanding of the New Madrid earthquakes and of the time in which they occurred.

Finally, this article,  “Counting Crises: US Hospital Evacuations, 1971-1999,” (available to U of R students in print or through our delivery service to distance education students), from the journal Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, investigates:

“the relative distribution of hazards causing hospital evacuations, thereby to provide rudimentary risk information for hospital disaster planning. “

[Hat tip to Cindy Love, at the Disaster Information Management Research Center, National Library of Medicine, for the idea for this post and many of the links.]

Posted in Bioterrorism, Earthquakes, Pandemic, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Global Incidents Map

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

Swinging away from the weather theme for a bit, the Global Incident Map is an interesting visual overview of the various ‘incidents’ that are happening all over the world. The term “incidents” is used broadly; items covered on the main map range from things like ‘terrorist events’ and ‘radiation/proliferation/smuggling events’ to ‘food-product tampering’ and ‘anti-war activists conferences’.

The free version of the  map gives only the visual overview, with very minor details about each incident. Sign up for a free trial, however, and you’ll see how robust the product is. Hover over the individual events, and you’re shown a pop-up box with more information and the link (where possible) to the English-language version of the news item that describes the event in greater detail. Underneath the map, a scrolling news feed can be sped up if you’re a speed reader like me. The map can be limited to events of certain types, severity/importance, and/or types of infrastructure affected. For instance, I was able to easily view all the incidents that affected transportation (airport, shipping, bus, bridge, and railways) and were of a severe or unknown nature. There’s also a search function, with the same options. For those of us who are less visually-oriented and more text-oriented, there’s a list of all the incidents, sorted by type and complete with dates, at the bottom of the page.

Additionally, there is a Forest Fires map (which also pulls through NOAA’s Day1 Fire Weather Outlook and the USFS’s Wildland Fire Assessment System maps), an Amber-Alert Map, a North American HAZMAT Situations and Deployments map (although it seems a stretch to call a meth lab bust a “HAZMAT” situation). The HAZMAT map includes a helpful (at least for us here in that region) “Zoom to National Capitol Region” button. Two more “New” maps complete the tools: Gang Activities (searchable by gang name, as well as by region) and Sri Lanka Focus. The Sri Lanka Focus maps are produced in partnership with the Community Tsunami Early-warning Centre and the Safer Sri Lanka blog, pointing out Global Incident’s relationships within the broader community.

About the Global Incident map: started as a free service, it has evolved into a fee-based subscription model which accepts advertising (but not money from ‘any foreign or domestic government entities, nor any special interest, religious, or political groups’). The map is produced (evidently) by Morgan Clements. Click here for a link to his interview on On the Media (NPR program). A free 72-hour trial is available, but the site normally costs (I think!) $99./year to subscribe.

Posted in Bioterrorism, Earthquakes, Emergency Communications, Pandemic | No Comments »

Alaskan Volcano Watch

Monday, February 9th, 2009

I have a six-year old son who is more than interested in any type of weather event – we use the term “obsessed”, and we don’t use it lightly. Second only to tornadoes in his world are volcanoes, and he is begging us to take him to Hawaii so he can see real lava flow.

Cleveland Volcano, Alaska

As much as we would love to take him to Hawaii, that’s not a cheap trip, so in the meantime I’ve discovered the USGS “Alaska Volcano Observatory” website, with live webcams aimed at the major volcanoes in Alaska. In addition to the beautiful imagery (both still and video), the site is packed with research, information, and even hazards summaries. (Be sure to check the sunrise indicator on the webcam video – although it’s mid-morning here in Virginia, the sun won’t be up at the Redoubt volcano until 9:30 AKST. Which is just about the time our budding weatherman gets home from school…)

Posted in Earthquakes, Research Links, government information | No Comments »

2008 big year for earthquake fatalities worldwide

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Big Bear Lake Shakemap

This just in, straight from the USGS:

Earthquake Fatalities High in 2008

The number of earthquake-related fatalities across the world in 2008 — about 88,070 according to the USGS and confirmed by the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs — was much higher in 2008 than in recent years. This past year’s strongest and most destructive earthquake occurred in eastern Sichuan, China, on May 12, claiming at least 69,185 lives. In the contiguous United States, 2008’s highest magnitude earthquake was a 6.0 on February 21 near Wells, Nev., causing no fatalities but injuring at least three people and severely damaging more than 20 buildings. The USGS and its partners in the multi-agency National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program are working to improve earthquake monitoring and reporting capabilities via the USGS Advanced National Seismic System. More information about ANSS can be found at earthquake.usgs.gov/research/monitoring/anss/, and a complete list of 2008 earthquake statistics can be found at neic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/2008/. 

And now, barring any more global shaking, I’ll take a break from earthquakes and start blogging about other things, like weather. (Here in Richmond, we’re hoping NOAA is off on the precip. chance for today, and that we might actually get a flurry or two…)

Posted in Earthquakes | No Comments »

Great American Shakeout Follow-up

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

I’d almost forgotten about the Great Southern California Shakeout (the earthquake drill that happened November 13, 2008) until the USGS very helpfully sent me a link to the “Corecast” for the “Lessons Learned” from the largest-ever earthquake scenario exercise.

(Download Secretary Kempthorne and Mark Myers Share Thoughts on ShakeOut.)

“Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne and USGS Director Mark Myers reflect on the successes of The Great Southern California ShakeOut—the largest earthquake preparedness drill in U.S. history.”

Perhaps the best overview of the outcomes is available on this page, from Caltech.  Scenario results, research studies and follow-on research are described and linked here.”Shakemaps”like the one below and scenario video are available here.

Finally, the innovative (and unexpected) collaboration with the Art Center College of Design resulted in the production of this YouTube video. Highly effective, without dropping into the realm of fear-mongering. [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/opXZY1zZ8xk" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Posted in Earthquakes, Emergency Communications, Research Links, government information | No Comments »