Dangerous calling, the life-and-death matter of safety at sea: a collection of articles from SAMUDRA Report

Fishing is arguably the world's most dangerous vocation, reporting the highest rate of occupational fatalities among industries, made only worse by declining fish prices, overfished waters and shortened fishing seasons. As fishermen are forced to move farther away from shore in search of scarce resources, the dangers they face are many: bad weather, rough seas, flooding, fire, poor vessel design, mechanical problems navigational error, missing safety equipment. For the small-scale and artisanal fishers of developing countries, these problems are compounded several times over, as this series of articles from SAMUDRA Report reveals. (44pp.

Fifty Years of Weathering the Storm: Are the Louisiana Gulf Coastal Parishes Prepared for Another Major Hurricane?

This study examines ten major storms that have affected Louisiana in the last fifty years, beginning with Hurricane Betsy in 1965. The goal is to determine if the nine coastal parishes are prepared adequately for another major hurricane impact. It examines storms that have affected the state physically, in terms of property and ecological damages. It also considers storms that provided non-physical influences, by way of mitigation policy changes and social, economical, ecological, and political policy alterations. The main focus is on the transformations, if any, of social vulnerability in light of emergency preparedness in the areas impacted, particularly along the Louisiana coast. I argue that, while the State has come a long way, Louisiana is not currently prepared adequately to handle another major storm by 2015. Furthermore, I offer recommendations for improvement in preparedness measures for the future

Fifty Years of Weathering the Storm: Are the Louisiana Gulf Coastal Parishes Prepared for Another Major Hurricane?

This study examines ten major storms that have affected Louisiana in the last fifty years, beginning with Hurricane Betsy in 1965. The goal is to determine if the nine coastal parishes are prepared adequately for another major hurricane impact. It examines storms that have affected the state physically, in terms of property and ecological damages. It also considers storms that provided non-physical influences, by way of mitigation policy changes and social, economical, ecological, and political policy alterations. The main focus is on the transformations, if any, of social vulnerability in light of emergency preparedness in the areas impacted, particularly along the Louisiana coast. I argue that, while the State has come a long way, Louisiana is not currently prepared adequately to handle another major storm by 2015. Furthermore, I offer recommendations for improvement in preparedness measures for the future

Protocol development for pro-active emergency responses by veterinary clinics and hospitals

The Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005 necessitated the development of a guidance document concerning emergency preparedness and response for veterinary clinics and hospitals. The aftermaths of the largest natural disasters in United States\u27 history, namely Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, brought to light the need for a protocol designed specifically for veterinarians and veterinary practitioners. Disaster management information was synthesized and modified to be subject-specific for the veterinary community. This synthesis resulted in the creation of the Veterinary Emergency Preparedness and Response (VEPR) manual and website. Two types of data were collected to develop the emergency protocol; interviews with veterinarians and staff and site visits to affected clinics and hospitals were conducted to gather primary data for inclusion in the preparedness and response document, and preexisting information concerning disaster management from an array of sources was compiled and reviewed. A preliminary manual was provided to affected individuals for feedback and input and the subsequent comments were formatted and incorporated into a final protocol recommendation. Two deliverables resulted from the current study including a hardcopy VEPR manual and website based on the information from the manual, http://info.envs.lsu.edu/vepr/. The guidance document provides pertinent information for pre-hurricane planning, weathering the physical storm, and post-hurricane recovery. Together the manual and website facilitate the widespread distribution of the emergency recommendations to the veterinary community and are expected to be a comprehensive source for specific disaster management materials. The VEPR manual and website are resources that can be used as tools to mitigate damaging affects, particularly to lessen the post-disaster burden on the staff and operations of veterinary clinics and hospitals. VEPR provides a foundation for the development of viable emergency preparedness and response protocols for other types of natural disasters. Updates of VEPR will be needed so as to assure that the recommended protocol continues to be timely for national and global applications

Disaster Preparedness Plan for the Study Abroad Student: How to Engage Students in Hazard Preparedness

In today’s world, hazard preparedness is vital for creating disaster resilient communities across the globe. This is needed now more than ever, due to the increasing number of disasters occurring worldwide (Chafe, 2007; Nakagawa & Shaw, 2004). This culminating project researches individual and community disaster preparedness, especially preparedness in the higher education community, and specifically study abroad individuals. There is a void in the current literature on disaster preparedness for study abroad students; a community of students that is growing and could encounter more hazards than on-campus students. Through case studies of disaster resistant universities and a proposed intervention, this project provides a way to actively engage study abroad students in their own hazard preparedness. Disaster preparedness is extremely important and this research attempts to provide one solution for increasing individual preparedness in the global community

Disaster and emergency communications prior to computers/Internet: a review

When communications are needed the most desperately and most urgently, the difficulty of effecting the desired communications increases exponentially. Recent natural disasters in different parts of the world have provided eloquent testament to this. The history of disaster or emergency communications can provide us with a foundation for understanding the problems encountered today, and can offer us insight into how we might improve the systems and processes for communications. The first applications of communication technology that allowed messages to be sent more rapidly than the fastest form of transportation were mainly military in origin. This review takes us from the days of optical or visual telegraphy, through the early development of mobile and radio communications, and up to the current sophisticated technologies. We pay particular attention to the use of amateur radio operators in times of emergency, and relate their activities to those of the most effective military communications. The germane assumption made in this discussion is that any emergency or disaster communications would necessarily be involved in response and resolution of medical aspects of those emergencies

States of preparedness: health agency progress 2006

Introduction -- All-hazards planning and rapid risk assessment to prevent death and illness -- Detection and reporting of threats to the public's health -- Investigation to mount effective public health response -- Controlling the impact of public health emergencies -- Recovering from public health emergencies -- Learning from the past to improve in the future -- the future of public health preparedness -- Acknowledgments.Also available via the World Wide Web.System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.Includes bibliographical references (p. 22).This report was made possible through funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Cooperative Agreement to Improve the Nation's Public Health Infrastructure with State Public Health Agencies/Systems Cooperative Agreement U50/CCU313093-0

Improving Disaster Preparedness in NYC through Widespread Education

The New York City Office of Emergency Management (NYC OEM) cites the following natural events as hazards to the NYC area: hurricanes and coastal storms, earthquakes, extreme heat, flooding and winter weather. In addition, there are other unnatural events (i.e. terrorist threats, radiation, fires) that pose hazards to the safety of the general public. Since the turn of the century, there have been a handful of major natural and unnatural disasters that have impacted NYC, and the public's response reflected a lack of intuitive knowledge of how to react appropriately. The purpose of this paper is to determine if the outreach programs offered by disaster planning organizations in NYC can be improved upon to increase widespread education in emergency preparedness. It will focus on what steps are taken in preparation for large-scale disasters that are, by FEMA's definition, "low probability - high consequence events," particularly in consideration of predicted population growth rates and the impending threat of climate change. Finally it will reflect on the challenges this poses for urban planners working in NYC and what contributions they can make for a safer and more sustainable future