Between Now and Then : Tackling the Conundrum of Climate Change

To the people of coastal Louisiana, the realities of climate change namely sea level rise and its effect on hurricane storm surge and coastal land loss have arrived. At first the damage and loss were seen as a result of yet another event in the normal cycle of hurricane damage that has plagued inhabitants of the area ever since humans came to it. The new reality, however, is different. These cyclonic events are threatening the very existence of both the large metropolitan areas in coastal Louisiana as well as the small, indigenous and‘historied’ commercial and subsistence fishing communities. This is happening by virtue of the amount of destruction and the way that it is happening with storms of varying force and speed, not just the mega storms like Katrina. Every storm is affecting the area. A slow moving, stalled Category 1 can bring on as much damage as a fast moving Category 3. The area is simply subject to new risks and is vulnerable in new ways. To have both the scientists and the national media recognize this condition, is to bring the reality to a more conscious recognition both by the residents and by those concerned with climate change

Citizen Responders: Ordinary Men Making Extraordinary Moves Through Radio Programming

When electric power utilities have a major gr id failure due to a weather -induced crisis, earthquake or possible terrorist attack--the length of which is enhanced by a national aging infrastructure, television and social media ‘blackouts’ occur that can be detrimental to response and recovery from the crisis. Commercial radio, able to be listened to on car and portable, battery-operated radios is a communication asset inadequately considered for i ts contribution in such challenging situations. Also when the blackout is restored, TV and social media may be inadequate alone to the communication needs if the destruction is severe and widespread, thus requiring complex actions by a myriad of residents scattered out of the area. Radio can broadcast details available to a very large listening audience concurrently. And when the programming includes live talk-show hosts ’connected’ to the citizenry, radio offers a powerful form of collective community resiliency, as strong as and perhaps stronger than that offered by other media

Dimensions of resiliency: essential resiliency, exceptional recovery and scale.

Not only is resiliency a term with a myriad of definitions microscopically specified by a wide variety of social and bio/physical scientists and practitioners, it is also incredibly complicated even when treated by individual academic/government/non-profit and business practitioners who are convinced that they have the perfect definition. By then linking the concepts of infrastructure and community to resiliency, not only does additional complexity emerge but also a powerful imperative to examine the basics necessary to achieve resiliency within these interrelated concepts. The lens of the applied academic observer situated at ‘ground zero’ for not only one but two major catastrophes within a micro minute span of less than five years (Hurricane Katrina and its 2005–2007 relatives and the British Petroleum oil well blow out of 2010, layered on pervasive localized sea level rise due to delta subsidence) is the ‘data’ analysed to support the arguments of this paper about what must be considered with regard to infrastructure and community to even hope to achieve a resilience state: essential resilience, exceptional recovery and serious appreciation for the need for a greater recovery scale

Citizen Responders: Ordinary Men Making Extraordinary Moves Through Radio Programming

When electric power utilities have a major gr id failure due to a weather -induced crisis, earthquake or possible terrorist attack--the length of which is enhanced by a national aging infrastructure, television and social media ‘blackouts’ occur that can be detrimental to response and recovery from the crisis. Commercial radio, able to be listened to on car and portable, battery-operated radios is a communication asset inadequately considered for i ts contribution in such challenging situations. Also when the blackout is restored, TV and social media may be inadequate alone to the communication needs if the destruction is severe and widespread, thus requiring complex actions by a myriad of residents scattered out of the area. Radio can broadcast details available to a very large listening audience concurrently. And when the programming includes live talk-show hosts ’connected’ to the citizenry, radio offers a powerful form of collective community resiliency, as strong as and perhaps stronger than that offered by other media

City-Assisted Evacuation Plan Participant Survey Report

The survey of participants in the City Assisted Evacuation Program (CAEP) indicated a variety of perceptions about their evacuation experience during and after Hurricane Gustav. While the CAEP was generally regarded by most participants as successful, there are some aspects that were identified as needing improvement. Some of these can be improved by the city; some improvements are under the purview of the state or the federal government. Some can be fixed expeditiously; some will require a long-term commitment

City-Assisted Evacuation Plan Participant Survey Report

The survey of participants in the City Assisted Evacuation Program (CAEP) indicated a variety of perceptions about their evacuation experience during and after Hurricane Gustav. While the CAEP was generally regarded by most participants as successful, there are some aspects that were identified as needing improvement. Some of these can be improved by the city; some improvements are under the purview of the state or the federal government. Some can be fixed expeditiously; some will require a long-term commitment

Campus-wide Coastal Hazards Resiliency Curriculum and Development of Hazard Mitigation Planning Curriculum

An area of the country so much at risk to coastal storms requires an educated populous to whom risk resilience comes naturally. Strengthening what UNO already offers in some of its graduate programs with similar interesting, logical instruction on resilience in many courses across the curriculum (called ‘teaching across the curriculum,’ like international issues are currently done) will build the human infrastructure to lead and support statewide storm mitigation. Given the widespread recognition of the importance of community and societal resilience in the context of natural hazard risk (or any risk), there is a strong need to begin systematically developing integrated social resilience curriculum in many of the university course offerings. The pinnacle outcome of this project is to produce community/regional leaders with strong professional capacities to create and support disaster resilience everywhere. The time and place could not be more perfect for such a program. The University, as the large public institution at “ground zero” of the Katrina/Rita catastrophe, offers a unique laboratory for the study of disaster resilience. In addition, UNO already has a foundation in place in the form of CHART and CUPA, faculty experts in disaster science, and a curricular core that can serve as a starting point for an instructional program

Campus-wide Coastal Hazards Resiliency Curriculum and Development of Hazard Mitigation Planning Curriculum

An area of the country so much at risk to coastal storms requires an educated populous to whom risk resilience comes naturally. Strengthening what UNO already offers in some of its graduate programs with similar interesting, logical instruction on resilience in many courses across the curriculum (called ‘teaching across the curriculum,’ like international issues are currently done) will build the human infrastructure to lead and support statewide storm mitigation. Given the widespread recognition of the importance of community and societal resilience in the context of natural hazard risk (or any risk), there is a strong need to begin systematically developing integrated social resilience curriculum in many of the university course offerings. The pinnacle outcome of this project is to produce community/regional leaders with strong professional capacities to create and support disaster resilience everywhere. The time and place could not be more perfect for such a program. The University, as the large public institution at “ground zero” of the Katrina/Rita catastrophe, offers a unique laboratory for the study of disaster resilience. In addition, UNO already has a foundation in place in the form of CHART and CUPA, faculty experts in disaster science, and a curricular core that can serve as a starting point for an instructional program