All hazards

Citation

(2004), "All hazards", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 13 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2004.07313eag.001

All hazards

Below are new or updated internet resources that the Natural Hazards Center staff have found informative and useful. For a more complete list, see www.colorado.edu/hazards/resources/sites.html

All hazards

All-Hands Community

http://all-hands.net/pn//modules/Downloads/store_folder/REM/Glossaries/ah_glossary_0214.pdfThe All-Hands Community, a free, online user-supported community of emergency and continuity professionals with the goal of sharing information, has recently uploaded a comprehensive Network Glossary of Terms and Definitions to its web site. Started in 2002, the glossary is a work in progress and currently features over 1,500 terms and definitions gathered from around the world. Free membership of All-Hands is required to view this file.

Higher Education Project of the Emergency Management Institute

http://training.fema.gov/EMIweb/edu/highpapers.aspThe Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Higher Education Project of the Emergency Management Institute uploads a variety of articles, papers, and presentations related to emergency management and higher education at this site. The page is updated periodically.

Third Dipecho Action Plan for Southeast Asia

www.dwf.org/Vietnam/preventdamage/n_dipecho.htmWith support from the European Commission Office for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), as part of the Third Dipecho Action Plan for Southeast Asia, this program in Vietnam works to protect families and homes with a strategy that emphasizes prevention rather than reconstruction for coastal communities through community-based programs.

Partnerships in Action

www.oregonshowcase.orgThe Oregon Showcase State Program – Partners for Disaster Resistance and Resilience – offers an online newsletter, Partnerships in Action, that contains articles about successful mitigation programs.

Center for Research on the Epidemiology for Disasters (CRED)

www.cred.be/The Center for Research on the Epidemiology for Disasters (CRED), located in Belgium, has launched a redeveloped, more user-friendly web site. The site contains a number of global disaster databases, publications lists, and a searchable bibliography.

Multi-Hazard Mapping Initiative

www.hazardmaps.gov/atlas.phpThe Multi-Hazard Mapping Initiative provides an online hazards advisory atlas with the goal of fostering the collection and exchange of geospatial hazards data, increasing hazard awareness, and establishing map creation standards. Maps can be customized by site visitors in a variety of ways.

Emergency Planning and Special Needs Populations

http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/pub/register.htmlDue to demand, FEMA has created a web site with course materials for Emergency Planning and Special Needs Populations, G197. The course is not designed for self-study, but the materials are available online.

Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

www.adpc.net/news/tempalte2.pdfThe Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in Thailand now has a PDF brochure that comprehensively lists its many course offerings and workshops.

EMCOMM

www.emcomm.org/EMCOMM is a web site dedicated to emergency communications personnel, both professional and volunteer. It contains links to other sites, an electronic newsletter, and information about upcoming events and training.

National Association for Amateur Radio

www.arrl.org/cce/Tech.htmlGet your amateur radio license on-line from the National Association for Amateur Radio!

Organizing Made Simple

www.organizingmadesimple.com/Organizing Made Simple, a company devoted to creating organization in one’s life has a free, downloadable, wallet-sized crisis checklist available on its web site.

Center for Robot Assisted Search and Rescue

http://crasar.csee.usf.edu/MainFiles/index.aspThe Center for Robot Assisted Search and Rescue works on new technologies for search and rescue and deploys them as part of an international response support team. Their web site contains resources, course offerings, conferences, and other information related to human-robot interactions.

Earthquakes

www.seinstitute.org/The Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers has developed a new web site that includes answers to questions related to standards, technical articles, and an online version of their magazine Structure.

Reconstruir

www.undp.orgThe United Nations Development Program Information and Communication Technology profiles a reconstruction program, Reconstruir, which was instrumental in consolidating and distributing information generated by the various actors involved in reconstruction after the 2001 El Salvador earthquake. The technology also helped demonstrate the accountability and the status of many projects, and allowed those involved to know in which locations work was in progress and in which it was not.

EarthScope

www.earthscope.orgEarthScope is an initiative sponsored by the National Science Foundation to launch observatory systems to monitor the physical elements of earth EarthScope components include: USArray (US Seismic Array), SAFOD (San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth), PBO (Plate Boundary Observatory), and InSAR (Interferometic Synthetic Aperature Radar). The program is a partnership among the US Geological Survey, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Energy, and many universities, seismic networks, and states.

Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

www.training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/is317.aspThe Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently unveiled this online, independent study course that can serve as either an introduction to those joining Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) or as a refresher for current volunteer team members.

PERI

www.riskinstitute.orgPERI (the Public Entity Risk Institute) is now posting FEMA case studies of state and local government disaster mitigation initiatives on its web site. The examples currently showcased examine the state of Oklahoma Safe Room Initiative, the Smith County Texas 911 Communications and Emergency Operations Center (a hardened first-responder facility), the state of Kansas School Tornado Shelter Initiative, and the City of Kinston-Lenoir, North Carolina’s response to repeated flooding following hurricanes Fran, Dennis, and Floyd.

Oregon Showcase State Program – Partners

www.oregonshowcase.orgThe Oregon Showcase State Program – Partners for Disaster Resistance and Resilience – offers an online newsletter, Partnerships in Action, that contains articles about successful mitigation programs.

United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR)

http://www.unisdr.org/The web site of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) has recently been revised and many new features have been added, including links to numerous publications on disaster mitigation by ISDR and others.

National Aid and Resources Management Initiative

www.fema.gov/preparedness/mutual_aid.shtmThe National Aid and Resources Management Initiative, undertaken by FEMA, is designed to support and enhance interstate and intrastate mutual aid agreements so that emergency managers can acquire resources necessary to prepare for, respond to, and recover from any emergency. This web site describes the initiative and provides a glossary of mutual aid terms and definitions.

Partnership for Disaster Reduction – Southeast Asia

www.adpc.net/pdr-sea/mp/echoes-nov2003.htmlThe Partnership for Disaster Reduction – Southeast Asia (PDR-SEA) team of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) has launched an online monthly newsletter, Echoes, which contains articles, resources, and information relevant to the community of disaster management practitioners in Southeast Asia.

Disaster-related headlines

www.dmrg.org/newsThis web site, compiled by a PhD student in political science at the University of Western Ontario, provides a listing (from a Canadian perspective) of a collection of some of the year’s disaster-related headlines.

CBS News

www.cbsnews.com/digitaldan/disaster/disasters.shtmlThis site, maintained by Dan Dubno of CBS News, contains a very comprehensive list of hazards-related web sites.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

www.cdc.gov/nceh/hsb/disaster/default.htmThis web site from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlights the agency’s disaster efforts, including its epidemiology program, a series of publications on extreme weather, and other disaster-related activities.

Munich Reinsurance

www.munichre.com/default_e.aspMunich Reinsurance (MunichRe) has issued a press release that presents an interactive overview of its analysis of natural catastrophes in 2003. The year was marked by a series of severe natural hazard events, and the number of fatalities far exceeded the long-term average. More than 50,000 people were killed worldwide, almost five times as many as in the previous year (11,000). By far the most devastating natural catastrophes were December’s Bam earthquake in Iran and the summer heat wave that crippled Europe. Each event led to over 20,000 deaths. MunichRe’s analysis indicates that economic and insured losses (over $60 billion and $15 billion, respectively) continued the marked increase that had become apparent in recent years. The bulk of the insured losses were due to wind-related events. The company also notes that weather extremes are becoming more and more common – strongly suggesting that climate change is indeed occurring – and that more events like the European heat wave can be anticipated in the future. Although that event was considered an almost 500-year occurrence, the company states that similar heat waves are now sufficiently likely that they may become 20-year events by the middle of the 21st century.

Duryog Nivaran network

www.duryognivaran.org/The Duryog Nivaran network was established to fill a void in cross-border dialog and experience sharing among organizations, governmental or otherwise, working throughout South Asia, the world’s most disaster-prone region.

Business continuity and risk management

www.continuitycanada.com/This new web site was designed to promote the fields of business continuity and risk management throughout Canada.

Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD)

www.un.org/esa/sustdev/partnerships/partnerships.htmThe Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) has launched an online searchable database of CSD-registered partnerships for sustainable development. The database, which contains information based on self-reports from partnerships initiated in the context of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, will facilitate the sharing of experience and knowledge on the implementation of sustainable development projects.

Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disaster (CARD)

www.firstvictims.org/Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disaster (CARD) was created after the Loma Prieta earthquake and the Oakland Hills firestorm to provide disaster preparedness/response support to the vulnerable, underserved, and special-needs communities in Alameda County, California.

ComCARE

www.comcare.org/Communications for Coordinated Communications and Response in Emergencies (ComCARE) is a public/private partnership of a variety of groups working to encourage the development and deployment of technologies to enhance emergency response capabilities and facilitate cooperation across professional, jurisdictional, and geographic lines.

Risk and vulnerability assessment

www.csc.noaa.gov/rvat/A risk and vulnerability assessment helps to identify people, property, and resources that are at risk of injury, damage, or loss from hazardous incidents or natural hazards. This information helps prioritize the precautionary measures that can make a community more disaster resistant. Tools and methods for this work are available at this site.

Emergency Responder Safety Institute

http://respondersafety.com/news/2003/3/28_video.htmlThe Emergency Responder Safety Institute is offering a free highway safety awareness video, covering the dangers of incident response on North American highways, to fire, police, and emergency services chiefs and training officers.

National Commission on Terrorist Attacks

www.9-11commission.gov/The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the US (the September 11 Commission) has posted statements and testimony from its recent public hearings in New York. This site will be updated with additional statements and testimonies as they become available.