Disasters

Homefree offers families on-line emergency planning toolkit
Subscribers receive detailed notes on home maintenance; household inventory and warranties can be stored on company server
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MonitorBot offers remote moisture monitoring system for flood recovery
Remote sensors provide moisture and humidity data
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Peer-to-peer tsunami detection software unveiled
Program relies on detecting vibrations on hard disks; free software allows personal computer users to link-up and share data; may be boon to cash-strapped South East Asia
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Sysix offers comprehensive business continuity planning software
DRP Navigator Assessment Software is aimed at mid-market; product helps companies assess vulnerabilities, set priorities
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Poll shows companies preferring outsourcing critical data
IDC survey finds companies plan to increase continuity spending more than fivefold in 2006
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Safe America Foundation to test social distancing as flu response
Effort coordinated with French government, American health authorities; employees of Fortune 100 firms to avoid each other at work, will be monitored by hidden cameras
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BreakAway offers disaster simulation game free to cities
Incident Commander ideal for underfunded municipalities; players work out logistics, procurement, and communications problems; hostage taking, terrorism, and natural disasters among available scenarios
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Carribean islands sign disaster relief deal wih Cable & Wireless
Jamaican telecommunications giant to evaluate Carribean Disaster Emergency Response Agency planning; deal may integrate C&W’s network into regional emergency management system
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Remote access market to expand 34% by 2010
Originally sold as home office technology, remote access has significant security and business continuity advantages
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URS, Applied Marine Technology win contract to support National Exercise Program
Total value of contract for workshops, policy development, program evaluation, information technology support, and exercises for senior officials is $350 million
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DHS inspector general criticizes FEMA oversight of search and rescue teams
Many task forces rated themselves below 50 percent readiness; few complying with training, maintenance, and record-keeping requirements
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Disaster Management Systems critical for insurance companies
Off-site, on-line lockboxes hold claims information, lists of assets submitted by customers
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IT failure tops list of small business continuity concerns
Despite high recognition of the problem, implementation lags behind; new British continuity standards loom
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Louisiana officials worry about levees
Tropical Storm Ernesto heads toward Gulf of Mexico; evacuation planning seems improved but overtopping and breaching still threaten levees
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9/11, Katrina anniversaries highlight radio interoperability problems
Government grants have done little to improve municipal communications; New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Tulsa provide models of ongoing difficulties
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The long view

To bolster the world’s inadequate cyber governance framework, a “Cyber WHO” is needed
A new report on cyber governance commissioned by Zurich Insurance Group highlights challenges to digital security and identifies new opportunities for business. It calls for the establishment of guiding principles to build resilience and the establishment of supranational governance bodies such as a Cyber Stability Board and a “Cyber WHO.”
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Protecting the U.S. power grid
The U.S. power grid is made up of complex and expensive system components, which are owned by utilities ranging from small municipalities to large national corporations spanning multiple states. A National Academy of Sciences report estimates that a worst-case geomagnetic storm could have an economic impact of $1 trillion to $2 trillion in the first year, which is twenty times the damage caused by a Katrina-class hurricane.
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More than 143 million Americans at risk from earthquakes
More than 143 million Americans living in the forty-eight contiguous states are exposed to potentially damaging ground shaking from earthquakes, with as many as twenty-eight million people in the highest hazard zones likely to experience strong shaking during their lifetime, according to new research. The research puts the average long-term value of building losses from earthquakes at $4.5 billion per year, with roughly 80 percent of losses attributed to California, Oregon, and Washington. By comparison, FEMA estimated in 1994 that seventy-five million Americans in thirty-nine states were at risk from earthquakes. In the highest hazard zones, the researchers identified more than 6,000 fire stations, more than 800 hospitals, and nearly 20,000 public and private schools that may be exposed to strong ground motion from earthquakes.
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A large Ventura Fault quake could trigger a tsunami
Earthquake experts had not foreseen the 2011 magnitude-9 Japan earthquake occurring where it did, so soon after the disaster, scientists in Southern California began asking themselves, “What are the big things we’re missing?” For decades, seismic experts believed the Ventura fault posed only a minor to moderate threat, but new research suggests that a magnitude-8 earthquake could occur on the fault roughly every 400 to 2,400 years. The newly discovered risk may even be more damaging than a large earthquake occurring on the San Andreas Fault, which has long been considered the state’s most dangerous. Unlike the Ventura fault, the San Andreas Fault is so far inland in Southern California, that it does not pose a tsunami risk. A large earthquake on the Ventura fault, however, could create a tsunami that would begin “in the Santa Barbara Channel area, and would affect the coastline … of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, down through the Santa Monica area and further south.”
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Coastal communities can lower flood insurance rates by addressing sea-level rise
City leaders and property developers in Tampa Bay are urging coastal communities to prepare today for sea-level rise and future floods in order to keep flood insurance rates low in the future. FEMA, which administers the National Flood Insurance Program(NFIP), is increasing flood insurance premiums across the country, partly to offset losses from recent disasters such as hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. Cities can reduce insurance premiums for nearly all residents who carry flood coverage by improving storm-water drainage, updating building codes to reflect projected rise in sea-levels, moving homes out of potentially hazardous areas, and effectively informing residents about storm danger and evacuation routes.
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California drought highlights the state’s economic divide
As much of Southern California enters into the spring and warmer temperatures, the effects of California’s historic drought begin to manifest themselves in the daily lives of residents, highlighting the economic inequality in the ways people cope. Following Governor Jerry Brown’s (D) unprecedented water rationing regulations,wealthier Californians weigh on which day of the week no longer to water their grass, while those less fortunate are now choosing which days they skip a bath.
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Homefree offers families on-line emergency planning toolkit

MonitorBot offers remote moisture monitoring system for flood recovery

Peer-to-peer tsunami detection software unveiled

Sysix offers comprehensive business continuity planning software

Poll shows companies preferring outsourcing critical data

Safe America Foundation to test social distancing as flu response

BreakAway offers disaster simulation game free to cities

Carribean islands sign disaster relief deal wih Cable & Wireless

Remote access market to expand 34% by 2010

URS, Applied Marine Technology win contract to support National Exercise Program

DHS inspector general criticizes FEMA oversight of search and rescue teams

Disaster Management Systems critical for insurance companies

IT failure tops list of small business continuity concerns

Louisiana officials worry about levees

9/11, Katrina anniversaries highlight radio interoperability problems

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The long view

To bolster the world’s inadequate cyber governance framework, a “Cyber WHO” is needed

Protecting the U.S. power grid

More than 143 million Americans at risk from earthquakes

A large Ventura Fault quake could trigger a tsunami

Coastal communities can lower flood insurance rates by addressing sea-level rise

California drought highlights the state’s economic divide