Public Accountability Requires Citizen Action (disasteraccountability.org)
By Charlotte Grant, DAP volunteer After a week of shocking events in Boston and Texas, Americans once again demonstrated their overwhelming generosity. But, this time, local foundations stepped up immediately and seem to be getting the lion’s share of donations. In Boston, local community leaders such as Governor Deval Patrick and Mayor Menino created The One [...]
By Meg Gilley, DAP Volunteer The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report last week warning that in the event of a disaster at one of the 65 U.S. nuclear power plants, frightened residents outside the standard 10-mile evacuation zone may also choose to evacuate, potentially blocking evacuation routes and preventing others from escaping. The [...]
Indonesia’s natural disaster risks, costs rise – IRINnews.org 2012 was the least deadly year for natural disasters in the past decade, says the Natural Hazards Risk Atlas, a report published by Maplecroft. This could be because preparedness and emergency response to natural disasters have improved worldwide. But the report points out that equivalent measures to [...]
Findings of Japanese Parliamentary Panel’s Report on Fukushima Should be Warning to U.S. By J. Brian Meskill, student, University of Connecticut School of Law Recent reporting by the Huffington Post and Reuters, among other news outlets, summarized findings from a recent report issued by the Japanese parliamentary panel last week. The report found that the [...]
Why we support the Disability Integration and Coordination Improvement Act By, Roger Wieand, Skidmore College and Nita Narayan, Fordham Law School Assisted by Neil Brazer, American University Note: You can show your support for this Bill by signing a support statement here: The “Disability Integration and Coordination Improvement Act” (H.R. 2849) was introduced to Congress [...]
Actions Needed to Alleviate the Shortage of Air Tankers To Fight Forest Fires By Mingyang Sun, student, Fordham University School of Law While the Little Bear Fire in New Mexico is under control, other wildfires are still rampant. In Waldo Canyon, Colorado, the wildfire has destroyed 347 structures and a death was reported on June [...]
Unlearned Lessons Exacerbate Little Bear Forest Fire By J. Brian Meskill, student, University of Connecticut School of Law The Little Bear Fire near Ruidoso, New Mexico continues to burn but is slowing and is now 60 percent contained. The fire, covering almost 40,000 acres, has caused at least 3 injuries, consumed 252 structures, and has [...]
Feds Cut Nuclear Emergency Exercises, Avoid Public Scrutiny By Linda M. Lewis May 17, 2012 First published by Enformable Nuclear News on May 18, 2012 Not since the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina has the US federal government so callously ignored disaster red flags. Disregarding lessons of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, the Nuclear Regulatory Administration [...]
The Associated Press shed light on a new report by the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services exposing major gaps in nursing home preparedness. These gaps could lead to many of the same horrific events that followed Hurricane Katrina where “a Houston Chronicle investigation found that at least 139 nursing [...]
Contact: Ben Smilowitz Disaster Accountability Project 202-556-3023 ben@disasteraccountability.org For Immediate Release: Open Community Forum on Connecticut Power Disaster on Thursday in West Hartford Solutions! How can we strengthen our communities, towns and state to prevent the power disaster from reoccurring? Sponsored by: Disaster Accountability Project (http://www.disasteraccountability.org) Facilitated by: Mark Davis, Chief Capitol & Political Correspondent, [...]