In recent years, the world has seen both massive destruction caused by natural disasters and immense financial and physical support for the victims of these calamities. So that these natural hazards do not become manmade disasters, effective systems are required to identify needs, manage data, and help calibrate responses. If well designed, such systems can help coordinate the influx of aid to ensure the timely and efficient delivery of assistance to those who need it most. 'Data Against Natural Disasters' seeks to provide the analytical tools needed to enhance national capacity for disaster response. The editors and authors begin with an overview that summarizes key lessons learned form the six country case studies in the volume. Next, they outline the data needs that arise at different stages in the disaster response and explore the humanitarian community's efforts to discover more effective response mechanisms. The country case studies review the successes and failures of efforts to establish innovative monitoring systems in the aftermath of disasters in Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, Mozambique, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. 'Data Against Natural Disasters' will be useful to policy makers and others working in port-calamity situations who are seeking to design new monitoring systems or to improve existing ones for disaster response management.

On the morning of 9/11, the Port Authority Police Department was the first uniformed service to respond to the attack on the World Trade Center. When the towers collapsed, thirty-seven of its officers were killed -- the largest loss of law enforcement officers in U.S. history. That afternoon, Lieutenant William Keegan began the work of recovery. The FDNY and NYPD had the territory, but Keegan had the map. PAPD cops could stand on top of six stories of debris and point to where a stairwell had been; they used PATH tunnels to enter "the pile" from underneath. Closure shares many never-before-told stories, including how Keegan and his officers recovered 1,000 tons of gold and silver from a secret vault to keep the Commodities Exchange from crashing; discovered what appeared to be one of the plane's black boxes; and helped raise the inspirational steel beam cross that has become the site's icon. For nine brutal months, the men at Ground Zero wrestled with 1.8 million tons of shattered concrete, twisted steel, body parts, political pressure, and their own grief. Closure tells the unforgettable story of their sacrifice and valor, and how Keegan led the smallest of all the uniformed services at the site to become the most valuable.

This book offers cutting-edge thinking on contemporary urban spaces.The devastation brought upon New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent levee system failure has forced urban theorists to revisit the fundamental question of urban geography and planning: What is a city? Is it a place of memory embedded in architecture, a location in regional and global networks, or an arena wherein communities form and reproduce themselves?Planners, architects, policymakers, and geographers from across the political spectrum have weighed in on how best to respond to the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina. The twelve contributors to ""What Is a City?"" are a diverse group from the disciplines of anthropology, architecture, geography, philosophy, planning, public policy studies, and sociology, as well as community organizing. They believe that these conversations about the fate of New Orleans are animated by assumptions and beliefs about the function of cities in general.They unpack post-Katrina discourse, examining what expert and public responses tell us about current attitudes not just toward New Orleans, but toward cities. As volume coeditor Phil Steinberg points out in his introduction, ""Even before the floodwaters had subsided...scholars and planners were beginning to reflect on Hurricane Katrina and its disastrous aftermath, and they were beginning to ask bigger questions with implications for cities as a whole.""The experience of catastrophe forces us to reconsider not only the material but the abstract and virtual qualities of cities. It requires us to revisit how we think about, plan for, and live in them.

The first comprehensive examination of the relationship between war and public health, this book documents the public health consequences of war and describes what health professionals can do to minimize these consequences. It explores the effects of war on health, human rights, and the environment. The health and environmental impact of both conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons) is described in chapters that cover the consequences of their production, testing, maintenance, use, and disposal. Separate chapters cover especially vulnerable populations, such as women, children, and refugees. In-depth descriptions of specific military conflicts, including the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, and wars in Central America provide striking illustrations of the issues covered in other chapters. A series of chapters explores the roles of health professionals and of organizations during war, and in preventing war and its consequences. This revised second edition includes seven new chapters, including one on landmines by the Nobel Prize-winning founding director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

Rev. Emeka Obiezu, OSA has attained a remarkable achievement in his book. Both academics and workers in the field focusing on contemporary Africa, especially Nigeria, as well as those interested in our global reality can all find that Fr. Obiezu speaks clearly and urgently to them. I can think of only one audience who will not gladly welcome these well-researched, well-written pages--those people who now profit from an oppression that causes suffering for others. John Paul Szura, OSA, St. Augustine Center of Studies, Quezon City, Philippines What Emeka Obiezu offers with his particular type of analysis is a Christian political theology applicable to the specific situation of Nigeria, but whose implications are global as well. As I read him, Obiezu seems to be advocating for a more robust political theological action that blends the best of Christian theological views and values of compassion with a realistic approach to the actual situation in Nigeria. Marsha Hewitt, Professor of Ethics and Contemporary Theology, Trinity College, University of Toronto Towards a Politics Compassion. includes a wide range of reading in various different areas: philosophy and theology of suffering and compassion; socio-political theologies of liberation and current socio-political issues in Nigeria. It brings the areas of spirituality, political theology, and socio-moral thought into constructive and integrative dialogue. This is a significant contribution from a fine young scholar. Michael Stoeber, Professor of Spirituality and Pastoral Theology, Regis College, University of Toronto. Emeka's book, Towards a Politics of Compassion., exposes his dogged power of reasoning and down-to-earth response to duty. He typically makes a very strong case for the functionality of compassion in operative theology. Emeka's diligent analysis and illustration, makes Christ's participation in sinful humanity without being a sinner very lucid, and thus compels every reader to participate in the cause of poverty eradication in Nigeria and other lands. I am glad that it is coming to Nigeria now that we need such a powerful proposal to reinvent our nation Nigeria. Bartholomew Chidili, OSA, PhD, Professor of Religious Studies at Kaduna State University, Kaduna, Nigeria. Among other noticeable virtues of Towards a Political Compassion: Socio-political Dimensions of Christian Responses to Suffering are its simplicity of structure and clarity of focus. The case made on behalf of "politics of compassion" is done in the light of two viewpoints: (a) an explicit recognition of the inadequacy - even bankruptcy - of self-interest, ambition and force for achieving political and economic justice, and (b) it takes its stand on a Christian premise: that the "way" of Jesus is in fact the most promising 'way' for empirically healing and advancing genuine community at all levels of human and environmental relationships in Nigeria. Jack Costello, SJ, Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Regis College, University of Toronto Emeka Xris Obiezu, OSA, an Augustinian priest, is a doctoral student of Political Theology at Regis College, University of Toronto, Canada. He has special interest in issues that relate to the socio-political dimension of the mission of the Church especially the Church's relation with international organizations.

Events around the world continue to present challenges for first responders and mental health professionals. Natural and man-made disasters continue. Evidence mounts concerning potential events such as global warming and the effects this may have worldwide. Avian Flu remains a concern as do forms of biological terrorism and natural hazards such as tsunamis, floods, hurricanes and earthquakes. The 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka and Thailand continues to have a significant impact on that area of the world. Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue to impact those countries, the Middle East and the United States. Preparing our communities and families not only for deployments and support of those deployed and their families, but also for the aftermath and return of our military and National Guard personnel into our communities is important for all.

What can we expect from all of these? How do communities and first responders handle these? What role does mental health play? How do first responders and mental health professionals plan together for responding to future events and learning from past ones. Using a strategic planning approach, how do we identity potential threats and identify target populations and groups? What resources are available for which identified threats? How do we do such planning, how often, and how do we exercise such plans prior to events? What can we learn from such events and how do we incorporate what we learn into future planning?

It is crucial that response, resilience, recovery and follow-up be included in our planning. Additional variables important in responding include cultural knowledge and sensitivity. We need to prepare to respond appropriately within a culture not our own, whether locally, nationally, or internationally.

November 8-10, 2007, the Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute held their Annual Disaster Mental Health Conference in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The theme of this conference was: "From Crisis To Recovery: Resilience and Strategic Planning for the Future."
RM DMH Institute Press
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"Learning from the past and planning for the future"
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This volume makes a significant contribution to the crisis management literature. It also adds to our inchoate understanding of network governance: temporary teams and task forces, communities of practice, alliances, and virtual organizations. It hints that the distinction between networks and organizations may be somewhat spurious, a matter of degree rather than kind. Indeed, it seems that this distinction may derive more from mental models in which we consistently reify organizations than anything else. Finally, the volume emphasizes the functional importance of leadership in network governance and puzzles over its provision in the absence of hierarchy. As such, it adds to the contributions made by Marc Granovetter (1973), John Seeley Brown and Paul Duguid (1991), Bart Nooteboom (2000), Paul J. DiMaggio (2001), John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt (2001), Laurence O'Toole and Ken Meier (2004), and others, as well as Nancy Roberts' seminal work on wicked problems and hastily formed teams. The result is a product the editor and the contributors can be proud of. Overall, it is one that will edify, surprise, and delight its readers.

"[A] tightly crafted, very readable book . . . the best in-depth contemporary analysis we are going to get."--Stephen Flynn, The Washington Post When Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on August 29, 2005, federal and state officials were not prepared for the devastation it would bring. In this searing indictment of what went wrong, Christopher Cooper and Robert Block take readers inside FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security to reveal the inexcusable mismanagement during the crisis--the bad decisions that were made, the facts that were ignored, and the individuals who saw that the system was broken but did nothing to fix it.
In this award-winning and critically acclaimed book, Cooper and Block reconstruct the crucial days before and after the storm hit, laying bare the government's inability to respond to the most elemental needs. They also demonstrate how the Bush administration's obsessive focus on terrorist threats fatally undermined the government's ability to respond to natural disasters. The incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina is a wake-up call to all Americans, wherever they live, about how distressingly vulnerable we remain.

Chief Dewey Whetsell is a thirty-four year veteran with the forty-member Cordova (Alaska) Volunteer Fire Department providing structural, marine fire protection, underwater rescue/recovery, and Search and Rescue operations. He is a recipient of Alaska's highest fire service award. Chief Whetsell is past-president of the Alaska Fire Chiefs association and certified Level IV instructor. He authored the 160-hour Senior Fire Officer's Course covering NFPA-1021, among numerous other courses. At the invitation of the Alaska Departmetn of Emergency Services, Chief Whetsell represented the City of Cordova during the 1989 Exxon-Valdex oil spill and eventually was responsible for impementation of the Incident Command System in spill response plans by major oil companies shipping oil in Alaska waters.

"Measuring Disaster Preparedness" is the seminal work on using measurement to manage the disaster preparation process. Its audience is that diverse group of local leaders and public servants whom communities of various types and sizes will hold to account to plan for, mitigate, and if necessary, respond to natural--and unnatural--disasters.

Written by a seasoned expert with almost two decades of institutional and field experience in indicator development and application, "Measuring Disaster Preparedness "describes the elements of performance measurement, and provides guidance on how to manage the indicator development process, summarize data, and use indicator data to improve readiness.

"Measuring Disaster Preparedness" is an essential resource for all who are involved in working to strengthen the resilience of their communities in the face of unpredictable disasters, including terrorist acts.

Out of sight of most Americans, global corporations like Nestle, Suez, and Veolia are rapidly buying up our local water sources--lakes, streams, and springs--and taking control of public water services. In their drive to privatize and commodify water, they have manipulated and bought politicians, clinched backroom deals, and subverted the democratic process by trying to deny citizens a voice in fundamental decisions about their most essential public resource.

The authors' PBS documentary "Thirst" showed how communities around the world are resisting the privatization and commodification of water. "Thirst," the book, picks up where the documentary left off, revealing the emergence of controversial new water wars in the United States and showing how communities here are fighting this battle, often against companies headquartered overseas.

Read a review...http: //www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/18/RVGS9OHPKT1.DTL

This book provides information about training for mental health professionals and first responders who work with victims of disaster related stress and trauma. It helps prepare them to relate with disaster victims and co-workers. Warning signs and symptoms are explored together with stages, strategies and interventions for recovery.
The book will introduce you to disasters, the community response, the roles of first responders, Disaster Mental Health Services and Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) responders and teams. It provides a brief overview of these and their roles in responding to the needs of both victims and disaster workers. The role of CISM is presented and discussed both for disasters and other critical incidents. This includes discussion about war, terrorism and follow-up responses by mental health professionals. The book is designed to help readers identify appropriate methods for activating Disaster Mental Health Crisis Intervention Teams for disaster mental health services for victims, co-workers, and self.
The content includes general theory and models of Disaster Mental Health, CISM, crisis intervention techniques commonly used in these situations, supportive research, and practice of approaches used in responding to the victims, workers and communities affected by disasters, critical incidents and terrorism threats and events.
What People are Saying About "Crisis Intervention Training for Disaster Workers"
"Provides a breadth and depth of knowledge as well as practical tools for beginner to expert. Should be required reading for all disaster responders, and, especially, mental health professionals considering disaster work."
-Bruce L. Andrews, MS, LPC (ARC Disaster Mental Provider/Instructor)
"This text serves as a wonderful adjunct and lead into the discipline of CISM. It provides a brief survey of disaster mental health and disaster mental health services."
-Thomas Mitchell, LPC
Rocky Mountain Disaster Mental Health Institute Press
"Learning from the past and planning for the future"
RMRInstitute.org

Recent years have seen an extraordinary number of major disasters, critical incidents and other events that have had major impacts on our world. The 2004 tsunami, hurricanes Rita and Katrina, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan affect millions of lives daily. Potential events such as Avian Flu pandemic, global warming and the increasing threats of spreading unrest in the Middle East are concerns that weigh heavily on us all.

November 8-11, 2006, the Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute held their Annual four-day Disaster Mental Health Conference. The theme of the conference was "TAKING CHARGE IN TROUBLED TIMES: Response, Resilience, Recovery and Follow-up." This edition contains the major papers presented at the conference and summaries of additional presentations. They address some of the major crisis events confronting our societies in recent years, namely, large disasters such as hurricanes Katrina and Rita; case studies such as Abu Ghraib, and traumatic events such as a night club suicide bombing, the role of cultural sensitivity and ethics in disaster settings, resilience, and the importance of planning, education and taking care of our first responders and mental health professionals. An additional concern with information includes information about preparation of communities and families for deployment and return of military personnel. The importance of planning for how mental health personnel can respond in the event of an Avian Flu Pandemic is also discussed. Presenters are drawn from researchers and responders from Wyoming, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

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The Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute is a 501(c)3 Non-profit Organization

Disasters-natural ones, such as hurricanes, floods, or earthquakes, and unnatural ones such as terrorist attacks-are part of the American experience in the twenty-first century. The challenges of preparing for these events, withstanding their impact, and rebuilding communities afterward require strategic responses from different levels of government in partnership with the private sector and in accordance with the public will. Disasters have a disproportionate effect on urban places. Dense by definition, cities and their environs suffer great damage to their complex, interdependent social, environmental, and economic systems. Social and medical services collapse. Long-standing problems in educational access and quality become especially acute. Local economies cease to function. Cultural resources disappear. The plight of New Orleans and several smaller Gulf Coast cities exemplifies this phenomenon. This volume examines the rebuilding of cities and their environs after a disaster and focuses on four major issues: making cities less vulnerable to disaster, reestablishing economic viability, responding to the permanent needs of the displaced, and recreating a sense of place. Success in these areas requires that priorities be set cooperatively, and this goal poses significant challenges for rebuilding efforts in a democratic, market-based society. Who sets priorities and how? Can participatory decision-making be organized under conditions requiring focused, strategic choices? How do issues of race and class intersect with these priorities? Should the purpose of rebuilding be restoration or reformation? Contributors address these and other questions related to environmental conditions, economic imperatives, social welfare concerns, and issues of planning and design in light of the lessons to be drawn from Hurricane Katrina.

This book is the only one that will take you inside the psychological aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Each heart-wrenching tale will leave you shaking your head and counting your blessings. The testimonies are forthright and will allow you to see beyond the picture that the media has painted of them. They're still in shock, still without official word of where some loved ones are, and to add insult to injury, they're having to make defiant declarations that they deserve better than what they've been getting.

Understanding of Operational Counter Terrorism is one serious effort to lay out a comprehensive strategy of how to deal with a whole gamut of possible terrorist incidents by using a language that any person or first responders like policemen, security personnel, firemen, paramedics, etc. can understand. This guide covers everything from bombings and hostage- taking, to NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) Terrorism, what needs to be done before, during, and after an event. This manual combines what minimally needs to be understood about Operational Counter- Terrorism by the government- level policy maker, while at the same time helping the personnel on the first responder level who are planning to cope with what must at least initially seem like an overwhelming attack. Terrorism is global and any part of this guide can easily be adapted and translated to any region, law and government in the world. This manual should make clear that the only way, to effectively deal with terrorism is to have a thorough understanding of its present-day characteristics such as who is involved and what weapons and tactics are the terrorists likely to be using. their tool boxes; what works and what is required; what new capabilities need to be developed in order to face not only today's terrorist, but also tomorrow's as well.

Catastrophic risks are much greater than is commonly appreciated. Collision with an asteroid, runaway global warming, voraciously replicating nanomachines, a pandemic of gene-spliced smallpox launched by bioterrorists, and a world-ending accident in a high-energy particle accelerator, are among the possible extinction events that are sufficiently likely to warrant careful study. How should we respond to events that, for a variety of psychological and cultural reasons, we find it hard to wrap our minds around? Posner argues that realism about science and scientists, innovative applications of cost-benefit analysis, a scientifically literate legal profession, unprecedented international cooperation, and a pragmatic attitude toward civil liberties are among the keys to coping effectively with the catastrophic risks.

"Disasters freely roam and reign in India. This is no longer the country where its people can claim a safe living. What is the aetiology that brews disasters? Which are the processes that perpetuate this rude stream of life? Who are at the sharp edge of disasters? What explains the spatial manifestation of disasters? Addressing these and similar other issues, the studies in this book demyth the popular belief that disasters are acts of nature. Mapping the space of disasters the book lays its foundation on a bedrock of facts that includes over 50 maps and almost 100 tables. Responding to a felt need to reach out to the victims of disasters in India, the studies take on the city and its dweller, the industry and its worker, the rail network and its passengers. The book does not claim that every Indian is a victim of disaster but it does reiterate the strong potential and eventuality of their becoming one. The grim reality exposed is that we the people of India have converted India into a land ensnared with disasters. CONTENTS 1. A Grim Reality 2. Delhi: A Disaster Prone National Capital 3. Greater Mumbai: Teaming with Disasters 4. Kolkata: A City on the Brink 5. Bhuj Earthquake: Rural-Urban Differentiation 6. Problematic City Space: Relocation of Hazardous Industries 7. Indian Railways: On Wheels of Death"

This topical text explores how the risk of disasters can be reduced by structural and non structural measures with detailed, comprehensive strategies.

"This book will have significant impact in film and media studies because Kaplan so skillfully 'translates' the most interesting work done in trauma studies and takes it in new and original directions. It is illuminating, lucid, and persuasive." --Patrice Petro, author of Aftershocks of the New: Feminism and Film History "This book is an engaging read--a real page turner--not only because of its conversational style and beautiful prose but also because it addresses some of the most complex psychological issues facing our culture today." --Kelly Oliver, W. Alton Jones Professor, Vanderbilt University It may be said that every trauma is two traumas or ten thousand--depending on the number of people involved. How one experiences and reacts to an event is unique and depends largely on one's direct or indirect positioning, personal and psychic history, and individual memories. But equally important to the experience of trauma are the broader political and cultural contexts within which a catastrophe takes place and how it is "managed" by institutional forces, including the media. In Trauma Culture, E. Ann Kaplan explores the relationship between the impact of trauma on individuals and on entire cultures and nations. Arguing that humans possess a compelling need to draw meaning from personal experience and to communicate what happens to others, she examines the artistic, literary, and cinematic forms that are often used to bridge the individual and collective experiences. Case studies, including Sigmund Freud's Moses and Monotheism, Marguerite Duras's La Douleur, Sarah Kofman's Rue Ordener, Rue Labat, Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound, and Tracey Moffatt's Night Cries, reveal how empathy can be fostered without the sensationalistic element that typifies the media. From World War II to 9/11, this passionate study eloquently navigates the contentious debates surrounding trauma theory and persuasively advocates the responsible sharing and translating of catastrophe. E. Ann Kaplan is a professor of English at SUNY-Stony Brook, where she founded and directs the Humanities Instiute. She was recently the president of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.

"The First 72 Hours" is the seminal anthology of the perspectives of public and private sector leaders who came together after September 11, 2001 to design more disaster-resilient communities. Under the umbrella of the Suburban Emergency Management Project, these leaders learned from national experts and one another that all disasters are intensely local at first and that most communities are "on their own" immediately following disaster impact--often for as long as 72 hours. This new awareness mandated updating strategies to improve disaster preparedness, particularly in light of the threat of terrorism.

A wide gamut of perspectives are laid out in the book, including those of doctors and hospitals, city managers, police officers, firefighters, paramedics, American Red Cross volunteers, hospital accreditors, the media, business managers, utility companies, emergency managers, public health officials, academics, and elected public officials. In their own words, these individuals convey the importance of learning how to map the myriad organizations involved in local disaster preparedness and response; analyzing, refining and rehearsing local disaster roles; and getting to know individual personalities when in specific roles.

"The First 72 Hours" is an essential resource for professionals and private citizens alike who want to know what kinds of questions must be asked and answered to better prepare their communities to survive future disaster.

"There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all."--Hamlet V, II, William Shakespeare