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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Social impact of disasters
The Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), under Presidential
Executive Order 13407, has clear directives to: Consult,
coordinate, and cooperate with the private sector, including
communications media organizations, and Federal, State,
territorial, tribal and local governmental authorities, including
emergency response providers; Ensure the conduct of public
education efforts so that State, territorial, tribal, and local
governments, the private sector, and the American people understand
the functions of the public alert and warning system and how to
access, use, and respond to information from the public alert and
warning system; and, Ensure the conduct of training, tests, and
exercises for the public alert and warning system. Additionally, in
the 2009 General Accounting Office (GAO) report, Improved Planning
and Coordination Necessary for Modernization and Integration of
Public Alert and Warning System, the GAO recommended "increased
coordination and consultation with partners." The IPAWS Program
Management Office (PMO) enthusiastically accepted the challenge
evidenced by its "Strategic Plan for the Integrated Public Alert
and Warning Systems (IPAWS) Program - June 2010" ("Strategic
Plan"). This IPAWS Outreach Plan establishes IPAWS' communication
and partner engagement strategies to effectively accomplish this
mission, vision, and goals stated in the IPAWS Strategic Plan. It
also helps meet Executive Order 13407 directive and implements
recommendations from the GAO report. The Integrated Public Alert
and Warning System (IPAWS) program will modernize and enhance alert
and warning delivery to the American public. Established by
Presidential Executive Order 13407, the IPAWS Program brings
together existing and new public alert and warning systems and
technologies in order to provide government alerting authorities at
all levels a broader range of message options and communications
pathways. During an emergency, the IPAWS will facilitate timely
delivery of alert and warning information over more media to more
people before, during, and after a disaster. In the event of a
national emergency, the President will be able to use the IPAWS to
send a message to the American people quickly and simultaneously
through multiple communications pathways. The IPAWS will also
provide Federal, State, local, tribal and territorial governments
with capability to integrate their alert and warning systems with
the national alert and warning infrastructure. Through this, the
IPAWS will increase resilience of local systems and provide
additional means by which life-saving information is distributed
during a crisis. The IPAWS Program Management Office (PMO) is
partnering with recognized government and industry leaders and
technical experts to ensure the IPAWS program incorporates the
latest technologies and is practical for prospective users.
Partners include Federal Governance and Legislative, Federal,
State, local, tribal, and territorial Alerting Authorities, Private
Sector Industry, Non-Profit and Advocacy, and the American People.
The effectiveness of the program will be realized through a
comprehensive outreach approach using strategic communications and
robust partnership engagement coupled with integrated training and
exercises. The IPAWS PMO will also reach out to the American people
to ensure they understand how the IPAWS functions, what it is for,
what it provides, and how they can "Get Alerts, Stay Alive."
In 1985, Congress directed the Department of Defense (DoD) to
dispose of its lethal unitary (pre-mixed) chemical agents and
munitions while providing "maximum protection for the environment,
the general public, and the personnel involved." In 1987, the U.S.
Army (Army) released a draft Emergency Response Concept Plan
(ERCP), which presented a basis for the development of local
emergency response programs and examined various methods of
emergency planning. The Army also prepared a Chemical Stockpile
Disposal Implementation Plan and requested funds to implement
enhanced emergency preparedness on-post and off-post for all eight
chemical stockpile sites. FEMA joined the Army in implementing
CSEPP through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in August
1988. This MOU was reaffirmed in 1993 and revised in 1997 and 2004.
CSEPP is a project conducted under the chemical demilitarization
program, a major defense acquisition program executed by the U.S.
Army. CSEPP augments the Army's installation chemical accident and
incident response capability. The Army is responsible for
programming and budgeting validated CSEPP requirements as developed
by the State and local governments and validated by FEMA. The
Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Eliminating Chemical
Weapons (DASA ECW]) is responsible for overseeing the CSEPP
execution, to include coordination with Congress, FEMA, and the
Citizen Advisory Commissions. The Chemical Materials Agency
executes the day-to-day management of CSEPP, to include upgrading
on-post response capabilities; developing on-post preparedness
plans; conducting on-post training; automation; and integrating on-
and off-post capabilities. FEMA is responsible for off-post
emergency preparedness and works with the States and local
governments in the development of preparedness plans, conducting
necessary training, administering cooperative agreements, and
upgrading response capabilities. Off-post efforts include command
and control, public awareness of protective actions, communication,
and alert notification systems (e.g., computer hardware and
software, telephone and radio upgrades, sirens, and tone alert
radios). FEMA assists the States and local governments in planning
and validating their CSEPP requirements and distributes funds to
the States under cooperative agreements. The States and local
governments execute plans to protect the public and provide
financial and performance reports, addressing the capability
improvements realized through those funds. While the likelihood of
a chemical stockpile incident with off-post consequences is
considered remote, the Army and FEMA recognize that the impact of
such an event could be significant. CSEPP Strategic Plan states the
basic goal of CSEPP is "to mitigate the effects of an accident to
the maximum extent practicable." Thus, CSEPP has two basic
objectives: 1. To establish and enhance emergency preparedness in
nearby communities, including community alert and warning systems
and protective action strategies. 2. To institute protective
measures and hazard mitigation strategies at the chemical stockpile
sites (the Army installations) to lessen the vulnerability of the
storage structures and their contents to any internally or
externally generated accidents.
This guide is intended to promote the effectiveness of FEMA
incident operations by standardizing the incident action planning
process. The guide explains the ICS incident action planning
process, describes how FEMA applies it on all FEMA incidents,
defines the specific roles and responsibilities of the various
players, and establishes standards for incident action planning on
FEMA incidents. This guide also communicates to FEMA's partners the
details of how the agency conducts the incident action planning
process. This guide is also intended to serve as a reference for
incident personnel and to provide the basis for FEMA incident
action planning staffing and exercising. Finally, this guide
informs the required training, position task books, and development
of courses for the positions of the FEMA Qualification System. The
Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) primary mission is to
reduce the loss of life and property and protect the Nation from
all hazards. When FEMA becomes involved in an incident, it is
because the scope and scale of the incident necessitates Federal
assistance. When FEMA is engaged, officials from the State and
local government are also involved along with nongovernmental
organizations (NG0s), elements of the private sector, and-more than
likely-other Federal departments and agencies. Ensuring that the
efforts of all players are coordinated and synchronized to achieve
the best results is the job of incident management. It is also the
reason that the National Incident Management System and the
Incident Command System (ICS) exist. The incident action planning
process provides a tool to synchronize operations at the incident
level and ensures that incident operations are conducted in support
of incident objectives. The iterative incident action planning
process provides FEMA and all interagency partners involved in
incident management operations the primary tool for managing
incidents. A disciplined system of planning phases and
collaboration sessions fosters partnerships and clearly focuses
incident operations. Because incidents in which FEMA is engaged are
complex and intergovernmental and interagency, applying the
incident action planning process accurately, consistently, and
completely is essential to the success of incident operations.
Disciplined application of the incident action planning process
produces positive effects on incidents of all size and scope and
maintains the otherwise perishable planning skills of FEMA
personnel. While the process described in this guide outlines how
FEMA as a part of the whole community executes incident action
planning, those involved in a FEMA response and recovery must
recognize that it will, in all probability, not be the only
incident action planning process being executed. For example, local
and municipal organizations may develop IAPs to guide the actions
of first responders. For a catastrophic incident there may be
hundreds of concurrent incident action planning efforts taking
place simultaneously. The joint IAP that State and Federal incident
management personnel develop must support all local IAPs and
synchronize those at the State and Federal level.
This primer, FEMA 429, Insurance, Finance, and Regulation Primer
for Terrorism Risk Management in Buildings, is a part of the
Multihazard Risk Management Series of publications that addresses
terrorism risk in buildings. The objective of this primer is to
introduce the building insurance, finance, and regulatory
communities to the issue of terrorism risk management in buildings
and the tools currently available to manage that risk. Insurance,
finance and regulation are considered the 'change levers' of the
built environment. They are the principal mechanisms for the
evaluation and management of risk exposure in buildings. These
change levers play a critical role in introducing and maintaining
standards for risk management and public safety.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has developed this
publication, Site and Urban Design for Security: Guidance against
Potential Terrorist Attacks, to provide information and design
concepts for the protection of buildings and occupants, from site
perimeters to the faces of buildings. The intended audience
includes the design community of architects, landscape architects,
engineers and other consultants working for private institutions,
building owners and managers and state and local government
officials concerned with site planning and design. Immediately
after September 11, 2001, extensive site security measures were put
in place, particularly in the two target cities of New York and
Washington. However, many of these security measures were applied
on an ad hoc basis, with little regard for their impacts on
development pat-terns and community character. Property owners,
government entities and others erected security barriers to limit
street access and installed a wide variety of security devices on
sidewalks, buildings, and transportation facilities. The short-term
impacts of these measures were certainly justified in the immediate
aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001, but traffic
patterns, pedestrian mobility, and the vitality of downtown street
life were increasingly jeopardized. Hence, while the main objective
of this manual is to reduce physical damage to buildings and
related infrastructure through site design, the purpose of FEMA 430
is also to ensure that security design provides careful attention
to urban design values by maintaining or even enhancing the site
amenities and aesthetic quality in urban and semi-urban areas. This
publication focuses on site design aimed to protect buildings from
attackers using vehicles carrying explosives. These represent the
most serious form of attack. Large trucks enable terrorists to
carry very large amounts of explosives that are capable of causing
casualties and destruction over a range of many hundreds of yards.
Perimeter barriers and protective design within the site can
greatly reduce the possibility of vehicle penetration. Introduction
of smaller explosive devices, carried in suitcases or backpacks,
must be prevented by pedestrian screening methods. Site design for
security, however, may impact the function and amenity of the site,
and barrier and access control design may impact the quality of the
public space within the adjacent neighborhood and community. The
designer's role is to ensure that public amenity and the aesthetics
of the site surroundings are kept in balance with security needs.
This publication contains a number of examples in which the
security/ amenity balance has been maintained through careful
design and collaboration between designers and security experts.
Much security design work since September 11, 2001, has been
applied to federal and state projects, and these provide many of
the design examples shown. At present, federal government projects
are subject to mandatory security guidelines that do not apply to
private sector projects, but these guidelines provide a valuable
information resource in the absence of comparable guidelines or
regulations applying to private development. Operations and
management issues and the detailed design of access control,
intrusion alarm systems, electronic perimeter protection, and
physical security devices, such as locking devices, are the
province of the security consultant and are not covered here,
except as they may impact the conceptual design of the site.
Limited information only is provided on some aspects of chemical,
biological and radiological (CBR) attacks that are significant for
site designers; extensive discussion of approaches to these threats
can be found in FEMA 426.
This manual is intended to assist office building owners' personnel
responsible for funding and operating existing office buildings
across the United States. This publication and its companion
documents are the products of a Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) project to develop the concept of incremental seismic
rehabilitation-that is, building modifications that reduce seismic
risk by improving seismic performance and that are implemented over
an extended period, often in conjunction with other repair,
maintenance, or capital improvement activities. The manual was
developed after the project team analyzed the management practices
of office building owners of varying sizes located in various
seismic zones in different parts of the United States. It focuses
on the identified concerns and decision making practices of owners
and managers of Class A, B, or C buildings, be they REITs, pension
funds, partnerships, individuals, or other types of owners.
Earthquakes are a serious threat to office safety and pose a
significant potential liability to office building owners. Office
buildings in 39 states are vulnerable to earthquake damage. Unsafe
existing buildings expose office building owners and tenants to the
following risks: Death and injury of tenants, occupants, and
visitors; Damage to or collapse of buildings; Damage to and loss of
furnishings, equipment, and other building contents; Disruption of
office functions and building operations. The greatest earthquake
risk is associated with existing office buildings that were
designed and constructed before the use of modern building codes.
For many parts of the United States, this includes buildings built
as recently as the early 1990s. Although vulnerable office
buildings need to be replaced with safe, new construction or
rehabilitated to correct deficiencies, for many building owners new
construction is limited, at times severely, by budgetary
constraints, and seismic rehabilitation is expensive and
disruptive. However, incremental seismic rehabilitation, an
innovative approach that phases in a series of discrete
rehabilitation actions over a period of several years, is an
effective, affordable, and non-disruptive strategy for responsible
mitigation action. It can be integrated efficiently into ongoing
facility maintenance and capital improvement operations to minimize
cost and disruption. The strategy of incremental seismic
rehabilitation makes it possible to get started now on improving
earthquake safety in your office building inventory. This manual
provides owners of office buildings, be they Real Estate Investment
Trusts (REITs), pension funds, partnerships, individuals, or other
forms of ownership, with the information necessary to assess the
seismic vulnerability of their buildings and to implement a program
of incremental seismic rehabilitation for those buildings.
Earthquakes are a serious threat to safety in multifamily apartment
buildings and pose a significant potential liability to building
owners. Multifamily buildings in 39 states are vulnerable to
earthquake damage. Unsafe existing buildings expose multifamily
building owners and tenants to the following risks: Death and
injury of tenants, occupants, and visitors; Damage to or collapse
of buildings; Damage to and loss of furnishings, equipment, and
other building contents; Disruption of rental and occupancy
functions and other building operations. The greatest earthquake
risk is associated with existing multifamily buildings that were
designed and constructed before the use of modern building codes.
For many parts of the United States, this includes buildings built
as recently as the early 1990s. Although vulnerable multifamily
buildings need to be replaced with safe, new construction or
rehabilitated to correct deficiencies, for many building owners new
construction is limited, at times severely, by budgetary
constraints, and seismic rehabilitation is expensive and
disruptive. However, incremental seismic rehabilitation, proposed
in this manual, is an innovative approach that phases in a series
of discrete rehabilitation actions over a period of several years.
It is an effective, affordable, and non-disruptive strategy for
responsible mitigation actions that can be integrated efficiently
into ongoing facility maintenance and capital improvement
operations to minimize cost and disruption. This manual and its
companion documents are the products of a Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) project to develop the concept of
incremental seismic rehabilitation-that is, building modifications
that reduce seismic risk by improving seismic performance and that
are implemented over an extended period, often in conjunction with
other repair, maintenance, or capital improvement activities. It
provides owners of Class A, B, or C multifamily buildings, be they
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), pension funds, partnerships,
individuals, or other forms of ownership, with the information
necessary to assess the seismic vulnerability of their buildings
and to implement a program of incremental seismic rehabilitation
for those buildings.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) developed FEMA 459,
Incremental Protection for Existing Commercial Buildings from
Terrorist Attack, to provide guidance to owners of existing
commercial buildings and their architects and engineers on security
and operational enhancements to address vulnerabilities to
explosive blasts and chemical, biological, and radiological
hazards. It also addresses how to integrate these enhancements into
the ongoing building maintenance and capital improvement programs.
These enhancements are intended to mitigate or eliminate long-term
risk to people and property. FEMA's Risk Management Series
publications addressing security risks are based on two core
documents: FEMA 426, Reference Manual to Mitigate Potential
Terrorist Attacks Against buildings, and FEMA 452, Risk Assessment:
A How-To Guide to Mitigate Potential Terrorist Attacks Against
Buildings. FEMA 426 provides guidance to the building science
community of architects and engineers on reducing physical damage
caused by terrorist assaults to buildings, related infrastructure,
and people. FEMA 452 outlines methods for identifying the critical
assets and functions within buildings, determining the potential
threats to those assets, and assessing the building's
vulnerabilities to those threats. This assessment of risks
facilitates hazard mitigation decision-making. Specifically, the
document addresses methods for reducing physical damage to
structural and nonstructural components of buildings and related
infrastructure and reducing resultant casualties during
conventional bomb attacks, as well as attacks involving chemical,
biological, and radiological agents. FEMA 459 can be used in
conjunction with FEMA 452. This manual presents an integrated,
incremental rehabilitation approach to implementing the outcomes of
a risk assessment completed in accordance with FEMA 452, Risk
Assessment: A How-To Guide to Mitigate Potential Terrorist Attacks
Against Building. This approach is intended to minimize disruption
to building operations and control costs for existing commercial
buildings. The integrated incremental approach to risk reduction in
buildings was initially developed in relation to seismic risk and
was first articulated in FEMA's Risk Management Series in the
widely disseminated FEMA 395, Incremental Seismic Rehabilitation of
School Buildings (K-12), published in June 2003. In 2004 and 2005,
FEMA also published Incremental Seismic Rehabilitation manuals
(FEMA 396-400) for hospitals, office buildings, multifamily
apartments, retail buildings, and hotels and motels. This manual
outlines an approach to incremental security enhancement in four
types of existing commercial buildings: office buildings, retail
buildings, multifamily apartment buildings, and hotel and motel
buildings. It addresses both physical and operational enhancements
that reduce building vulnerabilities to blasts and chemical,
biological, and radiological attacks, within the constraints of the
existing site conditions and building configurations.
The area within the Central United States (CUS) (i.e., Alabama,
Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi and
Tennessee) known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) is at risk
for experiencing a major earthquake. Although the CUS is not
traditionally thought of as an earthquake-prone zone, the
scientific community agrees that this area is a seismically active
zone. To educate the residents of these states, the Central United
States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC), with support from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), conducted six months of
outreach from December 2010 to May 2011. This outreach
(collectively referred to as ''Earthquake Outreach'') comprised
several major initiatives, such as the anniversary of the 1811-1812
New Madrid earthquakes, the first Great Central U.S. ShakeOut and
the 2011 National Level Exercise (NLE). The outreach from all these
initiatives is collectively referred to as ''Earthquake Outreach''
throughout this report. To measure the effectiveness of this
outreach, to gauge residents' current preparedness behaviors and
attitudes regarding the risk of experiencing an earthquake and to
provide recommendations for increasing preparedness, FEMA's
National Preparedness Assessment Division developed the 2011 FEMA
Central States Disaster and Earthquake Preparedness Survey (2011
FEMA CUS Earthquake Survey). FEMA administered the 2011 FEMA CUS
Earthquake Survey to 3,211 respondents from the CUS states through
a telephone interview, asking respondents about the following areas
of interest: Perceptions of the likelihood of an earthquake;
Participation in earthquake preparedness drills and discussions
about earthquake preparedness; Preparedness for an earthquake;
Awareness of earthquake preparedness activities and events; and
Understanding of the protective actions to take during an
earthquake. Enclosed is a summary of the findings as well as
recommendations for future outreach efforts. The findings are
broken down into six basic sections. Several of these sections
include comparisons between different groups, with the most
prevalent being respondents who were aware of Earthquake Outreach
(Outreach Aware) compared to those respondents who were not aware
of Earthquake Outreach (Not Outreach Aware). Residence within and
residence outside of the NMSZ are also used as comparison groups,
as this comparison provides the unique opportunity to assess the
preparedness of those individuals who are in the area most at risk
of an earthquake. In addition, several of the questions included in
the 2011 FEMA CUS Earthquake Survey were also in the 2011 and 2009
FEMA National Household Surveys. Where available, comparisons to
these data are made, as well.
This Annex to the 2012 Federal Interagency Response Plan -
Hurricane, describes a concept of operations implementing a
paradigm shift for response and recovery operations which focuses
on transitioning 500,000 eligible households from sheltering to
temporary housing and support for their transition to sustainable
housing following a catastrophic hurricane. The concepts and
options found in this Annex focus on increasing capacity and
adjusting timelines to improve efficiency of transitioning
households out of congregate and noncongregate sheltering to
temporary housing or directly into long-term sustainable or
permanent housing. This Annex also identifies the considerations
necessary to implement options in the most efficient and effective
manner possible by working with the whole community as described in
A Whole Community Approach to Emergency Management: Principles,
Themes, and Pathways for Action. Emphasis of recovery support will
initially be conducted in the least impacted areas and progress
inward toward the most heavily impacted area as accessibility
allows. Recovery support for survivors living in the most heavily
impacted area will emphasize sheltering/temporary housing solutions
provided in locations outside of the impacted area. Life-sustaining
support for essential personnel performing critical functions and
recovery operations will be provided in all areas. This Annex is
currently built around FEMA's plans to increase its housing
capabilities. Implementation of the concepts presented in this
document will be coordinated with external partners for continued
development. The information presented in this Annex provides the
foundation for Phase I and sets the stage for Phase II catastrophic
planning. Phase I encompasses mass care and sheltering. Phase II
will focus on the Whole Community, including other Federal agency
participation, resources, and authorities, in the development of a
plan to provide long-term sustainable or permanent housing. These
Phases are illustrated in Figure 4 on page 14. The planning
concepts and options provided herein are guidelines only. Every
disaster will be unique in scope and magnitude. The needs of a
particular community will drive the response and recovery actions.
The federal government helps states and localities to prepare for
disasters by providing financial and technical assistance for
emergency planning and training, conducting exercises of plans, and
building and maintaining an emergency management infrastructure. In
a catastrophic or major disaster incident, the National Response
Plan, a national approach to domestic incident management, will be
activated. This interagency plan describes the resources that
federal agencies can mobilize to support initial emergency
functions and how they will integrate with state, local, private
sector, and non-governmental resources. It outlines planning
assumptions, policies, a concept of operations, and organizational
structures. Disaster Assistance: A Guide to Recovery Programs
supports the National Response Plan as a resource for federal,
state, local, and non-governmental officials. It contains brief
descriptions and contact information for federal programs that may
be able to provide disaster recovery assistance to eligible
applicants. The programs described in this guide may all be of
assistance during disaster incident recovery. Some are available
only after a presidential declaration of disaster, but others are
available without a declaration. Please see the individual program
descriptions for details. A governor may request a presidential
declaration in the event of a disaster incident in which state and
local emergency resources are overwhelmed. The request must satisfy
the provisions of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and
Emergency Assistance Act, as amended, which is the primary
legislative authority for the federal government to assist State
and local governments in carrying out their responsibilities for
disaster response and recovery. This Guide presents an array of
programs that may be of assistance during disaster recovery,
depending upon the circumstances, community needs, and available
resources. The purpose of this guide is to provide basic
information about programs of assistance available to individuals,
businesses, and public entities after a disaster incident. These
programs help individuals cope with their losses, and affected
businesses and public entities restore their structures and
operations. The information is intended to serve as a starting
point for disaster workers and local, state, and federal officials
to locate sources of help as they seek more definitive information,
such as eligibility criteria and application processes. Included
are programs that make financial assistance available, as well as
those that provide technical assistance and/or goods and other
services. The program summaries in this guide evolved from an
initial compilation of programs obtained from the Catalog of
Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA), the compendium of financial and
non-financial programs throughout the Federal Government that
provides assistance or benefits to the American public. The
relevant agencies reviewed, revised, and added to the summaries to
reflect programs that are specifically intended to apply to
disaster recovery and regular agency programs that, in special
circumstances, may support disaster recovery.
The Extension Agent's Handbook for Emergency Preparedness and
Response can be a valuable response tool in times of emergency or
as an aid in preparedness education activities. The Handbook is
divided into two parts to provide the information you need in an
easy-to-use format. The first section of the Handbook, General
Family Preparedness, provides basic information you may need to
access quickly in any disaster or emergency situation. It also may
be used as a preparedness education tool for the public. The second
section of the Handbook covers 10 disaster specific situations. For
the purposes of this manual, a disaster is any event which
drastically affects a person's life or livelihood. Floods, fires,
hurricanes, tornadoes, winter storms, earthquakes, droughts and
volcanic eruptions are considered to be natural disasters, events
over which one usually has no control. Radiological and hazardous
materials accidents may be caused by the failure of people to
maintain control over the operation, transportation or storage of
certain materials. In addition to an overview of the disaster, each
section provides a series of preparedness measures and
post-disaster responses that should be taken in conjunction with
those outlined in the General Family Preparedness section. This
handbook is not intended to cover every situation. It provides
basic information you will need for a disaster situation and early
post-disaster response. Because every community is different,
special consideration for the local area should be taken into
account along with the information provided in the Handbook.
One of the goals of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
and the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) is to
encourage design and building practices that address the earthquake
hazard and minimize the resulting risk of damage and injury.
Publication of the 2009 edition of the NEHRP Recommended Seismic
Provisions for New Buildings and Other Structures (FEMA P-750)
reaffirms FEMA's ongoing support of efforts to achieve this goal.
First published in 1985, the 2009 edition of the Provisions marks
the seventh in a series of updates to the document and several
complementary publications. FEMA is proud to have sponsored this
project conducted by the Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC) of
National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) and continues to
encourage the widespread dissemination and voluntary use of this
state-of-art consensus resource document. In contrast to the
earlier editions of the Provisions which resulted from three-year
update projects, the 2009 edition is the first resulting from a
five-year update effort that allowed the BSSC's Provisions Update
Committee (PUC) to make some major changes in both the substance
and the format of the Provisions document. The most significant
change involves the adoption by reference of the national consensus
design loads standard, ASCE/SEI 7-05, Minimum Design Loads for
Buildings and Other Structures, including the related consensus
standards referenced therein and Supplements 1 and 2. Part 1 of
this document includes consensus-approved modifications of the
seismic requirements in the standard. Among these modifications is
the adoption of new seismic design maps based on seismic hazard
maps issued in 2008 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) along with
some design-related adjustments. Another major change has been made
to the accompanying Commentary, previously issued as a separate
volume but now included as Part 2 of the 2009 Provisions. The
content of the Commentary has been completely rewritten to provide
users with an up-to-date, user friendly explanation of how to
design using the Provisions and the reference standard. Part 3 of
the 2009 Provisions consists of a series of resource papers
intended to clarify aspects of the Provisions, stimulate
consideration of and feedback from the design community on new
seismic design concepts and procedures, and/or encourage the
development and adoption of new requirements in ASCE/SEI 7 and the
standards referenced therein. Thus, the 2009 Provisions serves as a
national resource intended for use by both design professionals and
the standards- and codes-development community in fostering
development of a built environment designed and constructed to
protect building occupants from loss of life and serious injury and
to reduce the total losses from future earthquakes.
Few natural disasters come bigger than the 2004 tsunami. It left a
trail of destruction from one side of the Indian Ocean to the
other. Hardest hit was Aceh in Indonesia's west where the tsunami
killed almost a quarter of a million people and left half million
homeless as it smashed into a strip of coastline 800 kilometres
long and several kilometres wide. The global community rallied to
help in the largest military deployment since World War II. It then
spent billions rebuilding Aceh in one of the most challenging
reconstruction programs of its kind. "Tsunami Chronicles:
Adventures in Disaster Management"tells the inside story of
recovery. Written by the Indonesian Government's senior advisor for
tsunami recovery, Bill Nicol, it lays bare the tectonic political
and managerial forces that swept along the rebuilding program with
no less force than the tsunami itself. This is a powerful,
first-hand narrative from a highly experienced journalist, author
and consultant who played a pivotal role in the recovery
operations. A series of six books in one book, "Tsunami Chronicles"
offers rare and unique insights that will annoy some, anger a few,
excite others and inspire many. It will appeal to anyone with an
interest in international development and disaster
recovery-humanitarian volunteers, aid workers, consultants,
engineers, agency staff, institutional managers, policy makers and
political leaders-as well as academics, students of management,
business leaders and the general public.
Not many people realize it, but the world is coming apart-and
it's probably not going to get better anytime soon. Terrorism,
natural disasters, economic collapses, riots, and civil unrest
continue to spread throughout cities, states, and nations. It's
more important than ever to prepare to survive such events.
David Browne, a Vietnam veteran who was assigned to the CIA and
flew out of Udorn Thailand along the Ho Chi Minh trail with Air
America, relies on his experiences during the war and after to help
you survive the tough times ahead. As the former operator of
Pioneer Survival School, he has lived "off the grid" with his
family for twelve years, and he's an expert on survival.
This guidebook to family preparedness can teach you how to
survive riots and civil unrest; decide when to ignore governmental
orders; plan an escape from the city where you live; and protect
your family even when you don't have guns.
You'll also learn what foods and other tangible goods to have on
hand in order to keep yourself and your loved ones alive. When the
going gets tough, this guide can help you to survive this new
millennium.
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