Alliance for National and Community Resilience Announces Distinguished Group of Specialists

by Warren Edwards

(Tara Lukasik, Building Safety Journal). Last month, the Alliance for National & Community Resilience (ANCR), a member of the ICC Family of Companies, announced a distinguished group of specialists to help develop the nation’s first community-wide …

We Need Innovative Designs—and Open Minds—to Solve the Housing Shortage

by Warren Edwards

(Katie Swenson, City Limits.org) “We know that well-designed, quality housing that is affordable can help people move up and out of poverty, and it can play an essential role in impacting people’s health, economic empowerment, community …

Communities in Newfoundland and Labrador Participate in National Effort to Build Wildfire Resilience

by Warren Edwards

(Markets Insider) A coalition of non-profits, provincial governments and The Co-operators support Canada-wide action to make communities ‘FireSmart’. Read more here.

The Science of Resilience: What are the Ingredients That Help People Cope?

by Warren Edwards

(Jennifer Couzin-Frankel, Science Magazine). Read more here.

New Coalition Will Develop First Community-Wide Resilience Benchmark

by Warren Edwards

(Kathleen Brown, Builder). Subject matter experts and sponsors join the Alliance for National & Community Resilience to help U.S. communities prepare for disasters. Read more here.

Buildling Resilience Through Basketballs and Berries

by Warren Edwards

(Anne Hillman, Alaska Public Media). What makes a healthy community? What makes young people in a village thrive? The young people in Noatak have some good ideas. Read more here.

How Communities Can Better Support Small Businesses

by Warren Edwards

(Connor Wolf, InsideSources)  The House Small Business Committee hosted the hearing to examine how important community support is to cultivating entrepreneurship and small business success. The hearing also explored how a thriving entrepreneurship culture can, in turn, improve …

Mainland Mayors Partner With Puerto Rico Leaders to Help Rebuild

by Warren Edwards

(J Brian Charles, Governing) More than 40 city leaders have joined a new exchange to share disaster relief expertise with their local counterparts on the island. Read more here.

Speaking Truth to Power: Please Don’t Call Them Natural Disasters

by Warren Edwards

Richard Olson (Director of Extreme Events Institute at Florida International University) argues in this Natural Hazards op-ed that a persistent problem in public discourse is the penchant of public officials and the media to label major damaging events …

Labor 2030: The Collision of Demographics, Automation and Inequality

by Warren Edwards

Bain & Company (Karen Harris, Austin Kimson, Andrew Schwedel) A new report from Bain & Company Demographics shows that the collision of demographics, automation and inequality could trigger economic disruption far greater than we have experienced …

Flood APEX Program

by Warren Edwards

DHS First Responders Group  Rethinking America’s Costliest Disaster…Read More

What went wrong in Irma? Woes ran gamut from passwords to power

by Warren Edwards

As Hurricane Irma’s eastern flank swept across Broward County last September, the storm exposed the weaknesses in the county’s readiness, from crowded shelters to a lack of information on power outages…Read More

Floods Are Getting Worse, and 2,500 Chemical Sites Lie in the Water’s Path

by Warren Edwards

By HIROKO TABUCHI, NADJA POPOVICH, BLACKI MIGLIOZZI and ANDREW W. LEHREN FEB. 6, 2018  Anchored in flood-prone areas in every American state are more than 2,500 sites that handle toxic chemicals, a New York Times analysis of …

StormPeace Joins Statewide Coalition to Promote Hurricane Resilience

by Warren Edwards

From StormPeace  Hurricane Irma proved that the first few days after a major storm can be paralyzing, especially when residents are faced with damage…Read More

Moody’s Investor Service Announcement

by Warren Edwards

Moody’s:  Climate change is forecast to heighten US exposure to economic loss placing short- and long-trm pressure on US states and local governments…Read More

Foothills United Way awards ‘Community Resilience Grants’

by Warren Edwards

By BizWest Staff   LAFAYETTE — Foothills United Way has awarded five Community Resilience Grants to help fund projects in Boulder and Broomfield counties to help create a community that is able to withstand and recover from …

Letter: Build community resilience

by Warren Edwards

By Meridian Green, Vancouver.  With electric vehicles soon to be self-driving, able to transport us from our door to our destination, we’ll need fewer garages. Instead of storing cars, garages can be converted into housing for people…Read …

Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves: 2017 Interim Report

by Warren Edwards

National Institute of Building Sciences.  Summary of Findings.  Read More

The Oroville Dam 2017 Spillway Incident – Possible Causes and Solutions

by Warren Edwards

by Telis Koskinas in Climate Etc.  On February 2017, Oroville Dam gained worldwide attention when its main spillway suddenly failed, seemingly without precedent, under natural operating conditions…Read More

U.S. social fabric – torn, frayed, unraveled by 2017’s hurricanes. But how badly?

by Warren Edwards

From “Living on the Real World” blog…Read More

2017 Opportunity Index PDFs

by Warren Edwards

Link to PDFs

Atlanta’s Inclusive Plan to Address Impacts of Changing Climate, Demographics

by Warren Edwards

This article first appeared on ThinkProgress by contributor Sam Fulwood III.  People who live in Atlanta, Georgia, once burned to the ground by Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s march through Dixie, envision themselves as a resilient lot. With good …

Lessons From Hurricane Harvey: Houston’s Struggle Is America’s Tale

by Warren Edwards

By Michael Kimmelman  The mayhem that Hurricane Harvey unleashed on Houston didn’t only come from the sky. On the ground, it came sweeping in from the Katy Prairie some 30 miles west of downtown…Read More

Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria: how natural were these ‘natural disasters’?

by Warren Edwards

By: Emily Shuckburgh, Dann Mitchell & Peter Scott  No meteorological event demonstrates the power of nature to wreak devastation on even the most advanced of our societies more than a hurricane…Read More

Detroit: From Motor City to Housing Incubator

by Warren Edwards

By Matthew Goldstein.  The 2008 financial crisis and 2013 city bankruptcy guttedDetroit’s housing market. Now, Detroit is experimenting withunorthodox ways to get people to buy homes and renovate houses…Read More

How to improve community disaster resilience through pre-event long-term recovery planning

by Warren Edwards

by Scott Miller.  Thought I’d share my fifteen guidelines for creating pre-event long-term recovery plans/frameworks based on past work I’ve done with local jurisdictions and reviewing plans from other jurisdictions…Read More

Integrating Social and Behavioral Sciences within the Weather Enterprise

by Warren Edwards

Posted on November 7 by William Hooke  Read More

The Cause of Mankind

by Warren Edwards

By Sean Collins.  The American Revolution changed the world, and it isn’t finished yet…Read More

by Warren Edwards

By Kevin Randolph.  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Wednesday two final rules and issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) regarding mandatory standards aimed at supporting the resilience and reliability of the U.S. bulk electric …

Unlocking capital for water sector requires smart, integrated strategies, says new report

by Warren Edwards

CALIFORNIA, SEPT 22, 2017 — Unlocking the flow of capital to accelerate improvements to water infrastructure that advance climate resilience and protect urban low-income communities from flooding requires integrated strategies for investments and grantmaking, concludes a …

How to Build Resilient Work Teams

by Warren Edwards

It takes internal “grit” to cope with business and technology changes. Lynn Christensen of Workday shares some advice on building resilience…Read More

On national security, we are our own worst enemy

by Warren Edwards

By Erik Goepner.  Read More

Vulnerable set to be better off in time of disasters

by Warren Edwards

by Joel Gould.  AN emergency management pilot program that assists the city’s most vulnerable is set to be rolled out by Ipswich City Council over the next 12 months…Read More

Parry Sound columnist addresses resilience and competence

by Warren Edwards

by Stephen Heder.  When Colonel Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, turned 65, he received his first National Security cheque. It was for $105. He could have resigned himself to living the rest of his life in …

Gov. John Bel Edwards kicks off Louisiana Resilient Recovery Program

by Warren Edwards

Governor John Bel Edwards spent some quality time in Acadiana Thursday as local, state and federal agencies are joining together to face one particular problem, mitigating floods. Governor Edwards announced the Acadiana area will see more …

Resilience for the most vulnerable: Managing disasters to better protect the world’s poorest

by Warren Edwards

Stephane Hallegatte — The World Bank, Voices – In his “The People of the Abyss,” novelist Jack London describes in grim detail a devastating storm that rocked London in the early 20th century. Residents suffered terribly…Read More

The Effect of Natural Disasters on Economic Activity in US Counties: A Century of Data

by Warren Edwards

NBER Working Paper No. 23410 Issued in May 2017…Obtain

Despite population decline, Houston County predicts bright future

by Warren Edwards

Nathan Hansen  CALEDONIA, Minn. — Haley Vanderohe has loved growing up in a small town. But that won’t keep her here after she heads off to college…Read More

An innovation district seeks to bridge an economic divide

by Warren Edwards

By Kim Lyons  Pittsburgh’s new “EcoInnovation District” hopes the success of its tech cluster will bleed into two of the city’s lowest-income neighborhoods…Read More

Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction

by Warren Edwards

A Report from Handicap International  Each year, millions of people throughout the world are affected by hazards such as droughts, floods, volcanic eruptions, mudslides, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and forest fires. The frequency of these hazards1 is …

As threats grow, expanding cities push for stronger, safer societies

by Warren Edwards

By Reuters   TEPIC, Mexico July 20(Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Urban resilience, no longer just a buzzword, is fast becoming part of the fabric of cities around the world, which need to ramp up strategies to ensure …

Why British coffee and tea maker Taylors prioritizes supplier resilience

by Warren Edwards

by Hugh Bowring  Businesses no longer need to be convinced that the world is changing at an alarming rate. That’s old news…Read More

A Tale of Two Recoveries: 5 Lessons from Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy

by Warren Edwards

How the social contexts in Mississippi and New Jersey affected recovery.  By Susan Cutter and Christopher Emrich, June 25, 2015…Read More

What We Do Together: The State of Associational Life in America

by Warren Edwards

Social Capital Project — Prepared by the Vice Chairman’s Staff of the Joint Economic Committee at the request of Senator Mike Lee, May 2017…Read More

Philadelphia: From Wood to Ductile Iron – A Leader in Water Infrastructure Innovation

by Warren Edwards

Posted to Politics June 09, 2017 by Patrick Hogan  Not long after the Liberty Bell rang out the fledging United States’ victory over the British monarchy, enterprising minds in Philadelphia constructed a water main system using pine …

Risk Is Inevitable. Resilience Is Everything

by Warren Edwards

Jeff Thomson ,  Contributor  All companies, regardless of size, face a myriad of risk in today’s global business and economic climate — from cyber risk to natural disaster preparedness to supply chain disruption…Read More

This is why infrastructure is so expensive

by Warren Edwards

June 5, 2017 by Charles Marohn  A few weeks ago I finished the book Catastrophic Care: Why Everything We Think We Know about Health Care is Wrong by David Goldhill. In 400 pages he shed more light …

Resilience in Troubled Times

by Warren Edwards

June 1, 2017 by John Beckett  Writing has been difficult lately. I’m being pulled in about a dozen directions and none of them are suitable for blogging, at least not for now. I started and discarded two …

Insurance is the “ultimate community product” for social resilience: ICMIF CEO

by Warren Edwards

2nd June 2017 – Author: Luke Gallin  Insurance and reinsurance is far more than just a policy and the capabilities and capacity of the risk transfer industry must be utilised to increase global disaster resilience, stressed Shaun …

Why disaster preparedness is important

by Warren Edwards

By: Guillermo M. Luz  Now that it’s officially the “rainy season,” perhaps it’s time to review some lessons from the past and what they tell us about disaster preparedness.  I recently attended the UN Global Platform …