Bicycles can play a role in recovery

Portland's Neighborhood Emergency Teams use cargo bikes Photo: Ethan Jewett Two things are always apparent in disasters. First, people are incredibly creative in dealing with crisis. Second, simple solutions work best. Case in point is the use of bicycles in disaster. I recently came across a blog by Hamzat Sani on the League of American […]

Prepare for 72 hours! Really?

A question came up recently on the Emergency Management Issues Facebook Page regarding the basis for the 72 hour preparedness model. It's always fun to see the reasons people come up with to explain it. I know – I've done it myself. The simple fact is that there really is no empirical basis for preparing for […]

Social media leaves little time to react to crisis

There's an interesting article in this morning's San Francisco Chronicle that restates what experts like my colleague Johnathan Bernstein have been saying for years: social media has almost eliminated the time you have to react to a crisis. In the article, Chronicle writer Carla Marinucci describes how the proliferation of social media sites has created […]

Is mandating mitigation fiscally prudent?

Levee failure California Delta 2004 Photo: California Dept of Water Resources A good friend offered this comment on my recent blog on San Francisco's push to mandate mitigation: NY did not mandate mitigation & Congress just rewarded them with BILLIONS. Not fiscally prudent to mandate/mitigate. His point is well-taken and highlights one of the major […]