February 17, 2017

Promoting Disaster Risk Management at OAS 

Yesterday during the Ordinary Session of The Permanent Council, Mister Luis Felipe Puente, National Civil Protection Coordinator of Mexico, spoke about preparations of the 5th Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction of American States; that will take place in Cancun, Mexico from 22 to 26 May, 2017. In his speech he highlighted the hard work of Mexico Government to meet expectations on the Platform...Read more

 

What happened this week?

 United States.

1. It's not just Oroville: Record rain is straining California's whole flood control network; According to the U.S...Read more. Army Corps of Engineer’s National Inventory of Dams, there are 1,585 dams in California...Read more
2. Tornado slams town near Texas coast; reports of several injuries, damaged homes. A confirmed tornado destroyed at least one home and damaged more than a dozen others Tuesday in a Texas town near the Gulf of Mexico... Read more
3. The North Carolina Central University (NCCU) Institute for Homeland Security and Workforce Development has received $310,000 from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for Disaster Preparation Courses... Read more

Colombia. Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide (AIR) has been approved for use by domestic insurance companies in managing their earthquake risk by the country’s insurance regulator, the Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia... Read more

Interesting Facts

Stunning image from Space shows California's drought is truly over. Stunning images from Space show the dramatic difference in California's drought-stricken vegetation thanks to heavy rain pummeling the state during a storm last week, as more rain is predicted...Read more

Can Artificial Intelligence Predict Earthquakes? Artificial intelligence is different from how scientists have attempted quake prediction in the past because of improved machine-learning algorithms and supercomputers as well as the ability to store and work with vastly greater amounts of data...Read more

Drones: The Next Tool for Humanitarian Workers. The former U.S. Ambassador Jack Chow, now a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, explains about how drones can be a resource for humanitarian workers by mitigating some of the challenges faced when delivering aid in some of the world’s most complex and dangerous operating environments....Read more

What 720,000 years of ice can tell us about climate change in the past — and the future? An Antarctic two-mile-long ice tube details changes in the Earth’s temperature, rainfall, and wind over hundreds of thousands of years...Read more

What's new in Disaster Risk Reduction?

Risk Award will honour hi-tech plan to beat disasters. Three cutting-edge plans to harness the power of technology and curb the threats posed by hazards such as floods and epidemics have been shortlisted for an international award that will be presented at the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction... Read more

Santa Monica seeks to pass the nation's most extensive earthquake retrofit plan. Santa Monica is poised to require safety improvements to as many as 2,000 earthquake-vulnerable buildings in what would be the nation’s most extensive seismic retrofitting effort...Read more

Central Africa spurs disaster risk reduction. Collective action by regional organisations is a key means to help countries reduce their risk of disasters, and the Economic Community of Central African States is stepping up its efforts to rein in the impact of hazards amid rising pressure from climate change...Read more