**November 24, 2006 FEMA Emergency Management Higher Education Project
Activity Report**

\(1\) DISASTERS WAITING TO HAPPEN:

Harden, Blaine. \"\`The Big One\' Is a Big Problem for Old Seattle
Houses.\" Wash. Post, 24Nov2006.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/23/AR2006112300971.html?referrer=email>

\[Excerpt: \"A rupture along the Seattle Fault, which runs under the
south end of the city and was unknown until 1992, would kill 1,600
people, injure 24,000 others, destroy 9,700 buildings and damage about
180,000 other structures, according to a scenario put together by
earthquake experts and published last year with funding from the state
of Washington. Big Ones occur here about every thousand years\.... The
last one occurred in what is now Seattle 1,100 years ago.\"\]

\(2\) MITIGATION:

FEMA. Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast: Mitigation Assessment Team
Report, Building Performance Observations, Recommendations, and
Technical Guidance (FEMA 549). Washington DC: FEMA, July 2006. Accessed
at:
[[http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=1857]{.underline}](http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=1857)

Thomas, Edward A. \"Overcoming Legal Challenges: A Perfect Storm of
Opportunity.\" Natural Hazards Observer, Vol. XXXI, No. 2, November
2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/o/archives/2006/nov06/nov06d.html]{.underline}](http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/o/archives/2006/nov06/nov06d.html)

\[Excerpt: \"While the takings issue has gotten its greatest publicity
as a property rights dispute between governments and developers, the
reality is that state and local governments are vastly more likely to be
successfully sued for permitting development that causes problems and
restricts property use, such as roads, stormwater systems, and bridges,
than they are for prohibiting such development. There have been almost
no hazards-based regulations, such as those espoused by NAI, held to be
a taking-almost none! On the other hand, there have been many, many
cases where communities and landowners were held liable for harming
others. In other words, the interference in legitimate property rights
and the takings issue as it has been commonly understood, are nonissues
in hazards regulation\.... The concept of No Adverse Impact and the
legal foundation it is built on can help develop win-win relationships
between hazards managers and community development officials,
developers, emergency managers, wetland managers, water quality
managers, stormwater managers, and others to reduce or eliminate both
impediments discussed herein: involvement and education and concerns
about the takings issue.\"\]

\[BWB Note: Recommend that emergency management educators bring this
article to the attention of their students. Recommend that emergency
managers, certainly those in hazard-prone areas with developmental
issues, provide copies to their planning department, legal beagle,
developers, floodplain manager, and others concerned with hazardous
development.\]

\(3\) PANIC AND FEAR-MONGERING:

Dynes, Russell R. \"Panic and the Vision of Collective Incompetence.\"
Natural Hazards Observer, Vol. XXXI, No. 2, November 2006, pp. 5-6.
Accessed at:

[[http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/o/archives/2006/nov06/nov06c.html]{.underline}](http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/o/archives/2006/nov06/nov06c.html)

\[Excerpts: \"While panic flight is not unheard of, it is extremely rare
in disasters, and similar kinds of crisis, and the notion that panic
behavior spreads through contagion has been widely discredited\.... The
assumption that in a disaster people will flee danger without any
rational thought and without regard for others has disastrous policy
implications. It enforces the misconception that information about
potential threats should be withheld from the public to avoid having to
control hoards of people fleeing in panic. When officials buy-in to the
belief that people are ill-equipped to handle bad news, they fail their
citizens by denying them crucial preparedness and warning messages and
delaying evacuation orders, often until it is too late\.... Some have
suggested that we have seen an increase in the market for fear in recent
times\.... recently, a terrorism expert posited that panic caused by
terrorism could lead to the collapse of civil society\.... Emergency
response has become the province of experts and therapists. The only
role for citizens is as victims. While we may understand our
vulnerabilities, we are not so good at recognizing our own capabilities
and resilience. Local knowledge and local resources are devalued and the
emphasis on external assistance undercuts the importance of local coping
skills\....\"\]

\[BWB Note: For much, if not most (I hope) of the emergency management
community, this is preaching to the choir \-- but, nonetheless, good
reading. For many others, I fear such writing will be met dismissively.
There are those who believe that 9/11 so changed the world, and that
terrorism so differs from other hazards, that the pre-9/11 world of
hazard and disaster-related social science research and literature is
all but irrelevant.\]

B.Wayne Blanchard, Ph.D., CEM

Higher Education Project Manager

Emergency Management Institute

National Emergency Training Center

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Department of Homeland Security

16825 S. Seton, K-011

Emmitsburg, MD 21727

\(301\) 447-1262, voice

\(301\) 447-1598, fax

wayne.blanchard@dhs.gov

[[http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu]{.underline}](http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu)

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