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Full-Text Articles in Law
State Hazard Mitigation Plans & Climate Change: Rating The States 2019 Update, Dena P. Adler, Emma Gosliner
State Hazard Mitigation Plans & Climate Change: Rating The States 2019 Update, Dena P. Adler, Emma Gosliner
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Between 1980-2019, the U.S. endured 250 climate and weather disasters that each cost more than $1 billion, resulting in a total cost exceeding $1.7 trillion. Climate change contributes to a variety of hazards including extreme precipitation, drought, sea level rise, storm surge, heat waves, and flooding, and this effect will worsen over time. While the onset of natural disasters may be unavoidable, forgoing the opportunity to plan for changing conditions and increasing risks puts citizens in the path of preventable danger. Further investing in pre-disaster preparation or other resilience-building activities can save considerable money down the road – and many …
Changing The National Flood Insurance Program For A Changing Climate, Dena Adler, Michael Burger, Rob Moore, Joel Scata
Changing The National Flood Insurance Program For A Changing Climate, Dena Adler, Michael Burger, Rob Moore, Joel Scata
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Congress established the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in 1968 to reduce flood damages nationwide and ease the federal government’s financial burden for providing disaster recovery.1 To achieve this goal, the program was designed to perform three primary functions. First, the program provides federally backed insurance to property owners and renters. Second, the program established minimum requirements for building, land use, and floodplain management practices that local communities must adopt in order for their residents to be eligible to purchase NFIP insurance coverage. Third, the program is responsible for mapping high floodrisk areas. These maps inform local land use decisions …
Determining Climate Responsibility: Government Liability For Hurricane Katrina?, Teresa Chan, Michael Burger, Vincent Colatriano, John Echeverria
Determining Climate Responsibility: Government Liability For Hurricane Katrina?, Teresa Chan, Michael Burger, Vincent Colatriano, John Echeverria
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
In St. Bernard Parish Government v. United States, Louisiana property owners argued that the U.S. government was liable under takings law for flood damage to their properties caused by Hurricane Katrina and other hurricanes. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit disagreed, however, noting that the government cannot be liable on a takings theory for inaction, and that the government action was not shown to have been the cause of the flooding. On September 6, 2018, the Environmental Law Institute hosted an expert panel to explore this ruling and its potential implications for future litigation in a …
Prison Preparedness And Legal Obligations To Protect Prisoners During Natural Disasters, William Omorogieva
Prison Preparedness And Legal Obligations To Protect Prisoners During Natural Disasters, William Omorogieva
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Since at least 2004, the intensity of hurricanes and the damage they have caused in America has increased significantly. After the turbulent hurricane season of 2017, citizens should recognize the elevated risks to safety that occur when individuals stay put, especially during high-intensity hurricanes (Category 3 and higher). States of emergency and evacuation orders have been declared recently in many states and cities that anticipated extreme hurricane conditions. However, even with increased calls for evacuations, warnings from public officials, and around the clock media coverage, a significant portion of the population has continued to be overlooked during times of natural …
Alternative Spring Break 2018 Report, Roger Williams University School Of Law
Alternative Spring Break 2018 Report, Roger Williams University School Of Law
School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events
No abstract provided.
Heat Waves: Legal Adaptation To The Most Lethal Climate Disaster (So Far), Michael B. Gerrard
Heat Waves: Legal Adaptation To The Most Lethal Climate Disaster (So Far), Michael B. Gerrard
Faculty Scholarship
The worst heatwave in modern history occurred in Russia in 2010; its rare combination of extreme temperatures and long duration killed an estimated 55,000 people. Under an RCP 8.5 scenario, comparable heat waves could occur every two years in the eastern United States by the end of the century, and by then in Europe, the legendary heat wave of 2003 “would be classed as an anomalously cold summer relative to the new climate.” These increased temperatures and heat waves are not just occurring randomly. The science is clear that human activities – mostly greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation – are …
Preface To Protecting The Environment Through Land Use Law: Standing Ground, John R. Nolon
Preface To Protecting The Environment Through Land Use Law: Standing Ground, John R. Nolon
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
Protecting the Environment Through Land Use Law: Standing Ground takes a close look at the historical struggle of local governments to balance land development with natural resource conservation. This book updates and expands on his four previous books, which established a comprehensive framework for understanding the many ways that local land use authority can be used to preserve natural resources and environmental functions at the community level. Standing Ground describes in detail how localities are responding to new challenges, including the imperative that they adapt to and help mitigate climate change and create sustainable neighborhoods. This body of work emphasizes …
Losing Ground: Nation On Edge, John R. Nolon
Losing Ground: Nation On Edge, John R. Nolon
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
The primary objective of our book is to refocus attention on the mitigation element of this enduring debate. The chapters in this edited volume grow out of our multiyear program entitled Nation on Edge. The purpose of this program was to draw together leading scholars and practitioners in a collective conversation on the subject of disaster mitigation; that is, on questions of how government can better manage private and public decisionmaking and can more effectively regulate the use of private property in order to curtail damage from inevitable disasters. Our book stands alongside the expanding collection of government reports, essays, …
A Tale Of Two Imperiled Rivers: Reflections From A Post-Katrina World, Sandra Zellmer
A Tale Of Two Imperiled Rivers: Reflections From A Post-Katrina World, Sandra Zellmer
Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications
Hurricanes are a natural, predictable phenomenon, yet the Gulf Coast communities were devastated by the hurricanes of 2005. One year after Hurricane Katrina struck, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers responded to a congressional request for an accounting by admitting culpability for the destruction of New Orleans. Its structural defenses failed not because Congress had authorized only moderate Category 3 protection, which in turn let floodwaters overtop the city's levees, but because levees and floodwalls simply collapsed. The so-called network of federal and local structures was a haphazard system in name only, where floodwalls and levees of varying heights utilized …
Did Nepa Drown New Orleans? The Levees, The Blame Game, And The Hazards Of Hindsight, Thomas O. Mcgarity, Douglas A. Kysar
Did Nepa Drown New Orleans? The Levees, The Blame Game, And The Hazards Of Hindsight, Thomas O. Mcgarity, Douglas A. Kysar
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
This Article highlights the hazards of hindsight analysis of the causes of catastrophic events, focusing on theories of why the New Orleans levees failed during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and particularly on the theory that the levee failures were "caused" by a 1977 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) lawsuit that resulted in a temporary injunction against the Army Corps of Engineers' hurricane protection project for New Orleans. The Article provides a detailed historical reconstruction of the decision process that eventuated in the New Orleans storm surge protection system, focusing both on the political and legal factors involved and on the …