Emergency and Disaster Management Commons^™

Sullivan County Covid-19 Needs Assessment, Melissa Mccollister

2020 Fall Reports (Sullivan)

Sullivan responded and continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. A community needs assessment was performed through the SOWK 382 course in partnership with United Way of the Wabash Valley. The needs assessment revealed how the community has responded in relation to mental health and addiction, food, schooling, and stability. The assessment reveals how Sullivan should respond to further help the community members during this pandemic.

Covid-19 And The “Space” Problem Of U.S. Hospitals: A Pragmatic Domestic Policy Solution For The Future, Timothy P. O'Brien

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

The healthcare system in the United States operates daily somewhere in excess of 75 percent of capacity with limited ability to absorb a sudden and large surge that may come about from an unexpected event, such as a large-scale terrorist attack, natural disaster, or pandemic. In order to manage a large-scale health crisis, also known as Public Health Emergencies (PHEs), governments at all levels must be prepared and have “space, staff, and stuff” in place. This article offers a solution that utilizes and re-purposes existing structures that could easily be “stood-up” and put into service in the times of emergency. …

From The Legal Literature: Covid And The Criminal Law, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Reimagining China’S Transportation Funding Investments In Africa In The Context Of Covid-1, Clovia Hamilton, Sira Maliphol

Technology & Society Faculty Publications

Africa has not invested enough in its healthcare system, and China has been investing in and financing much of Africa’s transportation system. Many African countries’ fragile health and transportation systems have been further weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic. This literature review confirms the interdependence of the key functional areas of comprehensive development planning and the importance of building and maintaining a sound transportation infrastructure. With respect to partnerships with China, African nations need to strengthen government functional areas more comprehensively, considering all of the areas of development planning including trade as well as transportation and aid issues. It is all …

Workshop Outcomes Report: 1st International Workshop On Seismic Resilience Of Arctic Infrastructure And Social Systems, Majid Ghayoomi, Katharine Duderstadt, Alexander Kholodov, Alexander Shiklomanov, Matthew Turner, Elham Ajorlou

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Migration And Inequalities In The Face Of Covid-19: Economic, Political And Social Context In Mexico And The United States, Claudia Masferrer

Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center Research

Our world changed drastically on February 11th 2020 when the World Health Organization announced the name of the new coronavirus disease as COVID-19, and the pandemic was later considered the greatest challenge we have faced since World War II. Although we have started to experience social life in various new ways, the impacts that it will bring are still unknown. In recent years, migration had already undergone different transformations globally, and more changes are expected. How will populations on the move and migrant populations live in the following years post-COVID, and how different actors will respond to these changes, is …

Pennsylvania’S Covid-19 Response Through The Homeland Security Frameworks And Research Lens – Lessons Learned, Alexander Siedschlag

Publications

• Although typically framed as a pandemic owned by the public health sector, the COVID-19 response falls directly within the homeland security mission space, whose core missions include “Ensuring Resilience to Disasters” (QHSR 2014).
• In some aspects PA’s COVID-19 response is in line with security research.
• In other dimensions, it is neither in line with what research would recommend nor with what the National Preparedness System would foresee.
• The Keystone State has yet to fully make the step from disaster to catastrophe as the characteristic challenge to U.S. emergency management in our century.

Examining Community Resilience In The Disaster-Prone City Of Conway, Sc, Lamesha L. Craft

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Social science research on disaster-prone communities often cites social capital and community resilience to examine methods for improving emergency management and disaster risk reduction. The City of Conway, South Carolina, is susceptible to numerous natural disasters throughout the year and it has sustained damage from four major flooding disasters since 2015. This qualitative, ethnographic case study used interview data collected from nine Conway residents to examine and analyze perceived threats to citizens of Conway following a large-scale natural disaster and the possible responses by citizens in need of government assistance. Findings reveal that participants have endured more than one large-scale …

Brave New World - “Cmr” Index And The U.S. Congressional Smart Cities Caucus, Rhonda S. Binda

Open Educational Resources

The trifecta of globalization, urbanization and digitization have created new opportunities and challenges across our nation, cities, boroughs and urban centers. Cities are in a unique position at the center of commerce and technology becoming hubs for innovation and practical application of emerging technology. In this rapidly changing 24/7 digitized world, city governments worldwide are leveraging innovation and technology to become more effective, efficient, transparent and to be able to better plan for and anticipate the needs of its citizens, businesses and community organizations. This class will provide the framework for how cities and communities can become smarter and more …

Brave New World - The Rise Of Cities Globally: Urbanizationmeets Technological Innovation And Digitization, Rhonda S. Binda

Open Educational Resources

The trifecta of globalization, urbanization and digitization have created new opportunities and challenges across our nation, cities, boroughs and urban centers. Cities are in a unique position at the center of commerce and technology becoming hubs for innovation and practical application of emerging technology. In this rapidly changing 24/7 digitized world, city governments worldwide are leveraging innovation and technology to become more effective, efficient, transparent and to be able to better plan for and anticipate the needs of its citizens, businesses and community organizations. This class will provide the framework for how cities and communities can become smarter and more …

Brave New World: Privacy, Data Sharing And Evidence Based Policy Making, Rhonda S. Binda

Open Educational Resources

The trifecta of globalization, urbanization and digitization have created new opportunities and challenges across our nation, cities, boroughs and urban centers. Cities in particular are in a unique position at the center of commerce and technology becoming hubs for innovation and practical application of emerging technology. In this rapidly changing 24/7 digitized world, governments are leveraging innovation and technology to become more effective, efficient, transparent and to be able to better plan for and anticipate the needs of its citizens, businesses and community organizations. This class will provide the framework for how cities and communities can become smarter and more …

Brave New World: Ethical Considerations And Risks, Rhonda S. Binda

Open Educational Resources

The trifecta of globalization, urbanization and digitization have created new opportunities and challenges across our nation, cities, boroughs and urban centers. Cities in particular are in a unique position at the center of commerce and technology becoming hubs for innovation and practical application of emerging technology. In this rapidly changing 24/7 digitized world, governments are leveraging innovation and technology to become more effective, efficient, transparent and to be able to better plan for and anticipate the needs of its citizens, businesses and community organizations. This class will provide the framework for how cities and communities can become smarter and more …

Coordination Of Inter-Agency Action For Nuclear Security In Uganda, Richard Sseggane

International Journal of Nuclear Security

Despite the dynamic threats to the nuclear security of the East and Central African region, and the decision of the Government of Uganda to embark on a nuclear power programme, there was not much put in place as a coordination and cooperation mechanisms among the stakeholders in the nuclear security activities.

This work confirmed the need in Uganda for the major nuclear security stakeholder agencies with roles and mandates for nuclear security including the regulator, security and intelligence agencies, police, border control, transport control, customs agencies and others to work together as necessary in the different nuclear security activities in …

Editors’ Note: Fighting The Covid-19 Pandemic Financial Crisis, Andrew Metrick, Rosalind Z. Wiggins

Journal of Financial Crises

Policy makers need decision support as they consider their options. For the past six years the Yale Program on Financial Stability (YPFS), which also publishes the Journal of Financial Crises, has researched and created content about the numerous interventions governments deployed during the Global Financial Crisis (2007-09) and other crises. With the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, we considered how we could best deploy our past research and skills to assist the current crisis-fighting efforts. We decided that we could best contribute to the effort by staying true to our mission to create, disseminate, and preserve knowledge about financial crises …

Preventing School Shootings: The Interprofessional And Community Approach To Prevention, Heather C. Alonge, Constant P. Craig

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

This essay examined the issue of school shootings within the United States, to include a literature review and analysis of the current status of the issue on a national level. From the review and analysis, the essay provides the multidisciplines engaged in school safety issues with viable, workable, and quickly implementable solutions to address this serious national issue at the local school district and even school level of implementation. This analysis examined a multidiscipline and multiprofessional community approach using existing federal guidelines that address actionable intelligence (social media and human information/informants), school design and incorporation of safety and protective features, …

The Sustainability Of Child Protection Services In The Republic Of Kosovo, Shpetim Bylykbashi

Capstone Collection

Today, in Kosovo, are services provided for the children most in need sustainable? Do these services have stable and long-term funding? Did the decentralization of the Kosovo government strengthen or weaken the existing child protective environment? In an attempt to answer these questions, a review of available literature was completed, as well as direct interviews conducted with relevant stakeholders engaged in Kosovo’s child protection services at both the governmental and civil society levels. The main finding of my research is that vulnerable children in Kosovo, such as children without parental care, children with special needs, and child victims of domestic …

Special Editor’S Closing Comments, Michael A. Cowan

New England Journal of Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Reinventing The New Orleans Public Education System, David Osborne

New England Journal of Public Policy

If we were creating a public education system from scratch, would we organize it as most of our public systems are now organized? Would our classrooms look just as they did before the advent of personal computers and the internet? Would we give teachers lifetime jobs after their second or third years? Would we let schools survive if, year after year, half their students dropped out? Would we send children to school for only eight and a half months a year and six hours a day? Would we assign them to schools by neighborhood, reinforcing racial and economic segregation?

Few …

Across Racial Lines: Three Accounts Of Transforming Urban Institutions After A Natural Disaster, James Carter, Nolan Rollins, Gregory Rusovich

New England Journal of Public Policy

At 1:30 p.m. on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina grazed the mostly evacuated city of New Orleans, reserving its most devastating force for coastal Mississippi, just to the east. During the next two days, the federal levees protecting the city failed in multiple places. Sixteen hundred people died in the metropolitan area. Residences and businesses in 80 percent of the city went underwater. Public officials warned residents and business owners that they might not be able to return for two to three months. The scope of devastation in certain parts of the city made ever returning questionable for many residents. …

Rising From Katrina’S Ashes But Still In Crisis: Public Defense In New Orleans, Derwyn Bunton

New England Journal of Public Policy

New Orleans’ nickname “Big Easy” was based on the “anything goes” perception of the city. Feeding this perception was a sense of lawlessness, that New Orleans was a place where the rules changed depending on who you were and who you knew. So when Hurricane Katrina hit the city in August 2005 and tossed everything around—flooding mansions and missions, damaging the Superdome and supermarkets—the storm challenged old perceptions and presented unique challenges. Katrina made at least one thing clear: New Orleans could no longer wait for change, pretend nothing happened, or look back. The city’s survival depended on its ability …

How Data Became Part Of New Orleans’ Dna During The Katrina Recovery, Lamar Gardere, Allison Plyer, Denice Ross

New England Journal of Public Policy

Data intermediaries have a symbiotic relationship with government as the source of most of their information. The open-data movement in government and development of software-as-a-service technologies shaped the data landscape after Katrina. Through relationships and talent transfers with The Data Center, the City of New Orleans went from having its chief technology officer in federal prison and its data systems in shambles to being a nationally recognized leader in open and accountable government. To be effective during disasters, an intermediary should be (1) in place and widely respected before the event, (2) ready to respond immediately after the event and …

Recreation Reform: Leveling The Playing Field In Post-Katrina New Orleans, Arnie Fielkow, Mithun B. Kamath

New England Journal of Public Policy

Between 2000 and 2005, I was in charge of every aspect of the New Orleans Saints’ non-football operations, from ticket sales to corporate sponsorships to lease negotiations for the Superdome. By spring 2007, though, by some combination of fate, determination, and maybe a little naiveté, I found myself in charge of legislatively repairing the City of New Orleans’ entire system of recreation. I quickly discovered that this was no small task.

Transparency And Efficiency In Government Operations: New Orleans Civil Service Reform, Kevin Wm. Wildes S.J.

New England Journal of Public Policy

It may strike some students of history as ironic, if not contradictory, to talk about civil service reform. The civil service movement was the reform. Some of that skepticism was apparent in the response we received from many city employees when we began exploring the idea of reforming the city’s civil service in post-Katrina New Orleans, and it was understandable. The city employees we talked with expressed fear that we would be returning to the colorful days of Governor Huey Long, when political patronage was based on who you knew and not what you knew. They assumed there were only …

Beacons Of Hope: How Neighborhood Organizing Led Disaster Recovery, Denise Thornton

New England Journal of Public Policy

The goal of this article is to broaden the scope of your knowledge about New Orleans neighborhoods by describing our revitalization strategies and our common goals, which may be of value to civil society, business, and government leaders in other cities facing social and economic decay. Many have studied us, many have tried to blend into the colorful fabric of our society, but most fall short in truly understanding our rich and diverse culture and our remarkable social structure. This lack of understanding was detrimental to our recovery and is explained in the coming paragraphs.

Legal Origins And Evolution Of Local Ethics Reform In New Orleans, David A. Marcello

New England Journal of Public Policy

The Office of Inspector General came first, and like many another reform in city government, it was born as a campaign commitment. When I met with state senator Marc H. Morial in September 1993 to discuss the issues component of his campaign for mayor, ideas poured out of him for an hour and a half, and I took copious notes. “We need an Inspector General,” he said, “and we need Charter Revision”—the two ideas linked from this first campaign convening. When he was elected mayor six months later and inaugurated in May 1994, charter reform became an early and important …

Social Traps And Social Trust In A Devastated Urban Community, Michael A. Cowan

New England Journal of Public Policy

The last national survey of adult literacy prior to Hurricane Katrina found 40 percent of New Orleans adults reading at or below the sixth-grade level and another 30 percent at or below the eighth-grade level. During the three years before the hurricane, New Orleanians watched as public meetings of its elected school board became models of incivility, where the politically connected struggled for control of contracts and patronage and self-appointed activists ridiculed school officials, board members, and fellow citizens who were attempting to raise the performance of the city’s public schools out of the ranks of the nation’s worst. During …

The New Orleans Criminal Legal System: A Flowing River, William C. Snowden

New England Journal of Public Policy

Ask anyone from New Orleans and they will tell you the city has not been the same since the storm. Although the city has persevered through many storms and hurricanes in its three-hundred-year history, this particular storm—Hurricane Katrina—is notorious for the transformation it brought to New Orleans in the years that followed.

The makeup, culture, and rhythm of New Orleans have changed, but so too have the various systems that give the city its tempo—particularly the criminal legal system. Hurricane Katrina was a disaster that revealed deficiencies, abnormalities, and injustices in the New Orleans criminal legal system. Some responses to …

Preventing Bankruptcy And Transforming City Finances After Hurricane Katrina, Andy Kopplin

New England Journal of Public Policy

In 2010, when the Landrieu administration took office in New Orleans, we inherited a financial situation that the mayor compared to the massive oil spill occurring at that very time in the Gulf, the worst in US history. The city was nearly bankrupt. Much of what we faced was the result of factors—Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the subsequent failure of the federal levees, the great recession—that were far from the prior administration of Mayor Ray Nagin’s control. Much was the result of a culture of ineffectiveness and inefficiency that predated his administration. But much was the result of gross mismanagement …

Special Issue Editor’S Introduction: Practical Wisdom And Institutional Transformation In An Urban Disaster, Michael A. Cowan

New England Journal of Public Policy

As I complete the editor’s introduction to these articles on institutional disruption and transformation in New Orleans triggered by Hurricane Katrina, Corona splashes her colors over maps of the earth. The hurricane pales in comparison with the pandemic, but one contrast between the two occurs to this participant/observer in both.

Prior to Katrina most institutions necessary to proper city functioning—including city administration, police department, and courts—were broken or stretched to the breaking point. As you will see in these articles, following the storm, business and civil society leaders, cooperating with government officials when possible, challenging them as necessary, led dramatic …

The Strange Case Of The Seven Assessors, Janet Howard, Shaun Rafferty

New England Journal of Public Policy

New Orleans was, before Katrina, the only parish (county) in Louisiana to have multiple assessors. There were seven. Each of them had his or her own district, and collectively they formed the Board of Assessors. The strange structure was the vestige of times past, with no rhyme or reason in modern times.