Insights

Unmanned Drones for Disaster Response?

• John Cornelison
• 7/27/12

Funny that DHS is getting criticism for NOT using drones, when my take is that drones further compromise our civil freedoms, but apparently their use helps some key corporations' bottom lines – and their use can be more palatable by using them for Disaster Response.

FEMA’s new web-based, independent study training course for citizens and businesses-- IS-325—Earthquake Basics-- Science, Risk, and Mitigation

• John Cornelison
• 7/26/12

As they indicate below, this appears to be a pretty basic course, but by clicking on one of the initial pages you can see much of the complete course outline and quickly skim it to see how much of it is applicable to your family or business.

NASA-- Sudden massive melt Greenland

• John Cornelison
• 7/26/12

According to an interesting AP report, “Nearly all of Greenland's massive ice sheet suddenly started melting a bit this month, a freak event that surprised scientists.

Major modern-era Puget Sound earthquakes

• John Cornelison
• 7/23/12

The University of Washington Seismology Lab, has released a new map of major semi-recent quakes and fault lines around Puget Sound.

Underground carbon dioxide storage would result in earthquakes

• John Cornelison
• 6/21/12

Cancel another innovative idea. According to a commentary published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, storing harmful carbon dioxide gas underground is not practical. Why? Because it would cause earthquakes!

Beachcomber Assesses Operation Lifeline Portion of the Evergreen Quake Exercise

• John Cornelison
• 6/15/12

The Vashon Beachcomber has done a nice article on a key aspect of last week’s 2012 Evergreen Quake exercise. Entitled, “Emergency drill shows a marine lifeline could be established for Vashon”, Editor and author Leslie Brown included a number of great quotes from islanders and county officials and crew. She noted key advances such as actually testing gurneys with the boat to be aware of potential issues ahead of time.

King County tests disaster response with regional earthquake exercise

• John Cornelison
• 6/7/12

Drill includes delivering critical supplies to Vashon Island by boat

2012 Evergreen Quake Exercise An Excellent Learning Experience

• John Cornelison
• 6/7/12

• Tags

  Fema , Wemd , Eoc , Vifr , Volunteers , Logistics , Vashon eoc.org , Vashon , Exercise , Vmirc , Vashon be prepared , Kcoem , Earthquakes , Vepc

Washington State Geologic Information Portal

• John Cornelison
• 6/7/12

If you like maps and haven’t checked out the Washington State Geologic Information Portal, it is a wealth of useful information! More than just interactive maps, they also have geoscience data and collections and links to other earth science information sites.

1st WA DNR Study of Rainier Lahar Damage-- up to $40 Billion

• John Cornelison
• 6/7/12

Every 500-1000 years the slopes of Mount Rainier produce liquefied mud flows called lahars that can flow like rivers but have a density similar to liquid concrete. Based on the last Electron Mudflow ~550 years ago, and using HAZUS software, the DNR released a new report that estimates potential damage to property (but not life) based on these lahars for the first time.

Historic 2012 Evergreen Quake Exercise

• John Cornelison
• 6/5/12

Washington Emergency Management Division is working with FEMA and a slew of local partners in the Puget Sound region to conduct the state's largest (i.e., most coordinated) earthquake exercise ever: Evergreen Quake 2012™.

Tsunami & Earthquake Games!

• John Cornelison
• 6/5/12

A few months back I notices an exciting new source of disaster preparedness info: Sesame Street! Yep, FEMA apparently hired them to start educating tots early – in a variety of languages too. Fun! (I wish I had received that contract.)