February 20, 2007 FEMA Emergency Management Higher Education Project Report

(1) DISASTERS WAITING TO HAPPEN:

Berger, Eric. "Thousands Could Die If A Giant Tornado Ever Hits Houston." Houston Chronicle, February 20, 2007. Accessed at:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4564928.html

[Excerpt: "The worst-case scenario for a large tornado striking Houston makes a hurricane look like high surf.... At the end of its run, the tornado will have killed as many as 23,700 people whose residences and business cannot withstand the deadly wind."]

[Tracked down the source for this story:

Wurman, Joshua, et al. "Low-Level Winds in Tornadoes and Potential Catastrophic Tornado Impacts In Urban Areas." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 88, Issue 1, January 2007. At: http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-toc&issn=1520-0477&volume=88&issue=1

The article extrapolates from historical tornado experience, and based upon models of what would happen if an historically experienced tornado were to be transposed over a dense urban population, comes up with some eye-brown raising calculations for Chicago, New York City, the District of Columbia, St. Louis, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Atlanta and Oklahoma City. The worst case was 63,000 deaths in Chicago and economic losses over $40 billion. Washington "experienced" upwards of 10,000 deaths in one scenario.]

[If this happened I would predict the stand-up of a new Department on Tornado Security.]

(2) NORTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY -- ADDITIONS TO SYLLABI COMPILATION:

Received from D. George Youngs at NDSU, copies of two courses to add to the Syllabi Compilation on the EM HiEd Project webpage: Sociology of Disaster, and Crisis Analysis and Homeland Security. Both were forwarded to the webmaster for upload to the Project website, where they should be accessible soon. Dr. Youngs can be reached at:

(3) RECOVERY:

Abramson, David, Richard Garfield, Irwin Redliner. The Recovery Divide:

Poverty and the Widening Gap Among Mississippi Children and Families Affected by Hurricane Katrina. Columbia University, NY: National Center for Disaster Preparedness and the Children's Fund, February 2, 2007. Accessed at: http://www.ncdp.mailman.columbia.edu/press.htm

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

http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu

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