Author Archive | Wesley Shaw

New Hurricane Science Outreach Materials

We noted the release of the Hurricanes: Science and Society website back in 2010, but they’ve added some new material that’s worth another look if you’re doing outreach work. In particular, check out their Resources section, where you can find a slew of stuff for teachers, as well as downloadable webinar presentations, both for adults […]

Final Version of Coastal Best Development Practices Manual Released

This winter we mentioned an earlier draft of the Best Practices Manual for Development in Coastal Louisiana, but the final version is out now, and it looks great. You can find it on the project’s website. Even if you’re not in Louisiana, it’s worth a look.

New Tool to Easily View Future Sea Levels

The United State Army Corps of Engineers has released a handy tool for calculating future sea levels based on models or rates that you pick. The process couldn’t be easier. Head over to their Comprehensive Evaluation of Projects with Respect to Sea-Level Change page. Either enter the rates you’d like to use, or select from […]

NFIP Extended for 5 Years with Changes

Last Friday the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2012 was signed into law. The law extends the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for five years and makes reforms to the program. One of the biggest changes for hurricane-prone areas is the cleverly named “Consumer Option for an Alternative System to Allocate Losses” […]

Mississippi to Pilot Disaster Preparadness Program in School Curriculum

Good news from Mississippi: MEMA [Mississippi Emergency Management Agency] would like to begin a pilot program in several schools that would weave the teaching of disaster preparedness into the normal curriculum. For example, the program could be similar to the fire services successful campaign about fire prevention, Latham said. “There’s probably not a child in […]

Climate Outreach for Business and Industry

Need to do climate outreach to your local businesses? A newly released guide covers climate threats to the agriculture, food and beverage, apparel, electric, insurance, mining, oil and gas, and tourism sectors. The guide provides detailed checklists that companies should use to assess, manage and disclose physical risks they face from climate change. Sound useful? […]

New Inundation Analysis Tool Released

There’s a lot of evidence that the future in coastal areas will look a lot like the past, only with more bad times. That once a century event might be more like once a decade by 2100. And brace for that “once a decade storm” — it may soon hit every few years. If this […]

Historical and Legal Context for Rhode Island’s Erosion Woes

Insightful thoughts submitted by attorney and Natural Hazard Mitigation Association President Ed Thomas on the NYT Rhode Island article I mentioned yesterday: This extremely important article displays a thoughtful approach to 1) the questions of what we should do about sea level rise and beach erosion; 2) the very real problems we face as a […]