Saturday, October 13, 2018

FEMA Announces the Release of the New NFIP Flood Insurance Manual. October 2018

FEMA logo





October 2018
Subject:  FEMA Announces the Release of the New NFIP Flood Insurance Manual
Today, FEMA released a new, easy to use Flood Insurance Manual (FIM), which supersedes the previous FIM.  
FEMA designed the FIM with the insurance professional in mind. The newly redesigned manual aims to make flood insurance issues and NFIP processes more understandable.
There are three program changes announced in the new manual:
  • The expanded Newly Mapped rating eligibility (effective October 1, 2018), appears in the How to Write section.
  • FEMA added Cancellation Reason Code 26 to the How to Cancel section of the FIM to allow cancellation of an NFIP policy when a policyholder has obtained a duplicate policy from sources other than the NFIP.
  • Notification requirements of Preferred Risk Policy Eligibility for certain cancellation reasons appears in the appropriate cancellation reasons within the How to Cancel section of the FIM.
Our goal is to facilitate the understanding of our processes and product from the points of view of the agent, insurer, and policyholder in order to enhance reliability of service from insurance professionals to their policyholders.
This new edition of the FIM does not change flood insurance coverage or supersede the terms and conditions of the Standard Flood Insurance Policy (SFIP).
The FIM is a resource for insurance professionals as they work with FEMA to close the insurance gap. Thank you for your participation in the NFIP and for helping us to provide world class service to our policyholders.
Together we are making America more flood resilient and building a culture of preparedness.

Friday, October 12, 2018

Let's address this issue head on. Natural disasters widen racial wealth gap


Let’s address these issues head on

Address not only the wide wealth gap that natural disasters bring to the forefront, but address the issue of the vulnerable population and the mental health issues of long-term sheltering, returning individuals back to their community, addressing the helplessness, and hopelessness associated with disasters that are not only in the U.S. but globally.

Can social issues:  such as homelessness, fear of evacuating homes in times of known dangers, physical & mental health, land ownership, and other issues be addressed as we rebuild our communities.

We can make the changes.  Not later but now.

Charles D. Sharp
CEO
BEMA International






AMY MCCAIG.    AUGUST 20, 2018


Rice U., University of Pittsburgh study also finds FEMA aid increased inequality

Damage caused by natural disasters and recovery efforts launched in their aftermaths have increased wealth inequality between races in the United States, according to new research from Rice University and the University of Pittsburgh.

“Damages Done: The Longitudinal Impacts of Natural Hazards on Wealth Inequality in the United States” will   appear in an upcoming edition of Social Problems.

supplement to the paper highlights the wealth gap between whites and blacks attributable to natural disaster damage from 1999 through 2013 in 20 U.S. counties.

Researchers Junia Howell, a scholar at Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research and an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh and Jim Elliott, a professor of sociology at Rice and fellow at Rice’s Kinder Institute combined longitudinal data from nearly 3,500 families across the U.S. with governmental data on local natural disaster damages, Federal Emergency Management Aid (FEMA) and demographics. They followed these people from 1999 through 2013 as disaster damage of varying scale struck counties where they lived, and examined how their personal wealth was impacted.

“Last year the United States suffered more than $260 billion in direct damages from natural disasters –mainly from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria,” said Howell, who was the study’s lead author. “And there were also numerous wildfires, floods and tornadoes. Data show that since


cid:image001.jpg@01D43BA6.DC5561A0


Supplement highlighting wealth gap between whites and
blacks attributable to natural disaster damage from
1999 through 2013 in 20 U.S. counties.


2000, approximately 99 percent of counties in the U.S. have experienced significant damage from some type of natural disaster, with costs expected to increase significantly over coming years. We wanted to investigate how these damages impact wealth inequality and accumulation.”

Whites who lived in counties with only $100,000 in damage from 1999 to 2013 gained an average of approximately $26,000 in wealth. However, those who lived in counties with at least $10 billion in damage during the same time period gained nearly $126,000, the paper said.

In other words, whites living in counties with considerable damage from natural disasters accumulate more wealth than their white counterparts living in counties without major natural disaster damage,” Howell said.

However, among blacks, Latinos and Asians, the results went the other direction. Blacks who lived in counties with just $100,000 in damage gained an estimated $19,000 in wealth on average, while those living in counties with at least $10 billion in damage lost an estimated $27,000. Latinos in counties with $100,000 in damage gained $72,000 on average, and those in areas with at least $10 billion in damage lost an estimated $29,000. And Asians gained $21,000 on average and lost $10,000, respectively. These differences occurred even after the researchers controlled for a wide range of factors including age, education, homeownership, family status, residential mobility, neighborhood status and county population.

“Put another way, whites accumulate more wealth after natural disasters while residents of color accumulate less,” Elliott said. “What this means is wealth inequality is increasing in counties that are hit by more disasters.”

The researchers were able to estimate by county how much of the inequality is attributed to natural disasters. In Harris County, Texas, the disaster-related increase in the black-white wealth gap, on average, was $87,000.

The story does not stop there, Howell and Elliott said. Counties that received more aid from the FEMA saw additional increases in wealth inequality beyond that attributed to the natural disasters themselves. For example, whites living in counties that received at least $900 million in FEMA aid from 1999 to 2013 accumulated $55,000 more wealth on average than otherwise similar whites living in counties that received only $1,000 in aid. Conversely, blacks living in counties that received at least $900 million in FEMA aid accumulated $82,000 less wealth on average than otherwise similar blacks living in counties that received only $1,000 in FEMA aid. Similarly, Latinos accumulated $65,000 less on average, and other races (majority Asians) accumulated $51,000 less.

“It’s unclear why more FEMA aid is exacerbating inequality,” Howell said. “More research is clearly needed. However, based on previous work on disasters such as hurricanes Katrina and Harvey, we know FEMA aid is not equitably distributed across communities. This is particularly true when it comes to infrastructural redevelopment, which often has profound effects on residents’ property appreciation and business vitality.

When certain areas receive more redevelopment aid and those neighborhoods also are primarily white, racial inequality is going to be amplified.”

In addition to exacerbating racial wealth gaps, the researchers found that after natural disasters wealth inequality also increases based on home ownership. Individuals who owned homes in counties that experienced high levels of natural disaster damage accumulated $72,000 more wealth on average than their counterparts in counties with few disasters. Renters, on the other hand, lost $61,000 in wealth on average relative to renters in counties with few natural disasters.

“Put another way, natural disasters were responsible for a $133,000 increase in inequality between homeowners and renters in the hardest hit counties,” Elliott said.

Similarly, college-educated residents accumulated $111,000 more on average if they lived in a county that experienced extreme disasters compared to their counterparts who did not live through disasters. Conversely, those with only a 10th-grade education who lived in counties that experienced extreme disasters lost $48,000 from natural disaster damages on average when compared to counterparts who did not live through disasters.

“In other words, in the counties with the most damage, natural disasters are responsible for a $159,000 increase in the educational wealth gap,” Howell said.

Howell and Elliott said the results indicate that two major social challenges of our age – wealth inequality and rising costs of natural disasters – are increasingly and dynamically connected. They hope the research will encourage further examination of wealth inequality in the U.S. and development of solutions to address the problem.

“The good news is that if we develop more equitable approaches to disaster recovery, we can not only better tackle that problem but also help build a more just and resilient society,” Howell and Elliott concluded.

The researchers are now building on this work by examining how local for-profit and nonprofit organizations influence social inequality after natural disaster




Charles D. Sharp
Chief Executive Officer
Black Emergency Managers Association 
          International
1231  Good Hope Road  S.E.
Washington, D.C.  20020
Office:   202-618-9097 
bEMA International 
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Change without Sacrifice is an Illusion.  Lisa Ellis







Thursday, October 11, 2018

POSTPONED..........Wednesday, October 17, 2018 3PM. EMI e-Forum 'Diversity and Inclusion'

POSTPONED   10/11/2018 9:00AM

Postponed due to recovery efforts in Florida from Hurricane Michael, and continued recovery from Hurricane\Storm Florence.


Mark your calendar for Wednesday, October 17, 2018 at 3:00PM to listen & participate in the upcoming FEMA EMI e-Forum on ‘Diversity and Inclusion’.

Date:                Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Time:              3:00PM-4:00PM
Moderator(s):
                        Dr. Hakim B. Allah, MPA, D.M.. 
Chief, Integrated Emergency Management Branch 
FEMA Emergency Management Institute
                Doug Kuhn. 
 DHS\FEMA EMI.  Training Program Manager
Panelist:
                        Charles D. Sharp  
CEO.  Black Emergency Managers Association International
Chauncia Willis 
Emergency Coordinator at City of Tampa.
IAEM Region 4 President.
Curtis Brown
                              Chief Deputy State Coordinator, 
Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM)


e-Forum    Call-in and Login Information
EMI e-Forums are 1-hour, moderated, webinar discussion forums that provide an opportunity for EMI and the emergency management community to discuss matters of interest on national preparedness training.
EMI e-Forums facilitate a discussion of whole community-presented best practices.  The panel members are whole community, with topics relevant to whole community.  These exchangesof ideas are free of charge and available to anyone who wishes to participate.
               Date:                 Topic:  
               10/17           Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management
               10/24           The Advanced Professional Series (APS) and the States
               10/31           Red Cross Emergency Management Programs
Login link:
EMI e-Forums (https://fema.connectsolutions.com/emieforums)
Our Adobe Connect EMI e-Forums (http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect/apps/adobeconnectmobile.html) are accessible for those on the go.
Conference call-in:  
800-320-4330, PIN 107622








Black Emergency Managers Association 
          International
1231  Good Hope Road  S.E.
Washington, D.C.  20020
Office:   202-618-9097 
bEMA International 
GC_Endorser_BLUE_RGB_GRADIE     








Change without Sacrifice is an Illusion.  Lisa Ellis



After-Actions: Migrant Workers Called 911 During Hurricane Florence. But No One Came To Their Rescue.





These Migrant Workers Called 911 During Hurricane Florence. But No One Came To Their Rescue.
The owner of the farm they worked on reportedly told county officials the workers "had everything they needed."

BuzzFeed News Reporter

Reporting From
Kinston, North Carolina
Posted on October 1, 2018, at 9:35 p.m. ET
Provided to BuzzFeed News

Farmworkers in Kinston, North Carolina, woke up to find their camp flooded on Sept. 15, 2018.
KINSTON, North Carolina — Hours after Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina last month, battering the state with heavy rains and flooding, a group of migrant farmworkers woke up to find themselves in waist-deep water.

Isolated in a migrant labor camp in rural Jones County, far from the view of paved roads, the workers called 911 and told emergency officials they needed to be rescued. Then they waited for hours, watching as their mattresses, refrigerators, and other belongings floated by in the rising floodwaters.

But unbeknownst to the workers at the time, a county emergency management team had canceled an effort to extract them, after the owner of the farm where the men were working called county officials to say the laborers at the camp were “fine.”

“We were there in the rain and didn’t know what to do,” a worker who was among those stranded at the camp, and who asked to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions, told BuzzFeed News.

“The water started coming in, but we hoped that it would keep flowing and go down,” he said. “Once it got higher than a meter, we had to get out.”

Located deep in eastern North Carolina's farming country, Jones County was among the areas hardest hit by Florence. Bracing for the hurricane's impact, the county had declared a state of emergency on Sept. 11, four days before Florence made landfall, and ordered mandatory evacuations for its roughly 10,000 residents.

Men at the camp were told a hurricane was approaching, the worker told BuzzFeed News, but many of them — including himself — had never experienced one before. He said he was not aware of any evacuation order.

Eric Merritt, Jones County’s emergency management director, confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the county received the workers' 911 calls on the morning of Sept. 15, and said that first responders, including a swift-water rescue team, were initially dispatched to the camp in response.

The rescue crews had trouble reaching the location because of a road that had been blocked off by rising water, Merritt said. In the meantime, he said, the owner of the farm where the workers were located contacted the county to say that the group of roughly 35 to 40 men were fine.

“We contacted a swift-water team, and by that time the farm owner stated he made contact with [the workers] and they were fine, that they were just in an isolated area,” Merritt said. “That they had everything they needed as far as food and water.”
It was not clear why the farm owner, Randy Riggs, of Riggs Brothers Farm, called off the county's rescue efforts, or why workers at the camp stayed behind four days after the mandatory evacuation had been issued. Riggs did not respond to multiple messages from BuzzFeed News.

Asked why an emergency rescue would be called off on the word of the property owner, despite firsthand requests from the stranded workers, Merritt said he was not sure.
“He’s the actual owner and representative of the property,” Merritt said. “In that situation we’ll use the information from the most reliable case.”

Pressed on whether those asking to be rescued should be considered the most reliable source, Merritt conceded, “I guess in this case, yes."

The farmworkers weren't the only ones who tried to arrange rescues at the camp. As they waited for help to arrive, workers had reached out to advocates who work with the migrant community in eastern North Carolina, and asked them to relay the situation at the camp to officials.

Two migrant worker advocates told BuzzFeed News they were contacted by people at the camp on the morning of Sept. 15, and began to reach out to emergency services and other agencies, including the North Carolina Growers Association and the US Department of Labor, in the hopes of finding someone who could intervene to rescue the workers from the floods.

Melissa Bailey, an outreach director for the Kinston Community Health Center, which provides medical services to migrant workers in the region, told BuzzFeed News she received a call from one of the farmworkers sometime after 7 a.m. that morning. She said she then made multiple calls to 911 between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., telling officials the workers at Riggs Brothers Farm needed to be rescued.

Caitlin Ryland, supervising attorney at Legal Aid of North Carolina, said her organization was also contacted about the situation at the flooded camp and asked to help reach county officials who could get rescue teams to the workers.

With emergency services in Jones County apparently unresponsive to the situation, Ryland said, she contacted the Labor Department to see if federal authorities might be able to intervene.

In the end, it was an employee with the North Carolina Growers Association — a trade group that contracts with farms to provide migrant labor to North Carolina farms — who eventually picked up the workers from the site late Saturday afternoon, and took them to a shelter set up at a community college in a neighboring county.

Both the worker BuzzFeed News spoke to and the NCGA said that the workers appeared to be unharmed at the time of the rescue.

Composed of about 700 farm owners in the state — including Riggs Brothers Farms — the NCGA coordinates the hiring of more than 9,000 seasonal migrant workers in the state annually, and is the biggest labor contractor in the country for the H-2A temporary agricultural visa program, according to the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration.

Before the hurricane hit, NCGA Deputy Director Lee Wicker said, the association had reached out to farm owners to remind them to take steps to protect their employees. “Our message to our growers was they needed to take the necessary steps to take care of these workers like they’re your own family,” he said.

Upon hearing about the stranded workers in Jones County, Wicker said, the group “immediately dispatched our field reps” to pick up the men.

“I think the grower should have done better than he did, but thankfully we were able to get them out of there,” Wicker told BuzzFeed News. “We’re really sorry it happened how it happened, and we wish the grower would have taken additional steps.”

The incident underscores the perilous position that many migrant workers across North Carolina found themselves in as Florence battered the state last month. Despite playing a vital role in the state's large agricultural sector, migrant workers have been largely ignored in the aftermath of the disaster.

Many of the workers BuzzFeed News spoke to last month said they have now found themselves out of work and running low on money. As seasonal workers, they are sometimes dismissed as only temporary guests, not residents of the communities where they can spend up to 10 months a year. Relying on the daily work provided by a temporary visa, many are also hesitant to ask for assistance, out of fear that doing so could affect their employment or immigration status.

Despite being encouraged to evacuate if they were in danger, Ryland said, many laborers feared they could be retaliated against if they left on their own, without the direction or help of a farm owner or labor contractor. As a result, many failed to evacuate before the storm hit, leaving themselves vulnerable to the rising floodwaters and other weather hazards as Florence unleashed torrents of rain and wind on the state.

“A lot of migrant workers, their lives are very dependent to their employer,” she said, including services like transportation to church, stores, or medical attention. “Most of them have no independent means of transportation and that can be very scary.”

  • BuzzFeed, Inc.





Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Iraqis invited to apply online for ministerial posts. October 8, 2018


Commend Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Adbul Mahdi

Changing the Paradigm.  A 21st Century Giant Step Forward in Inclusion and Diversity.

Youth, Next Generation Leaders play an important role.

BEMA International


In a statement on his personal Facebook account, Mr Abdul Mahdi invited "those with expertise, specialisation and practical experience" to come forward.
 
Adel Abbul Mahdi has until 1 November to form a new government
Iraq's Prime Minister-designate Adel Abdul Mahdi has launched a website to allow Iraqis to apply for ministerial positions in his new cabinet.

They have until Thursday to submit a CV and evidence they meet his conditions.

Mr Abdul Mahdi was asked to form a new government last week, ending months of deadlock after inconclusive elections.

The independent Shia Islamist politician - who has a PhD in economics and has served as vice-president, oil minister and finance minister - was nominated by the two Shia-led blocs that won the most seats in parliament in May.

He will have to oversee the reconstruction of Iraq following the four-year battle against the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), which left tens of thousands of homes and business destroyed and displaced more than three million people.


Mr Abdul Mahdi has until 1 November to form a government.

In the Facebook post, the prime minister-designate said he had decided to open up the ministerial recruitment process following a "number of requests for direct personal meetings either to offer congratulations, present programmes and ideas or to apply for ministerial posts".

The website Iraqcabinet2018.com says men and women who "meet all the conditions stipulated in the constitution and enforced laws" have until 16:00 (13:00 GMT) on Thursday to submit applications.
 
Outgong PM Haider al-Abadi struggled to bring independent technocrats into his cabinet
Hopefuls must provide their personal details, state whether they belong to any political party, and then say which ministry they would like to lead.

They are also required to describe the most important projects they have overseen, outline their thoughts on what makes a successful leader, and then detail the practical solutions they would propose to tackle the problems their chosen ministry is facing.

Previous Iraqi governments have been plagued by corruption, mismanagement, politicisation and sectarianism.

Outgoing Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi sought to replace ministers who were political appointees with unaffiliated technocrats, but faced stiff resistance from parties in his ruling coalition.

Parliament's failure to approve a non-political cabinet helped trigger protests in 2016 and prompted Mr Abdul Mahdi to step down as oil minister, a decision he said was aimed at "confronting an atmosphere of anxiety of chaos".



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