In recent years, we've seen natural disasters take a serious toll on our nation. Nearly a decade ago, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, killing more than 1,800 people and leaving some communities yet to completely recover. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy caused at least 162 deaths in the United States and damaged hundreds of thousands of homes. Beyond the human costs, these disasters have significant financial consequences. The Congressional Research Service has reported that Hurricane Katrina cost the federal government approximately $120 billion while Hurricane Sandy cost $60 billion. The years without disasters of that scale are expensive as well, often seeing the federal government spend between $2 billion and $6 billion.

The risks that natural disasters pose aren't likely to go away anytime soon. As the Third National Climate Assessment points out: "Certain types of extreme weather events with links to climate change have become more frequent and/or intense, including prolonged periods of heat, heavy downpours, and, in some regions, floods and droughts." Unfortunately, our federal policies aren’t as well suited for these problems as they should be. We focus our resources largely on responding and recovering from natural disasters after they’ve occurred—when we should focus instead what we can do before they do. We need to re-orient our policies, and do so in ways that will save lives and money.

When discussing homeland security, policy analysts generally talk about five mission areas: prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery. In evaluating where to put resources—dollars and people, for example—public officials divvy them between these areas, deciding what's appropriate given the threats and hazards they face. When dealing with terrorism, prevention is a focus, so we put some of these resources into activities such as intelligence gathering. Where natural disasters are concerned, prevention isn't really an option so we focus our efforts on the other four areas.

At the federal level, this has largely meant funding response and recovery. FEMA, the federal agency most of us think of when we talk about natural disasters, spends much of its time assisting states and communities after they've been hit. In the wake of a major storm, emergency managers, firefighters, and law enforcement will conduct search and rescue operations, tend to the injured, clean debris, and start repairing roads and bridges, among other things. If the damage is severe enough, FEMA will pick up the tab for much of this work through its public assistance program and help people get back on their feet through individual assistance. Other agencies kick in as well. The Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Transportation, and a number of others all provide after-the-fact disaster assistance.

Helping communities rebuild is important, especially after they've been overwhelmed by a catastrophe. But in focusing on after-the-fact response and recovery, we haven't done as much as we should before natural disasters hit. Mitigation is a prime example of this. It's well established that there are a number of actions communities can take to reduce the impact of disasters. For example, well-designed building codes can ensure that structures can withstand the damage of earthquakes or floods; residential and community safe rooms can shield people from wind and debris; and homes can be elevated to reduce flood damage. These steps build resiliency against disasters and take people out of harm's way. This means that there's less to repair and rebuild— and less need for costly response and recovery efforts. One oft-cited figure estimates that for every dollar spent on mitigation, four are saved.

Currently, when the federal government assists with mitigation, it largely does so as part of its recovery efforts. That is, when helping rebuild after a disaster, FEMA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development will provide funding for communities to put together mitigation plans or buy and relocate structures in flood-prone areas, for example. This is good. But even better would be a concerted effort to promote mitigation before a disaster hits. There are several ways we can try to do this. One is simply to spend more money on such efforts. The President's 2016 budget takes a step in this direction, proposing to increase funding for FEMA's "pre-disaster" mitigation program from $25 million to $200 million. That's still a long way from the billions that will go toward disaster relief, but it's a start.

Another option is to shift funding in other grant programs toward mitigation. FEMA currently spends more than $1 billion a year on its terrorism-focused preparedness grants. These programs have been very successful in helping states and cities strengthen their ability to respond to attacks. Boston, for example, uses this funding to conduct its Urban Shield training exercises, which it credits for its quick response to the 2013 marathon bombing. But it's time to consider opening these grants up to a wider range of purposes and encouraging recipients to direct a portion of what they get to mitigation.

Finally, the federal government should create incentives for states and localities to do more mitigation on their own. BuildStrong, a coalition of businesses and emergency managers, has been pushing for the adoption of the Safe Building Code Incentive Act for several years. This legislation would provide states with more assistance after a disaster if they have strong building codes in place beforehand. Inducements such as these could go a long way toward encouraging communities to consider mitigation. This is an achievable goal and one worth pursuing. By doing more before disasters hit, the federal government will have less to do after.

source: brookings.edu

TOKYO: Japan would organize a five-day Third UN World Conference on disaster risk reduction here from March 14.

This was stated here by a senior official of the Cabinet office of the government of Japan while briefing the visiting media representatives to Japan from sixteen different development countries including Pakistan.

The Journalists from Indonesia, Thailand, Phillipne, Vietnam, Mayamar, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Peru, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Iran were participating at the two-week progarmme at the invitation of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) which started here from February 16.

The main objective of the program was to familiarize the financial activities and projects initiated by the JICA in different countries and share disaster management utilizing Japanese experience for building disaster resilient societies in developing countries.

Highlighting the objectives of the 3rd UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, the official said that more than 5,000 experts in the field of Disaster reduction management would participates besides attending by 40,000 visitors.

The official further said that during the conference the participants would review the implementation of HFA and adopt ion of a post -2015 framework (HF2).

The official said that Japan has a comprehensive disaster management plan including risk reduction.

The official said that the number of earthquakes with magnitude of 6.0 or greater occurred in Japan was 18.3 percent compared to 81.3 percent of the total worlds earthquakes.

The official further said that after World War II ,the biggest earthquakes had caused huge economic and human losses to Japan. Highlighting progress in laws and systems in disaster management acts since 1959, the official said that after typhoon Ise-Wan in Japan in 1961 Disaster countermeasures basic act (DCBA) was introduced.

The official said that after Nigata earthquake 1961, Act of earthquake insurance, in 1978 Miyagi-Ken Oki earthquake Amendment of building standard law was inacted in 1981, while Great Hanshin Awaji earthquake 0f 1995,amemdment of DBA and Act of promotion of earthquake proof retrofit of buildings was introduced.

Similarly , the official said that after Great East Japan Earthquake 2011,Tsumani resident city development act was inacted while in 2012 amendment of DCBA and further amendment in DCBA were made in 2013.

The official further told the participating journalists that Great east japan earthquake 2011 has caused 21,377 casulties while the number of collapsed and half collapsed buildings were 1,158,707.

The official said that Japan has learnt from these disasters and wanted to share it with other countries for disaster risk reduction.

Meanwhile a JICA representative on Disaster risk management said that around 90 perent of victims were citizens of the developing countries. He said that according to UNISDR, US $ 1.68 Trillion in economic losses due to major intensive global disasters from 2001-2011.

He added that according to UNISDR around (one) 1 million people died , 3 billion people were affected due to natural disasters after year 2000.

He said that having increase of natural disaster, Disaster risk reduction was inevitable not only to save human lives but to realize sustainable development and resilient society in the world.

He was of the view that US $ 0ne (1) investment in dister risk reduction saves US $ seven (7) in recovery efforts.

He urged the countries and their governments around the world for allocation of funds for diaster risk reduction as Japanese government had spent 5 percent of state budget to this sector from 1960 to 1970.

He added that natural disasters might affect the achievement of Millinumn Development Goals (MDGs).

He added that natural disters may directly affect to human life and Disaster risk reduction contributes to the realization of human security in the developing countries.

Later the participants of the JICA training programme visited the local Honjo Bosaikan ,Life safety learning center in the Tokyo Fire department and also participated in drill for disaster preparedness after a disaster.

Bosaikan (life safety center ) is a facility that enables everyone in Tokyo to experience simulated disasters thereby increasing their disaster knowledge and showing them what to do in case of an emergency.

The high technology disaster simulators make someone feel if they were in the middle of an earthquake , a storm , a fire or smoke.

Visit the WCDRR 2015 website

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2015

Sydney (AFP) - A 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the Pacific nation of Vanuatu Thursday, the United States Geological Survey said.

The USGS reported that the quake hit at a depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) about 149 kilometres from Vanuatu's capital Port Vila.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no threat of a tsunami.

A second, smaller 5.1 magnitude quake hit the same area about 20 minutes later, the USGS said.

Vanuatu is part of the "Ring of Fire", a zone of tectonic activity around the Pacific that experiences frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

The South Pacific island was jolted by a powerful 6.8-magnitude tremor in late January, but there were no reports of damage.

In 2013 the neighbouring Solomon Islands were struck by a tsunami after an 8.0-magnitude earthquake rattled the region. The tsunami killed least 10 people, destroyed hundreds of homes and left thousands of people homeless.

Tsunami warning issued by Japan Meteorological Agency as residents of Iwate prefecture are cleared from homes, though no damage or injuries reported

Evacuations were ordered for towns closest to the coast in Iwate prefecture in Japan early on Tuesday morning after a strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.9 was recorded off the country’s coast.

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning and Japanese broadcaster NHK warned residents a one metre-high wave was expected to hit the coast of Iwate. The quake was measured at a depth of about six miles and shook much of north-east Japan even being felt in Tokyo, 430 miles away.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said there was no danger of a Pacific-wide tsunami.

NHK later said that small tsunamis of about 10 centimetres were recorded about 45 minutes after the quake hit and warned people to stay away from the shore.

Tohoku Electric Power Co and Tokyo Electric Power Co, both of which operate nearby nuclear plants, reported no irregularities at their facilities after the quake. Unlisted Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd also said there were no irregularities recorded at its nuclear fuel reprocessing facility or other plants in Aomori.

All 48 of Japan’s nuclear reactors remain offline after a March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which triggered the Fukushima nuclear disaster in north-east Japan.