Pacific Standard March-April 2013 Cover

Search Dogs Seeking Fake Disasters to Sniff

February 28, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Search Dog Founation Bios

Head up, nose twitching, a yellow Labrador named Nino bounded into action, zig-zagging across a jumble of rubble to try and catch the scent of a live human in the air. Following the directional signals of Jim, his handler, Nino headed for a 75-foot-by-25-foot area filled with mounds of debris containing wood, sheet metal, rebar, pipes, a wrecked car, bicycles, a mailbox, the remnants of an old bird pen and a horse trailer, all arranged to evoke the aftermath of homes demolished by a tornado. Nino followed the "cone of the scent," honing in on the area where the smell was the strongest. His ... Read More

More like this: Culture, Culture & Society, March-April 2011, News and Options
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Fumbling FEMA Wants Back in the Game

October 16, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment

In 2003, the Department of Homeland Security gobbled up the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the 30-year-old bureaucracy that coordinates responses to natural disasters. The change left FEMA gutted and impotent, and when Hurricane Katrina struck two years later, the results were devastating. What's troubling, though, is that post-Katrina congressional reforms haven't fully addressed the agency's woes, argues North Carolina State University political science professor Thomas Birkland in a recent paper. Birkland, author of books such as Lessons of Disaster: Policy Change after ... Read More

More like this: Politics
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Pssst. Mr. President.

January 5, 2009 • By • 1 Comment

As the lengthy, contentious 2008 presidential election campaign wound to a close, it wasn't hard to pinpoint the overwhelming focal point: It was the economy, stupid. All three debates between Barack Obama and John McCain began with extensive discussions of how their tax plans and campaign platforms would salve the deepening credit crunch and soothe the plunging stock markets, putting all other issues — even the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — squarely on a back burner set to "low." But the presidency of the United States is not a glorified chair in macroeconomics, and it's no secret ... Read More

More like this: Cover Story, January-February 2009, Politics, Science, Unsolicited Advice
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Close the Turkey Farm

December 22, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment

In 2003, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was combined, with more than 20 other agencies, into the new Department of Homeland Security. The inclusion of FEMA in DHS was controversial, for at least two reasons. First, there was nothing about the Sept. 11 attacks that suggested a need to move FEMA. FEMA's mission was, in the 1990s, to support state and local government in their responses to a range of disasters, and most of these efforts were successful. Second, it was clear before the Department of Homeland Security was formed that President Bush would appoint political allies, not ... Read More

More like this: January-February 2009, Politics, Unsolicited Advice
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FEMA’s Nightmare: A Big Midwest Shaker

November 21, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment

The "Big One" assumed for California or other Pacific Rim states and provinces will almost certainly arrive some day, but FEMA said Thursday that the most catastrophic quake in the United States probably is destined for mid-America. The feds didn't say "biggest," as in magnitude, but catastrophic, as in social upheaval and economic disruption. Based on a study by the University of Illinois' Mid-America Earthquake Center, FEMA suggests "the total economic impact of a series of (New Madrid Seismic Zone) earthquakes is likely to constitute the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster ... Read More

More like this: Findings
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