Today in disaster resilience (21 March 2025)

Please find below links to some aspects of disaster resilience that were in the news recently…

Recent emergencies/disasters

Death toll from North Macedonia nightclub fire rises to 59 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70wdedp20wo.amp

Destructive wildfires erupt in Oklahoma, causing widespread evacuations, road closures, power outages, and structural damage https://watchers.news/2025/03/15/destructive-wildfires-erupt-in-oklahoma-causing-widespread-evacuations-road-closures-power-outages-and-structural-damage/

Two fatalities reported as 9 tornadoes rip through Alabama https://watchers.news/2025/03/16/two-fatalities-reported-as-9-tornadoes-rip-through-alabama/

Severe storms and tornadoes leave at least 42 dead across Missouri, Mississippi, Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma https://watchers.news/2025/03/16/severe-storms-and-tornadoes-leave-at-least-33-dead-across-missouri-mississippi-kansas-arkansas-texas-and-oklahoma/

Oklahoma wildfires kill 4, injure 142, and destroy hundreds of homes https://watchers.news/2025/03/17/oklahoma-wildfires-kill-4-injure-142-and-destroy-hundreds-of-homes/

Flooding in central Italy: one month’s worth of rainfall per day, losses reach €100 million https://unn.ua/en/news/flood-in-tuscany-monthly-rainfall-in-a-day-damage-reaches-100-million-euros

Flood-hit region braces for ‘day after day’ of downpours https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/state/qld/2025/03/18/north-qld-heavy-rain

Rainy season in Ecuador leaves 20 dead https://www.telesurenglish.net/ecuador-rainy-season-leaves-20-dead-so-far/

Volcanic activity worldwide 19 Mar 2025: Santiaguito volcano, Semeru, Ibu, Dukono, Svartsengi https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano-activity/news/267373/Volcanic-activity-worldwide-19-Mar-2025-Santiaguito-volcano-Semeru-Ibu-Dukono-Svartsengi-Reven.html

Extreme Weather and Climate Change

Enhancing Climate Resilience Through Urban Landscape Design: Strategies for Green Infrastructure and Adaptation https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-96-1521-6_7

The Changing Nature of Atmospheric Rivers https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/clim/38/6/JCLI-D-24-0234.1.xml

Climate resilience in the past was local https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02131-7

Brazil Shares Priorities for COP 30 https://sdg.iisd.org/news/brazil-shares-priorities-for-cop-30/

What Gets Measured Gets Managed? Exploring the Climate Change Performance Index and Climate Risk Index https://ccpi.org/what-gets-measured-gets-managed-exploring-the-climate-change-performance-index-and-climate-risk-index/

NASA Analysis Shows Unexpected Amount of Sea Level Rise in 2024 https://www.nasa.gov/missions/jason-cs-sentinel-6/sentinel-6-michael-freilich/nasa-analysis-shows-unexpected-amount-of-sea-level-rise-in-2024/

Physical and biogeochemical responses of Tibetan Plateau lakes to climate change https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-025-00650-5

‘The ice melted beneath our feet’: The huskies that revealed the rapid shrinking of Greenland’s ice https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250314-the-photo-of-husky-dogs-walking-on-water-that-reveals-the-reality-of-ice-melting-and-climate-change-in-greenland

Before and after photos show the destruction of climate change https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/03/before-and-after-photos-show-the-destruction-of-climate-change/

Climate change ‘will accelerate’ owing to decline in natural carbon storage, says study https://phys.org/news/2025-03-climate-owing-decline-natural-carbon.html

Diminished contribution of spring phenology to early-season carbon uptake in a changing climate https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02201-8

New Zealand heads towards 100 pct renewables https://reneweconomy.com.au/graph-of-the-day-new-zealand-heads-towards-100-pct-renewables/

More than 150 ‘unprecedented’ climate disasters struck world in 2024, says UN https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/19/unprecedented-climate-disasters-extreme-weather-un-report

State of the Global Climate 2024 https://wmo.int/publication-series/state-of-global-climate-2024

WMO report documents spiralling weather and climate impacts https://wmo.int/media/news/wmo-report-documents-spiralling-weather-and-climate-impacts

The Most Cost-Effective Approaches to Protect Against Rising Seas Are Flexible, Adaptable https://www.rutgers.edu/news/most-cost-effective-approaches-protect-against-rising-seas-are-flexible-adaptable-ones

Flooding in the Sahara, Amazon tributaries drying and warming tipping over 1.5°C – 2024 broke all the wrong records https://theconversation.com/flooding-in-the-sahara-amazon-tributaries-drying-and-warming-tipping-over-1-5-c-2024-broke-all-the-wrong-records-252490

‘Like wildfires underwater’: Worst summer on record for Great Barrier Reef as coral die-off sweeps planet https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/04/australia/australia-great-barrier-reef-wildfires-climate-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

Increasing heat and rainfall extremes now far outside the historical climate https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-021-00202-w

Disaster risk reduction

Orange and Orange-Volcanoes: a New Open and Collaborative Platform to Perform Data-Driven Investigations and Machine Learning Analyses in Petrology and Volcanology https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/8685/

Latest from the new Leverhulme Wildfires research teams https://centreforwildfires.org/news/giraffe-team-bulletin-latest-from-the-new-leverhulme-wildfires-research-teams-no-2/

Immediate and High‐Precision Hypocentral Determination for Earthquake Early Warning Applications Using Distributed Acoustic Sensing https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/bssa/article-abstract/115/1/174/651151/Immediate-and-High-Precision-Hypocentral

Researchers Forecast Shaking Damage from Crustal Earthquake Scenarios in Mexico City https://www.seismosoc.org/news/researchers-forecast-shaking-damage-from-crustal-earthquake-scenarios-in-mexico-city/

New research finds that Wildlife Trust natural flood management schemes deliver £10 of benefits for every £1 invested https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/new-research-finds-wildlife-trust-natural-flood-management-schemes-deliver-ps10-benefits-every

Debating Disaster Risk https://cup.columbia.edu/book/debating-disaster-risk/9780231209670

‘They dropped us’: Idaho homeowners face insurance crisis as wildfire risks intensify https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/they-dropped-us-idaho-homeowners-face-insurance-crisis-as-wildfire-risks-intensify-local/277-52f4518b-8e27-42d3-8e74-863d7d1818a8

Special Issue: The Sendai Framework Celebrates Its 10th Birthday https://link.springer.com/journal/13753/volumes-and-issues/16-1

Scientists issue jaw-dropping warning about future of powerful hurricanes: ‘Time to prepare’ https://www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/increasing-hurricane-predictions-atlantic-east-pacific/

Laser technology on subsea cables could provide earlier tsunami warning for the Pacific https://www.gns.cri.nz/news/laser-technology-on-subsea-cables-could-provide-earlier-tsunami-warning-for-the-pacific/

Five surprising ways that trees help prevent flooding https://theconversation.com/five-surprising-ways-that-trees-help-prevent-flooding-240242

Emergency Management

A Safer Future – Cree Nation and Ontario fire departments launch unique fire prevention program http://nationnews.ca/community/a-safer-future-cree-nation-and-ontario-fire-departments-launch-unique-fire-prevention-program/

Do We Need FEMA To Respond To Natural Disasters? https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkobayashisolomon/2025/03/09/do-we-need-fema-to-respond-to-natural-disasters/

The field of emergency management has significantly evolved since its inception https://www.domesticpreparedness.com/articles/emergency-management-has-evolved-why-the-all-hazards-era-is-over

Does California Need a Statewide Emergency Alert System? https://www.govtech.com/em/safety/does-california-need-a-statewide-emergency-alert-system

Forecast for weaker weather service: Americans will die, businesses will lose billions https://thebulletin.org/2025/03/forecast-for-weaker-weather-service-americans-will-die-businesses-will-lose-billions/

Long Covid is the pandemic’s dark shadow. Why does no one in power in Britain want to talk about it? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/17/long-covid-pandemic-britain-power-lockdown-disease

Cleanup under way after massive storm barreled across at least eight US states https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/17/storm-tornado-southern-states

Disaster Education, Communication and Engagement

Tornado https://www.undrr.org/understanding-disaster-risk/terminology/hips/mh0059

Flooding drop-in support event to be held in Melton Mowbray https://www.meltontimes.co.uk/news/environment/flooding-drop-in-support-event-to-be-held-in-melton-mowbray-5036639

Sea level game creates climate awareness among young people https://www.uu.nl/en/news/sea-level-game-creates-climate-awareness-among-young-people

Designing and evaluating a public engagement activity about sea level rise https://gc.copernicus.org/articles/8/67/2025/

Does a citizen science approach enhance the effectiveness of flood early warning systems? Evidence from the Akaki catchment, Ethiopia https://www.preventionweb.net/publication/does-citizen-science-approach-enhance-effectiveness-flood-early-warning-systems

Preparing for High Ground Hike with Metchosin, Port McNeill and Tofino https://blog.gov.bc.ca/emergencymanagement/community-spotlight-high-ground-hike/

What Does a Wildfire-Resistant House Look Like? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-build-a-wildfire-resistant-house/

Crumbling cliffs and intergenerational cohesivity: A new climate praxis model for engaged community action on accelerated coastal change https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2024-4085/

Disaster psychology

Resilience Factors Affecting Long-Term Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms in the Aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Among Older Adults https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology/article-abstract/80/4/gbae182/7888728

Sociology and disasters

A predictive model for household displacement duration after disasters https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/risa.17710

Floods, community infrastructure, and children’s heterogeneous learning losses in rural India https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775725000159

Supporting States in measuring the impacts of internal displacement https://environmentalmigration.iom.int/blogs/supporting-states-measuring-impacts-internal-displacement

The weakness of weak ties: do social capital investments among leaders pay off during times of disaster? https://academic.oup.com/jpart/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jopart/muaf002/8074751

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NeilDufty

I am a Principal Scientist at Water Technology Pty Ltd, an Australian-based coastal, environment and natural hazards company - see https://www.watertech.com.au/. I specialise in the community aspects of disaster risk reduction and emergency management. Samples of my research and projects can be accessed at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Neil-Dufty Check out my latest book 'Disaster Education, Communication and Engagement' at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119569796/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i6 I am also a published fiction writer specialising in short stories and poems - see https://neilduftyfiction.com/

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