Virtual Center for Chronic Low-intensity Education in Emergencies

06/30/2024

The Eastern Caribbean is currently preparing for the impending arrival of Hurricane Beryl, a Category 4 storm. Barbados is situated directly in the storm's predicted path. The region has not experienced a direct hit from a hurricane in some time, and as such, it is important that lessons learned from previous events are not forgotten. Grenada was severely impacted by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, while St. Lucia and SVG were affected by tropical storms in 2012. To minimize the impact of future storms, emphasis should be placed on strengthening infrastructure and implementing more robust building codes. In the meantime, it is crucial to ensure the availability of water and food supplies for at least three days, in addition to seeking safe shelter. It is also important to have systems in place for rapid response and loss of life mitigation. Residents are advised to exercise caution regarding flooding and sea swells and to evacuate safely and promptly if necessary.

01/11/2024

How all these unsolicited adverts have taken over my page and then someone messages me accusing me of violation and a demand to make immediate contact or face penalties. That’s what on my mind!

08/30/2023

Another hurricane bears down on Florida, the one state with the highest probability of being hit directly or brushed by a hurricane each year (15%). Taylor Country appears to be in the crosshairs. It’s lone shelter, an elementary school, has been shutdown and residents asked to seek shelter elsewhere including Tallahassee. Hurricane Idalia is expected to make landfall as a category 4 (130 miles). The rapid increase in wind strength due to high ocean temperature at or about 85°F leaves little time for preparation. Sea surge is expected to be 16ft in some places with to 13 inches of rain. Massive flooding should be expected. People were expected to leave town by 4pm today. My thoughts are with the kids and how they experience the event. Hopefully, parents will explain what these kids should expect when they return. Hopefully, their schools will hold up and they can return to classes as soon as possible!

08/22/2023

Two things caught my attention today. I saw the spectacular video of flooding in Death Valley, where an ephemeral stream disappeared into what looked like a canyon with extraordinary rock outcrops. I wish I was there. It is not often that a geographer gets to see flash floods in a desert, one of the driest places on earth, but that was not what caught my attention. It was the fact that the LA City and school officials had to defend closing schools ahead of the approach of Hurricane Hillary in Southern California, even after seeing the impact. The other attention catcher was the video of a small restaurant visibly shaking as a 5.1 earthquake struck while the region was under a hurricane watch. The bartender was able to get outside while a parent at the door's entrance sat almost unmoved with two children while someone shouts "Everybody, get outside!" Someone came in and grab one child before the father and the other child made a run for the outside.

Most people who die in earthquakes are often in collapsed buildings, hence my discomfort with drop, cover, and hold response to earthquakes. Evacuating a building, particularly on the ground floor, in the shortest possible time, and under 30 seconds to a minute, is probably the best chance of survival during an earthquake (Include three video links).

https://abc7.com/school-closures-schools-closed-hurricane-hilary-lausd-orange-county/13679495/

https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/1c/d8/8e0d2bf24777a442b828dde29d55/file-group/tr-death-valley-nps-system-generic-hd-mp4-avc-aac-16x9-1280x720p-24hz-4-5mbps.mp4

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/watch-the-moment-5-1-magnitude-quake-hits-ojai/3628726/

Tres Hermanas restaurant in Ojai, Calif. shared video from the moment a 5.1 magnitude quake hit on Sunday.

08/18/2023

Last time, I raised concerns for the children of Maui and the destructive fires that destroyed their homes. This is a state that should have been used to volcanic fires and yet it failed so spectacularly to at least warn people. I was unsurprised to hear MSNBC say today that schools were closed because of the power lost and children may have been home alone since parents held down several jobs. The concern is that some of these children may have perished in the fires with their parents unable to reach them and they unable to save themselves. ABC News revealed that two children found of the seashore and separated from their parents during the disaster were successfully reunited with those parents. Our policy of reuniting children with their parents, the belief that they are safe once they are with their parents and asking that they are once home does not always hold. Children need to be taught home-based survival skills and they must be made aware that drills practiced at schools must be applied at homes during disasters. Families must also develop and practice their own disaster response plans consistent with established approaches. Children, based on school experiences, may be expected to lead those drills and exercises. In our effort to develop a research agenda for Coastlines and People (CoPE), we advocated for education and schools as cross-cutting issues in disaster research and education as a focus for developing succeeding generations of disaster research and to begin to create a culture of safety.

08/16/2023

Again, another disaster, the Maui Fires, and nothing is told of the children. Again the assumption is that if parents are safe, so are their children. Children experience disasters differently. They lose more of what is central to their lives: Parents, other family members, friends, teachers, schools, and instruction time, school supplies, uniforms and so on. They, particularly girls, suffer from PTSD for prolonged periods. They will require interventions, supports, and accommodations. Children and senior citizens are considered the forgotten people of disasters. Let them not be forgotten in this response and recovery.

08/13/2023

Most of you may have seen the Maui fires and their aftermath. One article described them as a compound disaster in which several factors came together to not only trigger them but to make them as deadly and devastating. All disasters result from the collapse of protective factors and a failure of management and decision making. Failure to consistently assess threats and risks and incorporate these into policies, plans, and operations (adaptive developmental approach) heightens the likelihood of these events. As Meyer & Kunreuther clearly articulated in their work, The Ostrich Paradox (burying our heads in the sand behavior but being great escape artists), we underprepare for disaster because we, among others, underestimate the risk to ourselves. We also forgo risk reduction and shoring-up because we treat disaster events as external and rare. So yes, several things may have come together beginning with the way we think (espoused theory) as I alluded to earlier; settlement patterns, building materials, weather and climate change, deforestation and it’s results, and windy conditions to orchestrate this disaster. People need to think of their potential losses should disasters strike and believe the worse will happen to them not someone else as Meyer and Kunreuther explained. Moreover, islands are vulnerable ecosystems and failure to identify and manage those vulnerabilities results in these epic disasters. We must begin to think differently to act differently, that way we can minimize our shocks and losses.

02/11/2023

In 1999 Turkey was hit by a 7.6 earthquake that killed between 17 and 19 thousand. Twenty four years later not much appeared to have changed. Another earthquake and already the death toll approaches 20,000. Photos and television clips show entire apartment complexes collapsed in tact cut off from their foundations with thousand buried beneath the rubble. Turkey sits on a
series of active plate boundaries with known risks and vulnerabilities. Researchers have recorded past earthquakes, their effects and the risks and vulnerability. It does not appear that human response in housing, housing quality and construction, and early warning may have matched those risks and vulnerability. One may argue that many might have been, at home, asleep when the earthquake struct. I am uncertain if drop, cover and hold would have made a difference. Being able to evacuate a building in under 1 minutes has been shown to save lives, which makes high rise dwellings particularly risky. Knowing local vulnerabilities and risks and organizing living around those makes all the difference. We may not be able to minimize these events but we can mitigate against their impacts. Turkeye may need to review and revise its thinking, it’s role as in disaster mitigation, and it’s strategy in dealing with eathquake risk and vulnerability especially for the poor and marginalized. Twenty three years should have resulted in better outcomes.

01/25/2023

Yesterday amidst the storm, tornado warnings, heavy rain, and cold temperatures in Houston, the shelter-in-place conversation emerged. As a school district office, we are required to do frenquent shelter in place, lockdown, active shooter, and other emergency drills. It is instructive to watch actions and reactions when reality hit. The tendency is to head home when disasters and emergency events are forecast or begin to unfold.

The urge to get into a car and head home become overwhelming but often Houston roads are flooded and drivers become stranded. The result is traffic jams. One colleague said she was stuck on the freeway for 1.5 hours yesterday. One such traffic jam happened as Hurricane Rita approached the city in 2005. The gridlock and subsequent fatalities were the subject of a governor’s inquiry. As time passes and memory fades, such tragedies are no longer reflection points for deterrence, for hitting the road when disaster strikes.

Often our work buildings are strong enough and evevated high enough to withstand our worst fears. Shelter in place is an option. Staying put until the storm subsides and the roads are no longer flooded does save lives. This is even more essential when dealing with children. Shuttling them into buses and unleashing them unto disaster areas as the disaster unfolds need to be reconsidered. A family was swept to their death during raving waters after the family tried to evacuate during Hurricane Harvey. Once the disaster has started, it is best to stay put and find high ground. Turn around, we say in Houston, don’t drown. It may be time to add, “save face, shelter-in-place.” The life you save may be yours.

01/21/2023

I am reading Ravitch’s The life and death of the great American school system: How testing and choice are undermining American education. Really, the only people being undermined here are children from poor households, poor communities, and poor schools - the one who cannot afford to move, the ones who lack the verbal skills and experiences to succeed at testing, however, you characterize these tests, and the ones who lack the resources to take up whatever options are offered. She paints a picture of a system that systematically, (get it) sets up barriers for students from poor households to opt for these choices some of which comes with testing. They are the biggest losers. They lose at school and eventually at life’s chances.

This is an emergency, the silent type, because these children and their families lack the resources to address this dilemma. interestingly, they need the opportunities most to escape generational deprivations, but often they are beset by assumptions made about people who live in poverty, their motivations, and their abilities. The concept of ”The poverty trap” prevails. These are huge barriers to learning and these barriers are not so much the deprivations but our assumptions about those who suffer from them and the way those assumption are acted upon. It is a disaster from which we seem unable to recover because the response has been inadequate. Louise Comfort writes in her work on 9-11 about the need to move resources in the direction of disasters for adequate response and recovery.

Wraparound services are one way to begin to address those deprivations among children and their families. They intentionally target student and family needs using school resource spaces and a specialist dedicated to connecting students and families to community service providers who address these needs. They work collaboratively with other school staff and central district office to execute those connections, which documenting those actions on a dedicated internet platform.

It is essential that barriers to opportunity be removed to reduced the resistant scourge of deprivation particularly for children, who remain the responsibility of adults in their lives. The ability to get to school on time and frequently, access to adequate nutritious food, school supplies, and academic support, feeling of safety and security rest with schools and much as the home because school is a half-way house into society.

In Wraparound services, school is treated a a hub - a center from which student and family needs and services can be addressed. It goes beyond academics and addresses the whole child - health, basic needs, recreation, safety and so on, conscious that learning is depended on those other aspects of a child’s life.

You may be thinking children are the responsibility of their families, but not really. They spend the bulk of their time, I hope, under the care and nurturing of schools. Schools are supposed to prepare them for something and society stands to benefit when that goes as anticipated. For children from poor environments, often, this is not the case. We need to recenter the child in schools just like Google maps ask us to recenter when we veer off-course in our road navigations. We need to stop making assumptions about students and their learning and identify their needs and address them. If we can’t, find some who can and follow up. Give ourselves reminders to follow up to ensure those needs are met. Children remember. It may feel burdensome and especially for teachers who have a million other things to do, but the work of helping children who experience poverty require dedication, commitment, and tenacity. You want to start early, Head Start research confirms, and make it needs-based and intentional. This requires observation, interacting with children and families, listening, probing, and constantly inviting their voices into our spaces, and acknowledging those voices.

Results from evaluations of this approach are promising. They show that children are more likely to meet learning standards when their non-instructional needs are addressed. We have a generational responsibility to ensure rhose needs are met and begin to move resources in the direction of this long running disaster of underachievement and poverty.

10/15/2022

The month of October is anti-bullying awareness month and yesterday I completed my compliance training on anti-bullying awareness as is required each school year. The Texas School Safety Center also provides training on the same. Bullying is often associated with the young but occurs among adults as well. Often, it is subtle jabs, mean comments about you, your age, your country of origin, and sexual orientation, and I have found that even comments about the validity of work experiences that were not acquired in a host country are bullying tactics. The ignorance can be palpable. Federal, state, and district statutes prohibit bullying, harassment, and discrimination but often victims are afraid to speak up and seek help.

It is in homes and schools, though, that this bullying begins: the intolerance, bigotry, and exclusions of people who are different, think differently, speak differently or originated from different cultures are tolerated. Schools can be mean to new comers in particular. I witness it as a high school student years ago and was a victim of it too. It is there that seeds of school violence are sown. We do not wish to admit it but the evidence from commissioned reports supports this. Law enforcement cannot correct entrenched bigotry and exclusion. Parents and teachers can.

School adminsitrator, teachers, and households are called upon to be inclusive, be kind in their language as they address students, promote bullying awareness, and social and emotional learning. UNICEF’s Child Friendly Schools are a good place to start. It helps to establish the school as a safe place for children. Our school district and Family Engagement Department have a Family Friendly School Program designed to establish schools that are welcoming! Schools are not just places for academics. Schools are children’s first and often only community and they must be made to feel welcomed there. We have a responsibility, a generational responsibility, to create safe spaces for our children so they can grow up to create safe spaces for themselves and others.

The United Nations has for a long time observed the International Day of Tolerance. It was one of highlights of my student experiences at the University of Pittsburgh. It explores the rich culture and heritage that make our organizations, institutions, and countries special. I would advise all such entities to observe the day with dress, cuisine, and music. You will be surprised! We need to see people for who they are and include them for who they are not and who we hope they should be. The tapestry of humanity can be so beautiful if we learn how to weave them from threats of authenticity, acceptance, and hope. These days we need it even more. Let all the bullying and harassment cease!

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08/15/2022

Last night, I watched the Anderson Cooper 360 Special Report: What happened at Uvalde? It confirmed what we already know about disasters. They are the result of failures: failures of protections, systems, protocols, policies, and procedures, and failures in decision making. The school back door unable to close shut, unlocked classroom doors, to the police, frozen and deadlocked in the hallways, and the coverups were all failures. There was also the failure to corroborate information and data as shown in the disastrous press conferences which followed.

Disaster events like that in Uvalde impose stress that derails action and results in a freezed response. Similar reaction/inactions occurred during Hurricane Katrina when first responders, overwhelmed, fled the scene. That matter would later play out in court.

Overwhelming fear can shortcircuit long practiced responses and slight deviations from the sequence of practiced drills without the know how to adapt can also create uncertainty - the weapon used and the lack of tactical gear among the first responders, in this case. Heroism, bravery, confidence in the procedures and approaches which eventually may have been the life saver here, are not often considered in our analyses of disaster response. They may need to be considered. Additionally, responders’ belief about what is going on and speculating without evidence appear to have been another crippling factor. They had come to the factless conclusion that the situation had gone from an active to a barricaded shooter. A conclusion that played more into and reinforced their inaction. Effective disaster response is probably more behavioral that procedural. Who responds appears to be equally important. They need to be well prepared, procedurally, but they must also be brave and heroic.