Monthly Archives: March 2013

Wildfire Lessons from Waldo Canyon

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Last summer marked an especially destructive wildfire season in Colorado with insurance claims exceeding $450 million. One fire in particular – the  Waldo Canyon blaze that raged through the Colorado Springs area in June and July – burned more than 18,000 acres, destroyed almost 350 homes and caused the evacuation of more than 32,000 residents.  Reportedly, it was the most expensive fire in state history, causing more than $350 million worth of insurance claims.

Obviously, a fire of this magnitude can teach some valuable lessons for future mitigation efforts and earlier this week the Fire Adapted Communities Coalition (FAC), a national partnership dedicated to promoting best practices to reduce wildfire-related damage, released “Lessons from Waldo Canyon,” an investigative report that examined what happened. The report determined that the fire could have been much worse if it wasn’t for the mitigation efforts of the Colorado Springs Fire Marshal. In one neighborhood alone, mitigation efforts saved millions:

According to estimates provided by the Colorado Springs Mitigation Section and FEMA, the cost benefit ratio for the mitigation efforts for the Cedar Heights neighborhood was 1/257; $300,000 was spent on mitigation work and $77,248,301 in losses were avoided. Combined cost benefit ratio was 1/ 517 for the three neighborhoods with the highest impacts.

The report presented a variety of findings that could help other communities mitigate their own wildfire risk and outlined the importance of proper building construction and maintenance, reduction of fuels for fire, and partnerships with other organizations to spread the preparedness message.

The FAC also developed a companion video entitled, “Creating Fire Adapted Communities: A Case Study from Colorado Springs and the Waldo Canyon Fire” that includes dramatic footage of the fire and interviews with emergency personnel and residents to further drive home these mitigation lessons and hopefully prevent future disasters.

Solar Storms — A Real Risk

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A recent report from Lloyd’s of London broker Aon Benfield says that we are in for some extreme solar weather for the remainder of 2013, which could lead to business interruptions and large insurance claims. This peak in activity comes in accordance with the sun’s 11-year cycle.

The report states:

Massive ground currents resulting from geomagnetic storms can flow through electricity distribution networks, resulting in large scale blackouts and permanent damage to transformers. Enhanced X-ray and powerful ultraviolet solar radiation during a solar flare can impact on radio propagation and telecommunications systems, blocking global communications. Solar radiation can even cause a satellite’s orbit to decay, while static electrical discharges interfere with GPS services creating problems for aircraft at high latitudes.

Researchers state that if a solar storm similar to that which occurred in 1921 happened today, it would cost upwards of $2 trillion, with recovery taking up to 10 years for the U.S. alone. The infamous solar storm of 1921 caused “the entire signal and switching system of the New York Central Railroad below 125th Street to be put out of operation, followed by a fire in the control tower at 57th Street and Park Avenue.” Interference was also reported throughout most of Europe.

Though it’s impossible for scientists to predict exactly when or where the next solar storm happen, what they do know is that with more sunspots come more stoms. And the fall of 2013 is when the Sun is set to reach the crest of its 11-year sunspot cycle.

“Well-rehearsed contingency planning for a wide range of potential natural and man-made disasters is always going to be worthwhile for any business,” says Aon Benfield analyst Ryan Springall within the report. “The crucial issue for many businesses and households in the case of geomagnetic storms is likely to be loss of electrical power, possibly for an extended period.”

The study also points out that insurers could be liable for unforeseen losses as a result of a solar windstorm — anything from machinery breakdown to D&O. If scientists are right, this coming fall will be a hotbed of solar activity. It would be prudent to develop a broad-based business interruption plan and alter your insurance to cover such a rare event.

Flood Safety Awareness Week

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have teamed up to highlight flood risk with their Flood Safety Awareness Week. In many ways, flooding is the most-damaging natural disaster facing the United States, noted Dr. Louis W. Uccellini, director of the National Weather Service (a branch of NOAA).

“Flooding is dangerous and costly, killing nearly 100 people and causing an average of eight billion dollars in property damage in the United States each year,” said Dr. Uccellini.  “A weather-ready nation is a prepared nation; one that will reduce flood losses by planning ahead, staying abreast of weather forecasts and heeding the warnings.”

The agencies’ goal for the week is obvious: improving awareness of the risk and how citizens can stay safe.

FEMA’s Ready.gov site has several more tips to preparing for times before, during and after a flood, as does NOAA’s website, which offers information on its “Turn Around Don’t Drown” campaign. This campaign is something NOAA has been been highlighting for years, pushing those who encounter flood conditions on the road to head the other way rather than get stuck in water — or worse, if the road beneath is washed away.

According to NOAA, more than half of flooding-related deaths occur when people are driving.

It remains mystifying how many people don’t understand that the foundation of the Industrial Revolution, the combustion engine, relies on, ya know, combustion to work. And combustion — a fancy word for fire — requires oxygen. Which, I’ve heard, is not plentiful underwater.

In short, don’t try to drive through a lake.

One other interesting facet of this year’s advocacy is the focus on the 100-year anniversary of The Great Flood of 1913, something local survivor Bishop Milton Wright called a flood “second only to Noah’s.”

In late March of 1913 rain fell in such an excess over the Ohio Valley that no river in Ohio and most of Indiana remained in its banks. Bridges, roads, railways, dams, and property were washed away.

In its wake, at least 600 lost their lives, a quarter million people were left homeless, and damages were estimated in the hundreds of millions, making it at that time one of the worst natural disasters the United States had witnessed.

When disaster struck this part of the U.S. starting Easter Sunday, 1913 and lasting for weeks, it had a ripple effect across the entire nation. The damage to roads, railways, telephone and electrical lines paralyzed commerce in and out of the region.

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This affected people across the country, unlike previous disasters where impacts were primarily localized.

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As a result, there was national outcry for state and federal governments to reevaluate their role in flood control.

Through it has been a century since the disaster, it remains one of the largest tragedies in U.

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S. history.

Still, those who lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods may be able to take solace in the fact that they helped prompt a larger discussion of the risk. This nation’s history is spotted with catastrophes that helped spark change and this was one of the first in terms of increasing disaster preparedness.

Now, if only more people will heed those lessons.

The Legal Risks of Blogging

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Andrew Breitbart was a conservative American publisher, commentator, author and editor. He worked for such outlets as the The Washington Times and the news aggregation and blogging site Drudge Report. He was either part of the movement (if you ask Republicans) or his work was “revolting and some of it unethical or sloppy” (if you ask some Democrats). Either way, he was an American and had as much freedom of speech as the next man.

But a lawsuit against the late Breitbart is testing bloggers’ freedom of speech rights. And former government employee (and target of Breitbart’s wrath) Shirley Sherrod is behind it.

Sherrod was ousted from her job as an Agriculture Department rural development official in 2010 after Breitbart posted an edited video of Sherrod, who is black, supposedly making racist remarks. She sued Breitbart, his employee Larry O’Connor and an unnamed defendant for defamation and emotional distress after USDA officials asked her to resign and the video ignited a racial firestorm. Sherrod’s lawyers say the unnamed defendant is the person whom they believe passed the video on to Breitbart, though the person’s identity remains unknown.

Though the lawsuit was filed a little more than a year ago, it’s back in the news now, as a colleague of Breitbart’s is asking a federal court of appeals to throw out the suit, saying it violates the blogger’s freedom of speech. There are also claims that it violates Washington’s anti-SLAPP statute.

However it ends, it’s clear that the freedom of bloggers and journalists to express their views is being tested.

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The Breitbart case is not the first incident and will certainly  not be the last.

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But we must remember, freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy.

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