NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Protecting the infrastructure of American cities from the effects of climate change is rising on the agenda of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to a top agency official.
“Increasingly, we’ve moved not only from a security focus to a resiliency focus,” said Caitlin Durkovich, assistant secretary for infrastructure protection at Homeland Security, an agency better known for its fight to curb terrorist threats.
Durkovich spoke Thursday on a panel at the Rising Seas Summit, a three-day conference organized by the U.S.-based Association of Climate Change Officers to discuss tools and ideas on building resiliency, particularly against rising sea levels.
In the aftermath of 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, which devastated large swathes of the Northeastern U.S and caused over $60 billion in damages, Durkovich said her department reviewed the task of rebuilding with a new focus on “how to think about baking in resilience from the get-go.”
To that end, she said, she has assembled a team of specialists, including city planners, in conjunction with the National Academy of Science to develop better tools for planning. The Department of Homeland Security already has launched regional efforts to assess resilience of infrastruction and judge where gaps in adaptation and preparedness may be, she said.
Full story here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/25/us-foundation-climate-security-idUSKCN0HK2PW20140925
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It’s exactly what FDR did. He noticed that there were things the president could do during war time that would never be allowed during peace. Now thanks to Bush and Obama they have constant state of war with the DHS. They have powers they never thought permanent. The problem with DHS focusing on climate change, the citizens of the United States have become the intended targets.
One target may be thermostats. In the name of Carbon, the government may claim it is for the sake of humanity that they control the heat of your home.
I fear it is all about control, for certain people, and they are simply seeing how much they can get away with taking, before people howl.
Simples, trick the thermostat. Put it in a cold room or even outside.
Controlling the heat of your home – or turning it off via the Smart Meter if you exceed your CO2 allocation?
Indeed control of fear and sustained raising of new fear that’s what they do. The big businesses behind it supports its decisions (the massive amount of airport security equipment, made in USA, arms etc) and keeps it alive. Next, once this is up and running, all of us with second thoughts on Global Warming as presented to us, can be held under terrorist law. There you have it; all deniers now go to detention centres. The land of the free!
Control is what the smartmeters and “Internet of Things” are all about…lots of these controllers have loose security, if any at all (such as 1234 as a default password). Sometimes a little convenience becomes VERY inconvenient. (And no, I’m not using a tinfoil hat to keep me warm 🙂 )
There are interesting articles on the register, c’t (in German) and other “geek outlets” on this.
If you want a real fascist president read up on Woodrow Wilson and his progressives. He set the stage for presidents usurping executive power.
Very true. Read Modern Times by Paul Johnson.
he was a raging racist as well. He segregated the parts of the federal government that had been desegregated. He also openly pursued the idea of using the judiciary to change the constitution, primarily because he felt it was too difficult to push his agenda with constitutional amendments. His goal to turn the constitution from a strict enumeration of powers limiting the actions of the federal government into the “living, breathing document” that it has become today eventually took hold. He has much to answer for.
Wilson was putty in the hands of Col. House, Justice Brandeis, and Samuel Untermeyer.
Its part of the perpetual bureaucracy. Every terrorist on the planet could disappear tomorrow and DHS snd TSA are going nowhere. In fact then they would redouble their efforts on climate change. We’re pretty much screwed.
They never should have organized all those federal groups into DHS (http://www.dhs.gov/who-joined-dhs). This would have been under the purview of local Emergency responders and perhaps FEMA, but it’s not a “security” issue by any means. What a farce.
Very well put, Gregory.
A more “compliant” department for the little “o” to control, and perhaps easier to bury the expenses there?
Good Lord. I pray we are delivered in the next election from these idiots. Which I, to my ever-living regret, helped put into office in the first place.
You are forgiven Pam , just don’t let it happen again.
It’s too late. The damage to society is critical. Consider, the outcome of destroying America. All of planet earth will become a shooting gallery soon.
On the bright side though, all the useful fools that helped bring this condition about, all the poor people that just had to be helped will be barbecuing do-gooders over trash fires.
I compliment you for recognizing the error, but how many others are likely to do so? The majority of the population still believe that a politician who questions CAGW is a fool, a shill for big oil, or stupid. The libs are so proficient at portraying everyone else as stupid, and they really and truly believe in their own mental superiority. I’m rather tired of people thinking that moderation (or just a touch of conservative thinking) is a mental aberration or worse yet, criminal disregard of moral law.
I guess you didn’t do your homework beforehand. This outcome was entirely predictable.
+1
Did you put him into office a second time or was the lesson learnt?
From over here in the UK he always looked to be in the mould of Tony Blair, a blowhard of the first order
Tonyb
Sorry, but these people are idiots. Can’t think of anything positive or profound to say about the Dept. of Homeland Security.
I feel the battle has been lost. Our freedom will be usurped under the green flag of climate change.
It isn’t that governments at all levels shouldn’t think about resiliency. After all, Sandy did happen, and a whole bunch of things went wrong that in retrospect didn’t have to. If backup generators were 25 feet higher in buildings, for example. Hurricanes happen, it isn’t a sin to plan for how to weather big ones better, it’s a good thing, even if CO2 emissions had never changed, or even if the warming impact of CO2 emissions is small, as it very well might be.
But why Homeland Security? Isn’t their mission vastly different?
It smacks of the current Administration using Homeland Security for political purposes, to align in peoples’ minds the two different notions of horrible man made climate change and homeland security.
Perhaps even worse, maybe they REALLY THINK that human emissions are so horrific that it becomes a homeland security issue. Any White House can get insular, perhaps this one is more so than most. I actually would prefer the cynical political reason, as opposed to the OH MY GOD reason.
Just a step along the path of criminalizing dissent.
There is no technical solution. During Sandy I was responsible for a bunch of servers located in a datacenter in lower Manhattan. Before the storm we got lots of communication from the datacenter operator, saying all was well, there was nothing to worry about, they were prepared for all eventuality. And, in a purely technical sense, that was true.
The datacenter was located on the 25th store of a 40 story building, the backup generator was on the roof, it was fired up as soon as power went away due to exploding flooded transformers in the district, and UPS was sufficient to bridge the gap between power failure and backup. Although the building was flooded with salt water up to the first floor and the fuel tanks were located in the basement, fuel pumps were well designed and they kept working under 17 feet of water. Network connections were proven to be waterproof as well, so all looked good.
Until authorities arrived and ordered the generator to be shut down, that is. It turned out the equipment was not certified to work under such extreme conditions. That in fact it did, mattered little. Neither the fact the City never considered to issue such certificates, so even if the datacenter operator wanted one, it had not been available, for there was no department responsible for it.
Therefore the datacenter, with all the servers in it, was offline for a week, until a mobile generator could be brought in.
Of course being cynical, I would say that the “Authority” that shut down your working backup system was some how connected by blood or money or both, to the provider of that mobile generator.
@AussieBear
I belive the “authoriy” was the NYPD and I think it was plain stupidity. Mobile generators were in seriously short supply in those days, so it did not make sense to boost business that way. In fact the first mobile generator (a huge truck) arrived in a couple of days. Unfortunately it was broken, it worked for an hour or so, but then, for some reason, it refused to provide electricity any more. The second one was brought in from somewhere around Salt Lake City, that was the trip what took three or four days on jammed roads.
The police was worried about possible oil leakages in downtown Manhattan, so they were only acting responsibly or so they thought. They did not want the entire business district to go up in flames. The fact tons of diesel fuel was left untouched in tanks under water for weeks this way, escaped them somehow.
The Department of Homeland Security is at least partly a scam. Several years ago, my nephew told me he was going to have a career in HS. He interviewed and was given a hire date. He gave 2 weeks notice and quit his old job. When the appointed day came, he showed up at his new “workplace” and was told they weren’t ready for him and his workmates. Over a month later, he was called and finally told to come in. When he did, he found a bunch of offices where his entire crew was given some make-work tasks to do. They did this for several weeks and were then told that the “contract” was finished and that their jobs were done. It was obvious that the politically-connected guy with the contract made a killing and everybody else got shafted. This government is a farce.
R.M.S. Titanic comes to mind regarding HomeLand Security’s tallent and interest in … resiliency … aka, “The Band Played On.”
I had this funny feeling when G.W. created this beast that it wasn’t going to end well.
Yes, classic example of the problem of good intentions” G.W. was a straight shooter compared to the current yahoos operating Morodor on the Potomac. Bush failed to understand what a bitter, full of angst cult personality could do with such power.
I remember years ago reading about how DHS had shutdown a music filesharer. For the life of me, I couldn’t find a singe possibe relationship between swapping songs and terrorism, yet there they were, at the head of the line for busting some poor teenage bastard.
Out of control, period.
jb
Sure, be prepared for changing climate and extreme weather, that’s prudent.
Conjure human blame for climate change, that’s manipulative.
I realize that the way I wrote my comment at 7:30, that I might come across as a supporter of big government. So I need to, ah….clarify.
The federal government shouldn’t have a big role in planning for hurricanes, except in one way. The feds pay a lot of money when homes are flooded or destroyed by hurricanes. The feds also provide insurance for hurricane damages. Homes that have appropriate hurricane protections — if they are only a few feet above sea level, and near the sea, they should be jacked up about 8 feet, as so many homes now are on barrier islands, for example, and as existing homes are now being jacked up on the coast near Milford, CT, also due to Sandy. If they do have appropriate protections, they should pay a lot less for hurricane insurance. Feds can influence people to take appropriate measures this way, and reduce the amount of money taxpayers from the interior will pay for hurricane damages the next time a big one hits.
The feds can be useful here is to take examples of efforts that saved money, or will do so, when big ones hit — a clearinghouse for resiliency ideas. That is a very small role in terms of personnel. But because the feds paid so much money for Sandy’s damage, it would be a good thing to have better forward planning, so that taxpayers won’t have to pay as much.
No reason that both of these responsibilities shouldn’t be with FEMA. No reason to dilute Homeland Security’s mission.
Perhaps you can show where in the enumerated powers it states that the Federal Government is responsible for sensible building planning deciisions in the States. It certainly was not considered a federal responsibility by the drafters and approvers of The Tenth Amendment. Perhaps if the states involved had taken advice and built sea defenses, flood gates in tunnels and prevented subdivision development with frangible houses on flood plains – instead of getting cocerned with the size of sodas and other trivia; then a large but not particularly strong storm would have not have caused the damage it did. A similar storm in well prrepared Florida would have barely merited a mention except on weather bulletins.
I learned a long time ago from my father, “never build on a flood plane”. Good advice. Sea has been rising at about 7 inches per century – not an increase that couldn’t be adjusted to…
If the feds pay for a lot of the damage, they have a right to try to minimize future damage that they will also substantially pay for. Which saves the taxpayer money. The issue is whether they become a behemoth which grows far beyond the problem need, or keep their missions small, sized correctly to the problem.
@John
The real issue is, where does the federal government get off subsidizing private insurance for those who want to risk other people’s money by building in flood plains? I can’t find anything in the enumerated powers allowing this kind of wealth transfer. Way back when, Congress decided to vote some money for folks who suffered a fire in Georgetown. A constituant of Davey Crockett wrote a letter in protest, asking where the feds had gotten the OK to hand out money to purely private persons, however worthy the cause? Crockett wrote back, confessing that he couldn’t see any justification for their largesse. The money, however, still got paid out.
FEMA is part of DHS.
Yeah, I forget that DHS took in FEMA. Overreach. It shouldn’t be part of DHS.
Effective building codes are the responsibility of the states, but can be very effective in improving public safety, energy efficiency, etc. As usual, the “extreme weather” claim is assumed by the climate catastrphists, despite the IPCC advice to the contrary. Like the religious fundamentalists of all varieties, they can ignore their holy scripts as needed.
Local control also allows decisions that best suit the local situation. That is the heart of federalism. New York allowed people to build in flood plains. They flourished for centuries. A storm came along (again) and damaged a lot. Now, the Federal Government has decided that this expense (which they have no authority to spend), over powers any local interest in building controls. Local considerations must give way to Federal interests. The Federal interests are fabricated.
The Feds are jerks, insisting on picking up the tab, then complaining about the cost.
Gamecock, when the costs got too big, it was the local and state politicians that called in Federal disaster relief.
That doesn’t mean that a D admin with deep antipathy toward, say, Texas, might not be a little less inclined to declare a federal emergency for TX, vs. a less conservative state, if there is a borderline decision.
Cold in Wisconsin,
Fundamentalists are the ones who never ignore their holy scripts. You must have meant:”Like the religious of all varieties, they can ignore their holy scripts as needed.” In this case the holy script ignored by the DHS is the constitution.
It is the Feds providing insurance, when free enterprise says “no, I do not think so”, that causes extensive building in flood planes and areas prone to natural disaster.
To David A: Yes indeed, when private insurers don’t like the risk, the Feds did step in. How did that come about? My guess is that Congresspeople and Senators from coastal states subject to hurricanes got the feds to do it. Once that happened, developers got started. Of course, there might have been the odd campaign contribution from the developers to the Congresspeople and Senators.
From a national scale, fed flood insurance without strict requirements for building in ways that will preserve the structure in hurricanes is crazy. From the perspective of a local politician representing coastal parts of states from TX through N Carolina, it makes huge good sense to get the feds to take over insurance, and then build lots of unsafe houses.
The Association of Climate Change Officers held a Rising Seas Summit? Who the heck are these “officers?”
Googled them and it appears that anyone can be a Climate Change Officer if you just send the organization money. To be Gold it is around $20k a year. Nonrefundable.
Has Kenji joined yet?
Reading this “In the aftermath of 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, which devastated large swathes of the Northeastern U.S and caused over $60 billion in damages”, several red BS flags go flying.
First, Sandy was not a hurricane when it came ashore. It was a rather normal “nor’easter” storm along the Atlantic coast.
It’s effect was magnified by a high tide on top of the storm surge. Drainage systems should have been adequate to handle the high water, but >90% of the affected municipalities are run by Donkeys, who would rather spend tax money on buying votes with social programs than saving property with boring infrastructure projects.
The “$60 billion” damage figure is only a measure of how much “other people’s money” Congress was willing to throw on all this ignored/delayed maintenance work after the fact. Pimps and whores, that’s all they are.
For that kind of money, I’d have rather seen the entire population of western Long Island packed up and relocated to Oklahoma, high and dry and safe from floods
But not Tornados
Sandy wasn’t a hurricane, but it wasn’t a “rather normal ‘noreaster'”, either. It had a much larger circulation and, as an anomalously large Cat 1 Hurricane in extent, had an exceedingly long fetch that piled up much more water than a Rather Normal Northeaster.
It was much more like 1954 Hurricane Hazel by the time it got to Toronto–an extratropical cyclone, but one that still had a lot of power. After the iconic paper published on its transition, by the late, great climatologist Jerome Namias (one of the early and vocal skeptics on CAGW, also, and who personally encouraged me), it was clear that it was also no longer a hurricane when it caused all the damage there.
Sorry, but it was nothing like Hurricane Hazel when it got to Toronto – not even close – been there, survived that. I agree with the scale and fetch comments – ultimately, Sandy was primarily just a big sloppy storm by the time it hit landfall.
geologyjim , don’t wish harm on Oklahoma !!
I remember the big insurers said the damage was 20 billion. The spendthrifts
in DC pumped in 60 billion. You know where that went.
And where it came from.
No bureaucracy ever tries to downsize itself. Empires must grow, any excuse that might work is good.
Sandy was a baroclinic anamoly.
Note:
Not a hurricane at landfall.
Impacted mostly swamp infilled areas.
Played a role in electing Barry.
Just sayin……..
Good god. WTF? Truly we have no leaders. Just a bunch of demagogues thursting for more power no matter the consequences. John Kerry and Hilary Clinton calling climate change a larger and more immediate than ISIS. Words fail. Really. The incompetence, the stupidity is truly unbelievable. This asshat said he wanted to transform America. Can’t say he didn’t keep his promise. Transformed into a fledgling third world nation.
Interesting coincidence – ASCE’s publication on Flood Risk Management was released today. In the publication, sustainability (32 times) and resiliency (25) are the bywords. Climate change (7) and sea level rise (4) figure prominently. However, “global warming” is nowhere in the document.
http://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/9780784478585?utm_campaign=Comm-20140926-ASCEnews%20Weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&
America needs a flood risk management strategy, ASCE urges in new report
The nation must develop and implement a collaborative, comprehensive flood risk management strategy, an ASCE committee announced this week in Philadelphia, summarizing the recommendations of its detailed new report probing how well the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina have been applied in the nine years since the disaster. Download a free copy of Flood Risk Management: Call for a National Strategy by ASCE’s Task Committee on Flood Safety Policies and Practices. The release event drew a great deal of media interest, including coverage in The Associated Press, CBS Philadelphia, and The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. Read statement>>
Why do you think it coincidental that a society of “Civil Engineers” (Translation, Engineers who work for the government) think that the government should do more.
The apparent coincidence was coming out with a resilience and sustainability document at the same time as DHS did.
Fretting about Climate Change allowing Islamic State terrorists to sneak in under the Radar and attack the US . The build up to 9 11 all over again.
Divert funds away from border security to flood defence and environmental projects.
Like Detroit?
A bankrupted civilian society has very little resilience to drastic change of any kind.
As the kleptocracy, demonstrated by the UN and useful idiots in our bureaucracies, wastes and destroys our collective wealth, we are naked before any storm.
So if Homeland Security was doing the preventative work they claim, they would be actively investigating every promoter of the CAGW meme, as this scheme is treason by their own standards.
ossqss
Correct, Sandy was not a Hurricane when it made landfall in NJ.
Yes, it was an anomaly since the NE coast was already being pounded by a lingering NE storm super high tides and flooding already in play.
As I recall, the in place NE storm actually slowed down Sandy causing the storm to linger an unusually long period which when combined with the existing NE storm caused massive flooding along sections of the coast.
I find it somewhat incomplete that many ignore the fact that Sandy piled on top a NE Storm.
…which combined with natural high tides.
Ah, yes…. DHSS protects der Fatherland from the terroristic CO2 molecules….
While DHSS completely abrogates its responsibility of protecting America’s Southern border from being flooded by 1,000,000 illeagal aliens per year, DHSS is devoting time and resources to fight 0.06 inches per year of sea level rise that’s “flooding” our coastlines….
Got it…
I believe that is the definition of Mission Creep.
Not Mission Creep, it’s Mission Abuse.
Once upon a time, I ordered a medication, Voltaren for topical use (a miracle drug for moderate chronic pain that gets around the nasty cardiovascular and gastrointestinal problems with oral Voltaren), available without prescription in Europe, but not here (at the time, even with prescription), and it didn’t show up. What did show up was a letter informing me that I had done this, that it was not legal, and that I could go to jail if I did it again.
Did this letter come from Customs?
Did this letter come from the FDA or the DEA?
No, no and no. It came from Homeland Security.
Are starting to understand about the DHS? They have run out of terrorists and what to do? How to sustain this huge sprawling bureaucracy?
…”as large and well funded as the US Military.”
Family in Europe sent my kids Easter Bunnies. The Easter Bunnies were decapitated in the best jihadist style and a note included that baskets were not allowed to be imported. However, the (potentially) disease carrying remnants of the basket were still in the box along with a note about importation being prohibited and penalties related thereto. A couple of days later I went to a dollar store that had large quantities of almost identical baskets imported from China. Agriculture – part of DHS. No more Easter Bunnies since then.
It’s almost like the Obama administration has a plan to fundamentally change the country. It seems that every federal agency has a new mission, and that is climate change.I would bet most kids don’t even learn the chicken little story any more as a life lesson. Used to be if you were the boy who called wolf you got called on it, but now you see climate scientists getting away with the same thing for years with nothing being said. Thanks to WUWT, we can smash this modeled world they have created.
Spot on! They’ve learned to use the federal agencies to impose their philosophies and beliefs. They’ve even stated this. Check out Stanley Kurtz.
Golly, I’m glad they aren’t letting anything distract them from their primary mission
EBOLA!
This is what happens when you eye climate change for money and keep your eyes off more immediate threats. Keep up the good work chaps.