Center of Excellence

Insurers’ losses from natural disasters rose by about 50 percent in 2008, with Caribbean hurricanes Ike and Gustav powering the increase and climate change increasingly a factor, a leading reinsurer said Monday.

The year’s most expensive event for insurers was Hurricane Ike, which hit the Caribbean and the Louisiana and Texas coasts in September, causing insured losses of $15 billion. In second place was Gustav, which hit the Baton Rouge area on Sept. 1, leaving behind insured losses of $5 billion.

In both cases, the overall losses were about twice the insured losses.

The company noted that six named storms - Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike - reached the U.S. coast this year after two years in which the American mainland was largely spared.

Ike, Gustav Most Expensive 2008 Disasters

A Lancaster County judge has ordered the city of Lincoln to pay $405,000 to three couples given city-issued building permits but not told that their new homes would be in a 10-year flood plain.

The city owes Troy and Shari Stonacek $165,000, Brad and Jennifer Sheaff $140,000 and George and Lori Bristol $100,000 in damages for not informing the families when it gave the permits for them to build, according to the ruling by District Judge Steven Burns.

Government officials told the families at a meeting in May 2005 their homes were in a flood plain - prompting three lawsuits.

Read about it here: Judge Awards $405K in City Flood Plain Suit

Featuring a number of articles on fighting fires in the 21st century.

Click to view the Hear it Now newsletter

Foreign Hackers are Overwhelming U.S. Government Computers, says Analyst.

Foreign hackers have accessed between half and all of the U.S. government and military computers they “have an interest in,” according to one analyst. Many of the attacks are sanctioned by the Chinese government - something few top U.S. officials are willing to acknowledge, he said.

John Tkacik, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said his estimate was based on recent media and governmental reports along with personal interviews with U.S. officials. Chinese cyber attacks have grown so relentless and sophisticated they’ve become the “single biggest military and intelligence threat the U.S. faces.” He was speaking at a Heritage discussion titled, “Under Attack: Today’s Cyber Threat.”

Read more about it here: Foreign Hackers Are Overwhelming U.S. Government Computers

“On October 26, 2006, computer security personnel from across the legislative branch were informed that the Congressional Budget Office had been hit with a computer virus. The news might not have seemed extraordinary. Hackers had been trying for years to break into government computers in Congress and the executive branch, and some had succeeded, making off with loads of sensitive information ranging from codes for military aircraft schedules to design specifications for the space shuttle.”

Read the article in the National Journal Magazine online here: Hacking The Hill

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The Cyber Strategic Inquiry, held at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday and Thursday, brought together 230 top leaders from government and the private sector for an elaborate simulation of a large-scale attack on America’s information infrastructure. The simulation was run by the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton in collaboration with Business Executives for National Security.

Read the article on Ars Technica here: Cyberwargames Test Readiness for Info Attacks

From the NY Times:

“Police departments across the country say that shoplifting arrests are 10 percent to 20 percent higher this year than last. The problem is probably even greater than arrest records indicate since shoplifters are often banned from stores rather than arrested.”

Read the full article here: As Economy Dips, Arrests for Shoplifting Soar

A new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) order requiring nine insurance companies to provide data relating to how they set premiums could place policyholders’ personal information at risk, a leading insurance trade group said this week.

Read about it here: Insurance trade says FTC order threatens consumer security

The Department of Homeland Security is expected to follow the recommendation of its Science and Technology Directorate and on Jan. 12 officially designate Manhattan, Kan., over San Antonio as the home of its new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF).

Read about it here: Bio-agro effort gained city valuable exposure

From American Institute for Economic Research:

The slaughter of more 370,000 chickens in China last week has rekindled concern about the possibilities of a global flu pandemic. The birds were killed after the discovery of that some were infected with the deadly H5N1 virus.

AIER’s December Economic Education Bulletin addresses the public health and economic consequences of a bird flu pandemic that could be caused by a mutated H5N1 virus. In “Bird Flu Economics,” William F. Ford, a recent AIER visiting research fellow, reports on the work of those who model for disaster.

Read about it on the American Institute for Economic Research’s website: Economics of a Pandemic

A sobering report released earlier this month by a blue-ribbon panel of emergency physicians concludes the country’s emergency care system is in serious condition and under more stress than ever before.

That won’t come as a surprise to patients in Florida, who inevitably face hours-long waits to see an ER doctor or to the physicians, nurses and medical technicians who work tirelessly treating what seems a never-ending stream of sick people.

Read the full article here: Emergency Room Crisis Demands Quick Treatment

When ice storms cripple power across the Hudson Valley, Orange County’s new Emergency Services Center stands ready to square off in defense.

The massive new facility - an 88,000-square-foot bunker of a building - officially opened in the spring, but it faced its first major crisis two weeks ago, when a winter storm cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes across the region. Central Hudson Gas & Electric tallied more than 20,000 outages in Orange County alone.

Orange County NY’s Emergency Center Passes First Winter Test

Janet Napolitano - President-elect Barack Obama’s pick to run the Homeland Security Department — has strongly advocated using advanced security technology as a law enforcement tool, drawing praise from police and raising concern among civil liberties groups that warn about privacy invasion.

Read the full story here at USA Today’s website: Napolitano Backs Security Tech

From Anthony L. Kimery’s The Kimery Report:

“Three new reports reinforce what emergency public health preparedness authorities have been sounding alarms about for the last half-decade. And that is emergency care and individual preparedness for emergencies has continued to worsen—despite the billions that have been spent on preparedness and efforts to emphasize individual disaster readiness.”

Read the full report here: Reports Highlight Emergency Preparedness Crisis

Excerpt from HSToday.com

It takes “10 hours … on average” for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to place persons known or strongly believed to have a highly infectious disease like tuberculosis (TB) on the public health Do Not Board (DNB) list which is supposed to bar them from boarding commercial aircraft departing from or arriving in the United States, according to CDC documents.

Read more here:
http://www.hstoday.us/content/view/6632/149/

General Douglas O’Dell, President George W. Bush’s federal coordinator for Gulf Coast rebuilding, today strongly emphasized the importance of businesses developing continuity of operations plans, or COOP plans, now before a disaster. In keynote remarks at the Louisiana Technology Council “Business Continuity: Planning Your Survival Kit” event, O’Dell noted the importance of technology specialists in developing and carrying out such plans.

Federal Coordinator Douglas O’Dell Emphasizes the Importance of Businesses Developing Continuity of Operations Plans

DHS Roundtable with Secretart Chertoff: Blogger Roundtable on the State and Future of DHS

New book from George & Kim Haddow, ‘Disaster Communications in a Changing Media World (Butterworth-Heinemann Homeland Security)

Overview:

Communications is key to the success of disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. Accurate information disseminated to the general public, to elected officials and community leaders, and to the media reduces risk, saves lives and property, and speeds recovery. The ability to communicate is no longer an afterthought or a luxury; timely communication is now as important as logistics or the pre-deployment of materials. Planning and controlling the flow of information before, during and after a disaster will define your organization’s credibility, trustworthiness, authority, and effectiveness. The emergence of new media like the internet, e-mail, blogs, text messaging, cell phone photos, and the increasing role played by “first informers”– witnesses who now have the ability to transmit information immediately from the event–are redefining the roles of government and media. The government’s historical role as gatekeeper is now an anachronism. Traditional media’s role as the sole conduit of reliable and officially-sanctioned information has been eclipsed by the advent of new media. The tools and rules of communications are evolving and disaster communications must evolve to capitalize on these changes and exploit the opportunities they provide. Bloggers have the potential either to add to the chaos during a crisis, or to help convey accurate data and report on local conditions. Disaster communications must incorporate a way to manage their impact and if possible use them for the common good. Finally, even though the means to the end are evolving, the goals, the values, and the underlying principles of effective disaster communication– the need for transparency, increased accessibility, trustworthiness and reliability, and to create partnerships with the media–have not changed and need to be embraced along with the practical ability to convey information effectively.

Hear It Now, the weekly weblog from Texas A & M’s Integrated Center for Homeland Security has released their most recent weblog. Covered in this week’s issue:

• 101 most dangerous chemical facilities are targets for terror
• START researcher explores process of how mere dissidents become political radicals
• Private security contractors in Iraq lack legal restraints, journalist says
• DHS center applies behavioral sciences to understanding dynamics of terrorism
• And more

Excerpt:

A coalition of experts in hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters warned on Tuesday that the U.S. would experience another major disaster and called on the incoming Congress to quickly approve national catastrophe insurance.

The Homeowners Defense Act, championed by Florida lawmakers and backed by President-elect Barack Obama when he was in the Senate, would create state catastrophe funds that would then support a federal reinsurance program.

The Homeowners Defense Act provides a way for state-sponsored insurance funds to bundle catastrophe risk, and then transfer that risk to private markets through the use of catastrophe bonds and reinsurance contracts.

The legislation also would enable the federal government to extend loans to state insurance funds after a major natural disaster.

Read more here: Experts: Insure For All-Peril