Feral Jundi

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Disaster Response: Hurricane Sandy–Some Tools To Track The Damage And Response

Man, this storm has done some serious damage and my thoughts and prayers go out to those on the East coast. Luckily the death toll has not been higher, but this thing is not over yet.

So for the response to this storm, it is important that folks who are involved with that have the tools necessary to track the disaster, and the response to the storm seems to be pretty good so far. But like the articles suggest below, folks were not expecting the storm surge to be this high and that will factor into the mix for the response. 13 to 14 ft is amazing.

One thing that is concerning is that this winter, and power is out. Hopefully the cold related injuries and deaths can be reduced to a minimum through an effective response. Neighbors helping neighbors.

The other thing is the main cause of deaths in this storm so far is falling trees. For first responders, definitely keep an eye on the trees in the areas you are responding too, because ‘widow makers’ are all over the place. Couple that with snow or ice forming on these precarious trees damaged by wind, and you can see why this is something to think about while going in these places.

Paul from the Facebook page asked if anyone has created an Ushahidi for this storm, and after some digging around, someone has. Here is a link to this storm tracking tool and you can click on the graphic below as well. The blog at Ushahidi is also posting about all of the various crowd mapping projects across the web that are trying to help out and that is useful for folks trying to find stuff that is relevant. FEMA and the Red Cross has resources as well. Good luck to everyone that is involved. –Matt

 

 

Sandy: Five Latest Developments
Published: Oct 31, 2012
Sandy continues to weaken over the interior Northeast, however gusty winds, snow and rain will linger into Wednesday.
Below are some of the latest developments as we continue to track Superstorm Sandy.
1: Millions Still Without Power
• As of 1 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, over 5.9 million customers were without power due to Sandy.
• On Tuesday morning, a peak total of over 8 million customers were in the dark. Obviously the Northeast was hardest hit, but significant outages occurred in northern Ohio, and sporadic outages occurred as far away as northwest Indiana and northern Georgia.
• In some regions, power failures were nearly total. Governor Andrew Cuomo said 90% of Long Island families were without power Tuesday. One of New Jersey’s utilities reported 86% of its 1.1 million customers were without power Tuesday morning, and that figure was still 86% early Wednesday.
2: Numerous Fatalities Reported
• As of mid-morning Wednesday, the total number of fatalities blamed on Sandy is 47 in the mainland United States plus one in Puerto Rico.
• Many of the victims were killed by falling trees.
• Sandy also killed 69 people in the Caribbean. Click here for a complete roundup of Sandy’s aftermath in the Caribbean.
3: Staggering Damage
• Very early damage estimates suggest Sandy caused at least $10 billion in damage, and possibly as much as $50 billion in total damage and lost business. The higher number would make Sandy the second-costliest storm in U.S. history, behind Katrina.
• Damage ranged from storm surge flooding to direct wind damage to devastating fires fueled by high winds and the difficulties fire departments faced in navigating flooded or blocked roads. We have more than 200 images of the devastation at this link.
• For video of the damage and aftermath, check out our video player at the top of this page.
• We also have a by-the-numbers breakdown of Sandy’s top winds, worst surge and heaviest snow.
4: Chilly Weather in the Blackout Zone
Behind the storm, cold air has moved into areas where power is out.
Wednesday morning temperatures were in the 30s and 40s across most areas without power, except for New England where 50s and lower 60s prevailed.
New England will lose the mild advantage Thursday morning and 30s and 40s will prevail across the power outage regions for the next several mornings.
Daytime highs will only rise into the 40s and 50s over most of the areas that are without power, with no warm-up expected through the next five days.
5: Three Feet of Snow!
• Three feet — 36 inches — of snow fell near Richwood, W.Va. by late Wednesday morning.
• Mount Le Conte, Tenn., reported a whopping 34 inches of snow by Wednesday morning.
• 33 inches of snow fell near Clayton, W.V., ironically located in Summers County.
• Up to 29 inches of snow was reported in Redhouse, Md.
• Several other locations in the mountains of West Virginia and western Maryland received 2 feet or more. Even the high elevations of East Tennessee received as much as 22″ of snowfall.
• The heavy wet snow and high winds led to numerous power outages in communities throughout the central Appalachians, posing hardships especially for elderly residents coping with outdoor temperatures in the 20s and lower 30s.
• You can read more about Sandy’s snowy side and check out impressive Sandy snow photos here on weather.com.
Story here.
—————————————————————
NYC utility prepped for big storm, got bigger one
DAVE CARPENTER, JEFF DONN and JONATHAN FAHEY
October, 2012
Consolidated Edison figured any surge would not surpass the 11-foot record set nearly two centuries ago. Or the design limit of 12.5 feet for a key substation in lower Manhattan.
But the wall of seawater reached 14 feet.
The surge that swamped the substation cut power to about 250,000 customers. It was the signature event in a series of electrical failures from winds and floods that at one point left almost 1 million Con Ed customers in the dark – a record storm outage for the utility.

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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Industry Talk: Whitestone Group To Provide Security At FAA Facilities Along East Coast

The $104 million contract is the largest Whitestone has with the FAA, he said. The company helped the FAA develop a national training standard for the private armed security companies with which it contracts, ultimately landing the new contract for the entire East Coast.
The contract goes into effect Oct. 1, Clark said.
Whitestone will provide security at individual FAA facilities like air traffic control towers, not whole airports, Clark said.

Very cool and for those on the East coast looking for work, this opportunity might be a good hit for you. I suspect these contracts will pay a little bit better than your standard security gig, just because this is protecting FAA facilities only.  If bad guys make it into a traffic control tower, they could cause a lot of damage.  With the spat of folks infiltrating supposedly secure facilities these days, guards like this are pretty important as the last line of defense.

A great example of what I am talking about for breaches was the stranded jet skier that wandered onto the JFK airport property–bypassing millions of dollars worth of security systems. This embarrassing incident is right up there with the nuclear facility breaching incident. So Whitestone Group should learn from these deals and work hard to maintain topnotch security for the FAA. The FAA should also stay on top of this contract to make sure they get the service they need. Trust, but verify.

For actually working this contract, I would go to the employment section of the website and submit that way. On Linkedin, you can find a few folks with the company, or have worked for them in the past. I have not seen anything specific in their career section for this particular contract and folks will have to pursue it on their own by contacting the recruiter or doing a little online research. –Matt

Whitestone Group webpage here.

Linkedin for company here.

 

Whitestone Group to provide security at FAA facilities along East Coast
By Rick Rouan
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
A fast-growing private security firm in Columbus has landed a $104 million contract to provide armed guards for the Federal Aviation Administration along the East Coast.
Whitestone Group Inc. will provide about 368 guards at 34 FAA sites, including towers, air traffic control facilities and other venues, CEO John Clark said. Those guards are all professional security officers, which Clark said requires about 60 hours of training.

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