huffingtonpost.com - June 9, 2013 - Katie Zezima and Meghan Barr

MANTOLOKING, NJ - MAY 15: A beach front home damaged by Superstorm Sandy is tagged to be torn down and hauled off, May 15, 2013 in Manotoloking, New Jersey. Mantoloking officials say that at least 50 homes are scheduled to be demolished in the up coming weeks. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

George Kasimos has almost finished repairing flood damage to his waterfront home, but his Superstorm Sandy nightmare is far from over. ...

That's because the federal government's newly released advisory flood maps have put his Toms River home in the most vulnerable area – the "velocity zone." If that sticks, he'd have to jack his house up 14 feet on stilts at a cost of $150,000 or face up to $30,000 a year in flood insurance premiums....

For many, it's an impossible choice. They can't afford to do either. And many unanswered questions have left residents paralyzed with indecision....

A surge of seawater floods New York City streets during Superstorm Sandy, October 2012. 
Photograph by Bebeto Matthews, AP Photo

nationalgeographic.com - by Tim Folger - June 12, 2013

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's announcement yesterday of a $19.5 billion, multidecade plan to defend New York City against rising seas and severe storms illustrated two truths that resonate far beyond his home city.

First, as the time when we could prevent dangerous climate change slips away, the time for costly investments to protect ourselves has arrived. Second, for some cities, less well situated or less wealthy than New York, protection is going to be extremely challenging—and in some cases perhaps impossible.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

What was left of a home in the Good Luck Point section of Bayville, New Jersey after the storm.  Credit PatriciaA.Miller

submitted by Albert Gomez

berkeley-nj.patch.com - by Daniel Nee - June 11, 2013

Jersey Shore residents placed into the dreaded 'V' zone in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's advisory flood maps released in late 2012 may soon see some relief, if an updated round of maps released for New York City residents is any indication.

The federal agency released preliminary flood maps – generally, the second-to-last step before final maps are issued – on Monday.

According to a report by WNYC radio, major swaths of coastal land were removed from the 'V,' or velocity, zone there.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

View Best Available Flood Hazard Data for New Jersey and New York

mycentraljersey.com - by Ken Serrano - May 31, 2013

FEMA will post searchable versions on its website soon

Sandy victims left hanging by what many have termed FEMA’s confusing and unfair preliminary flood maps will likely have final answers in the coming weeks.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to post searchable maps on its website for homeowners to use to determine their true flood zone and how high they may need to raise their homes to qualify for the best flood insurance rates. Barring any successful challenges, that information will eventually set flood insurance premiums, which won’t go into effect for another 18 months.

FEMA’s working flood maps will be rolled out to coastal counties one by one in mid- to late-June, said Bill McDonnell, the mitigation branch director for FEMA’s Region II, which covers New Jersey.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by Jill Cornell

Sandy Regional Assembly - April 2013

A coalition of environmental groups made recommendations this week on how to more effectively allocate Sandy funding.

The Grassroots Recovery Agenda was unveiled by the Sandy Regional Assembly, a consortium of nearly 200 environmental groups from New York City and the surrounding area.

The agenda calls for the integration of regional building efforts with resiliency priorities, the strengthening of vulnerable communities and an expanded view of community-based climate change planning.

Sandy Regional Assembly - Recovery Agenda (16 page .PDF file)

Sandy Regional Assembly recommends Grassroots Recovery Agenda - News Video and Article - bronx.news12.com

wasterecyclingnews.com - May 17, 2013

By having the Ocean County Landfill within its limits, Manchester Township, N.J., is cashing in on Hurricane Sandy.

After receiving less than $900,000 in landfill fees in all of 2012, the township has already received more than $1.8 million in 2013 thanks to a "dramatic increase" in waste in the aftermath of Sandy, according to a report from The Asbury Park Press. The township receives $4.50 of the $81 tipping fee for every ton landfilled at the 600-acre facility, which is operated by the county and owned by the Ocean County Landfill Corp.

"It's not something that we are celebrating," Mayor Michael Fressola told the newspaper. "My heart still goes out to those who lost everything during the storm. We all hope that we never see a storm like that again."

According to county records, a typical month would see 36,000 tons of waste landfilled at the site. In the months after Sandy, the landfill took in 180,000 tons – five times the average.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by Bill Sothern - May 29, 2013

A new ABC news program called the Lookout debuts tonight (at 10pm) and features a segment examining the sometimes dubious practices of mold inspectors and contractors as they conduct an inspection of a high-end suburban NJ home.  Myself and Prof. Richard Shaughnessy of U. of Tulsa provide the play by play and color commentary (no scripts, no rehearsals) while the hidden cameras capture the diverse conclusions of the good guys and bad guys as they present their findings and recommendations to the homeowner.

(CLICK HERE - ABC LIVE STREAM)

FEMA Building Science, the FEMA New Jersey Field Office, the New Jersey DCA, and Rutgers are pleased to announce multiple course offerings of “FEMA Best Practices for Flood and Wind Mitigation.” This course is offered to engineers, architects, contractors, builders, and local officials. There are still spaces open for these courses.

Schedule:

• Thursday, June 6, 2013, 8am – 5pm, Hasbrouck Heights, NJ
• Thursday, June 20, 2013, 8am – 5pm, Waretown, NJ
• Tuesday, June 25, 2013, 8am – 5pm, Freehold, NJ

Course Description:

Following Hurricane Ike, many towns in Southeastern Texas were destroyed or significantly damaged, in ways similar to Sandy-impacted areas in New Jersey. Inhabitants that had been in these beach communities for generations no longer could afford to rebuild under the economic burdens of new federal and state guidelines. The homes that were rebuilt cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the homes that were there before.

Five years later, towns are beginning to re-emerge in Southeastern Texas, but with different demographics and new cultures. The attached story and video hint at what is emerging in Southeastern Texas, but say nothing about who was displaced, where they are, and how they are doing today.

nws.noaa.gov - April 24, 2013

On April 24, 2013, NOAA’s National Weather Service, in partnership with the National Weather Service Employees Organization (NWSEO), released The Weather-Ready Nation Roadmap 2.0.  The updated Roadmap blends an understanding of social and physical sciences and lends itself to building community resilience in the face of increasing vulnerability to extreme weather and water events. After achieving the goals of the Weather-Ready Nation Roadmap, NWS will empower emergency managers, first responders, government officials, businesses, and the public to make faster, smarter decisions to save lives and protect livelihoods.

“The NWS recognizes that issuing excellent forecasts and warnings may not always be enough to save lives,” said NWS Director Louis W. Uccellini.  “The Weather-Ready Nation initiative is first and foremost to save lives and protecting livelihoods by providing useful, relevant, actionable information on for critical decision support services.”

nj.com - by Eugene Paik - April 4, 2013

submitted by Samuel Bendett

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - April 11, 2013

The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness is currently looking for a PR firm to help it launch a multifaceted awareness campaign. The campaign, worth about $4 million over three years, would aim to increase the level of emergency awareness and preparedness of residents, businesses, and communities in New Jersey.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by Albert Gomez

journalism.org

For millions who lost power but could still access the internet on mobile devices, Twitter served as a critical lifeline throughout the disaster that struck on October 29. At least a few news operations, such as Huffington Post and the aggregator BuzzFeed saw their servers go down and turned to Twitter and other social media to deliver reports.

According to Twitter, people sent more than 20 million tweets about the storm from October 27 through November 1.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

                          (LINKS TO STUDY ABSTRACT AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ARE BELOW)

Scientists look at an ice core from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide coring site.  Credit: Thomas Bauska, OSU

CNN - by Ben Brumfield - March 8, 2013

Global warming has propelled Earth's climate from one of its coldest decades since the last ice age to one of its hottest -- in just one century.

A heat spike like this has never happened before, at least not in the last 11,300 years, said climatologist Shaun Marcott, who worked on a new study on global temperatures going back that far.

"If any period in time had a sustained temperature change similar to what we have today, we would have certainly seen that in our record," he said.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Study Abstract - A Reconstruction of Regional and Global Temperature for the Past 11,300 Years
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6124/1198.abstract