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What the Dutch Can Teach Us About Wildfires

Crystal Kolden

November 16, 2018 |

The New York Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Netherlands

Wildfires are destroying lives and lands throughout the West Coast of the United States. While human negligence coupled with climate change have been blamed, communities in the Netherlands provide a sharp contrast to this mentality by adapting their planning and infrastructure to prioritize safety in natural disaster prone areas.

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Idaho School District Teachers Get Radios for Safety Communications

Jim McKay

November 16, 2018 |

Government Technology |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Idaho

A sprawling rural school district in Idaho has placed two-way radios with every teacher that connect directly to first responders and triage bags in every classroom as part of a plan to increase safety and coordination in emergencies across nine different buildings. The idea is to cut down response times from fire and police and deal with emergencies onsite. Teachers train monthly with the radios and the district may add an app would use GPS to locate students if there's an emergency.

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Colorado is only state testing military tech to keep firefighters safe

Matt Mauro

November 15, 2018 |

KDVR-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

Under 3 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Colorado

Colorado is adapting a military technology to help crews fight wildfires. The Android Team Awareness Kit, or ATAK, was designed to keep Special Forces safe in combat zones by showing pilots their locations, and now firefighters will be able to use the free app on their phones to find where they are and assess what kind of fire they are seeing on the ground. Colorado is the only state allowed to tweak the app for use in fires, but the plan is to roll it out nationwide after modification.

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Can we design neighborhoods to survive wildfires?

Adele Peters

November 14, 2018 |

FastCompany |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, California

Wildfires are inevitable, especially as forests become drier due to climate change, but it is possible to design the built environment so that fires don’t destroy as much property or as many lives. Architects now can choose different materials that resist ignition from wind-borne embers and can put more distance between homes. Spacing homes farther apart and burying power lines can help, but the changing climate is also making some places unsuitable for rebuilding destroyed communities.

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California Wildfires Destroy Homes and Lives. Why Do Regulators Encourage Building in Fire Zones?

Christian Britschgi

November 14, 2018 |

Reason |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, California

In California, Proposition 103 – a decades-old ballot initiative – disincentivizes homeowners affected by wildfires to rebuild in less fire-prone zones. The proposition – which can only be reversed through another ballot initiative – bars insurers from raising their rates based on future risks, meaning people who live in fire zones are not paying a higher rate. Furthermore, because of these regulations and the lack of response to the problem, insurance agencies often err on the side of caution and won’t sell policies at all, leaving some people uninsured entirely.

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These ChatBots Help Zimbabweans Find Fuel During a Shortage

Christine Ro

November 07, 2018 |

New York Magazine |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Zimbabwe

Hashtags and chat apps can notify users when items of vital necessity become available during times of severe shortage. Despite the Zimbabwean government’s pushback against social media, Zimbabweans are turning to platforms like Twitter and WhatsApp to share information about gas availability amid a severe nationwide shortage. Automated chat bots and hashtags used on Facebook and Twitter deliver real-time information to people across the country about fuel deliveries and queue lengths, helping to circumvent group size restriction in chat apps.

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Emergency Preparedness for Prisons Isn't Just Sandbags and Non-perishables

Emma Coleman

November 02, 2018 |

New America Weekly |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New Orleans, Louisiana

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005 stranded people incarcerated in the New Orleans jail without food or water, the city used the experience not to question its disaster preparedness but instead to rethink who needs to be incarcerated in the first place. By easing policies in cash bail and arrests for petty offenses, the city cut its jail population by two-thirds and replaced its flooded jail with one less than one-quarter the original size. The new policies helped inspire Louisiana to revise its sentencing standards in an effort to end its distinction for having the world's highest incarceration rate.

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A New York City Park Built to Weather a Storm

Karim Doumar

November 01, 2018 |

Pacific Standard |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

Hunters Point South Park, a newly built park in Queens, NY, is functioning as a community space even before the addition of low- and middle- income housing slated for the area. But even more than that, the park has already proven that its storm resilient design is efficient and necessary.

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How an Expanding Park in Queens Can Withstand Any Storm

Karim Doumar

October 24, 2018 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

In Queens, New York an industrial site along the East River has been transformed into an 11-acre park that offers quiet greenspace and recreation opportunities, but is also designed to withstand storms and tidal surges. The first phase already proved itself in the four-foot storm surge of Hurricane Sandy that inundated the site then drained off. The design helps ensure future housing on the site and other amenities will avoid decimation by rising sea levels and storms.

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Houston Looks for a Smarter, More Equitable Path to Hurricane Recovery

Linda Poon

October 22, 2018 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Houston, Texas

The city of Houston is changing its approach to measuring the full scope of damage from Hurricane Harvey so it can get help where it is most needed and improve future flood mitigation. Using data from numerous sources, Civis Analytics found unmet housing needs were far greater than initially recorded and low-income areas were hit disproportionately harder, even though recovery funding often goes to areas with higher housing values. Now city officials are working to implement solutions based on the data in order to allocate limited funds where they will be most effective.

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