Tis the season

June 10, 2021

Thanks for reading my World’s on Fire, a weekly newsletter about disasters from journalist Colleen Hagerty. If you found this dispatch interesting, I hope you’ll subscribe!

This week, I decided to bring back a MWOF fan favorite: the links edition! In case you're wondering what happened to these posts, I've been writing them for my Patreon subscribers as part of the exclusive content they get for supporting this newsletter (quick plug that you, too, can access this content for just $3/month).

This newsletter got a number of new subscribers lately, though, and since we're heading into what's likely to be a disaster news-heavy summer, it seemed like a good time to bring the links back and connect with you all a bit. So, here's how it works – this is some of the reading that has been on my radar for the past few weeks. Have any thoughts on these features or want to share what you've been reading/listening to/watching? Reply to this email or find me on Twitter to talk about it!

Let's get to the links:

"What follows is a small archive of life, as told through what has been lost." If you read anything from this list, let it be this collection of accounts from fire survivors about the items they had to leave behind.

While a few of the answers in this Q&A might sound familiar, this interview with Deanne Criswell still offers insight into how the new FEMA Administrator is approaching some of the challenges the agency faces, including its culture and equitably distributing aid.

A great overview of what a derecho is and why some experts think we need to start treating "'derecho season' like hurricane season."

Much of the Western US is in a drought, impacting nearly half of the country's population (according to NPR). This article offers a look at the tension it has created along the California-Oregon border.

A powerful first-person account of the federal firefighter staffing crisis.

Important reporting on the devastation last year's hurricane season wrought in Central America, which serves as helpful context in understanding the Vice President's visit to the region this week.

So, yes, Bill Nye did speak to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications this week. But so did a number of other experts in the emergency management space, and they also had a lot of interesting things to say! The testimonies touched on burnout in the field, the burden of bureaucracy on under-resourced communities, and Nye's thoughts on "resilience."

A dispatch from Miami, "the U.S. metropolitan area that is perhaps most exposed to sea-level rise," where temperatures are rising, flooding is increasing, and "none of the possible solutions are cheap, easy or pretty."

As someone who lives in California and has followed the state's controversial attempts to aid unhoused individuals during the pandemic, I found this piece about Oregon's take on the idea fascinating. I also think it touches on a theme that we are likely to see more of in months to come – programs created in response to Covid-19 that are adapted to meet the needs of other disasters.

As always...

thank you for reading and subscribing to My World’s on Fire. You can support this newsletter and get access to exclusive content by signing up for my Patreon. It also means the world to me when you share it on social media like Dr. Samantha Montano did:

Now, here’s a little something for reading to the end.

Colleen