Disaster Management Meets Climate Adaptation

Episode 11: In this episode, host Doug Parsons speaks with doctoral student Samantha Montano, a “Disasterologist”, an expert in emergency management. Samantha also blogs on this subject at her web site: www.disaster-ology.com. Samantha recently published a news article for Vox magazine, highlighting the recent, unprecedented flooding in Louisiana, and how unprepared the country is deal with natural disasters and how climate change is only going to make responding to these disasters harder. In this episode, Samantha explains what the country’s emergency management system is; she also talks about what inspired her to join this field, going into detail of her time living in New Orleans, helping with the recovery in post Hurricane Katrina. Samantha also discusses the media’s failure to appropriately cover the recent catastrophic flooding event in Louisiana and what role the media has in natural disasters. Doug and Samantha discuss how the adaptation field can learn from the emergency management universe and how the two fields can collaborate to improve what each other is doing. We also talk about the shortcomings of our regulatory and policy mechanisms to deal with disasters, especially during the recovery phase, and the missed opportunities for long term adaptation planning. Samantha also identifies her top recommendations to adaptation professionals to get more networked with emergency management professionals. Finally, Samantha talks about the 4 phases of emergency management, 1. Preparedness; 2.Response; 3. Recovery; and 4. Mitigation and how adaptation planning can learn from this framework. It’s a rich, enlightening and boisterous conversation!