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<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">(AP Photo/Carlos Giusti, File)FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2017 file photo, Department of Homeland Security personnel deliver supplies to Santa Ana community residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Guayama, Puerto Rico. A government watchdog has found the Federal Emergency Management Agency wrongly released to a contractor the personal information of 2.3 million survivors of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and the California wildfires in 2017.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>The Federal Emergency Management Agency's ability to respond to natural disasters has been reportedly stretched to the brink after multiple natural disasters in the last three years.</li><li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/12/climate/barry-storm-fema-staff.html">The New York Times reported</a> that fewer than a quarter of the agency's disaster workforce of 13,654 people is ready for deployment, with the rest already deployed elsewhere or unavailable.</li><li>The Government Accountability Office <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/26/fema-staffing-puerto-rico-1074809">issued reports</a> over the past six years that FEMA has repeatedly lacked trained staff to aid in recovery efforts in disaster-stricken areas. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/">Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.</a> </li></ul>The Federal Emergency Management Agency's ability to respond to natural disasters has been reportedly stretched to the brink after multiple natural disasters over the last three years.<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/12/climate/barry-storm-fema-staff.html">The New York Times reported</a> that fewer than a quarter of the agency's disaster workforce of 13,654 people is ready for deployment, with the rest already deployed elsewhere or unavailable.It continues a downward trend over the last two years. At this point in 2018, 34 percent of its emergency staff were available for deployment and 55 percent the year before.<div>"I'm worried," former FEMA director of disaster operations Elizabeth Zimmerman told The New York Times. "That's of concern, to make sure that there are enough people to respond."FEMA spokeswoman Abigail Dennis told The New York Times in a statement that the agency has grown its disaster response workforce by a quarter since Hurricane Harvey struck Texas in 2017 and that its ready to draw personnel from other agencies to make up for any shortfalls.With Tropical Storm Barry expected to make landfall Saturday along the Louisiana coast, FEMA's disaster management ability has come under new scrutiny. The Government Accountability Office <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/26/fema-staffing-puerto-rico-1074809">issued reports</a> over the past six years that FEMA has repeatedly lacked trained staff to aid in recovery efforts in disaster-stricken areas. Shortages also forced the agency to move workers into roles the agency had not qualified them for, further prolonging recovery efforts.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-governor-trump-fema-help-earthquakes-2019-7">California's governor is asking Trump for emergency assistance after major earthquakes rattled the state 2 days in a row</a>Last month, acting FEMA administrator Peter Gaynor <a href="https://homeland.house.gov/activities/hearings/assessing-femas-readiness-for-future-disasters">testified</a> to the House Committee on Homeland Security that the agency was still short-staffed by 2,000 people.While the agency implemented some reforms during the Obama administration, staffing has been a long-term issue. Its also struggled to fill its ranks due to low unemployment and declining interest among Americans in public-sector jobs, <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/26/fema-staffing-puerto-rico-1074809">Politico reported. </a>But the accelerating tempo of natural disasters in the United States - floods, hurricanes and forest fires - have stretched FEMA, particularly after the natural disasters of 2017, which included Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. These disasters are also becoming larger in scale with longer recovery periods that mandate more aid workers.FEMA still has 2,400 employees working on Hurricane Maria recovery efforts and 650 are helping communities recover from Hurricane Harvey. And 1,150 are still dealing with the aftermath of the devastating Midwestern floods earlier this year.</div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/armenian-revolution-serzh-sargsyan-prime-minister-armenia-2019-7">A year after Armenia's 250,000-person revolution, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan explains what comes next for the country</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Multiple natural disasters have reportedly stretched FEMA's disaster response workforce to the brink

A massive rescue effort has been planned by the <keyword id="44734" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Indian-Government">Indian Government</keyword> and is on its way to <keyword id="12266" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Nepal">Nepal</keyword>. In a press conference a short while ago, the <keyword id="107430" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="National-Disaster-Management-Authority">National Disaster Management Authority</keyword> said that all possible relief measures are being provided not only to Nepal, but also the affected areas within India, which includes UP, <keyword id="30033" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Bihar">Bihar</keyword> and <keyword id="6357783" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="West-Bengal">West Bengal</keyword>. The death toll has been rising rapidly and Nepal has requested for all possible help from India, it’s closest neighbour. 
 The <keyword id="119446" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="National-Disaster-Response-Force">National Disaster Response Force</keyword> is sending a total of 10 teams to the affected areas in Nepal. Each team consisting of 45 trained personnel will be carrying along with them a cache of relief equipment including cutting and breathing equipment, airlifting bags, stretchers, medicines, satellite phones, other communication devices such as VHF and HF as well as paramedics and doctors. 6 of these teams will be airlifting from Ghaziabad near the National Capital Region, where as the remaining four will leave from Bhatinda today. The NDRF isn’t ruling out sending more teams if required. 
 
In addition, 2 C17 Globemasters have been dispatched to provide further help in the rescue operations in devastated Nepal. 10 Air Force planes have also been sent to Nepal to oversee and help with the rescue operations. M 17 choppers that were sent to Nepal, have however, had to return to India, given they were unable to land because of the bad weather. 
 4 NDRF teams have also been dispatched to Bihar, where the death toll o the Indian side has been the highest, with as many as 22 deaths reported. A total of 34 people have reportedly died so far in India because of the <keyword id="6362774" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="earthquake">earthquake</keyword>, from Bihar, West Bengal and UP.

Nepal earthquake: India sending 10 Nation Disaster Response Force
teams to Nepal, more help in the anvil

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Hurricane and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-wildfire-crisis-getting-worse-climate-change-2019-10">wildfire seasons</a> in the US both begin in June.</li><li>The US probably won't have its <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> outbreak under control by then, so officials are scrambling to prepare for the likely intersection of at least two major disasters this summer or fall.</li><li>Disaster management and relief will almost certainly be hampered by the pandemic, since social distancing would be compromised as people evacuate and emergency personnel mobilize. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>In the last 10 years, California experienced four of its five <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-wildfire-crisis-getting-worse-climate-change-2019-10">biggest fires</a> ever. The US's fifth consecutive season of above-average hurricane activity is expected this summer.The 2020 hurricane and wildfire seasons are imminent: June 1 marks the official beginning of hurricane season, and the last of California's snowpack is expected to melt within weeks of that. So it's very likely that a <keyword id="54165" type="EVENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="natural-disaster">natural disaster</keyword> will come before the US is able to get its coronavirus outbreak under control.Americans in California and the Gulf Coast could be caught in the crossfire as the two intersect.Given that social distancing is key to minimizing the coronavirus' spread, emergency officials are already beginning to plan for the ways the pandemic will fundamentally change how Americans evacuate at-risk areas and how personnel respond to fires and storms."We will see concurrent disasters. The only variable is when and how big it will be," Jeff Schlegelmilch, deputy director at Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness, told Business Insider. "A major disaster will be made worse by <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword>, and COVID-19 will be made worse by another major disaster. There is no way around that."<h2>COVID-19 will intersect with a natural disaster</h2><div type="image" title="FILE - In this Sept. 10, 2017 file photo, waves crash over a seawall at the mouth of the Miami River from Biscayne Bay, Fla., as Hurricane Irma passes by in Miami. In his first 10 months in office, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has appointed a science officer, established a czar on climate change and pushed action against red tide and algae blooms. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)" height="2120" width="3144" msid="75718777" hostid="261"></div>The National Interagency Fire Center <a href="https://www.predictiveservices.nifc.gov/outlooks/monthly_seasonal_outlook.pdf">expects</a> a higher-than-normal risk of large fires in northern California and parts of the Pacific Northwest starting in June. The 2020 hurricane season, meanwhile, is slated to be above average in terms of activity, according to projections from <a href="https://engr.source.colostate.edu/csu-researchers-predicting-active-2020-atlantic-hurricane-season/">Colorado State University</a> and <a href="https://www.accuweather.com/en/hurricane/accuweathers-2020-atlantic-hurricane-season-forecast/705233">AccuWeather</a>. One model suggests there's <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/04/02/above-average-atlantic-hurricane-season-predicted-including-possible-major-hurricane-strike/">a nearly 70% chance</a> that at least one major hurricane (Category 3 or higher) will make landfall in the US.Climate change <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/summer-heat-waves-wildfires-link-to-climate-change-2019-7">increases the severity and likelihood</a> of storms and fires, and the last five years were the hottest ever on Earth. The trend is is anticipated to continue in 2020. The intersection of severe weather and COVID-19 is already happening in the southeastern US, which is experiencing its <a href="https://weather.com/storms/tornado/news/2020-04-27-2020-tornado-outbreaks-south-impacts">deadliest tornado year</a> since 2012. Nearly 50 people have died.<div type="image" title="tornado " height="1333" width="2000" msid="75718784" hostid="261"></div><h2>The coronavirus complicates evacuation orders and emergency shelters</h2>Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, messaging from public <keyword id="6354750" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="health">health</keyword> officials has been consistent: "Stay home, prevent the spread of the virus." But once a major hurricane is heading for the US, staying home will prove too dangerous for residents of high-risk areas. Trevor Riggen, senior vice president for disaster cycle services at the American Red Cross, told Business Insider that the organization has been "planning for the impact of the pandemic since late-January."<div type="image" title="Hurricane Matthew evacuation efforts us army relief disaster" height="1956" width="2935" msid="75718786" hostid="261"></div>The <a href="https://weather.com/health/coronavirus/news/2020-03-24-red-cross-evacuation-shelters-new-guidelines-coronavirus">Red Cross</a> recently adapted some of its disaster management protocols to keep its staff, volunteers, and evacuees safe during the outbreak. The organization is using laptops and other mobile technology to limit person-to-person contact when assessing damages and providing emotional and financial support for impacted families. The guidelines also call for volunteers to deliver supplies, rather than distributing food and other emergency items a central location.The biggest protocol tweak the Red Cross has made, according to Riggen, is that the organization is already working with state officials to identify and prepare hotels and dormitories for those who need to flee their homes. Usually, displaced people are housed in Red Cross shelters that open following a disaster. "We'd like to not open one at all if we can avoid it," Riggen said.These guidelines have already come into play with the recent tornadoes. <a href="https://apnews.com/beba94b079b531b0dc24771b2ee3d1bd">According to the Associated Press</a>, about 550 people across four states stayed in hotel rooms paid for by the Red Cross — rather than shelters — after the of twisters destroyed homes in April.<div type="image" title="hurricane florence shelter" height="3400" width="4534" msid="75718791" hostid="261"></div>Riggen noted, however, that future disasters could impact more people than hotels and dorms can accommodate. "When we do need to open a shelter, we're going to make sure it's safe enough that families feel secure evacuating there and removing themselves from harm's way," he said.That will involve instituting temperature checks at the door, requiring everyone to wear masks, creating a separate facility for evacuees with COVID-19 symptoms, staffing the shelter with healthcare workers, separating cots 6 feet apart, and serving meals individually, rather than cafeteria style.<div type="image" title="red cross" height="2030" width="3000" msid="75718798" hostid="261"></div>Greg Brunelle, vice-president of global engagement and emergency management for the California company One Concern, told Business Insider that he expects greater fear of outsiders who flee disasters than has been seen in other years. "We need to reassure the people in those places that may receive disaster refugees that states and localities are taking every measure to protect them and the people who are evacuating," he said. Despite all these preparations, however, the exposure risks of travel, coupled with fears about the safety of crowded emergency shelters, will likely lead more Americans to try to ride out storms at home this year. Even during a regular season, many people are reluctant to evacuate ahead of a hurricane, since doing so is costly and requires access to transportation. Plus, not all families have nearby friends or relatives with whom to shelter.<h2>It's 'almost impossible' to keep firefighters safe from COVID-19</h2>The same challenges around evacuations and shelters apply to Californians fleeing a blaze; but then add to that the need for firefighters to stay 6 feet apart.Typically, after a major fire sparks, thousands of firefighters come to the area and set up a nearby camp, where they stay until the fire is brought under control."Picture it this way: You have 1,400-plus firefighters sitting on 5 acres of land, and there are facilities to house them, wash their clothes, maintain and store their equipment," Tim Edwards, president of the Cal Fire Local 2881 union, told Business Insider. "It's almost impossible to keep your 6-foot distancing and feed these guys."<div type="image" title="firefighters" height="2133" width="3200" msid="75718804" hostid="261"></div>It's also challenging to keep equipment and vehicles sanitized during a fire, and wearing protective masks can make it difficult for firefighters to communicate with each other. Cal Fire, like the Red Cross, is looking into measures that would minimize coronavirus risk, like temperature checks and isolating individual fire crews from one another. But Edwards said it's not realistic to properly fight both COVID-19 and major fires.<div type="image" title="inmate california firefighters" height="2200" width="3300" msid="75718815" hostid="261"></div>What's more, the coronavirus may already be increasing the threat of <keyword id="394841" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="wildfires">wildfires</keyword>, since the US Forest Service suspended prescribed fires — which lower fire risk — during the pandemic out of concern that smoke generated would affect Californians with compromised airways. So crews haven't cleared the vegetation that serves as fuel.<h2>A dearth of emergency personnel and mutual aid between states </h2>In March, President Donald Trump tapped FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is responsible for responding to natural disasters) to lead the US's response to the coronavirus pandemic. The agency is working with the Department of Health and Human Services to procure and distribute <a href="https://www.fema.gov/blog/2020-03-24/fema-leads-whole-america-coronavirus-operations">additional medical supplies and ventilators</a> to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments. A FEMA spokesperson told Business Insider in an email that the agency has enough personnel to fight a two-front war."FEMA currently has over 3,035 employees supporting the COVID-19 pandemic response out of more than 20,443 agency employees who are prepared to respond to other emergencies should they occur," the statement said.But Brock Long, the former FEMA administrator, told Business Insider that responding to overlapping disasters requires more than just one agency. "Disaster response and recovery is locally executed, state managed, and federally supported. It's a team sport," Long said.So even if FEMA's resources aren't compromised, the pandemic is still likely to create roadblocks for local responses."I am concerned that many of the first waves of response that survivors depend on during a disaster, including first responders, neighbors helping neighbors, and volunteers who travel from out of state to help with clean-up, cooking, and donate much needed supplies, will all be constrained because of the public health crisis," Caela O'Connell, an anthropologist at the University of North Carolina, told Business Insider.<div type="image" title="hurricane harvey" height="1092" width="2000" msid="75718820" hostid="261"></div>Usually, fire-struck or storm-struck states rely on mutual aid from neighboring states in the form of supplies and personnel. "That may not be the case this year," Brunelle said.Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/plan-for-hurricanes-wildfires-emergency-coronavirus-outbreak-2020-5">Business Insider</a>

A hurricane or wildfire will likely hit while the US is still fighting the coronavirus, compounding both disasters. Officials are preparing now.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Britain is sending 800 new military personnel to its border with France to help test thousands of stranded truck drivers for coronavirus.</li><li>French President Emmanuel Macron shut down the French border with the UK on Sunday amid Britain's outbreak of a new strain of coronavirus.</li><li>The border reopened Tuesday, but anyone crossing must have a negative coronavirus test.</li><li>With thousands requiring testing, the British Army, French firefighters, and Polish soldiers are all assisting in efforts to break the logjam.</li><li>Out of almost 2,400 tests for truck drivers, only three have come back positive, UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Christmas Eve.</li></ul>Britain is sending almost 800 military personnel to its border with France in an attempt to clear a huge backlog of truck drivers attempting to leave the country amid the UK's rapidly spreading outbreak of a new coronavirus variant.Thousands of trucks and their drivers are stranded in <keyword id="92486" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Kent">Kent</keyword> after French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday banned all UK travellers - including hauliers transporting goods - from entering France.The ban effectively shut down the English Channel crossing to France, led to a rapid build up of heavy goods vehicles in and around the <keyword id="10493739" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="port-of-dover">port of Dover</keyword>, and resulted in long queues of lorries on England's M20 highway. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also turned an airfield in Kent into a temporary parking lot for the thousands of trucks.After talks with Johnson, Macron eased the ban on Tuesday, opening the border to anyone with a recent negative COVID-19 test, but with thousands of drivers stuck and more arriving each day, testing them all is a substantial challenge.As a result, Britain's transport secretary, Grant Shapps, confirmed that on Christmas Day some 800 personnel from British armed forces will be sent to assist testing efforts. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-55443842">According to the BBC,</a> around 300 personnel were already in place, meaning a total of 1,100 have now been drafted in to help.<div type="image" title="Eurotunnel Kent queues Brexit" height="750" width="1500" msid="79953364" hostid="261"></div>Secretary Shapps said he has given "special instructions to the Army to take control of testing and HGV management operations," <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/more-troops-sent-to-kent-to-help-testing-as-stranded-lorry-drivers-face-christmas-alone-12172283">Sky News reports.</a>"Our aim is to get foreign hauliers home with their families as quickly as we can," he added, according to the BBC. "I know it's been hard for many drivers cooped up in their cabs at this precious time of year, but I assure them that we are doing our utmost to get them home."Members of the French fire services, known as Sapeurs Pompiers, are also helping with testing efforts, <a href="https://twitter.com/mblaszczak/status/1342130762901032961">while the Polish defense minister said that he is sending a team of territorial army soldiers to help out.</a> A large number of the drivers stranded in Kent are from Poland.Shapps said on Thursday that 2,367 truck drivers have so far been tested at the border, and only three have tested positive for the virus.The area around the UK's border crossing has seen fraught scenes this week, and on Wednesday, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stranded-drivers-scuffle-police-at-dover-after-uk-blockade-2020-12">a handful of HGV drivers clashed with police</a>. Volunteers from the Salvation Army, a charity usually focused on homelessness and disaster relief, <a href="http://businessinsider.com/salvation-army-fed-hgv-drivers-stranded-in-kent-due-to-border-closure-2020-12">were even drafted in to help feed stranded drivers.</a>The Channel crossing is perhaps the most important route for the UK and the EU's trading relationship, accounting for a total of almost 138 billion euros ($168 billion) worth of trade, <a href="https://www.getlinkgroup.com/content/uploads/2019/09/180604-EY-Channel-Tunnel-Footprint-Report.pdf">according to a 2018 report from EY.</a>

Britain is sending 800 military personnel to its border with France as it tries to break the logjam of truck drivers stranded by COVID-19 restrictions

The June 2013 disaster in <keyword id="44522" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Uttarakhand">Uttarakhand</keyword> is unforgettable for the heavy loss of human life, as well as the economic and ecological damages it caused. However, the inadequate disaster management and delayed response from the government were even more ominous. 
 While heavy rain (more than 375% of normal rainfall) inundated Uttarakhand and the surrounding areas, it also led to the melting of the Chorabari Glacier and the <keyword id="30363" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mandakini">Mandakini</keyword> burst its banks, resulting in the region’s worst-ever flooding in five decades. 
 
Government officials committed many errors that had a direct bearing on the tragedy: 
· Early weather warnings went unheeded. Otherwise, the loss of human life would have been lower. 
· Haphazard development with hotels near the waterways, extensive tunnelling for badly planned roads and more than 70 hydroelectric projects have created a serious environmental imbalance. 
· Private sources put it to over 5,000 deaths. As the flooding occurred during peak pilgrimage season, more than 70,000 pilgrims were stranded with little or no food for over three days. 
 
Total economic loss is estimated at Rs 20,000 crore. The damage to infrastructure such as roads, hydro projects and housing will be difficult to overcome. As tourism accounts for almost 30% of Uttarakhand’s GDP, road and other infrastructural damage means the state government has to ask tourists to stay away, leading to loss of economic activities. 
 
Disaster management While the <keyword id="107430" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="National-Disaster-Management-Authority">National Disaster Management Authority</keyword> (NDMA) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), along with the Indian Army and Indian Air Force, did their best, it was not enough. The NDMA and the NDRF have to be better equipped, especially in terms of communications, to properly manage quick relief work. The director general of the NDRF has been changed every year for the past nine years, causing a lack of continuity in this body. Moreover, we don’t have fully trained and fully equipped disaster management personnel. The locals are not trained either or opt to work with the authorities. Early and prompt action is vital for all disaster management and this requires active involvement of the locals. 
 
Local people should be made aware of the problems likely to occur and must be taught how to respond to those. Each region or locality should have a rescue shelter and a command network in place. In other words, public awareness of ecology and environmental issues is a must. The government has to work with the people to protect the environment. Also, weather warnings should be taken seriously and government officials should focus more on prevention in order to minimise such losses. 
 
A comprehensive Himalayan environment and ecology plan covering all the Indian states concerned should be drawn up and implemented. Experts even advocate an international policy in co-operation with other countries such as China, Nepal and Bhutan. 
 
Uttarakhand today is focusing on rebuilding its infrastructure and preventing further ecological damage. The state has already reconstructed a major part of its roads, bridges and communication infrastructure. However, this should top the priority list now as transport and communication are extremely vital to keep the economy going in this mountain state. 
 
Only last month, the government reopened the Char Dham Yatra for the pilgrims, which can revive the tourism-based economy to some extent, bringing in the badly needed tourist money to the state. The government has also been criticised for the slow pace in rebuilding houses and infrastructure, and thus generating employment. 
 
The state government has come under fire for the irregular disbursal of compensation – Rs 2 lakh for every affected family and Rs 3,000 per month for two years as rental compensation to each of the 3,320 families that lost their houses. An additional compensation of Rs 5 lakh for building a house on the land owned by a family did not help either. That is because the families that lost their homes in the floods found it difficult to prove land ownership as all their belongings had been washed away. In many cases, the land itself no longer exists and it is still unclear where the new dwellings can be built. Understandably, the government will have to reassess and speed up the relief and rehabilitation process for genuine sufferers. 
 
Additionally, the government is taking steps to ensure proper development of watershed areas, water supply and sanitation. Loans to the tune of $121.20 million for a decentralised watershed development project and $24 million for rural sanitation and water supply have been obtained from the World Bank. 
 
Employment issues 
Uttarakhand is now witnessing third highest level of unemployment across the country. The state has a largely rural economy and last year’s dislocation of the tourism industry and loss of homes have increased unemployment and forced many to migrate. 
 
The failure of industrialisation also contributes to unemployment in the state. The government has to first ensure that the rural areas have access to sufficient clean water, land and clean environment. It should also actively support local agriculture and other employment-generating activities. 
 
The government is currently working towards better forest management and planned hydroelectricity management. Two of the country’s major rivers, the Ganga and the Yamuna, originate in Uttarakhand and responsible handling of these river projects is not only crucial for the state but for the entire country. 
 
However, Uttarakhand is gradually overcoming the impact of the natural disaster that struck last year and rebuilding itself. But how fast it can be back on the prosperity track is the key question now.

Uttarakhand: Dealing With The Disaster Aftermath In The Abode Of Gods

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>It has been two weeks since the Miami Marlins shocked the baseball world by firing their manager and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/miami-marlins-dan-jennings-manager-2015-5">replacing him with their current general manager, Dan Jennings</a>.&#xa0;So far, it has been the disaster that other managers may have secretly been rooting for.The move was shocking because unlike other sports, there is typically a very clear line between the manager and the front office in Major League Baseball. Rarely does one person try to be both the coach and the person in charge of player personnel.The last team to attempt the move was the Atlanta Braves in 1990 with Bobby Cox who had previous managerial experience. Jennings' previous coaching experience came 30 years ago with a high school team.Through 10 games, the Marlins are just 2-8 under Jennings and have fallen from 6.0 games back in the National League East to 10.5 games back through Wednesday's games.During that time, Jennings has <a href="https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/603263882933739520">demoted one of his coaches</a>, a rare in-season move, and according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, players are growing frustrated.<div><div></div></div>But more importantly for the sport of baseball, Jennings' performance has become a referendum on the managerial position in general, and a lot of people are watching very closely.There is an old theory that of the head coaches in the four major sports (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL), the baseball manager that is the least important and that only a select few can actually have a positive impact on a team. This is a theory that has gained more steam in recent years with the use of advanced metrics, where many decisions can be mapped out ahead of time based on simple probability of what the most likely outcome will be.Buster Olney of ESPN <a href="http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/buster-olney/insider/post?id=10214">explained the thinking in a recent column</a>:"For [team executives], there is a recognition that [Bruce] Bochy has distinguished himself in his work with the Giants, as had Buck Showalter and Terry Francona. But there is also the belief that the majority of managers are like mediocre starting pitchers&#xa0;- you can always find somebody to do that job, to implement the strategy generated and laid out by front offices that are increasingly filled with really smart people who understand the chances and odds built into each decision better than the manager. A lot of folks in the front offices just hope that the guy in the manager's chair doesn't screw up&#xa0;- by doing something stupid and ad-libbing off the script honed by the staff above them, by failing to be direct in presenting a decision, in saying something really dumb on camera or into a microphone. As written here early last year, a lot of folks in front offices look at the manager perhaps in the same way that Barack Obama views his press secretary: Stay on message, please."By moving Jennings from the front office to the dugout, the Marlins, intentionally or not, are testing this theory and according to Olney, other managers are "appalled and believe it to be an insult to the profession."One coach told Olney that Jennings will be terrible."He won't know how to react," the coach said. "I kind of feel bad for him."Other managers have been openly critical of Jennings' in-game decisions, something unheard of among MLB managers. <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/mlb/miami-marlins/article22266087.html">Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald</a> chronicled a couple of examples.<ul><li>After one recent game, Arizona Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale, who had previously called the hiring of Jennings "frustrating," pointed out that his team beat the Marlins in large part because Jennings did not have a right-handed reliever ready when Hale brought in a pinch-hitter who eventually hit a game-deciding 2-run home run.</li><li>After a loss to the Marlins, Orioles manager Buck Showalter was critical of Jennings for over-using his bullpen, saying, "They used what, three guys three days in a row out of the bullpen to get it done? We'll see how that works down the road."</li></ul>Meanwhile, the players have been put in a tough position. Under the traditional system, there is a buffer between the players and the one person who typically has the most say in how much they make and whether or not they keep their job. The Marlins players are now in a spot where there may be added tension and pressure that players on other teams don't face.It has only been two weeks and there is still plenty of time for Jennings to settle into this job and right the ship. But so far it is playing out exactly as many feared and some hoped. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wwe-brock-lesnar-facts-wrestling-2015-4">12 awesome facts about WWE superstar Brock Lesnar</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="c0ZDRwdDrYMxli2qszqO2efFg-yz9MeG" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

The Marlins' bizarre manager experiment has been a disaster so far, and other MLB managers are loving it

<keyword id="58585" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="NDRF">NDRF</keyword> or the <keyword id="119446" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="National-Disaster-Response-Force">National Disaster Response Force</keyword> is an exclusive body formed for the sake of providing expert and dedicated response to a disaster or a threatening disaster situation. The constitutional provision for forming this body has been made via the Disaster Management Act, 2005 section 44–45. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is the authoritative Apex Body for Disaster Management. The Prime Minister of India is the Chairman of the NDMA. Why NDRF? In the federal system of governance found in India, the responsibility of disaster management lies with the State Government. Ministry of Home affairs is the nodal ministry in the central government for managing natural disasters. When the country faces some severe calamity, the central government has the responsibility to provide the necessary assistance and aid to the affected state. This will also include the deployment of Armed Forces, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Central Paramilitary Forces, and the communication, air and other assets that are required and available. Authority and ranks National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is governed by the National Disaster Management Authority. The office of the head of the NDRF is known as Director General. IPS officers are posted in this position on deputation from Indian police organizations. The Director General of NDRF holds the rank on par with the army’s three star general. In addition to the Director General, there are also many Inspector Generals and Deputy IGs in NDRF. As per their ranks, they are allowed to fly flags and also wear army style badges pertaining to their ranks. <keyword id="8020071" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="What-is-NDRF">What is NDRF</keyword> made of? NDRF is composed of 12 battalions. These battalions are organized in the same fashion like the para military forces. In fact they are also managed by persons drawn from the para military forces on deputation. The total strength of personnel in each of the battalions is 1149. Each of the NDRF battalions is capable of undertaking 18 self-contained specialist service. Their team of 45 rescue personnel consists of engineers, electricians, technicians, paramedics, medical professionals and dog squads. In addition to providing assistance during a natural disaster, the NDRF can also handle the crisis situations like a nuclear, biological, chemical and radiological disaster. Deployment The 12 battalions of NDRF are stationed at 12 different locations across the country on the basis of vulnerability profile of different locations in order to cut down the response time required for their deployment. NDMA will carry out the proactive deployment of these forces during a threatening disaster situation in consultation with the state authorities. This period is also called as the preparedness period. Functional parameters National Disaster Management Authority in India works with the objective of building a safer as well as disaster resilient India by way of developing a comprehensive, proactive and technology oriented disaster management strategy. NDRF has proved its efficiency in terms of its appreciable performance during some grave instances of landslides, floods, cyclones, building collapses and many others. The personnel in NDRF are thoroughly trained, re-trained and subjected to mock drills and joint exercises with other bodies to stay prepared to combat any arising disaster situation.

Unknown facts about NDRF

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The US Navy's newest carrier has been in the Atlantic conducting Aircraft Compatibility Testing since January 16. </li><li>At sea, the crew has been getting more practice with some of the carrier's most important equipment: the aircraft launching and landing systems.</li><li>Another major piece of that gear, the carrier's weapons elevators, has been "a disaster up until now," the Navy's acting secretary says, but things are now "on track."</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>The Navy's new, first-in-class aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford, went to sea again on January 16 for more testing, including of the carrier's Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Arresting Gear.EMALS and the AAG, as they're known, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-aircraft-carrier-gerald-ford-has-first-weapons-elevator-installed-2019-1">have had problems</a>, but the Ford has done <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-navy-learning-from-aircraft-compatibility-testing-on-uss-ford-2020-1">more than 70</a> successful launches and landings with them on this cruise, which follows improvements made during the carrier's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-secretary-slams-congress-for-criticizing-uss-gerald-r-ford-2019-10">protracted post-shakedown availability</a>.But one of the Ford's most important components, its advanced weapons elevators, still isn't where it needs to be.Asked about the elevators on Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, DC, Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly said that issue "has obviously received the most attention, because it's been sort of a disaster up until now, to be frank, but we are getting after that problem.""We're probably going to have seven of these elevators done by the end of this year, out of the 11. They will be certified and operating," Modly said. "They're actually operating now. There's just a certification process that has to go on on those other three."Once the three remaining elevators are certified, Modly said, "we'll be able to have full range down to the very lowest weapons compartments that we have in the ship. Those are the ones that are fore and aft that go all the way down. So that I think is on track."<h2>A big bet</h2>The Ford got the first of its 11 elevators in December 2018. But by October 2019, only three had been certified and turned over to the Ford's crew. As of January, four elevators have been certified and turned over.The Navy has said it expects all 11 elevators to be certified and operating by the end of the Ford's 18-month post-delivery test and trials period, which is currently in its third month.The prolonged delay has strained the Navy's relationship with shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls.Then-Navy Secretary Richard Spencer - who <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-aircraft-carrier-gerald-ford-has-first-weapons-elevator-installed-2019-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bet his job</a> on the elevators being ready by summer 2019 - <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-secretary-slams-congress-for-criticizing-uss-gerald-r-ford-2019-10">excoriated Huntington Ingalls</a> late last year over what he saw as the company's failures on the Ford. (Spencer stayed in his post until November 2019, when he <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/richard-spencer-trump-doesnt-understand-what-a-warfighter-is-navy-2019-11">resigned</a> after President Donald Trump blocked the Navy's efforts to reprimand disgraced SEAL Edward Gallagher.)The new elevators are part of the first new carrier design in 40 years.They run on electromagnetic motors rather than the cables used on older carriers. The change is meant to allow them to move faster and carry more - up to 24,000 pounds at 150 feet a minute compared to Nimitz-class carriers' 10,500 pounds at 100 feet a minute.Seven lower-stage elevators <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-aircraft-carrier-gerald-ford-has-first-w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">will move ordnance</a> between the lower levels and main deck. Three upper-stage elevators move it between the main deck and the flight deck. A utility elevator can move injured personnel, allowing the others to focus on weapons. The upper-stage and utility elevators are the ones that have been certified and turned over.James Geurts, the Navy's acquisitions chief, has stressed that the problem is not the technology but the construction.Mike Butler, Huntington Ingalls' program manager for the next carrier in the class, John F. Kennedy, told Business Insider in November that the new elevators are "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-problems-with-carrier-ford-helped-navy-build-carrier-kennedy-2019-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a lot more complex than traditional weapons elevators</a>" and have "a lot tighter tolerances because of that."<h2>'The crew wants to be out there'</h2>In his comments Wednesday, Modly highlighted the carrier's overall progress."The more important thing is how the ship operating, and they're doing extremely well right now with carrier [qualifications]," Modly said. "A lot of the material conditions stuff that was a concern to me when I went to the ship ... that's really getting exercised extremely well.""We're hearing feedback from the pilots now that because of this decision to move the island back farther on the ships ... that was done because of the amount of space it opens up in the front of the deck," Modly added. "What they're finding also is that the airflow across the deck is much more stable and smooth, so landing on the carrier now is a completely different experience is what the pilots are telling us.""For any of you who have been in a ship in a shipyard ... it's not a great time for the crew," Modly said. "The crew wants to be out there operating the ship, and I think they're now starting to get that, so you see a level of enthusiasm coming up, and I think we're definitely on the right path."Officers on the Ford also touted the work they've been able to do as it operates in the Atlantic this month."What we're doing is validating years of test catapult shots that were done at the EMALS test facility ... and years of arrestments on AAG," both at a facility in Lakehurst, New Jersey, said commanding officer Capt. John J. Cummings.Launching and landing the E-2D Hawkeye, C-2A Greyhound, EA-18G Growler, and T-45 Goshawk, done <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-navy-learning-from-aircraft-compatibility-testing-on-uss-ford-2020-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">for the first time</a> this month, were "major milestones" and the "payoff of a ton hard work by the engineering teams and by the test squadrons," said Cmdr. Mehdi Akacem, the Ford's air boss.The Kennedy, launched in December, benefited from a design and construction team that had learned from building the Ford. Now, Modly said, the Navy is "going to make some decisions about Kennedy and how we might want to bring some crew from the Kennedy over to the Ford to help get her up to speed more quickly."Calling work on the Ford an "all hands on deck effort," Modly said that "everyone understands how serious this is, and we're getting after it. I think you'll start seeing some good news coming out of what they're actually doing, how they're actually operating, how much better" things are going.

The Navy's top civilian official says the aircraft carrier Ford's weapons elevator 'disaster' is back 'on track'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Much of Wall Street's trading force is now working from home. But trading remotely comes with disadvantages. </li><li>"Trading from home has never been done," a trading at exec at one of the biggest banks told Business Insider, referring to the company's business continuity plans. "It was not part of our playbook."</li><li>Many large banks have replicated a trader's office setup in their living room, including computers, monitors, Bloomberg terminal access, phones, and direct access to the bank's systems. </li><li>Citi's North American markets division started to test-drive WFH capabilities for traders the first week of March, sources familiar with the preparations told Business Insider.</li><li>Trading turrets - control centers that allow rapid-fire voice connection to colleagues, brokers, and clients - are a key part of how trading floors normally function. One hang-up of moving remote was the lack of turrets, a senior trader said.</li><li>JPMorgan Chase is among the banks to outfit more of its traders with physical home turrets in recent weeks, according to people familiar with matter. Firms are also testing software turrets. </li><li>Goldman Sachs is trying to approximate being in the same room with colleagues by exploring special videoconferencing setups, according to Atte Lahtiranta, the firm's chief technology officer.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Click here for more BI Prime stories.</a></li></ul>It was unthinkable a little over a month ago: Legions of Wall Street traders navigating <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-traders-eye-huge-paydays-during-coronavirus-volatility-2020-3">the most chaotic market in their lifetimes</a> from the comfort of their living rooms. With the spread of the novel coronavirus and increasing restrictions from governments to enforce social distancing, they're doing exactly that. Wall Street firms - which only weeks before were reluctant to encourage trading from home for security and compliance reasons - <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-is-preparing-for-remote-trading-as-coronavirus-spreads-2020-3">migrated most of their markets operations</a> to remote work in March.At Citigroup, more than 91% of the firm's 2,200 North American markets employees are working from home, including even some of the firm's essential risk takers, according to people familiar with the matter. Goldman Sachs' four trading floors in New York typically house thousands of employees during normal business times but by March 19 that had fallen to the low hundreds, according to a person briefed on the numbers. <h2>'It was not part of our playbook'</h2>This was, quite literally, never in playbook.Financial giants have long had plans in place to keep operations running in the event of a terrorist attack like 9/11 or a natural disaster, like Hurricane Sandy. But those largely focused on moving key personnel to backup sites. The shuttering of a single trading floor or office would have been unfortunate but manageable - every bank has sites scattered in the suburbs of trading hubs in New York and London, not to mention offices around the world to temporarily relocate staff. But those continuity plans didn't take into account a situation that would render nearly all trading floors around the globe unusable and force large numbers of trading staff to work from their homes. Amid the rapidly spreading Covid-19 outbreak, which has hit New York City especially hard, even splitting employees among backup sites quickly proved untenable. One bank trading executive, who was helping plan his firm's remote-work migration, likened their contingency site to the set of "The Wolf of Wall Street" - a "cavernous," boiler-room type facility stacked with desks that "ran afoul of all social distancing guidance."Banks were quickly forced to ditch their disaster gameplan and trying something brand new, testing and deploying remote-working capabilities to their vast trading ranks."Trading from home has never been done," a trading at executive at one of the biggest banks told Business Insider, referring to the company's business continuity plans. "It was not part of our playbook."That's because trading remotely comes with disadvantages and headaches. Some are tangible, while others are harder to grasp for the uninitiated. We spoke with more than a dozen insiders to understand the massive undertaking to enable remote trading, and which qualities of a trading floor are hardest to replicate from home. "Prior to five or six weeks ago, not only were they not talking about working from home, they were talking about not supporting it for compliance and security reasons," Tim Carmody, the chief technology officer of IPC, one of the primary suppliers of the trading hardware and software that connects Wall Street, told Business Insider. "And that rapidly changed."<h2>Overnighting supplies by UPS</h2>The efforts at Citigroup provide a window into how one bank responded. The bank's North American markets division started to test-drive WFH capabilities for traders the first week of March, when the scope of disruption from the pandemic had yet to fully materialize, according to sources familiar with the preparations.That Wednesday the bank selected a representative group of 20 traders from across the division and sent them home in Ubers with all the supplies they'd need - such as computers, monitors, VPN phones, network cables, monitors.After the pilot group proved it could work without incident, several days later, the bank identified its most critical staff in sales and trading - the top 10% of the 2,200-person group - and began assembling kits to have installed in their homes. They overnighted the supplies via UPS, though in many cases it took a couple days for the packages to arrive. The bank meanwhile required every employee in the division to acquire and set up a token that provides remote access to the company's systems, the sources said, transforming the reception area of one of its newly renovated trading floors into a makeshift Apple Genius Bar, staffed with technologists to troubleshoot any snafus.Three weeks later, fewer than 200 the division's employees are still reporting to company offices. But that number won't get down to zero any time soon. At Citi and elsewhere, top execs have decided that scores of top traders will need to continue reporting to work."Making decisions on key trading situations, how to manage certain books - you still need some decision makers to be on site and to be able to communicate very swiftly," a senior Wall Street executive told Business Insider. <h2>Turrets are critical mission-control centers for traders</h2>That communication is often enabled by trading turrets - mini-mission control centers that allow traders' split-second, rapid-fire voice connection to dozens of colleagues, brokers, and clients - that connect directly to a financial institution's phone systems. One of the initial hang-ups of moving to remote work was the lack of turrets, said one senior trader, a sentiment echoed by several others. That made trading slower and more likely to take place over chats. While stocks largely moved toward electronic trading in recent years, other asset classes, such as bonds and options, are still heavily traded person-to-person, over the phone. "They need to instantly be able to call people to make trades," a derivatives trader said, noting that before the exchanges recently closed their in-person venues, direct-line turrets were routinely used to communicate with floor index traders."Direct lines to other desks, sales, and clients is faster," added a former sell-side equities trader who now works at a hedge fund. "Also, some might have recording requirements depending on a product, i.e. CFTC rules, so can't just use cell phones at home."Regulators have relaxed some of these rules in recognition of these unprecedented challenges.<a href="https://cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8132-20"> The CFTC is offering relief on things like record-keeping and time-stamping</a> for market players including futures commission merchants, introducing brokers, swap dealers, retail foreign exchange dealers, and floor brokers. And while some traders have been set up with VPN phones connecting their turret lines to their home lines, many people don't have landlines anymore. Given the crisis at hand, the CFTC has allowed traders to create an email record of a conversation with a client, a reprieve that has expedited the transition, according to Wall Street execs. <h2>Solving the turret headache</h2>In rare instances prior to the coronavirus crisis, traders had turrets installed in their home offices. "There were very isolated cases, particularly heads of desks with a lot of power, who wanted turrets in their Hamptons home so they could work from home on Fridays," Carmody said. Banks in the past month have tried to deploy that once-privileged perk to many more traders. IPC has gotten orders for several thousand turrets in March, an exceptional uptick for a single month, Carmody said. Most of the 1,000-employee global tech company is working remotely, though it has kept open manufacturing facilities in Fairfield, Connecticut.JPMorgan Chase is among the banks to outfit more of its traders with physical home turrets in recent weeks, according to people familiar with matter. Firms are also testing software turrets. Software turrets that mimic the same functionality but on a trader's computer screen have seen an even greater surge of demand, Carmody said. These soft turrets lack the velocity and facility of traditional turrets - there are fewer speakers, moving between buttons and channels is slower, there's no push-to-talk or push-to-mute function - but the upfront costs are smaller and the software can be rolled out far more quickly. "There's a lot of functionality that the physical turret brings that will always be the gold standard," Carmody said. "The soft turret gives you a workable environment for this, but probably not a direct replacement."Citigroup was testing the functionality of one IPC soft turret last week, sources said, and has secured hundreds of refurbished laptops installed with the software that it plans to send out to personnel.Soft turrets are also likely to figure prominently in new protocols as banks tear up their old disaster-response plans, according to the bank trading executive who has been helping with his firm's remote-work migration.<h2>Nothing to replicate real-time interaction</h2>Still, a former trading executive at one of Wall Street's largest banks said it's hard to replace in-office intuition. In normal times, traders, particularly those that transact across asset classes, must be able to see which desks on a large trading floor are busy, call around within the bank at a moment's notice and in some cases, quickly walk over to a colleague for a simple answer about risk positions or inventory."There's nothing to replicate a salesforce and you talking and interacting in real time," another trader told Business Insider. "But we're in strange times."Working from a home office or spare bedroom deadens those touch points, the former executive said. While traders might be able to connect by video conference, electronic message, and phone, it can be hard to replace the other intangibles, the small bits of information a trader ingests.That's particularly true for some of the markets that have been slower to adapt electronically, he said, citing off-the-run Treasuries, foreign-exchange options, corporate debt, and structured commodities. Imagine the desk is working 10 inquiries simultaneously, and they are coming over voice, and negotiations are ongoing with all of them. In the office, a trader can see and hear and almost feel that activity, he said."I want to know where risk is being accumulated, where it might start accumulating, what types of clients are calling or not calling," he said. "There's an element of intuition that's hard to replace."The downside to being out of touch is getting flat-footed, accumulating a large position that suddenly suffers losses or letting risky positions build up in some corner of the firm. In such an environment, activity has to slow so that traders can get comfortable with their exposures. "You can't be as tactical with a book without that in-person presence," he said.Goldman Sachs is trying to approximate the feeling of being in the same room with colleagues by exploring special videoconferencing setups, according to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-incoming-cto-atte-lahtiranta-interview-2019-11">Atte Lahtiranta, the chief technology officer.</a> The setup would have specially arranged cameras and large dedicated screens, and run all day so that traders could seamlessly stay in visual contact with colleagues. Some are already using Zoom in this way, he said. "You could just put small monitors next to your desk, five of them, and you would see people eye-to-eye, and just turn your face toward them to talk," Lahtiranta said, describing a future solution. "Those to me are the kind of next steps that, if this really becomes long lasting, you will need to do because people will need that sort of interaction."There are real world implications if Wall Street can't get back to the office. Some have indicated the remote-work dynamic has exacerbated some challenges, including market liquidity. An ETF trader who also worked through the 2008 crisis said this is "the least liquid period I've ever traded in."Another trader said markets are more uncertain and harder to price, and he worries more about competing algos. "I don't think everyone's at full speed," the trader said. "Brokers are having a tough time with liquidity and the wide markets make it even harder to price."<a href="https://store.businessinsider.com/products/banking-briefing-subscription?itm_source=businessinsider&amp;itm_medium=ctgr_bii&amp;itm_term=ctgr_subscription&amp;itm_content=wallstreet&amp;itm_campaign=banking-briefing-subscription-2"></a>

Wall Street's disaster playbook never included work-from-home trading. Insiders explain how banks rapidly adjusted during one of the most chaotic markets in history.

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>The parents of a young woman killed in the second fatal crash of a Boeing 737 Max plane say they have to keep campaigning and lobbying to improve aviation safety.</li><li>Nadia Milleron, who lost her daughter Samya Stumo, said it would be "better physically" for her to stay in bed to mourn, but "if I did that then if there was a third crash I would never forgive myself."</li><li>Milleron and her husband Michael Stumo have met with regulators to try and ensure that victims' families are involved in hearings into the plane and to push for greater safety in the industry.</li><li>They say the crashes should never have been able to happen and said it is "absolutely inconceivable" that she bought "a ticket for a lethal plane that was produced by Boeing and certified by the FAA."</li></ul><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/">Read more stories like this on Business Insider.</a></li></ul>The parents of a woman killed in the second Boeing 737 Max crash say that though it may be "healthier" for them to stay in bed and grieve for their daughter, they feel they need to keep campaigning so that similar crashes never happen again.Nadia Milleron and Michael Stumo lost their daughter Samya Stumo when an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max jet crashed on March 10, killing all 157 people on board. It was the second crash by a Boeing 737 Max jet in less than five months, after a Lion Air plane killed 189 people in October 2018."I have a choice. I could stay home and stay in my bed, which is what I feel like would be better physically for me," Milleron told Business Insider."Or I can take advantage of the moment and try to alert the American people to the fact that they're not being protected by their government in terms of safety."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div>"I haven't moved on to maybe the other stages of grief because I have to keep reliving the immediacy of it in order to present that to the American people and get them to put pressure on their government for their own safety. "But I do have a choice. I could go to bed. And if I did that then if there was a third crash I would never forgive myself," she said.Milleron and Stumo have been working with and lobbying the US Federal Aviation Administration, the US National <keyword id="34991" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="transportation">Transportation</keyword> Safety Board, and Congress members who are looking at the safety of the plane in a bid to make sure that victims' families are involved in hearings into the plane and push for greater safety in the industry.The pair, like many other families affected by the two crashes, are suing Boeing for negligence, as well as failure to warn and civil conspiracy, accusing Boeing of putting "profits over safety."Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-737-max-crisis-list-lawsuits-investigations-faces-faa-2019-5" data-analytics-position="1">Here are all the investigations and lawsuits that Boeing and the FAA are facing after the 737 Max crashes killed almost 350 people</a>"I could never live with myself, that another whole group of innocent people who purchased tickets, who got on a plane and believed that there was a safety certification for that plane, if then they would also die like the 346 innocent people that have died so far because of this particular plane," Milleron said.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-737-max-crisis-air-china-calling-for-compensation-2019-5"></a><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div>She told Business Insider that a lack of publicity about the first crash meant that the second one was able to happen."The American public were not alerted. We were not alerted," Milleron said."We didn't say to our daughter, 'Oh, be sure that you're not flying on that flight because the plane seems very likely to be defective and it could crash again.'"Samya, 24, was working for a healthcare non-profit when she was killed in the crash, and was travelling to Kenya as part of efforts to establish universal healthcare in the country. "She was going to save a lot of lives. She was going to have a major impact in shaking up in a good way the global health field," Stumo said.Milleron and Stumo met with the FAA to discuss working together as the regulator prepares to consider whether the plane should be certified to fly again with Boeing's new software update. The FAA faces scrutiny from lawmakers and federal bodies over how it certified the plane to fly in the first place.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div>Milleron said that their conversations with the FAA and the NTSB have been "substantive."Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-737-max-cases-worthless-if-moved-indonesia-ethiopia-lawyers-2019-6" data-analytics-position="10">Behind Boeing's offer to settle with victims' families in a 737 Max crash is a hardball legal strategy that could leave them with nothing</a>But she said that the American public needs to be aware of the issues with the plane, and the wider implications its problems have for aviation safety given that it was certified to fly in the first place."We are a wealthy country. We have a huge military. We have so many resources."It would have been "absolutely inconceivable" to Samya "that she should purchase a ticket for a lethal plane that was produced by Boeing and certified by the FAA," Milleron said."She would never even imagine that that would be true."She said that the public putting pressure on Boeing and the FAA is the "only way" that investigations into what went wrong will not be disregarded.Milleron said that the FAA certified a "lethal" plane, rather than saying to Congress that it might need more resources.The FAA's process for certifying planes has come under a harsh spotlight since the crashes, particularly the system that allows manufacturers like Boeing to play a role in certifying their own planes.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div>Stumo said that Boeing has been "transformed into an investment company only for shareholder value" and that this practice with the FAA meant that the company's employees are under more pressure to approve planes. The FAA has defended its processes, saying that they have produced safe aircraft for decades. Daniel Elwell, the acting administrator of the FAA, has highlighted that it would need significant additional resources to move all parts of the certification process in-house.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/737-max-pilots-sue-boeing-claim-unprecedented-cover-up-issues-2019-6" data-analytics-position="1">More than 400 737 Max pilots are suing Boeing over an 'unprecedented cover-up' of flaws in the plane's design</a>But Stumo said that the current system means there is a culture where Boeing engineers "can only talk to Boeing management, and they can get into a group think, and they're more subject to the pressures of the timelines and the budgets than they were before."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div>He said that Boeing should return to the system used previously. Under this system, Stumo said: "You had a safety culture and the safety-first people making those types of decisions and not management.""The safety of the planes, and as we discover more and more about Boeing, is not assured by the certification," Milleron said.In a statement to Business Insider earlier in June, the FAA said that its "aircraft certification processes are well established and have consistently produced safe aircraft designs." It added that certifying the 737 Max took five years and "involved 110,000 hours of work on the part of FAA personnel, following the FAA's standard certification process."Stumo said that Boeing needed to stop focusing on defending the plane, and instead tell Congress: "We have a plan."Milleron wrote to Peter DeFazio, chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, to ask if she and Stumo could testify for five minutes at a hearing about the 737 Max on June 19."We are Americans who trusted that our government would only certify safe aircraft," she wrote.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div>They were ultimately not able to, and sat in the front row with homemade posters that depicted the victims of both crashes.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-using-737-max-crash-lessons-777x-troubles-2019-6" data-analytics-position="5">Boeing said it is using the 'lessons' it has learned during the 737 Max crisis to deal with troubles facing another one of its planes</a>Milleron said that she has reached out to some other families who were affected by the crash, encouraging them to try to engage with the FAA, but that this organizing was difficult with people from more than 30 countries.The family has created a scholarship alongside ThinkWell, the non-profit that Samya worked for, which aims to fund women who have ideas for "transformative solutions to improve healthcare around the world." It will offer recipients up to $100,000 a year for one or two years. They hope it will run for 50 years: "We feel that by doing that 50 times, which will be approximately the length of Samya's career if she wasn't cut short, that we might make a difference."Get the latest Boeing stock price <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/BA-Quote">here.</a>

'I could never live with myself': The parents of a Boeing 737 Max victim explain why they chose to campaign to prevent another disaster, rather than 'go to bed' and grieve

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP PhotoPart of the wrecked fuselage of an US Air Force B-52 bomber where it crashed near Palomares, Spain, after colliding with a US Air Force KC-135 tanker while refueling on January 17, 1966.</div></div></div><ul><li>A crash involving a B-52 Stratofortress bomber over Spain in 1966 resulted in four nuclear bombs being lost for 81 days.</li><li>The bombs were <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506213400/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2004/2/2004_2_28.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not armed</a>, meaning there was no chance of a nuclear detonation.</li><li>The US personnel involved in the search and Spaniards in the area have lived with the legacy of the accident in the half-century since.</li></ul> Early on the morning of January 16, 1966, a B-52 Stratofortress bomber took off from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina.The bomber headed toward Europe, where it would patrol near the borders of the Soviet Union with four nuclear weapons, part of Operation Chrome Dome, a Cold War program to provide 24-hour rapid-response capabilities in case of war.During its return to the US the next day, the B-52 was to rendezvous with a KC-135 tanker for refueling over Spain. Capt. Charles Wendorf, the 29-year-old Air Force pilot at the controls of the bomber, asked his staff pilot, Maj. Larry Messinger, to take over as they approached the refueling point.Just after 10 a.m. on January 17, the planes began their approach at 31,000 over eastern Spain. Messinger sensed something was amiss."We came in behind the tanker, and we were a little bit fast, and we started to overrun him a little bit," Messinger recalled, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506213400/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2004/2/2004_2_28.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to American Heritage magazine."There is a procedure they have in refueling where if the boom operator feels that you're getting too close and it's a dangerous situation, he will call, 'Break away, break away, break away,'" Messinger said. "There was no call for a breakaway, so we didn't see anything dangerous about the situation. But all of a sudden all hell seemed to break loose."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP PhotoThe largest remaining piece of a US jet tanker after a collision with a B-52 bomber over southeastern Spain, January 18, 1966.</div></div></div>The B-52 collided with the tanker. The belly of the KC-135 ripped open, and jet fuel spilled into the tanker and onto the bomber. Explosions ripped through both planes, consuming the tanker and killing all four men aboard. Three men in the tail of the bomber were killed, and the four other crew members ejected.Capt. Ivens Buchanan, strapped into his ejection seat, was caught in the fireball and burned. He crashed to the ground, but survived. Wendorf's and Lt. Richard Rooney's parachutes opened at 14,000 feet, and they drifted out to sea where fishermen rescued them.Messinger hit his head during ejection. "I opened my parachute. Well, I shouldn't have done that. I should have freefalled and the parachute would open automatically at 14,000 feet," he <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506213400/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2004/2/2004_2_28.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. "But I opened mine anyway, because of the fact that I got hit in the head, I imagine." He drifted eight miles out to sea, where he was also picked up by fishermen.A Spanish fisherman five miles offshore at the time <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506213400/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2004/2/2004_2_28.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> seeing the explosion and the rain of debris. He then saw five parachutes - three with surviving crew members from the bomber; two others carrying "half a man, with his guts trailing," and a "dead man."Soon after, on the ground in Spain, officers at Air Force bases <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/20/us/decades-later-sickness-among-airmen-after-a-hydrogen-bomb-accident.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scrambled</a> to pack the troops they could find - cooks, clerks, and musicians - into buses to head toward Palomares, a coastal farming village in southeast Spain.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP Photo The wreckage of a US Air Force KC-135 tanker that collided with a B-52 bomber over southeast Spain. Spanish officials in background are searching for bodies, January 18, 1966. </div></div></div>"It was just chaos," John Garman, then a military-police officer, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/20/us/decades-later-sickness-among-airmen-after-a-hydrogen-bomb-accident.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The New York Times in 2016. "Wreckage was all over the village. A big part of the bomber had crashed down in the yard of the school."By the evening of January 17, all the airmen had been accounted for and no villagers were hurt. But US personnel continued their search for the four nuclear bombs the B-52 had been carrying.<h2>Days of searching</h2>The bombs - each carrying 1.45 megatons of explosive power, about 100 times as much as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima - were <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506213400/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2004/2/2004_2_28.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not armed</a>, meaning there was no chance of a nuclear detonation. One was recovered intact, but the high-explosives in two of them, designed to detonate and trigger a nuclear blast, did explode. The blasts left house-size craters on either side of the village, scattering plutonium and contaminating crops and farmland."There was no talk about radiation or plutonium or anything else," Frank B. Thompson, then a 22-year-old trombone player, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/20/us/decades-later-sickness-among-airmen-after-a-hydrogen-bomb-accident.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The New York Times in 2016.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP PhotoNuclear-search-team members have lunch at Camp Wilson in Palomares Beach, Spain, February 17, 1966.</div></div></div>Thompson and others spent days searching contaminated fields without protective equipment or even a change of clothes. "They told us it was safe, and we were dumb enough, I guess, to believe them," he said.The fourth bomb remained missing after days of searching, its absence embarrassing for the US and potentially deadly for people in the area.The Pentagon <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506213400/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2004/2/2004_2_28.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called on engineers</a> at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, who crunched the available numbers in order to determine where the missing bomb may have landed. The circumstances of the crash and the multitude of variables made such an estimate difficult.Clues pointed to a sea landing for the fourth bomb, but there was little hard data to indicate where.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">AP PhotoAn H-bomb lost in the crash of two US Air Force planes in January 1966, seen during a recovery operation on April 8, 1966.</div></div></div>An interview with the fisherman who watched five members of the bomber's crew land at sea yielded a breakthrough.The "dead man" was in fact the bomb attached to its parachute, and the "half man, with his guts trailing" was the empty parachute bag with its packing lines trailing in the air.That information led the engineers assisting the search to recommend a new search area, bringing the total area being scoured to 27 square miles - with visibility of only 20 feet in some spots.On February 11, the Navy called in Alvin, a 22-foot-long, 8-foot-wide submersible weighting 13 tons. It had room for a pilot and two observers, carried several cameras and a grappling arm, and could dive to 6,000 feet.Alvin's primitive technology made the search a slog. There was no progress until March 1, when they spotted a track on the seabed.Two more weeks of searching went by before they spotted the bomb - 2,550 feet below the surface, almost exactly in the spot where the fisherman had seen it enter the water. On March 24, divers in Alvin managed to attach a line to the bomb's parachute. Just after 8 p.m., a winch on a Navy ship began to reel in the line. About an hour later, the line broke, sending the bomb back to the ocean floor.They found it again on April 2, resting about 350 feet deeper in the same area. The Navy rigged up another retrieval plan using an unmanned recovery vehicle, but it got caught in the bomb's parachute. On April 7, the admiral leading the search ordered his crew to lift the whole thing.The laborious process that followed, assisted by Navy frogmen, lifted the missing nuclear bomb to the surface, bringing the 81-day saga to a close.Alvin's pilots became international heroes, but little else about the incident ended so well.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP PhotoUS Air Force Maj. Gen. Delmar Wilson, left, and US Navy Rear Adm. William S. Guest at Palomares Beach, inspecting the H-bomb that was recovered from the sea, on April 8, 1966.</div></div></div><h2>'They told us everything was safe'</h2>US soldiers plowed up 600 acres of crops in Palomares, sending it to the Savannah River nuclear complex in South Carolina for disposal.The US government <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506213400/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2004/2/2004_2_28.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">paid $710,914</a> to settle 536 Spanish claims. The fisherman, who wanted his claim for finding the bomb, sued for $5 million and eventually won $14,566. Madrid, where protesters had chanted "Yankee assassins!" during the search, asked US Strategic Air Command to stop its flights over Spain. The airborne-alert program of Operation Chrome Dome was curtailed and ended for good in 1992.The US personnel involved in the search and Spaniards in the area have lived with the legacy of the accident in the half-century since it happened.Despite removing soil in the immediate aftermath, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/19/us-to-clean-up-spanish-radioactive-site-49-years-after-palomares-plane-crash" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tests in the 1990s</a> revealed high levels of Americum, a product of decaying plutonium, in the village. More tests showed that 50,000 cubic meters of the soil remained radioactive. The US agreed to clean up the contamination remaining in the village in 2015.Many of the US veterans who assisted the search have said they are dealing with the effects of plutonium poisoning. Linking cancers to a single exposure to radiation is impossible, and there hasn't been any study to assess whether they have an elevated incidence of illness, but in the years since some have been ravaged by disease.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP Photo/National Archive Record AdministrationAn unidentified US soldier looks through the material found after a US B-52 bomber collided with a tanker plane during aerial refueling, January 17, 1966.</div></div></div>Of the 40 veterans involved in the search who were identified <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/20/us/decades-later-sickness-among-airmen-after-a-hydrogen-bomb-accident.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">by The Times in 2016</a>, 21 had cancer - nine had died from it.Many of the men have blamed the Air Force, which sent them to clean the scene with little protective gear and later fed troops the contaminated crops that Spaniards refused to eat. One military-police officer was given a plastic bag and told to pick up radioactive fragments by hand.The Air Force also dismissed tests done at the time showing the men had high levels of plutonium contamination."It took me a long time to start to realize this maybe had to do with cleaning up the bombs," <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/20/us/decades-later-sickness-among-airmen-after-a-hydrogen-bomb-accident.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Arthur Kindler, who was a grocery supply clerk at the time of the incident. He was so covered in plutonium during the cleanup that the Air Force made him wash off in the ocean and took his clothes. Four years later he developed testicular cancer and a rare lung infection; he has had cancer in his lymph nodes three times since then. "You have to understand, they told us everything was safe," Kindler said. "We were young. We trusted them. Why would they lie?" <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-nuclear-war-mission-control-doomsday-plane-2017-9">This US plane doubles as Mission Control during nuclear war- take a look inside</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

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