Book Description
Why do we remain unprepared for the next terrorist attack or natural disaster?
Where are we most vulnerable?
How have we allowed our government to be so negligent?
Who will keep you and your family safe?
Is America living on borrowed time?
How can we become a more resilient nation?
Americans are in denial when it comes to facing up to how vulnerable our nation is to disaster, be it terrorist attack or act of God. We have learned little from the cataclysms of September 11 and Hurricane Katrina. When it comes to catastrophe, America is living on borrowed time–and squandering it. In this new book, leading security expert Stephen Flynn issues a call to action, demanding that we wake up and prepare immediately for a safer future.
The truth is acts of terror cannot always be prevented, and nature continues to show its fury in frighteningly unpredictable ways. Resiliency, argues Flynn, must now become our national motto. With chilling frankness and clarity, Flynn paints an all too real scenario of the threats we face within our own borders. A terrorist attack on a tanker carrying liquefied natural gas into Boston Harbor could kill thousands and leave millions more of New Englanders without power or heat. The destruction of a ship with a cargo of oil in Long Beach, California, could bring the West Coast economy to its knees and endanger the surrounding population. But even these all-too-plausible terrorist scenarios pale in comparison to the potential destruction wrought by a major earthquake or hurricane.
Our growing exposure to man-made and natural perils is largely rooted in our own negligence, as we take for granted the infrastructure handed down to us by earlier generations. Once the envy of the world, this infrastructure is now crumbling. After decades of neglect, our public health system leaves us at the mercy of microbes that could kill millions in the next flu pandemic. Flash flooding could wipe out a fifty-year-old dam north of Phoenix, placing thousands of homes and lives at risk. The next San Francisco earthquake could destroy century-old levees, contaminating the freshwater supply that most of California relies on for survival.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The Edge of Disaster tells us what we can do about it, as individuals and as a society. We can–and, Flynn argues, we must–construct a more resilient nation. With the wounds of recent national tragedies still unhealed, the time to act is now.
Flynn argues that by tackling head-on, eyes open the perils that lie before us, we can remain true to our most important and endearing national trait: our sense of optimism about the future and our conviction that we can change it for the better for ourselves–and our children.
“Steve Flynn offers the answer not only to protecting America from terrorist attacks and natural disaster but also to revitalizing our democracy. This book is a must-read for all members of Congress, 2008 presidential candidates, and ordinary citizens who want to build a better and safer future.”
–Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
Advance praise for The Edge of Disaster
“Steve Flynn has done it again. Like America the Vulnerable before it, The Edge of Disaster is the must-read book for every American, elected official, and presidential candidate who is committed to ensuring that our nation continue to thrive in perilous times.”
–Mark Warner, former governor of Virginia
“Since 9/11, protecting our nation against a terrorist attack has consumed policy makers in Washington. What Stephen Flynn points out in The Edge of Disaster is that much of this effort has been directed overseas, often at the expense of our homeland and its much more likely areas of vulnerability. Laying out a series of potential disasters both manmade and natural, Flynn calls for a greater emphasis on preparedness and the ability of communities and the nation to recover. Painting an often frustrating and infuriating picture of missed opportunities, The Edge of Disaster is a call to action. The time to act is now. We can only hope that policy makers are listening.”
–Christine Todd Whitman, former governor of New Jersey and
former administrator, Environmental Protection Agency (2001-03)
“Steve Flynn’s book makes the very persuasive argument that national security preparedness is linked to natural disaster preparedness. By investing significantly in our critical infrastructure, in citizen preparedness, and most importantly in leadership, we can be better prepared for all hazards. A great book that I highly recommend.”
–James Lee Witt, former director, Federal Emergency Management Agency
“Steve Flynn has become a relentless contributor to the dialogue on prioritizing the work of the post-9/11 security environment. The Edge of Disaster calls into question the neglect of domestic preparedness in favor of the Department of Defense-driven offensive in the global war on terrorism. The book offers provocative challenges to both our elected and our private-sector leaders, and both should read it thoroughly.”
–Admiral James M. Loy, former commandant, U.S. Coast Guard, and former deputy secretary of homeland security
Customer Reviews:
Good information.......2007-08-10
This book provides good information about making our country more prepared for natural or man-made disasters by using an all hazards approach. Some of the presented ideas are great others are very opinionated. You can tell the author is pro Coast Guard since he recommends they be in charge of everything, just a bit biased, but a good book overall.
An Eye-Opener.......2007-07-27
I thought this book was a great read for many reasons. First off, the author gives a few hypothetical cases of another terrorist attack on American soil. He does this not to incite fear, but just to prove how vulnerable our infrastructures are (waterways, ports, canals, oil refineries, etc). He mentions how old and antiquated they are and how the government is not pumping enough money to fix or upgrade those resources. Secondly, he gives several examples of how this can change and why it needs to be done. Lastly, (but not in this order) he also ties this in with our vulnerablity to natural disasters. "The Edge of Disaster" is a disaster that can be both man-made or natural. If you want to read about things that are not being discussed in the media that are very critical to the foundation of this country, then this is a must read!!
Challenges our myths and assumptions........2007-07-21
I found this book to be right on target - Bulls-Eye. Flynn points out all the pitfalls in the current mode of planning responses to disasters and terrorist attacks on the part of government, congress and others. He calls attention to the complacency of the American Public, partly lulled by a secretive government failing to share how it addresses the issues of disaster planning and repairing and maintaining American infrastructure to withstand both natural disasters and terrorism.
He rightly points out that NO effort has been made to involve and rally the American Citizenry to respond to disasters or fight terrorism (Where is the war bond drive to fight the global war on terrorism?) Nor have efforts been made to invoLVe the private sector (except recently, the state of Texas in its Hurricane Evacuation planning will involve energy companies, Walmart, Home Depot and the HEB groceries to assure people's needs are met quickly when the next hurricane comes).
In short, we as Americans, according to Flynn seem to be living in a world of make-believe fog. It reminds him of the last days of the Roman empire.
He did not mention, that since 9/11 while the US is pre-occuppied with a war on terror, the economies of India and CHina have taken off. In fact, the "smart money" is investing in Brazil, Russia, India and China, not the US. Perhaps our weak infrstructure has a role to play.
What are the solutions? I have cut and pasted them from another review as a reminder of how urgent the need is to address this issue:
1) Force Washington to build national resiliency at home
2) Put terrorism in the context of the other threats (see Wikipedia, "Ten Threats")
3) Fix the infrastructure now
4) Inform the American people, they are our greatest asset
5) Tap the ingenuity and resources of the private sector
6) Do not underestimate the value of individual preparedness
7) Do not allow government to pretend the pandemic will not happen
8) Discourage construction along vulnerable coastlines and in flood plains
9) Properly fund and support local police and emergency responders
10) Promote the concept of resiliency as a global imperative.
Buy this book. In fact, buy extra copies for those you love and cherish.
Natural Disasters or Terrorists: the Greater Threat? .......2007-05-30
Stephen Flynn travels a lot --- and everywhere he goes he finds crumbling bridges, inadequate highway systems, overtaxed hospitals, parochial politicians, obsolete communications gear, neglected or nonexistent planning, and a citizenry that does not seem to give a damn about any of these things. This book --- his second on the subject --- is his strident wake-up call, a plea that something be done before the inevitable disaster strikes.
His case rests on two major premises: that more 9/11s and Katrinas are a certainty, and that of the two, future Katrinas are the more to be feared because they will be more frequent and will impact more people directly. Our present political and popular fixation on terrorism alone he finds shortsighted and foolish. He calls for measures to deal with both at the same time.
Flynn's method is to construct hypothetical scenarios --- a terrorist attack on a ship carrying liquefied natural gas in Boston Harbor, a catastrophic earthquake that devastates north-central California --- and then to demonstrate the inadequacy of existing means to either prevent the event or minimize the damage they cause. His scenarios are generally based on authoritative sources as well as his own observations. In every case his conclusions are dismal: inability to respond quickly and efficiently, widespread panic, enormous casualties, government ineptitude. Yet the general public, he says, lives in an "almost adolescent sense of denial," preferring to just keep fingers crossed and hope that such things will not happen, or if they do happen, it will be somewhere else.
Flynn tries gamely to be nonpolitical about all this, but his indictment of the Bush administration and the small-government fetish of many politicians is plain. He deplores the Iraq War as a diversion of funds and resources from the place where real threats are much more evident --- here at home.
Some of his strictures are hardly new (e.g., the governmental passion for secrecy that keeps bureaucrats from sharing vital information, the inability of "first responders" and "first preventers" to communicate with each other, the absence of true collaboration between public and private agencies at times of crisis, the unfortunate preference for pork-barrel politics over meeting really urgent needs). But he goes well beyond these obvious truths, condemning public indifference or even ignorance of what needs to be done urgently. Our nation is "brittle," he says, and needs to be made more "resilient" before it is too late. Flynn obviously sees himself as Paul Revere on a coast to coast midnight ride.
There is a strain of special pleading in the book. Flynn, himself a long-serving officer in the Coast Guard, tells again the familiar story of how well that agency performed in New Orleans in 2005 --- then goes on to propose that it be given the leading role in domestic disaster response, with FEMA demoted to secondary status. It may well be a good idea, but Flynn is not exactly an impartial judge.
The obvious question here is: If all this work needs to be done pronto, how are we to pay for it? Flynn proposes a new agency, the "Infrastructure Resiliency Commission," insulated from pork-barrel political pressure. He would pay the enormous cost of quickly making us into a "resilient" nation with money from five sources: funds from the estate tax that the administration wants to end altogether, repeal of the tax cuts enacted under Bush, a dollar-a-gallon gasoline tax, funds from the defense budget and from state and city governments. One can virtually hear the howls of protest from motorists, conservative politicians, the Pentagon and local officials. Were I a betting man, I would not bet on this one.
Nonetheless, this is an important and often eloquent book. One hopes that Flynn/Paul Revere will be heeded, and that he is not like poor Cassandra, who was given the gift of prophecy, but along with it the curse that no one would believe anything she said.
--- Reviewed by Robert Finn
Good informative & eye opening.......2007-05-12
Good book, Flynn writes at a level anyone can understand. He makes the urgency clear that changes must be made in order to secure our nation.
Book Description
Since the late 1980s the international relief community has seen its resources and personnel stressed beyond capacity by humanitarian crises--large-scale, man-made catastrophes such as the conflicts in Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Chechnya, Zaire, and elsewhere. Waged within collapsing states, political and ethnic strife targets civilians, causes mass population dislocation and widespread human rights abuses, and impedes the efforts of relief organizations to respond effectively. Covering topics ranging from emergency public health measures to the psychological trauma of relief workers, this volume presents both a seasoned assessment of current practice and proposals for improving operational efforts in the future. The discussion also raises important questions relating to the definition and direction of the overall humanitarian mission.
Book Description
In a small village outside of Phnom Pehn, little children as young as five years old were forced to live as sex slaves. Day after day their hope was slipping away. Tireless workers from International Justice Mission (IJM) infiltrated the ring of brothels and gathered evidence to free the children. Headed up by former war-crimes investigator Gary Haugen, IJM faced impossible odds-police corruption, death threats, and mission-thwarting tip-offs. But they used their expert legal finesse and high-tech investigative techniques to save the lives of 37 young girls and secured the arrest and conviction of several perpetrators. Terrify No More focuses on this dramatic rescue story, and uses flashbacks to tell those of many other victims who were given a second chance at life by this amazing organization.
Readers of John Grisham and Ted Dekker novels will appreciate the suspense, plot twists, and relentless pursuit of justice found in the true story of Terrify No More.
Customer Reviews:
Disappointment.......2007-09-06
This book is a great disappointment. Buying this book I thought to obtain some serious information on the subject. I didn't expect to buy some superficial nonsence of a local U.S. sect. To European standards Gary Haugen's prostelitizing is appalling obscene and self serving and in this IJM is to be considered a dangerous sect. Don't buy this book.
Painful, powerful book -- may change your life.......2007-08-19
Sometimes enlightenment comes like a cold slap in the face. That's what this book delivers -- stories of abuse and oppression that most people don't know exist in our world today. I didn't. But Haugen and Hunter, in a style that is smooth and suspenseful, tell the stories of numerous victims of slavery and oppression who were helped through brave undercover operations by true-life heroes. At times heart-breaking and painful, at others joyful and celebretory, this book is hard to put down. You won't want to, but you will want to give copies to your friends. Nicely done. Thanks for helping me to understand the world just a little bit better outside my own whitewashed life.
Julia L. Truelove Needs to Get a Life.......2006-12-29
The review by Julia L. Truelove is one of the most ridiculous and unintelligible rants that I have ever read. It is clear that the reader approached this book with a strong bias of quasi-christian hatred and had already made up her mind before she got passed the cover. The author of this book has a Harvard law degree and previously worked for the U.S. Department of Justice. Thus, if he wanted to attain distinction and/or accumulate wealth for himself, there were many avenues at his disposal that would have been far easier and yielded greater returns then starting an organization to stand up for forgotten children of third world countries. Her attack that the author has created the International Justice Mission (which has rescued hundreds of children from underground commercialized rape and prosecuted their aggressors) only to garner prestige and money for himself is completely asinine. Her extremely thoughtful and innovative solution at the beginning of her diatribe is to simply inform the U.S. government and put things in the hands of politicians because, as we all know, that is usually the most effective way to fix any problem. First of all, the author of the book talks extensively in chapter 25 about how he and others have put pressure on the U.S. government to substantively confront these problems. He mentions how the American public needs to be made aware of the evil that lives in this world in order that they too might take it up with their government. Also, mentioned in Haugen's other book, Good News About Injustice, is the forced child prostitution that has existed, and does exist, in the United States. (I believe that this is mentioned in Terrify No More as well, but I am not 100% certain.) The author's purpose in writing this book was obviously awareness, not literary distinction, and I give him kudos for it. Gary Haugen saw the aftermath of a terrible genocide in Rwanda and decided to do something tangible and effective to confront the injustice and the abuses of power that run rampant in this world. Why is this so disturbing to Julia L. Truelove? I guess it's because the guy is a christian, a christian of the worst kind, one that actually does something with his convictions to help and love other people besides just going to church on Sundays. I don't understand why it is such a deeply troubling idea to tell a child that has had the concepts of love and affection perverted in the most despicable of ways that there is a God that cares about her with a perfect holy love. Julie's allocations that Haugen condemns Vietnam as a sinful nation because it is non-christian is ludicrous, especially since the book is centered around an operation that takes place in CAMBODIA. One of the main parts of IJM's whole mission is to get the honorable people of a certain country to uphold honorable laws that by and large already exist but are not being enforced. She goes on to mention President Bush, the Iraq War, and mistreatment of Native Americans to try and bolster her argument but forgets that they have no relevance to the work she is commenting on. Terrify No More really is a compelling book about a terrific and successful organization that has committed itself to stand up and fight for the oppressed who would otherwise have no voice. IJM is a christian ministry that truly lives out Christ's example in a bold, loving, and tangible way and has brought hope to many. This should not be something to be feared or ridiculed, but rather embraced and supported. Those who actually read the book, and at least have one foot in reality, will see what I'm talking about.
Terrible yet captivating.......2006-11-28
Haugen, Gary A. Terrify No More. Nashville, TN. W Publishing Group. 2005.
This riveting book by Gary A. Haugen, founder and president of the International Justice Mission(IJM), first-handedly tells the story of a mission proposed by members of IJM, to rescue child sex slaves from Savy Pak, a city in Cambodia that is infamous for its sex trafficking and sex tourism. IJM is a non-profit organization that fights for justice in a world riddled with injustice. This book is amazing as the reader is placed in the middle of the action. However, the content of the book can be extremely disturbing as one reads of the conditions and terrors that these young children face; but there is an amazing sense of hope that comes through to let the reader know that this is not a hopeless case, there is something that is being done. This book traces chronologically the path that IJM took to rescue a few of the millions of children that are trapped in the sex trade. Photos of the children and the conditions help the reader grasp reality through pictures. The book is geared towards those of the college age and older; an easy read that emphasizes the cause of justice in an unjust world. This book gave me a first hand account of the fight against sex trafficking which is what my senior thesis is discussing, I used this book as a basis to understnd more about the sex trade, and those who fight against it.
Excellent book.......2006-09-03
Excellent book! The subject matter is tough to handle at times, but I've bought this book for a few friends because it is so good.
Average customer rating:
- Great text...beware the illustrations
- Review
- Long overdue
|
Engineering Practical Rope Rescue Systems
Mike Brown
Manufacturer: Cengage Delmar Learning
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ASIN: 0766801977 |
Book Description
Beginners and advanced rescue technicians will learn from and enjoy this entertaining and educational book. A practical look at rope resuce systems from the point of view of an experienced professional, each chapter features exciting stories and real life situations. The book provides a complete look at team integrity and development issues as well as team efficiency concepts that create a superior survival profile for users. Interesting, current, and sometimes controversial topics within the rescue community are featured throughout. (Keywords: Rescue) ALSO AVAILABLE INSTRUCTOR SUPPLEMENTS CALL CUSTOMER SUPPORT TO ORDER Instructor's Manual, ISBN: 0-7668-0198-5
Customer Reviews:
Great text...beware the illustrations.......2006-04-11
First, this book is full of information. Read it twice and then keep it handy for reference... Micheal Brown clearly knows and cares a lot about rope rescue. My congratulations and thanks to him for distilling what he knows into this work.
However, I hope there's a revision in the works to correct some of the issues in the illustrations. After looking closely at the text and the illustrations, I have to advise relying only on the information in the text and not expecting the good info there to be repeated in pictorial form...
(For example, the lock-off described in figure 4-41(A) doesn't even start with the eight plate rigged correctly. And I think figure 9-21(B) is the diagram for a magic trick...there are more than 2 ends for some of those ropes...)
Review.......2005-10-24
This book has a lot of good pictures to help illustrate various points and safety practices. There is a great deal of information located in this book and would make a great addition to any resource library.
There are a couple of places where I feel the author leads one to believe that the method described in this book is the ONLY way to do something, or that a particular piece of equipment is the ONLY one that can be used in a given situation. I personally don't tend to follow those kinds of thinking, and suggest looking in several different resources before you make any hard and fast rules for yourself; and of course ALWAYS get good qualified instruction on anything you are not sure about. This book will definitely help you to become more comfortable with any practices and procedures you may be unclear on, as well as reinforce others you may be completely comfortable with.
I'm glad I own it, and I refer to it often.
Long overdue.......2001-01-03
This text is what the serious student of technical rescue has been looking for. It gives detailed technical information to help the serious rescue technician, instructor, or team member understand the "why" and not just a simple "how" to design and set up very technical systems. Mike uses his background, experience and most of all his sense of humor to bring some very old questions into focus.
Book Description
So Others May Live is the untold story of the U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer. In startlingly clear and exceptional writing, it tells twelve heroic stories of the greatest maritime rescues attempted since the program was started in 1985. These feats, told through the eyes of the hero, reveal an understanding of how and why the rescuer, with flight crew assistance, risks his or her own life to reach out to save a stranger. The book covers diverse environments: oceans, hurricanes, oil rigs, caves, sinking vessels, floods, and even Niagara Falls. It is truly a can't-put-it-down collection.
Customer Reviews:
Good story, author lacking.......2007-04-28
While I found the stories interesting, the author's style was lacking. The first two chapters dealt with why the Coast Guard has a rescue swimmer program and what led up to it. However, it gets a bit tedious at times. The author lists every person who ever had anything to do with the ups and downs of the program. Needless to say, the two chapters could have been combined into one smaller chapter. The minutia gets a bit heavy.
As for the stories, once again minutia gets in the way of the heart of the story. I don't think it's necessary to list the aircraft numbers in each story. Unless you are CG and have flown in or worked around these aircraft, it is not necessary for the story. I wold have preferred also that the author list crew positions more than once in each chapter. The constant referring to the crews by name without occasionally referring to them with crew position and name requires you at times to reread the beginning to keep up with who's who.
I applaud the heroism and dedication of the crews involved, however it seems their story gets lost in the author's quest to write a long book by filling it with unnecessary words. At times it was like the student who was told to write a 1,000 word essay and ends up with a 500 word essay and 500 words of filler.
My son's favorite book.......2007-03-11
I've read the entire book a few times to my son. He loves it. The writing style is arguably not the greatest, but the stories are wonderful and the author's pride, admiration, and sincerity shines through.
I think this could be turned into a wonderful book for boys ages 8-12. I do want to point out the risk of encouraging a career as a rescue swimmer. As a father I'd prefer something a bit less heroic.
Muddy's Coffeehouse in Eliz. City.......2006-11-23
Incredible! I am a frequent patron of Muddy Water's Coffeehouse in E. City, N.C. and I have no connection to the Coast Guard. I frequently run into these guys, mostly the kids in the swimmer training program, on Saturdays when they come in to get coffee and study their training material, or e-mail their wives and girlfriends. They are perennially polite and completely pumped up about the program. I have always had lots of interest in learning about what they do. Then came The Guardian. After seeing that, I had more respect for these swimmers than I have for any of the other "Special Forces." (I realize they are not classified as such, but perhaps they should be.) I bought the book to learn more and learn I did. It is unfathomable to me that these young men and women will take the risks they do to save others' lives, particularly when, in many of these cases, people made stupid mistakes to be out on the seas in the first place. I read the book thinking, Yeah, So Others May Live to make some more stupid mistakes another day.
As a writer myself, I thought the book was incredibly well-done. The characterization of these guys as capable, yet humble, rang so true. The story-driven chapters were gripping. I read far too late into the night too many nights in a row. Martha, you owe me some sleep. And, Swimmers, the rest of us owe you and your "teammates" nothing but the utmost respect.
A P.S. to Ms. LaGuardia-Kotite: Your epilogue on "rescuing the rescuers"
answered the burning question I had - what do these guys do with the horrors they have seen and they stress they have borne?
A history of the U.S. Coast Guard helicopter rescue swimmer.......2006-08-17
SO OTHERS MAY LIVE: SAVINGS LIVES, DEFYING DEATH WITH THE COAST GUARD'S RESCUE SWIMMERS provides a history of the U.S. Coast Guard helicopter rescue swimmer, pairing this history with twelve stories which chronicle maritime rescues. Swimmers tell these stories of perilous rescue and while SO OTHERS MAY LIVE would also qualify to be featured in our 'True Adventure' section, it's featured here for additional value as a history of Coast Guard efforts overall.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Absolutely incredible reality-driven writing!.......2006-07-24
Her description of the harrowing rescues on rooftops in New Orleans took my breath away. I've been in SAR situations where a person had to be forced to leave a sinking boat, and on law-enforcement sorties where the bad guys had guns, but, in each of those occasions, you knew exactly what to expect - things were straightforward. The deteriorating conditions in New Orleans after Katrina, gave the crew, especially the swimmers, such extraordinary unknowns. The need to adapt to such changing and challenging situations so quickly - and the sheer number of them! - was obviously devastating to both body and psyche. And, the fact that among Coast Guard personnel there were no deaths, no collisions, no serious injury, is just astounding. I'm not sure that this country really appreciates the length to which our little service went in those days following the hurricane.
Her book made it all so clear. I felt like I was hovering alongside the aircraft, totally immersed in the emotion of the moment; `didn't matter if it was over the water, or next to a cliff or in a cave. Her words took you there.
The book, and the story it tells, is nothing short of exceptional. They say you write best when you "write about what you know." Well, with the help of those amazing rescue swimmers, she obviously knew what she was writing about and took it to a level of intensity found in very few books.
Book Description
Charles Perrow is famous worldwide for his ideas about normal accidents, the notion that multiple and unexpected failures--catastrophes waiting to happen--are built into our society's complex systems. In The Next Catastrophe, he offers crucial insights into how to make us safer, proposing a bold new way of thinking about disaster preparedness.
Perrow argues that rather than laying exclusive emphasis on protecting targets, we should reduce their size to minimize damage and diminish their attractiveness to terrorists. He focuses on three causes of disaster--natural, organizational, and deliberate--and shows that our best hope lies in the deconcentration of high-risk populations, corporate power, and critical infrastructures such as electric energy, computer systems, and the chemical and food industries. Perrow reveals how the threat of catastrophe is on the rise, whether from terrorism, natural disasters, or industrial accidents. Along the way, he gives us the first comprehensive history of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security and examines why these agencies are so ill equipped to protect us.
The Next Catastrophe is a penetrating reassessment of the very real dangers we face today and what we must do to confront them. Written in a highly accessible style by a renowned systems-behavior expert, this book is essential reading for the twenty-first century. The events of September 11 and Hurricane Katrina--and the devastating human toll they wrought--were only the beginning. When the next big disaster comes, will we be ready?
Customer Reviews:
Too much politics, too little thoughtful analysis.......2007-05-17
Perrow's book, Normal Accidents, is a classic in its field. I purchased The Next Catastrophe assuming that it would be a worthy successor. Boy, was I disappointed. Instead of careful argumentation, Perrow gives political commentary, based on nothing more than his own biases and preconceived notions. Normal Accidents was marred in a few places by clear political bias, but the overall analysis of the book was so well-done that overlooking those few places was easy. This is not true of The Next Catastrophe, in which good analysis and argumentation is hard to find amidst the diatribe. If you are interested in knowing about Perrow's political views, buy this book; otherwise, do not waste your money.
Book Description
In March 2004, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security implemented the National Incident Management System (NIMS), the country's first-ever standardized approach to incident management and response. While thousands of local, state, and federal agencies have created individual plans to prepare for and respond to emergencies in the past, response agencies nationwide will need to become NIMS compliant in 2005.
National Incident Management System: Principles and Practice translates the goals of the original NIMS document from concepts into capabilities, and provides responders with a step-by-step process to understanding and implementing NIMS. Through the use of case studies, readers will gain valuable insight on how to effectively incorporate NIMS into their departments or jurisdictions. As responders are faced with the tasks of reforming training curricula and incorporating NIMS into Standard Operating Procedures, it is essential that they have a practical resource to guide them through the nation's homeland security strategies, as well as to assist them with NIMS implementation in their own locality.
Book Description
Without careful planning, organizations often do not survive major interruptions in the operation of their business. The Disaster Recovery Handbook gives readers proven processes and techniques to develop a disaster recovery plan and protect their organizations in the face of extraordinary circumstances.
Featuring a CD-ROM with templates for process and skill matrices, contact databases, risk-assessment score sheets, and more, the book gives detailed instructions for:
* Assembling a recovery team * Building an interim plan * Setting up an emergency operations center * Recovering vital records * And more.
Filled with practical solutions and immediately usable tools, The Disaster Recovery Handbook gives readers everything they need to keep their businesses running as smoothly as possible after a disaster.
Customer Reviews:
Very useful guide.......2007-06-08
As IT manager, I'm always looking for books that could help me to improve services... but this book help me to avoid or minimize the bad effects of problems qhen they take place.
The goal of the book is not to improve your process or your skills.. is to improve your protection, backup or restore systems and processes.
excellent.......2006-10-29
I recommend you to buy book from this seller because i did not have any problem buying from him.
Great Handbook. Extremely helpful for developing a DR plan........2006-01-12
I found the book extremely valuable in getting a disaster recovery plan developed. The book was very helpful in not only showing step-by-step HOW to put together our plan, but also did a great job in explaining WHY something should be in the plan. It also focused on the entire business, not just on technology as some other books on the subject do.
Not a HandBook.......2005-11-15
Don't get carried away by the title descriptions "Hand book" and "step-by-step plan". If anyone is buying this book with an intention of developing a BCP/DR plan, implementing and testing it they will be disappointed. This book only helps to get an overview of BC/DR planning. I couldn't find anything readily usable in the companion CD. It contains a bunch of documents with one page and one table in it. You wouldn't find anything important and useful such as sample BC/DR plan, emergency response procedure and flow diagram.
Easy to read and very insightfull.......2005-01-03
This book reminds me what effects an extended outage can have. I was able to find at least one item in every chapter of this book that I could easily and cheaply implement, that not only saved me money, but allowed me to better ensure my business will continue to function in the event of serious unplanned outage.
Book Description
Finally, a complete resource on shoring and stabilization of emergency scenes. This new book takes the reader step-by-step through the basic principles of emergency shoring operations so they may learn to operate in a safe and efficient atmosphere while conducting search and rescue operations in unstable environments. O'Connell thoroughly covers the engineering aspects involved in shoring and stabilization, carefully explaining how to maintain the strength and integrity of any and all structurally damaged or unstable elements such as beams, joists, girders, columns, arches, headers, or bearing walls. This book includes a glossary and covers the basic terminology and instructions for shoring.
Key Features & Benefits
Teaches safe & effective size-up techniques for shoring operations
Detailed shoring construction
Outlines the risks involved in stabilization
Suitable for all firefighters, military, and construction personnel, as well as urban search and rescue teams
Book Description
This book propounds an all-hazards, multidisciplinary approach to emergency management. It discusses the emergency manager’s role, details how to establish an effective, integrated program, and explores the components, including: assessing risk; developing strategies; planning concepts; planning techniques and methods; coordinating response; and managing crisis. Complete with case studies, this is an excellent reference for professionals involved with emergency preparedness and response.
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Books Index
Books Home
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