What We Are Reading Today: Agents of Change
Christina Hillsberg's 'Agents of Change' deftly tackles not just the fight for gender equality at the Cia, but the current dilemma the agency faces when dealing with the culmination of a decades-long culture of sexual harassment and assault.
In the book, Hillsberg pays a long overdue tribute to the survivors and thrivers, the indispensable groundbreakers, and defiant rabble-rousers who made the choice to change their lives and in turn, changed history.
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Al Arabiya
13 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Fema removed dozens of camp mystic buildings from 100-year flood map before expansion, records show
Federal regulators repeatedly granted appeals to remove Camp Mystic's buildings from their 100-year flood map, loosening oversight as the camp operated and expanded in a dangerous flood plain in the years before rushing waters swept away children and counselors, a review by The Associated Press found. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) included the prestigious girls' summer camp in a Special Flood Hazard Area in its National Flood Insurance map for Kerr County in 2011, which means it was required to have flood insurance and faced tighter regulation on any future construction projects. That designation means an area is likely to be inundated during a 100-year flood – one severe enough that it only has a 1 percent chance of happening in any given year. Located in a low-lying area along the Guadalupe River in a region known as 'flash flood alley,' Camp Mystic lost at least 27 campers and counselors and longtime owner Dick Eastland when historic floodwaters tore through its property before dawn on July 4. The flood was far more severe than the 100-year event envisioned by FEMA, experts said, and moved so quickly in the middle of the night that it caught many off guard in a county that lacked a warning system. But Syracuse University associate professor Sarah Pralle, who has extensively studied FEMA's flood map determinations, said it was particularly disturbing that a camp in charge of the safety of so many young people would receive exemptions from basic flood regulation. 'It's a mystery to me why they weren't taking proactive steps to move structures away from the risk, let alone challenging what seems like a very reasonable map that shows these structures were in the 100-year flood zone,' she said. Camp Mystic didn't respond to emails seeking comment, and calls to it rang unanswered. The camp has called the flood an 'unimaginable tragedy' and added in a statement Thursday that it had restored power for the purpose of communicating with its supporters. FEMA exempted buildings at old and new sites. In response to an appeal, FEMA in 2013 amended the county's flood map to remove 15 of the camp's buildings from the hazard area. Records show that those buildings were part of the 99-year-old Camp Mystic Guadalupe, which was devastated by last week's flood. After further appeals, FEMA removed 15 more Camp Mystic structures in 2019 and 2020 from the designation. Those buildings were located on nearby Camp Mystic Cypress Lake, a sister site that opened to campers in 2020 as part of a major expansion and suffered less damage in the flood. Campers have said the cabins at Cypress Lake withstood significant damage, but those nicknamed 'the flats' at the Guadalupe River camp were inundated. Experts say Camp Mystic's requests to amend the FEMA map could have been an attempt to avoid the requirement to carry flood insurance, to lower the camp's insurance premiums, or to pave the way for renovating or adding new structures under less costly regulations. Pralle said the appeals were not surprising because communities and property owners have used them successfully to shield specific properties from regulation. Analysis shows flood risks at both camp sites. Regardless of FEMA's determinations, the risk was obvious. At least 12 structures at Camp Mystic Guadalupe were fully within FEMA's 100-year flood plain, and a few more were partially in that zone, according to an AP analysis of data provided by First Street, a data science company that specializes in modeling climate risk. Jeremy Porter, the head of climate implications at First Street, said FEMA's flood insurance map underestimates flood risks. That's because it fails to take into account the effects of heavy precipitation on smaller waterways such as streams and creeks. First Street's model puts nearly all of Camp Mystic Guadalupe at risk during a 100-year flood. The buildings at the newer Cypress Lake site are farther from the south fork of the flood-prone river but adjacent to Cypress Creek. FEMA's flood plain doesn't consider the small waterway a risk. However, First Street's model, which takes into account heavy rain and runoff reaching the creek, shows that the majority of the Cypress Lake site lies within an area that has a 1 percent chance of flooding in any given year. In a statement, FEMA downplayed the significance of the flood map amendments. 'Flood maps are snapshots in time designed to show minimum standards for floodplain management and the highest risk areas for flood insurance,' the agency wrote. 'They are not predictions of where it will flood, and they don't show where it has flooded before.' An arduous appeal process can help property owners. Property owners challenging FEMA's map designations hire engineers to conduct detailed studies to show where they believe the 100-year flood plain should actually be drawn. 'That is a pretty arduous process that can lead to more accurate maps while making it easier for future construction,' said Chris Steubing, executive director of the Texas Floodplain Management Association, an industry group that represents floodplain managers. Pralle, who reviewed the amendments for AP, noted that some of the exempted properties were within 2 feet (0.6 meters) of FEMA's flood plain by the camp's revised calculations, which she said left almost no margin for error. She said her research shows that FEMA approves about 90 percent of map amendment requests, and the process may favor the wealthy and well-connected. A study she published in 2021 with researcher Devin Lea analyzed more than 20,000 buildings that had been removed from FEMA flood maps. It found that the amendments occurred more often in places where property values were higher, more white people lived, and buildings were newer. Camp expanded after tremendous success. FEMA had cautioned in its amendments that other parts of Camp Mystic remained on the flood map and that any future construction or substantial improvement would be subject to flood plain management regulations. County officials not only allowed the camp to keep operating but to dramatically expand. Considered Texas royalty after decades of taking care of the daughters of elite families, Camp Mystic owners Dick and Tweety Eastland cited the 'tremendous success' of their original camp in explaining the need for a second site nearby. The expansion included new cabins and a dining hall, chapel, archery range, and more. The camp had 557 campers and more than 100 staffers between its two locations when a state licensing agency conducted an inspection on July 2, two days before the tragedy, records show. FEMA referred questions about the expansion to local officials, who didn't reply to messages seeking comment. Steubing, a longtime municipal engineer in Texas, said the rain and flooding that hit Kerr County in a matter of hours were so much more intense than anything in its history that it's hard to call the flood plain management a failure. Local officials likely believed they were following existing regulations when they allowed the camp to keep growing, but then Mother Nature set a new standard, he said. 'You could have built things 2 feet (0.6 meters) higher, 3 feet (0.9 meters) higher, and they still might have gotten taken down,' he said.
Al Arabiya
20 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Could this hawaii community be the next lahaina? Some residents fear a similar wildfire fate
WAIANAE, Hawaii (AP) – When there's enough rain, the mountain-framed expanse of vacant land behind Calvin Endo's house looks like the lush and verdant landscape that makes tropical Hawaii famous. But in the summer, when the jungle of eyeball-high invasive grasses and spindly tree branches fade to brown, he fears it could become a fiery hellscape. This isn't Maui, where most of Lahaina burned down during a massive wildfire in August 2023. Endo's duplex is in Waianae, on the west side of Oahu. But Waianae and Lahaina have a lot in common. They're both situated on parched western island coasts with road access pinched by topography and are bastions of Native Hawaiian culture. Both have sections crisscrossed by overhead power lines atop aging wooden poles like those that fell in high winds and caused the Lahaina fire. There's even a Lahaina Street through the heart of Makaha, Endo's neighborhood along the Waianae coast. 'It can happen to us,' said Endo, who moved to the Makaha Meadows subdivision in 1980 soon after it was built. 'We can have a repeat of Lahaina if somebody doesn't do anything about the brush in the back.' In recent days, two wildfires a few miles away–including a July 6 blaze that left a 94-year-old woman dead–proved his worst fears could become reality. It's been nearly two years since Lahaina provided a worst-case scenario of the destruction from wind-whipped flames fueled by overgrown brush. With 102 deaths, it's the deadliest US wildfire in a century. In the months afterward, the number of Hawaii communities participating in the Firewise network–a nationally recognized program that helps communities with resources for safeguarding homes–more than doubled to 35–but none in western Oahu. Even though Waianae residents have long known about their wildfire risks, only now is one of its neighborhoods close to gaining Firewise status. Communities become Firewise by organizing a committee, creating a hazard assessment, developing an action plan, and volunteering hours toward reducing risk, such as removing overgrown brush. Firewise tracks a community's progress, connects residents with experts, and provides ideas and funding for mitigation workshops and training. The US Department of Agriculture Forest Service considers Lahaina and Waianae to be at much higher risk than other US communities for a wildland fire, noted Honolulu Fire Department Battalion Chief Keith Ito. 'The weather, the winds–they're pretty much identical,' he said. 'With all that being said, I think that the high-risk wildfire potential is a state-wide problem, not really specific to Waianae or Lahaina.' Nani Barretto, co-director of the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, struggles to understand why fire-prone communities like Waianae have yet to join the Firewise movement. There are also no Firewise communities on the island of Kauai. 'Just because we are proactive in getting the word out, it doesn't mean the right people are getting the information,' she said. 'For Maui, it took a very devastating event for them to join.' Organizing a community can be challenging because it requires residents to put in time and step up as leaders, she said. Endo, who is a longtime member of the Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board, had never even heard of Firewise until recently. A development called Sea Country near the neighborhood that was recently ordered to evacuate during a wildfire is close to becoming the fist Firewise community in Waianae, said Andria Tupola, a resident who also represents the coast on the Honolulu City Council. The process got underway around 2018 but picked up momentum after Lahaina, she said. Sea Country recently completed a hazard assessment and has planned some mitigation events including a park cleanup in August, said Ashley Bare, the Firewise support specialist for Oahu. Lahaina also provided the spark for opening an emergency access route in Waianae, Tupola said. Farrington Highway, the main artery along the coast, can get clogged with just an accident. Military officials who control a mountain pass above Waianae started talking about letting civilians access the route after Lahaina, she said. During the July 6 fire, state and military officials were ready to open the road as a way out of the coast and into central Oahu, said state Rep. Darius Kila, who represents the area. A Hawaiian homestead community in Waianae's Nanakuli Valley is also trying to achieve Firewise status, said Diamond Badajos, spokesperson for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. Home to the largest concentration of Native Hawaiians, Waianae is rich in Hawaiian culture and history. But much of the coast also struggles with poverty and homelessness. Residents have grown accustomed to wildfires in the dry summer months, said Republican state Rep. Chris Muraoka: 'It's almost like if it doesn't burn, something's not right.' However, Muraoka said he thinks communities along the coast would benefit more from fire-prevention and safety education in schools rather than organizing to be Firewise. Muraoka, who lives in Makaha, said communities in Waianae have unique needs that being Firewise might not address, including sections with neighborhoods that are more spread out than in Lahaina and blazes that are often started by arsonists or kids playing with fire. Some residents already do what they can, especially with the dry season underway. Endo often tries to clear brush on private property behind his home himself to create a firebreak. Some properties in Waianae Valley use sheep to eat the overgrown vegetation. Retired firefighter Shermaih Bulla Iaea recalls fighting blazes in the brush near Endo's home and Makaha Elementary School. In 2018, his farm burned down during high winds from a passing hurricane. He was using a herd of sheep on his property until wild dogs killed them in April. Neighborhoods banding together to become Firewise is another tool that will help, he said. 'There's a 100 percent chance that will happen here,' he said. 'I thought it would never happen to me. Now I'm trying to ring the bells. I'm trying to sound the alarm.' Being one of the poorest communities in the state is a major factor preventing Waianae from becoming Firewise, said Kila, who lives near where the July 6 fire happened. Before the summer, the Democratic lawmaker sent a letter to Hawaiian Electric and telecom companies urging immediate and coordinated action to address dangerous sagging utility lines on aging wooden poles along the coast. It's not clear why Makaha ended up with a long street named Lahaina, which can mean 'relentless sun' in Hawaiian. But like the west Maui town, it fits the sunny west Oahu neighborhood, which is home to the world-famous Makaha surfing beach. Some neighborhoods above Lahaina Street are newer and have underground utilities like Endo's. But toward the ocean, older neighborhoods are laced by overhead power lines. That worries Glen Kila, a Hawaiian cultural practitioner in Waianae who is not related to Darius Kila. Power lines are blamed for sparking the Lahaina blaze. 'If that happens to Waianae,' he said, 'we're done.'
Arab News
3 days ago
- Arab News
31 workers have been safely removed after part of an industrial tunnel in LA collapsed
LOS ANGELES: Thirty-one workers have been safely removed from an industrial tunnel under construction in Los Angeles after part of it collapsed on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. The collapse occurred 5 to 6 miles (8 to 9.7 kilometers) from the tunnel's sole entrance in an industrial section of the city. Aerial footage from local television showed workers being lifted up through the tunnel's entrance. Some workers on the other side of the collapsed portion of the tunnel scrambled over a 12 to 15-foot-tall (19.3 to 24.1-meter-tall) mound of loose soil and reached several coworkers on the other side. The workers were then shuttled several at a time by tunnel vehicle to the opening. Paramedics were evaluating 27 of the workers removed from the tunnel. The tunnel is under construction to eventually carry wastewater. It's 18 feet (5.5 meters) wide, LAFD said. More than 100 LAFD workers were assigned to the scene, including those who specialize in rescues from confined spaces.
