Number 31, December 2001

Correspondence

We encourage your correspondence, and although we cannot print all that we receive, we will include at least one short, perhaps edited, letter per issue.

Dear WeatherZine,

Re: “Vulnerability and Risk Assessment: A contribution of the Weather Research Community in Developing an Effective Response to Terrorism”

Your editorial in the October 2001 issue of WeatherZine raises some very good points. However, it is important that we not invent another stove-piped capability but rather work toward a true all-source/all-hazard disaster information system. The Western Disaster Center is actively supporting this concept through the development of a US Disaster Information Network.

Building upon the 1997 Disaster Information Task Force Report and the 1998 NRC report Reducing Disaster Losses Through Better Information, Presidential Executive Order 13151 has already defined a workable federal policy to use information technology more effectively to coordinate the collection and dissemination of information to appropriate response agencies and state governments to better mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from natural and man-made disasters.

NOAA is the federal coordinating agency for establishing the National Hazards Information Strategy (NHIS). NHIS is an interagency effort to support the application of information and data critical to reducing losses of property and lives from disasters.

Let’s not reinvent the wheel as a result of the events of September 11 but rather let’s get on with the development of a true all-source/all-hazard National Hazards Information Strategy.

Richard H. Davies
Executive Director
Western Disaster Center
davies@WesternDisasterCenter.org

Dear WeatherZine,

Re: "Ka-ching!! Dealing with Financial Conflicts of Interest"

My prime competitor in state contracts here in the upper Midwest is a company owned by a university professor. The interesting thing about your article is that the professor uses university students and software and receives federal money. It is tough for me to say that the situation is completely wrong. However, I think there may be a tendency to have allegiance to the fatter wallet that could be either the grant money or the private client.

I think partnerships are useful. Private companies, even some pretty big ones, view R&D as a huge waste of money and focus on the user interface. On the other hand, the university community may not have the marketing skills and contact with potential users to realize some financial payback for the research dollars spent.

What is an appropriate balance? The answer is not clear to me. What is clear is that the private and public sectors do not work together enough. I think the greatest societal benefit would result from increased cooperation. Certainly cooperation cannot be legislated. I'd like to see the American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association take a gutsy ethical stand on private-public conflicts of interest, but professional ethics seems to be an issue on the back burner.

Chris S. Orr
Certified Consulting Meteorologist
Rapid Weather
weather@rushmore.com