JustinColeGIS.bsky.social
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justincolegis.bsky.social
JustinColeGIS.bsky.social
@justincolegis.bsky.social
820 followers 1K following 38 posts
I am a GIS professional and teacher of GIS. I focus on environmental modeling, remote sensing, LiDAR, and GIS. Also currently working on my PhD in Computing Information Sciences with a focus on HCI and Emergency Management.
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Reposted by JustinColeGIS.bsky.social
profjohndrury.bsky.social
Disaster Mythology and Fact: Hurricane Katrina and Social Attachment

journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Disaster Mythology and Fact: Hurricane Katrina and Social Attachment - Binu Jacob, Anthony R. Mawson, Payton Marinelle, John C. Guignard, 2008
Misconceptions about disasters and their social and health consequences remain prevalent despite considerable research evidence to the contrary. Eight such myth...
journals.sagepub.com
August 23, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Reposted by JustinColeGIS.bsky.social
wisconsam.bsky.social
One of the reasons FEMA's Katrina response was so disorganized was that they'd recently been reorganized when the federal government created DHS after 9/11. Experts are saying a similar brain drain is happening now
In 2003, FEMA was absorbed into the Department of Homeland Security, which was created in the aftermath of 9/11. This change was part of a large-scale reorganization of the federal government to focus on terrorism. FEMA was still reeling from that reorganization when Katrina made landfall, said Sarah DeYoung, a professor at the University of Delaware’s disaster research center. “Many disaster scientists and experts agree that putting FEMA under the Department of Homeland Security, under their umbrella, rather than its own cabinet, with direct access to the president in terms of expertise and communication, is one of the reasons why Hurricane Katrina ended up being managed so poorly,” DeYoung said. Montano said that the reorganization in 2003 led to a brain drain of talented, expert staff from FEMA, which she sees echoed in the current climate at the agency. Reports suggest that FEMA has lost about a quarter of its full-time staff, including senior leadership like the head of FEMA’s storm response center, who submitted his resignation June 11. “The loss of that expertise within FEMA is something that you can’t rebuild quickly, and if you don’t have it in a response, things can go sideways very fast,” she said. Back in 2003, before Katrina, FEMA’s director Michael Brown wrote that the post-9/11 reorganization would lead to “an ineffective and uncoordinated response” during disasters. Brown resigned, disgraced, two weeks after Katrina’s landfall.
June 20, 2025 at 6:52 PM
justincolegis.bsky.social
Thanks, I am studying Human Computer Interactions (HCI), and right now my research group is focused on internet collaboration tools within Emergency Management.
June 18, 2025 at 1:46 AM
justincolegis.bsky.social
If I find out, I will let you know. Thanks
June 18, 2025 at 1:44 AM
justincolegis.bsky.social
I struggle with this, and I think it is impacting my thinking on how to collaborate. I also think part is that I became so self-reliant because I had limited support professionally. I was everyone else’s support, but when I asked for help, I got very little.
2/2
June 18, 2025 at 12:51 AM
Reposted by JustinColeGIS.bsky.social
kylewalker.bsky.social
In the meantime, NHGIS (https://www.nhgis.org/) has much of the data you'll need, and will remain functional. NHGIS has the latest ACS data and Census data back to 1790 along with Census boundary files.

You can support NHGIS here: makingagift.umn.edu/...
February 4, 2025 at 2:59 AM