Tuesday, January 28, 2020

National Flood Insurance Plan: Efforts in Reducing Flood Los

National Flood Insurance Plan: Efforts in Reducing Flood Los In this report, the City of St. Petersburg has several contingency plans set to reduce the risk of flooding. First and foremost, they advise through a statement of warning. According to the St. Petersburg Florida Code of Ordinance Municode Library (section 16.40.050.1.6, 2017) states that although the Florida Building Code is considered the minimum. The city informs that larger floods are bound to happen and will. The citys ordinance code discusses that flood levels may depend on the intervention and or support of natural -vs- man-made causes. The city places emphasis on flooding outside of the zone areas is not impossible and that it could happen and not to assume that it will not. The designated flood zones are based on Global Information Systems (GIS) maps called Flood Insurance Rate Maps or (FIRM). Their requirements can be found on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) website. (FEMA), reserves the right to require city regulations to be revised as necessary as discussed in Title 44 Code of Federal Regulations, Sections 59 and 60 (St. Petersburg Florida Code of Ordinance Municode Library, 2017). According to (Adamides et al., 2016) the city code statutes of the City of St. Pete uses what is referred to as a Community Rating System or (CRS). Prior to; July 1st, 2010 NFIP CRS Section 553.73(5) of Florida Statutes are the following a) limitations on use of enclosures below buildings b) limitations on use of nonstructural and no compacted earthen fill c) limitation on installation of manufactured homes in certain flood hazard areas d) requirement to locate buildings at least 10 feet landward of the reach of mean high tide e) submission of operations and maintenance plans for dry flood proofed buildings A broad overview of the scope of the St. Petersburg Florida Code of Ordinance Municode Library states in section 16.40.050.1.2. That provisions of the section including but not limited to subdivision of land; filling, grading, and other site improvements and utility installations; construction, alteration, remodeling, enlargement, improvement, replacement, repair, relocation or demolition of buildings, structures, and facilities that are exempt from the Florida Building Code (St. Petersburg Florida Code of Ordinance Municode Library, 2017). Other methods the City of St. Petersburg educates the populous to help reduce the risk of flooding is by passing out brochures, education of students of all ages and by amending if necessary any city ordinance codes or reform bills. Further education for the citizens of the city is on a detailed web page for the City of St. Petersburg. There is an in-depth overview of flood information including educational videos found on their website. The website resources also allow the community to access maps, contacts, and educational information on Biggert-Waters act and what it is. The City of St. Petersburg also allows access to mitigation strategy plans, the National Flood Insurance Plan or (NFIP) for the city; along with a Community Rating System or (CRS). Other relevant programs in Pinellas County on flood information, Floodplain Management for the city of St. Petersburg and its ordinance can be found on their main website as well as www.fema.gov. As a last measure of prevention, the city also alerts its citizens by the use of a public warning system. (Adamides et al., 2016). In order to enforce the minimum floodplain management regulations, the City of St. Petersburg employs building codes. Section 16.40.050.1.3 of the St. Petersburg Florida Code of Ordinance Municode Library references this. The code states that its purpose is to establish minimum requirements to safeguard the public health, safety, and general welfare of its citizens. It also minimizes public and private losses due to flooding through regulation of development in flood hazard areas (St. Petersburg Florida Code of Ordinance Municode Library, 2017). The St. Petersburg Florida Code of Ordinance Municode Library, states the following: Minimize unnecessary or prolonged disruption of commerce, access, and public service during times of flooding; Require the use of appropriate practices, at the time of initial construction, in order to prevent or minimize future flood damage; Manage filling, grading, dredging, mining, paving, excavation, drilling operations, storage of equipment or materials, and other development which may increase flood damage or erosion potential; Manage the alteration of flood hazard areas, watercourses, and shorelines to minimize the impact of development on the natural and beneficial functions of the floodplain; Minimize damage to public and private facilities and utilities such as water and gas mains, electric, telephone and sewer lines, streets and bridges located in floodplains; Help maintain a stable tax base by providing for the sound use and development of flood hazard areas in such a manner as to minimize future flood blight areas; Minimize the need for future expenditure of public funds for flood control projects and response to and recovery from flood events; Meet the requirements of the National Flood Insurance Program for community participation as set forth in the Title 44 Code of Federal Regulations, section 59.22; Protect human life and health; Minimize the need for rescue and relief efforts associated with flooding and generally undertaken at the expense of the general public; Ensure that property owners are notified yearly the property is in a flood-prone area; Restrict or prohibit uses which are dangerous to health, safety, and property due to water or erosion hazards or which result in damaging increases in erosion or in flood heights or velocities; and Prevent or regulate the construction of flood barriers which will unnaturally divert floodwaters or which may increase flood hazards to other lands. So what is flood insurance the Biggert-Waters act? According to Harrington a journalist with the Tampa bay Times, it is a Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, which removed the subsidies on about 20 percent of policies nationwide for homes that were built prior to 1975 (Harrington, 2016). Harrington writes that Congress after considering the damages that accrued after Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy they needed to make the NFIP meet yearly criteria. Congress found that after the storms the program was more than $23 billion in debt due to claims in those years. Another drawback of the Flood Insurance Reform was that some of its recipients were grandfathered in at low flood insurance rates (Harrington, 2016). Harrington writes that Florida of all the other states was the most affected by the new reforms. In 2014 in hopes of improving the Flood Insurance Reform Act, Congress decided due to the losses to revise the cost of insurance. This act created a 20% hike in insurance rates. In consideration to the homeowners, the new rates would not be in play until 2016 and the homeowners were allowed extra time to prepare for the rates to go up. This ended with renewals beginning April 1st, 2016. Previously mentioned, GIS maps or FIRMS were drawn up to show Floodplain Zones. They were designated with letters such as A, B, C, V, and X. Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHAs) or high-risk areas are designated with A and V; whereas low-risk zones are everything else. They are known as Non-Special Flood Hazard Areas (NSFHAs) (Harrington, 2016). Harrington notes that more than 50% of Floridas 2 million insurance policies are zones designated in the X area. Collected data over the past decades reflects a great deal on the City of St. Petersburg. The NFIP was able to project a 100-year plan. This plan shows coastal flooding inland as far as 10 miles in some areas where others are only a few (Boland, 2017). According to the significant flood events data on FEMA.gov Superstorm Sandy, on the other hand in October of 2012 paid 131,031 losses in policies with an estimated $8,494,205,096 in damages with an average loss payment of $65,00 Granted Superstorm Sandy minutely affected Florida and the City of St. Petersburg it still did its fair share of damages. Tropical Storm Debbie who sat on the coast of Florida in June of 2012, did do a great deal of damage. One thousand seven hundred and ninety-two policies were affected, with $42,694,074 in total damages paid out. Each with an average amount of payment at $24,000 (Significant Flood Events | FEMA.gov, 2017). It is with this type of data that the City of St. Petersburg is able to compile projections of future disasters. According to the Repetitive Loss Area Analysis, Shore Acres represents a repetitive loss area within St. Petersburg which attribute to over 200 affected flood policies. Shore Acres alone attributed to $13.7 million in losses that were paid out. Before development in 1923 Shore Acres was designated as costal marshlands. It was later developed in the mid-1950s with land varying from 5 to 6 feet above sea-level (Shore Acres Repetitive Loss Area Analysis, 2016). The Repetitive Loss Area Analysis states that Shore Acres along with Belleair Shores and Clearwater Beach attribute to 21.95% of the State of Floridas pay out. The three totaled $67,976,750.33 in damages alone. These high loss areas in Pinellas County are considered Hot Spots for the county and are targeted areas for future mitigation programs (Shore Acres Repetitive Loss Area Analysis, 2016). Bibliography References Cited Adamides, D., Dunn CBO CFM, R., Frey PE, C., Holehouse CPCU, J., Kinsey, L., Seeks, A. et al. (2016). CITY OF ST PETERSBURG NFIP PROGRAM FOR PUBLIC INFORMATION REPORT (1st ed.). Saint Petersburg: St. Petersburg City Council. https://www.stpete.org/emergency/flooding/docs/NFIP-CRS%20PPI%202016%20Report.pdf Taylor CFM, N. (2017). Flooding St. Petersburg. Stpete.org. http://www.stpete.org/emergency/flooding/ Significant Flood Events | FEMA.gov. (2017). Fema.gov. https://www.fema.gov/significant-flood-events NFIP Policy Growth Percentage Change. (2017) (1st ed., pp. 1-3). Retrieved from Significant Flood Events | FEMA.gov. (2017). Fema.gov. https://www.fema.gov/significant-flood-events http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/realestate/even-with-shore-acres-st-petersburg-paid-8-times-more-into-flood-insurance/2150628 Shore Acres Repetitive Loss Area Analysis. (2016) (1st ed.). City of St. Petersburg. https://www.stpete.org/emergency/flooding/docs/Shore%20Acres%20RLAA%20-%202016.pdf Boland, C. (2017). FEMA NFIP 100 Year Flood Zones in St. Petersburg. Arcgis.com. https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=489ebde40c834cf8b90a197b5cdc4d56 Harrington, J. (2016). Remember the flood insurance scare of 2013? Its creeping back into Tampa Bay and Florida. Tampa Bay Times. http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/banking/remember-the-flood-insurance-scare-of-2013-its-creeping-back-into-tampa/2288308 Federal Emergency Management Agency, (2013). Analysis of Floridas NFIP Repetitive Loss Properties using geospatial tools and field verification data (pp. 19, 25, and 26). Pinellas County: FEMA. https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/20130726-1711-25045- 7431/analysis_of_florida_s_nfip_repetitive_loss_properties_using_geospatial_tools_and_field_verrification_data.txt St. Petersburg Florida Code of Ordinance Municode Library. (2017). Municode.com. https://www.municode.com/library/fl/st._petersburg/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIISTPECO_CH16LADERE_S16.40.050FLMA_16.40.050.1.3INPU

Monday, January 20, 2020

Evolution and Darwin Essays -- Fittest Science Religion Competition Es

Evolution and Darwin In a society based on survival of the fittest, adaptation and evolution are the keys to success. If there is a hurdle that a species cannot conquer as it is, it will then do everything it must to overcome it, even if that means change. Throughout time, evolution has helped us to thrive in the toughest of times. The human species is at the top of its class, overthrown by no other, but what happens when a species begins to encounter hurdles within its own society? Can the human species overthrow itself, making a new kind of human? (Bear 195) Did Charles Darwin leave out the last piece of the puzzle? If adaptation and evolution are inevitable when faced with a problem, then the demise of our species as we know it and the birth of a newer, better model is inevitable as well. In Greg Bears, Darwins Radio, our society has become so consumed with competition that evolution is beginning to occur, the only problem is that at a first glance, this adaptation appears to be the outbreak of a viru s, one that will wipe out the entire population. Few McCandless 2 believe in the truth, but with such a small number, can they possibly help the government to see the truth before it wipes out an entire population faster than Mother Nature can create it? Set in a time and place very similar to our own, it is very easy to note the similarities. The values and beliefs and trends in society in this story were so closely related to today that it felt as if I were reading non-fictional material. We pride ourselves on the fact that we live in a free country. We are allowed, encouraged even, to think and believe freely. Some people choose to believe in religion, others in science, and some in both. Many times, those who believe i... ...? Are we as a species really so confident in ourselves that we think there is no way to better our performance against Lifes hurdles? There is always room for improvement and in a world filled with constant stress and competition we have no choice but to improve. Everyone hates it, but we have to compete or we end up out on the streets. (Bear 245) What better way to keep up with the competition than to mutate into a stronger species? If a creature is thrown into an environment it will adapt, if it doesnt, it will surely fail. Maybe Charles Darwin was on the right track when he created the theory of evolution, but the last (Or should I say the next?) piece of the puzzle has not yet been fitted in. All theories leave room for improvement and addition, and his is no exception to the rule. Works Cited Bear, Greg. Darwins Radio. New York: Ballantine Books, 1999.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Literary Criticism of Atonement from Psychological Trauma View

In seventeen century, â€Å"† was a Greek word which means â€Å"wound†. Later, Sigmund Freud in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries used it to describe a kind of mental damage that occurs as a result of distressing and disturbing events or experiences. When a person is facing such highly stressful events analyzing and coping with it is not an easy process. In this paper we consider the topic of psychological trauma in Atonement by Ian McEwan, defining first of all the concept and then studying its processes of formation and effects on the main character, Briony Tallis. According to Pearlman and Saakvitne, psychological trauma is an event which is a special experience of a person that needs to be confronted. As a matter of fact, â€Å"The individual's ability to integrate his/her emotional experience is overwhelmed, or the individual's experiences (subjectively) a threat to life, bodily integrity, or sanity† (p.60). Also, Jon Allen, a psychologist, in his A Guide to Self-Understanding (1995) said that: â€Å"It is the subjective experience of the objective events that constitutes the trauma†¦The more you believe you are endangered, the more traumatized you will be. [†¦] Psychologically, the bottom line of trauma is overwhelming emotion and a feeling of utter helplessness. There may or may not be bodily injury, but psychological trauma is coupled with physiological upheaval that plays a leading role in the long-range effects† (p.14). Psychologists categorized trauma into two groups: physical trauma based on serious physical damages or shocks to the body from war, physical injury, sexual abuse, illness, torture, rape, and genocide; emotional or psychological trauma is based on the inability to recover the full mental capacities of an individual, either in his personal or social life or any emotional shock or injury that cause a sentimental damage to spirit health. It can range from depression, anxiety, different kinds of phobias to post traumatic stress disorder. Therefore, trauma is among those things that happen in everyday life which a person can experience by itself or witness of serious injuries, violence even death, putting the individual into a terrible situation followed by fear, helplessness or horror. In fact, trauma is not the event itself but the effect that has on the person like, Brioney's belief about the event that happen in fountain. Atonement is a metafiction novel written by Ian Russell McEwan in 2001. Its events occurred in three different periods of time: firstly, in 1935 in England at Tallis family's building, secondly during World War II in England and France, thirdly nowadays in England. The story tells about a huge mistake that an upper-class girl committed as a teenager that led to destroy lives. This thirteen years' girl had a big imagination as a young writer. As an adult she always wanted to confess that event but this process did not happen until she completed her novel as an aged author, at last, in England. That mistake influenced on her life and also her style of writing until her novel ended with a kind of imaginary situation that gave her a chance to make up for her mistake. Ian McEwan was born in 1948 in England. His father was an alcohol addict and had spousal abuse toward his mother and the most interesting things about his life, is that Ian's mother suffered from vascular dementia, the same disease that Brioney Tallis – the heroine of Atonement – also suffered from. To start with the novel â€Å"Atonement†, events began with a kind of misunderstanding that occurred for Brioney. Her sister, Cecilia, came to fountain while Robbie, their servant's boy, was watching her almost bare body. Her sister looks ashamed and wear her clothes in front of him. Brioney was in her puberty age and didn't know about sexual relationship as well, so she thought that if he is watching Cecilia in that situation, there must be something wrong about his behavior. She could not cope with this event and her mind was busy with it during that day. On the other hand, somewhere Brioney was telling her memory about his love experience to her friend. We could realize that she loved Robbie as a child while she did not know about sexual relationship and her love was pure. She threw herself into a deep river to see Robbie's reaction and measure his feeling toward herself. It is almost clear that she was jealous of Cecilia and when she understands that Robbie tends to her sister, this makes her idea stronger about Robbie and his sexual problem. Brioney was under a pressure of event in the fountain which another event happened. Robbie gives Brioney a letter to render her sister which was containing sexual words about Cecilia's body. She reads that letter without permission before give it to her sister and it causes to be sure about her belief. She could not cope with it and talks about it with her cousin, Lola, they found Robbie as a sex maniac and decides to protect Cecilia against him. At night, Brioney saw Cecilia and Robbie in the library in the middle of their sexual affair that made a great shock for her. She thought that they committed a huge mistake that she never could realize it so her behavior against Robbie changed, became aggressive, and started to hate him. During dinner the family realized that the twin cousins are gone so all of them went to the woods to find them. In the woods, Brioney saw a rape against Lola under a flashlight in her hands. For the second time she experienced a huge shock in one night and these stressful and disturbing chain of events made her nervous and caused that she connected all of her experiences with each other without thinking and saw Robbie as a sex offender. It was obvious that Brioney did not experience a rape and were just a witness but this subject caused a great fear and shock for a teenager in her age of puberty so she could not have recognized and distinguished true situations. This psychological trauma was a reason which she could not able to think carefully about what she saw and her mind automatically omitted a part of her observation. She professed that Robbie was the person who act that rape and caused his detection. By continuing the novel, it become clear that as Brioney grows up, her mind is busy about past events and doubt her witness. She becomes a nurse during the war to reduces her sense of sin and when suddenly see a news about the engagement between Lola and Paul Marshal, who came to their house with her brother in the year that those events happened, her mind becomes active and she tries to remember the exact things which occurred those days. At last, after passing about five years from her fearful experience, she could recall her memories in peaceful situation and remembers the face of person who act rape, it was Paul Marshal. She wants to make up her mistake and withdraw her testimony but it was too late for Robbie and Cecilia because both died in the war so she uses her talent in writing a novel as a means of confessing. Brioney experienced a psychological trauma during her young ages of her life that made an irreparable mental damages for her whole life. Therefore by seeing the effects of psychological trauma in the all aspect of main character's life, can be concluded that trauma can puts serious effects on individual's mental and physical health that accompanies an individual for his/her entire life.Citation:McEwan, Ian. Atonement. Random House, 2005.Ellam, Julie. Ian McEwan's Atonement. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2009.Pitt, Daniela. The representation of trauma in Ian McEwan's novels† Atonement† and† Saturday†. Diss. 2010.†What Is Psychological Trauma?† Sidran.org, www.sidran.org/resources/for-survivors-and-loved-ones/what-is-psychological-trauma/. â€Å"what is trauma?† https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/11559_Chapter_1.pdf†Emotional and Psychological Trauma.† Emotional and Psychological Trauma: Healing from Trauma and Moving On, www.helpguide.org/articles/ptsd-trauma/coping-with-emotional-and-psychological-trauma.htm.

Friday, January 3, 2020

Understanding The Experience Of Dominican American Women...

Breast cancer is most common cancer among women. Any woman can get it despite not having family history of breast cancer. It is important to study cancer to fully capture the mystery that is cancer. The journal â€Å"Understanding the Experience of Dominican American Women Living With Late-Stage Breast Cancer: A Qualitative Study† gives us a look inside what a cancer patient goes through. This research was conducted to get an inside perspective of how Dominican woman live with late-stage cancer. It is one of the few studies to concentrate on Hispanic women. An illness such as cancer has a tremendous impact on a person. The researchers found six applicants than qualified for the study through an outpatient cancer outreach center in New York City. Their criteria were the following: 21 years and older; born in the US; spoke fluent English; diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer; receiving adjuvant therapy; and lived in New York City area. This study asked the question, how Dominican women handle living with late-stage cancer. The researches at Columbia University School of Nursing used Giorgi’s existential phenomenological framework. This review looked at the participant’s narrative, beliefs, and overall view. They used the following five steps to conduct the research: hear the recordings of the individual narratives; locate common themes among their description; group themes together to find big picture; define the experience the women face; give a description and structuredShow MoreRelatedOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. 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