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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is conducting a full technical investigation into what caused the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South Condominium in Surfside, Florida on June 24.
NIST is currently focused on collecting evidence to support its full investigation, so they are gathering samples of building materials and local soil. NIST experts have also visited the Champlain Towers North condominium to gain a better understanding of the Champlain Towers South building, which had a similar design and construction.
Ongoing search-and-rescue operations are still the highest priority. NIST is working alongside search-and-rescue teams at the site, using non-invasive remote sensing methods for its evidence collection, with the help of technology. These include daily digital captures of the debris pile using lidar scans, time-lapse camera recordings, and drones carrying cameras over the site to help with geotagging of evidence.
The National Construction Safety Teams (NCST) Act of 2002 authorizes NIST to investigate failure of any building that resulted in substantial loss of life or posed significant potential for doing so. Under the NCST Act, NIST is tasked with the responsibility to dispatch teams of experts, where appropriate and practical, within 48 hours after major building disasters.
NIST is now in the process of putting together the National Construction Safety Team that will lead the full technical investigation. The investigation could take years. Once completed, it will hopefully lead to recommendations to improve building codes, standards or practices that could prevent a tragedy like this from happening in the future.
To provide updates to the public, NIST has created a landing page for the Champlain Towers South Collapse on its website. You can visit this page for any future updates on NIST’s technical investigation.
(Source: NIST)
Last year saw an especially intense wildfire season, and this year is proving to be just as intense, with hotter, drier weather in the Western and Southwestern United States fueling larger and more frequent wildland fires. While the wildfires themselves are predominantly impacting the West and Southwest, smoke from these wildfires is spanning a much bigger area, significantly impacting air quality across the entire U.S.
The current spread of wildfire smoke across the United States highlights how important it is to have up-to-date information on air quality hazards. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Forest Service have just released updates to the popular AirNow Fire and Smoke Map, which provides near-real-time information to enhance awareness of air quality hazards from wildfire smoke. The updates will make this important information more accessible and actionable for users.
EPA and the Forest Service launched the Fire and Smoke Map as a pilot in 2020 to provide the public information on fire locations, smoke plumes and air quality all in one place. The map quickly became a key wildfire smoke information source for the public, with more than 7.4 million views in the map’s first three months.
The updated Fire and Smoke Map now includes a dashboard that map users will see by clicking on a monitor or sensor. The dashboard gives users quick access to key information that can help them plan their activities: the current Air Quality Index (AQI) category at the monitor/sensor location; information showing whether air quality is getting better or worse; and information about actions to consider taking, based on the current AQI.
The updated Fire and Smoke Map also is more mobile-friendly for people who visit AirNow.gov from a smartphone or tablet. The map will be available as part of the AirNow app in app stores in the coming weeks.
You can check out the updated AirNow Fire and Smoke Map at the EPA’s AirNow.gov website.
(Source: EPA)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is hosting a webinar designed to help participants develop an understanding of violent extremist recruitment tactics and explore ways to prevent such threats at the local level.
The goal of this Community Awareness Briefing (CAB) presentation is to raise awareness as to how violent extremist movements recruit individuals to commit violent or illegal acts, negatively impacting these individuals, their families, and their communities. This helps audience members begin to think about possible actions to intervene in a person’s radicalization before the line of criminal activity is crossed.
The goal is accomplished by using a series of case studies covering the spectrum of violent extremist groups to illustrate the radicalization and recruitment process, but more importantly to identify vulnerabilities and points of intervention.
Community Awareness Briefings are part of an outreach program from DHS’s Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3), which replaced the former DHS Office for Targeted Violence and Terrorism in May 2021. CP3 helps build local prevention frameworks that provide communities with the tools they need to combat terrorism and targeted violence.
This webinar will take place on Thursday, August 12, 2021, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. EST. To register for this webinar, visit the Department of Homeland Security’s webinar registration page.
(Source: DHS CISA)
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