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Testimonials

1. “SEMP is a model of what can be accomplished on a local/regional level, as deep background, and as a window to ‘the field’.”
2. “Boston University School of Public Health wishes to include a chapter of your book in a course that they are teaching this semester.”
3. “SEMP appears to be quite professional, advanced and…well-supported in its work.”
4. “I am the Professional Development Coordinator for California State University San Bernardino. I have a professor who would like to include the content of one of your pages in his electronic course. We use Blackboard as a course management system that is password protected and limits the amount of student access. The course will be offered more than once a year and will accommodate 60 to 80 students annually. This is a public administration course at the masters level offered to government personnel. The web page from your site is “What is Bureaucracy? http://www.semp.us/biots/biot_145.html
5. “Dear Dr. O’Leary: Your story reminds me of my time at Baltimore's Shock-Trauma Center goes back to 1972, when they didn't even have their own heliport. We landed birds on the top of the Medical School’s parking garage, transported them down 6 floors, then into the main hospital by the great trash dumpster, down a long hallway south, to the elevators to go up to the main admitting area. It was quite a treat ... 15 times a day!!!”
6. “Nice job on the Atlanta Olympic story. Brought back memories....”
7. “The Dictionary of Homeland Security and Defense…is a wonderful piece of work, one that makes a substantial contribution to those of us who are trying to craft homeland security into a formal discipline. Thank you for undertaking this work.”
8. “Dr. O'Leary – [Your] dictionary…is a remarkable effort to help a community develop a shared consciousness about this new world we are in.”
9. “I am a reporter with The CQ Researcher, a division of Congressional Quarterly. Each week we take an important topic and devote 24 pages to examining all sides of the issue. I am working on a lengthy piece about disaster response and would like your expertise…”
10. “I was just introduced to the website for your Suburban Emergency Management Project today and was quite impressed and pleased to see the substantive community-based learning about disasters that is happening through your project. I have submitted an e-mail to subscribe to your publication as well. In particular, the posting about "The Incredible Shrinking FEMA" was brought to my attention. I have shared the posting with James Lee Witt, the head of our firm. Have you and James Lee worked together on
    projects in the past? It occurred to me that your approach is consistent with what he was seeking to do through his signature program - Project Impact - while he was serving as FEMA Director.”
11. “SEMP seems to be an extraordinarily rich free online source of disaster management-related material. I send it along in the event is may be of interest to others.”
12. “Can I have your permission to copy and forward the section on the Student Visas Mantis program to my Campus Chiefs Network?”
13. “I last wrote to you with compliments for your ‘Palimpsest of Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plans’ article. Now I would like to congratulate your clear thinking and disarticulation of CDC ‘data’ in the March 2006 SEMP Biot #342: Got Tamiflu?: CDC Spasms over Alleged Antiviral Medication ‘Stockpiling’ by Private Citizens.”
14. “Always enjoy reading the Biots.”
15. “Congratulations on the dictionary--it looks fantastic! The content is comprehensive, and the format makes it very easy to view and use. I'm sure that it will do well, and will be useful to many people.”
16. “Margaret, Thank you for keeping me up to date on your Biots and all the hard work you are doing.”
17. “Hi Margaret, I really enjoy a lot of the info coming out in the Biots recently. The ones dealing with Middle Eastern and Islamic subjects are very informative. I get gobs of intelligence information daily and the Biots help to put some framework around the subject matter and give it perspective. Thanks for including me on the list. Keep them coming.”
18. “Each Biot reads like a chapter in an engaging, well-written college text. The way you weave together events and supporting facts makes the sum total always feel like a ‘who-dun-it’. What you do in each article ends up being more than the parts. Your writing is very clear and always builds your case.”
19. “Margaret, I just read the most recent BIOT, and I wanted to thank you once again for continuing your strong work in the area of national security and disaster preparedness. I am really glad that you (and SEMP) have taken a more wide view of the political, social, and environmental factors that we need to be aware of these days. I always look forward to getting your BIOTs. Keep up the good work.”
20. “Please let me commend to your attention the website of the Suburban Emergency Management Project: http://www.semp.us/. This is an excellent website with material written by professionals but useful to laymen. There’s more info on this site than I can assimilate in a week. Their ‘Biots’ are short papers on a whole panoply of emergency preparedness topics. There are 340 of them, as of today. Some of my favorites are:
    #334: "Please Remain in Your Seat": The Federal Government's Role in Quarantine (26 February, 2006);
    #332: What Is "Earthquake Baroque" Architecture? (21 February 2006);
    #259: Revisiting Looting Behavior during Disasters (6 September 2005);
    #216: Lessons Learned from a Hospital Evacuation During Tropical Storm Allison (21 May 2005);
    #179: A Palimpsest of Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plans (25 February 2005); and
    #23 Who Was in Charge of the Massive Evacuation of Lower Manhattan? (26 September 2002).
    Keep up the great work!”
21. “Staff at the Suburban Emergency Management Project have transcribed the September 27 House hearings on FEMA and Katrina featuring Michael Brown. Noted in previous EM HiEd activity reports were the first three reports on the hearings. Provided are links to the most recent: 
    http://www.semp.us/biots/biot_274.html
    http://www.semp.us/biots/biot_275.html
    http://www.semp.us/biots/biot_276.html.”
22. “Excellent resource - Suburban Emergency Management Project

    June 25, 2007
    We’ve recently come across SEMP, which describes itself as about “Evidence-based disaster management: preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation.” This is a well-organized site - and has a series of articles which bespeak thorough research about important specific issues in emergency preparedness.
    Once you’ve

    1. read Redlener’s Americans At Risk, or have otherwise been persuaded that we need preparation at home on the ground;
    2. Gone to 3 Steps, and figured out that you can do something in your own neighborhood, your family, your town - something that will make a difference

    Take a look at SEMP. They’ve got, for instance, a list of short papers that concisely address specific issues - many of them research issues that have come up before in my experience - but not always susceptible to a quick Google search. Here are a few:

    • What’s the deal with Swiss Civil defense? (Make all the jokes you want about Swiss Army knives; they’ve got underground hospitals under their regular hospitals; just in case). Isn’t it incredibly expensive? (Apparently about $29 annually per capita; in 2005, the U.S. spent $173 per capita on military spending; source here).
    • The 2003  United States power outage;
    • Charlie Wilson’s Rapture: Arming Afghan Islamists as Unintended Prelude to 9/11; (how our support of the mujaheddin in ousting the Russians had unintended consequences);
    • How the Netherlands Defends the Largest Port in Europe Against Flooding;

    And more.
    
    It’s really quite remarkable. Easy to navigate and - it’s not clear what other word would do - encyclopedic. The prime mover in this seems to be Margaret O’Leary - a physician with an M.B.A. and a very impressive curriculum vitae.  (A B.S. in zoology and a separate B.A. in theology. That’s just the first section. Proof, in fact, that some people don’t need sleep). Our suspicion is that this woman put this fabulous website together mostly by herself.
    
    Check it out.
    
    More from SEMP as we explore the site. It’s not just for suburbanites.”

23. “It’s my thought that semp.us may be the most informative disaster management resource on the Internet. In English, anyway. My most frequent thought reading through it - was 'I wish I'd written that.'”
24. “The Suburban Emergency Management Project, always on the lookout for some major Ballardian catastrophe.” Source: www.thingsmagazine.net/2007_07_01 oldthings.htm.
25. “Fascinating articles. Thanks for sharing it with us. I recently read Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein, a copy of which is attached. It would be great to see a comparative analysis of 
Sorokin and Klein’s work.”
26. “I teach a safety assessment course […], and I would like to obtain permission to include 2 of your BIOT reports (#387 and #112) in my course materials. The course I teach is related to aircraft certification; however, the power industry blackout case studies provide “real world” examples of many of the same failure modes our aircraft safety assessment techniques try to identify.”
27. “ Nice piece at SEMP on the raindrop born virus.” [Referencing “ The Biological Origin of Snowflakes and Raindrops” (March 15, 2008) at http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=506.]
28. “ I have a question… in the last couple of issues, I have noticed articles on subjects that I am having a hard time connecting with Emergency Management. They are the ones (last issue and this issue) dealing with Black History/Nationalism/Segregation. Can you help me understand how those tie to what your organization does?” [Referencing “ Murderous Washington, DC, and Chicago Race Riots, Summer 1919,” “ Content Matter of Black Liberation Theology,” “ Origin of Black Power and Black Theology of Liberation,” and “ Integrationism and Nationalism in African-American Intellectual History up to 1950.” See http://www.semp.us/publications/biot.php.]
29. “ Great article about China and the US treasury.” [Referencing “ China Now Holds 17.2% of US Treasury Securities: Implications for the US Economy” (May 3, 2008) at http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=520.]
30. “ Here's a REAL terrorist threat: ‘ Imagine what detrito-terrorists could do in a major American city if they stole a gasoline tanker, then drained it into a major and critical sewer pipe, and ignited the vapour.” This is what it does:
http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=356.”
31. “ I would love to stay on the SEMP email list. I have been fortunate to know you. I wish you continued success.”
32. “ Very interesting info about Princess Di — I love reading your articles!” [Referencing “ How Diana Spencer Died in Paris, France” (February 27, 2008) at http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=503.]
33. "Thank you for the excellent research your group is doing, and for the newsletter which I look forward to receiving. I am also a member of the Red Cross disaster team and this site will better inform me of larger, more macro level geographical and climactic changes. Thank you for this wonderful site and newsletter, Margaret."
34. "Dr. O'Leary, Thank you for featuring Russel Honore. I saw him upon his arrival in New Orleans during that first week of the Federal Flood in 2005. By then I had seen about all I could ever imagine seeing happen, if you know what I mean. However, seeing Col Honore walk down Canal Street, with this ever-widening V in a wake behind and order falling into place on either side wherever he stabbed that cigar into the air and barked commands with rather creative and talented profanities, left me feeling for the first time that America had finally come to the rescue and the Voice of Louisiana was saying 'We will get through this first.' I could hear him 2 blocks away no lie!


I look forward to keeping up on disaster management in our country today. I would like to see us become again a Culture of Preparedness rather than what I have come to call: "The Evaculture" ...the runners." (Refers to Securitas Magazine Jul/Aug/Sept 2008, vol. 7, no. 3 available at http://www.semp.us/publications/securitas_reader.php?SecuritasID=36).
35. “As a student I have found the information on your site very useful.”
36. “You have created a need for me to allocate some serious reading time because the last few biots have been really interesting topics.”
37. “I like reading your articles.”
38. “I really enjoy the SEMP updates – the articles are always well-written and informative, and as professional in the field I appreciate the points of view elucidated in the papers...Thanks again for SEMP.”
39. “Excellent article about Charlie Wilson´s war covering this time period [referring to http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=360]. And No, we did not have any connection to him and the CIA, this history was as eye opening to me in 2008 as it is to you now.”
40. “The Suburban Emergency Management Project (SEMP) issued a review of the MAE [Mid-America Earthquake, headquartered University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] Center's Report, ‘Impact of Earthquakes on the Central USA’ (http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=566). The review, Biot Report #566: November 22, 2008, ‘Grim Social Expectations for New Madrid Fault Earthquake,’ was part of the Project´s BIOT Report Series. Biot Reports are published weekly by SEMP and cover gripping global disaster topics, including expanding epidemics, geological explosions, geopolitical upheavals, and critical infrastructure systems challenges.”
41. “Nice site, thanks for the information!”
42. “Here´s a REAL terrorist threat: ‘Imagine what detrito-terrorists could do in a major American city if they stole a gasoline tanker, then drained it into a major and critical sewer pipe, and ignited the vapour.’ This is what it does: http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=356.”
43. Dear Dr. O´Leary, You have an amazing website. I must say I really enjoy and appreciate your Biot Reports, especially those explaining the Middle Eastern cultures and religions.
44. Thanks for providing an excellent resource regarding the life and work of Carter Glass, a long-time resident of my hometown of Lynchburg, VA. It is ironic that the home of Carter Glass sits on what is now the campus of Liberty University, which recently curtailed the activities of its students’ campus Democratic Club: throughout his life, Senator Glass, himself a Democrat, fought the integration of banking, investment, and insurance quasi-industries in an effort to stabilize the American economy.
45. I found your Biot reports from 2007 on Chechnya and the massacre at the Beslan school in Russia to be very useful tools in researching a paper I wrote for a graduate program. The reports are extremely well done--clearly the work of a professional scholar. But strangely they are unsigned. Who prepared them? [M. O´Leary did.]
46. “Regarding your site, I am teaching a course in geomorphology at [university´s name withheld by request] this semester and started the course off by letting students draw topics from a hat. One student drew ‘mud lumps’ and thought he´d gotten the worst possible topic. That was on Friday, Aug. 21 [2009]. Yesterday, only 4 days later he´s so excited that he now knows he´s teacher‚s pet. A large part of his excitement comes directly from your website. It is perhaps the best single source for one to begin research of this topic which is little-researched and poorly known. The significance for geology, however, is far-reaching. Mud lumps are an analog for salt domes and shale diapirs, both of which form significant petroleum traps along the Gulf Coast and offshore Nigeria. Thanks for providing such an informative web site.” [Instructor´s name withheld by request]
47. I visited your website and deeply impressed by your work and teachings. I found that you are doing a great work for the relation of the people in the meantime. (From reader in Pakistan)