Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
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thatdisasterauthor.bsky.social
Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
@thatdisasterauthor.bsky.social
1.3K followers 380 following 630 posts
Queer author+illustrator from Colorado. Wildland Fire Dispatcher. 🎃🏳️‍🌈🏔️

Art+Writing: www.AspenAndCopper.com
Disaster Blogging: www.Katy-L-Wood.com
Tumblr: @ThatDisasterAuthor
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thatdisasterauthor.bsky.social
Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood @thatdisasterauthor.bsky.social · Nov 14
Time for a new welcome post, now with books! I'm a queer author/illustrator out of Colorado, and a Wildland Fire Dispatcher hopefully applying for Emergency Management PhDs soon!

I write fantasy, adventure, and survival stories.

Follow the thread for more info about me and my projects. 🎨✒🔥
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
samlmontano.bsky.social
👇👇
November 3, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
disasterqueer.bsky.social
This is very, uh, not great. Just fyi. Especially for those of us in the direct path of a major tsunami from Alaska. 🙃
November 1, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
samlmontano.bsky.social
🧵 on how the dismantling of USAID may affect the US search and rescue teams deployed to Jamaica.
schnufflerowner.bsky.social schnufflerowner.bsky.social @schnufflerowner.bsky.social · 13d
As of today, both LA and Fairfax VA have deployed 34 person Rapid Assessment Teams to Jamaica to perform Urban Search and Rescue. Until July of this year, LA & Fairfax had agreements with USAID to provide this support to disasters overseas - they are the only USAR teams authorized to do so.
1/
October 31, 2025 at 7:15 PM
thatdisasterauthor.bsky.social
What the fuck? Screw this shit.
August 6, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
samlmontano.bsky.social
🚨👇🌊
disasterqueer.bsky.social Elyssa Tappero | Waves and Witchery @disasterqueer.bsky.social · Jul 30
A thread 🧵 on the importance of the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, from the point of view of Washington State (unofficially, of course; this is just my opinion). Don't just take my word for it, though - read the NTHMP 2024 annual report here: www.weather.gov/media/nthmp/... 🌊
www.weather.gov
July 30, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
samlmontano.bsky.social
Now is a good time to call your members of Congress & tell them the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program (under NOAA) needs to be funded. Without it, communities will face extreme funding cuts, have their ability to prepare for events like this one (and much worse) deeply affected.
July 30, 2025 at 11:42 AM
thatdisasterauthor.bsky.social
Please enjoy thirty seconds of a moose calf having EXTREME beef with my wishing well.
July 30, 2025 at 3:19 AM
thatdisasterauthor.bsky.social
Oh this is fantastic.
rachelholliday.bsky.social Rachel Holliday Smith @rachelholliday.bsky.social · Jul 29
I found something @catsofyore.bsky.social will like, I hope! from a book in our newsroom library …
a photo of a cat sliding down a firehouse pole. caption: "TAPPER"-THE POLE-SLIDING CAT Although he seems a bit grim in this picture, Tapper's firemen friends say he really enjoys sliding down the brass pole. Tapper is the pet of Engine 37 and Hook & Ladder 26 in Boston. After he had watched the firemen come down the poles for a while, Tap- 58 MORRIS FINEBERG, THE BOSTON POST per was taught to do it by himself. He lands on all fours on the rubber mat at the base of the pole and from there on gets around like any other cat. Tapper's name is derived from the firchouse jargon which calls each stroke of the alarm bell a "tap."
July 30, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
samlmontano.bsky.social
Thrilled to see @insideclimatenews.org reporting on the findings of the new Argonne survey of local and state emergency management capacity. This is a great summary.

insideclimatenews.org/news/2807202...
As Trump Shrinks FEMA, State and Local Emergency Managers Say They’re Barely Getting By - Inside Climate News
In a government survey, state and local officials said they were overworked, underpaid and underappreciated.
insideclimatenews.org
July 29, 2025 at 12:26 AM
thatdisasterauthor.bsky.social
We’ve really gotta do more modern studies on wildfire prevention efforts, because a good majority of the literature is from the 60s and 70s. (And don’t even get me started on Smokey Bear…)
July 28, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
samlmontano.bsky.social
I think this is obvious but I just want to highlight it in case it isn’t.

Taking 72 hours for Noem to personally approve search and rescue teams can be a literal death sentence.

www.cnn.com/2025/07/21/p...
It took more than 72 hours after the flooding for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to authorize the deployment of FEMA’s search and rescue network.
July 22, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
garethlpowell.bsky.social
Does anyone else find it crazy that you can walk into a bookshop and be charged £9.99 for a paperback novel that took the author a year to complete, but £17.99 for a completely blank notebook?
July 21, 2025 at 7:26 PM
thatdisasterauthor.bsky.social
Bluesky finally has notifications? DELIGHTFUL. Maybe it can start to finally fully take the place of Twitter in disaster communications. Just need to get more official accounts on here.
July 20, 2025 at 1:20 AM
thatdisasterauthor.bsky.social
🫠🫠🫠
I would like to exit the bad place now please.
Trump Says FEMA Phaseout to Begin After Hurricane Season
President Donald Trump said his team will move forward with winding down much of the Federal Emergency Management Agency — but not until after a hurricane season that some projections show could be pa...
www.bloomberg.com
June 10, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
thatdisasterauthor.bsky.social
New illustration! :D So happy with this one.

And I'm doing a special edition print run to fund a Spanish translation of my Emergency Evacuation Poster!

Preorder: www.aspenandcopper.com/product-page...

See the evac poster: www.katy-l-wood.com/posters?pgid...

#Wildfire #Illustration
A digital illustration of three wildland firefighters watching a distant wildfire in the mountains at sunset. The fire is burning in a forest and putting up a thick, dark column of smoke. Everything is lit in warm, orange sunset light. The person in the foreground is sitting next to a chainsaw and among wildflowers. The other two figures are in the midground. A detail shot of the foreground figure. She has her back to the camera and she is sitting with one knee pulled up, her arm draped over it. Next to her legs is a chainsaw. A detail shot of the body of the chainsaw and some of the flowers. A detail shot of the second midground figure, her back to the camera as she stares out at the fire, which is visible in the distance just above her head. The woman is sitting and leaning back on her hands.
June 9, 2025 at 3:01 AM
thatdisasterauthor.bsky.social
New illustration! :D So happy with this one.

And I'm doing a special edition print run to fund a Spanish translation of my Emergency Evacuation Poster!

Preorder: www.aspenandcopper.com/product-page...

See the evac poster: www.katy-l-wood.com/posters?pgid...

#Wildfire #Illustration
A digital illustration of three wildland firefighters watching a distant wildfire in the mountains at sunset. The fire is burning in a forest and putting up a thick, dark column of smoke. Everything is lit in warm, orange sunset light. The person in the foreground is sitting next to a chainsaw and among wildflowers. The other two figures are in the midground. A detail shot of the foreground figure. She has her back to the camera and she is sitting with one knee pulled up, her arm draped over it. Next to her legs is a chainsaw. A detail shot of the body of the chainsaw and some of the flowers. A detail shot of the second midground figure, her back to the camera as she stares out at the fire, which is visible in the distance just above her head. The woman is sitting and leaning back on her hands.
June 9, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
wired.com
SCOOP: Less than two weeks before the start of hurricane season, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) rescinded the agency’s strategic plan, which includes a document that guides agency priorities when responding to disasters, WIRED has learned.
FEMA Has Canceled Its Four-Year Strategic Plan Ahead of Hurricane Season
Multiple FEMA employees tell WIRED that they did not know of another time when a strategic plan was rescinded without another in place.
www.wired.com
May 21, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
nytimes.com
In St. Louis, the sirens to warn people of a tornado threat were not activated by the City Emergency Management Agency before a deadly tornado hit on Friday, and a backup to activate the mechanism that is operated by the Fire Department was broken.
Warning Sirens Were Silent Ahead of Deadly Tornado in St. Louis, City Says
www.nytimes.com
May 22, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
samlmontano.bsky.social
*waves in emergency management policy*
docfreeride.bsky.social Janet D. Stemwedel @docfreeride.bsky.social · May 7
It’s fun watching people who don’t teach the ethics of scientific practice discover how many of our regulations exist because of Very Bad Things That Happened Before the Regulation Existed.
May 7, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
drtaragoddard.com
I honestly hadn't had this realization, despite saying in virtually every public talk, interview, and class lecture about how moving around outside a car will "radicalize" you, and how electeds and upper management need to do it. But we are going the opposite way in transportation data and analysis.
mongabay.com Mongabay @mongabay.com · Apr 22
[FOUNDER'S BRIEF - Rhett A Butler]

"Across universities & research institutions, field-based studies are in retreat, giving way to remote-sensing technologies, laboratory analysis, & large-scale data synthesis. The consequences of this shift, while not yet fully understood, could be far-reaching."
Ecologists are spending less time in the field. That could be a problem.
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. There was a time when an ecologist’s education was not complete…
news.mongabay.com
April 22, 2025 at 1:53 AM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
disasterqueer.bsky.social
Titanic kids are an eternal phenomenon. The ship calls us from across time and space. You don't choose to be obsessed with the Titanic - the Titanic chooses you.
waywardchad.bsky.social Chad Harris @waywardchad.bsky.social · Apr 14
An article for all the #greysky folks who took the "fascinated by the Titanic" to disaster-work pipeline. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/05/s...
April 15, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
thatdisasterauthor.bsky.social
The four main characters from my book, THE PITS, a weird western. They're a fun bunch.

#OriginalArt
A digital pen & ink illustration featuring a portrait of a young white woman running and looking behind herself in fear, her eyes wide. Her hair is braided, the braid trailing behind her. The background is a simple gray watercolor wash. A digital pen & ink illustration featuring a portrait of a young black woman holding a revolver and looking off the left side of the image. She has thin dreadlocks capped with bullet casings. She is wearing a thick coat. The background is a simple gray watercolor wash. A digital pen & ink illustration featuring a portrait of a young white person of indeterminate gender. Their back is to the viewer and their arm outstretched to fire an intricately engraved revolver off the right side of the image. They are wearing a black duster and a black cowboy hat with a silver rim on the brim, the brim only turned up on one side. The background is a simple gray watercolor wash. A digital pen & ink illustration featuring a portrait of a young white man with his arms crossed and one eyebrow raised high. He is strongly built with curly hair down to his chest and a curly beard that tapers to a point at about his collarbone. His mustache is curled up at the ends. The background is a simple gray watercolor wash.
January 31, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
thatdisasterauthor.bsky.social
My book, THE PITS, has an illustration in every chapter. This is the one from the first chapter, and it is one of my favorites. I used the Rusty Nib brush set in Procreate and it is the brush set of my DREAMS. The sort of inking set I'd been looking for FOREVER.

#DigitalArt
A digital illustration done in a pen and ink style. A group of people are sitting in a dusty, run down corner of a bar, everything a bit scuffed and faded. On the left are two people cut off by the edge of the frame, only their legs visible as they sit on a couch. To their right is a man on a different couch, one foot up on a coffee table covered in an abandoned poker game and some bottles and glasses. He is talking with a woman sat at a nearby table with another man. On the right side is another woman, sitting alone.
January 31, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
thatdisasterauthor.bsky.social
Another illustration from my book, THE PITS. I had a lot of fun coming up with Little Mountain's signs for the story she's telling. Their group uses a very weird mix of different types of sign language, so I had a lot of freedom with the signs.

#OriginalArt
A digital pen and ink style illustration of four people eating a meal while sitting on a patch of dirt on the prairie, short grasses surrounding them and thin clouds hanging overhead. The woman on the right is a Ute (Native American) woman and is using sign language to tell a story. To her right is a young white woman, also dicussing the story. Her clothing has some dried blood stains on it. To her right is another person looking vaguely contemplative of what's being discussed. The fourth person, a white man, is listening to the other three.
January 31, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Reposted by Art & Writing of Katy L. Wood
thatdisasterauthor.bsky.social
The Preachers are a group of characters from my novel, THE PITS. They are made up (according to the myths) of scorned women who now guard the mysterious, magical portions of the world.

#DigitalArt
A pen and ink style digital illustration of three women against a starry backdrop. The women on the right and left are nude save for a thin veil that covers them from head to toe, tied around their necks and waists to hold it in place. The woman in the center is nude, save for a strange mass of swirling, ink like substance roiling around her body. All of them have no irises or pupils, just scleras, but they all still look directly at the viewer.
February 1, 2025 at 12:07 AM