• Q&A with the Experts: Puerto Rico

    In 2018, as part of an effort to improve Puerto Rico’s resilience in the face of repeated, and devastating, natural disasters, RAND experts offered 270 specific courses of action needed across infrastructure, communities, and natural systems. Four years later, some of these experts reflect on the progress made – and not made – in shoring up the island’s resilience.

  • Hurricane Ian Shows That Coastal Hospitals Aren’t Ready for Climate Change

    As rapidly intensifying storms and rising sea levels threaten coastal cities from Texas to the tip of Maine, Hurricane Ian has just demonstrated what researchers have warned: Hundreds of hospitals in the U.S. are not ready for climate change.

  • Greater Resilience Through Nature-Inspired Power Grids

    Researchers are looking to nature to build better power grids that are more resistant to various potential disturbances like natural disasters or cyberattacks.

  • Nord Stream Pipeline Sabotage: How an Attack Could Have Been Carried Out and Why Europe Was Defenseless

    Whatever caused the damage to the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, it appears to be the first major attack on critical “subsea” (underwater) infrastructure in Europe. This raises the question of the vulnerabilities of European pipelines, electricity and internet cables, and other maritime infrastructure. Europe will have to revisit its policies for protecting them.

  • Magnesium Market Highlights Continuing Fragility of Global Supply Chains

    Magnesium is a critical input for major and emerging economies’ economic and industrial development. It has diverse high-tech applications in a wide range of sectors, from renewable energy to aerospace, defense to transport, and telecommunications to agriculture. The problem is that for both industry and governments, magnesium supply chains are vulnerable to sudden disruptions.

  • The U.S. Needs to Prepare for More Billion-Dollar Climate Disasters Like Hurricane Ian

    Billion-dollar disasters such as Hurricane Ian are on the rise in the United States. Officials should take swift action to reduce the damage and protect Americans.

  • Violent Extremists, terrorists Targeting U.S. Critical Infrastructure

    Violent extremists and terrorist organizations of numerous ideological persuasions have conducted devastating attacks on critical infrastructure in the United States. Today’s terrorism threat picture in the U.S. is incredibly fluid, dynamic, and dangerous, and under this backdrop authorities are increasingly worried about an uptick in terrorist plotting against critical infrastructure.

  • Puerto Rico: A U.S. Territory in Crisis

    The Caribbean island, which shares a close yet fraught relationship with the rest of the United States, faces a multilayered economic and social crisis rooted in long-standing policy and compounded by natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic, migration, and government mismanagement.

  • Barrier Islands Are Natural Coast Guards That Absorb Impacts from Hurricanes and Storms

    When hurricanes and storms make landfall, barrier islands absorb much of their force, reducing wave energy and protecting inland areas. Islands that have been preserved in their natural state can move with storms, shifting their shapes over time. But many human activities, such as turning these islands into tourist attractions –for example, Florida’s Sanibel Island and South Carolina’s Pawleys Island — interfere with these natural movements, making the islands more vulnerable.

  • Ukraine Warns of Looming Russian Cyberattacks

    Ukraine is again urging its companies and private organizations to immediately bolster their cybersecurity ahead of what could be a new wave of Russian attacks. The government advisory further warned that the vulnerabilities could allow Russia to launch a renewed series of targeted cyberattacks on Ukraine aimed at disabling communication and information systems.

  • How Can Countries Protect Critical Infrastructure from Cyberattacks?

    Hacking attacks on power grids, telecom networks, or governments can paralyze entire societies. That makes them a powerful military weapon, as the war in Ukraine demonstrates. How can countries protect themselves?

  • What Is Hurricane Storm Surge, and Why Can It Be So Catastrophic?

    As a hurricane reaches the coast, it pushes a huge volume of ocean water ashore. This is what we call storm surge. Of all the hazards that hurricanes bring, storm surge is the greatest threat to life and property along the coast.

  • Hundreds of Hospitals on Atlantic and Gulf Coasts at Risk of Flooding from Hurricanes

    Researchers identified 682 acute care hospitals in 78 metropolitan statistical areas located within 10 miles of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States, covering a population just under 85 million people, or about 1 in 4 Americans. They found that 25 of the 78 metro areas studied have half or more of their hospitals at risk of flooding from a Category 2 storm.

  • Champlain Towers South Investigation Completes Site Testing

    Members of the National Construction Safety Team (NCST) completed testing at the former site of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Florida, collecting data to help improve computer models that will be used to evaluate potential causes of the June 2021 collapse.

  • 3 Reasons Hurricane Ian Poses a Major Flooding Hazard for Florida

    Hurricane Ian has now been upgraded to Category 4, with winds just under 155 mph. But the scale doesn’t take water risk into account, and flooding and storm surge are both major risks from Ian. Here are three reasons Florida is facing a high risk of water hazards this week.