• How the Terrifying Evacuations from the Twin Towers on 9/11 Helped Make Today's Skyscrapers Safer

    One legacy of the 9/11 tragedy and the harrowing experience of those who successfully escaped the Twin Towers – the disaster was the most significant high-rise evacuation in modern times —  is that today’s skyscrapers can be emptied much more safely and easily in an emergency.

  • A Preview of What’s to Come: Climate Change Helped Intensify Hurricane Ida

    Hurricane Ida started as a disturbance in the Atlantic Ocean quickly grew to what could be the worst hurricane to hit Louisiana since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. While scientists are uncertain whether climate change will increase the frequency of hurricanes, one thing is clear: Climate change is here, and it’s making these storms stronger and more destructive.

  • Critical Infrastructure Security Summit

    The Defense Strategic Institute (DSI) will hold its 2021 Critical Infrastructure Security Summit on 22-23 September 2021. The symposium will focus on defending and creating resilient systems to protect the U.S. critical infrastructure from outside threats and other dangers.

  • Hurricane Ida Shows the Increasing Impact of Climate Change Since Katrina

    While no two disasters are the same, looking at differences between past and present disasters can help us to better understand what is needed to prepare for future disasters. Given the scope of the emerging impacts of Hurricane Ida, we see that while this is not a repeat of a Katrina disaster, questions are being raised about the effect of climate change and the resiliency of lifeline infrastructure like electricity.

  • Securing Domestic Supply Chain of Critical Materials

    DOE announced $30 million in funding for 13 national lab and university-led research projects to develop new technologies that will help secure the supply of critical materials that build clean energy technologies.

  • Future Flooding in Venice: Facing Sea Level Rise

    A new assessment of flood risk in Venice indicates that the impact of higher emissions on relative sea level rise during this century will be critical in planning future defense infrastructure for Venice and other coastal cities.

  • A Subway Flood Expert Explains What Needs to Be Done to Stop Underground Station Deluges

    Subway stations in New York were inundated with water following heavy rain on 1 September 2021, and other cities around the world have also experienced similar inundations. “Climate change isn’t a matter of the future; its effects are happening right now,” says one expert.

  • At Least 23 Killed in Flooding in New York City, New Jersey

    At least 23 people have died across New York City and New Jersey as a result of the historic flash flooding caused by the weather system formerly known as Hurricane Ida. The storm dumped so much rain in New York City that the local National Weather Service issued its first flash flood emergency for NYC and the neighboring city of Newark, New Jersey.

  • Why Buildings Fall — Over Time

    The recent collapse of the condo building in Florida served as a dire warning for the nation’s aging infrastructure problem and the deadly consequences that can result. Researchers explore how time can factor in a building collapse.

  • New Orleans Residents Have Decisions to Make as Long Recovery from Hurricane Ida Begins

    New Orleans and utility officials spent Monday assessing the severity of the damage, but private energy provider Entergy Corporation confirmed that 216 substations and 2,000 miles of transmission lines — including a tower that collapsed along the Mississippi River — are down in Louisiana, leaving more than 1 million residents without electricity. Entergy promises a team of 20,000 to repair the damage, but it’s unclear how long that will take.

  • Flood control: Seeking Community-Driven Answers to Living with Flooding

    Researchers have used a localized flooding event to envision how human beings can live with the threat of water invading their living and working spaces.

  • Extreme Sea Levels to Become Much More Common Worldwide

    Extreme sea-level events are the result of a combination of tide, waves, and storm surge. Because of rising temperatures, an extreme sea level event that would have been expected to occur once every 100 years, currently is expected to occur, on average, every year.

  • Improving Flood Projections

    Climate change will lead to more and stronger floods, mainly due to the increase of more intense heavy rainfall. In order to assess how exactly flood risks and the severity of floods will change over time, it is particularly helpful to consider two different types of such extreme precipitation events.

  • Protecting Earth from Space Weather Events

    “There are only two natural disasters that could impact the entire U.S.,” according to an expert. “One is a pandemic, and the other is an extreme space weather event.” Space weather eventsfry electronics and power grids, disrupt global positioning systems, cause shifts in the range of the aurora borealis, and raise the risk of radiation to astronauts or passengers on planes crossing over the poles.

  • NIST’s Expert Team to Investigate the Champlain Towers South Collapse

    NIST announced Wednesday the expert team members who will conduct a technical investigation into the 24 June 2021, partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida. The Champlain Towers South investigation will be the fifth investigation NIST has conducted using authorities granted by the 2002 National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Act.