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Two Decades Later, the Experience of Katrina Continues to Shape How the Nation Prepares for and Responds to Disasters
Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath exposed profound gaps in multiple systems, including flood protection, emergency response, health care, and housing. It marked a turning point in the way we understand the impacts of natural disasters.
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How AI Is Changing Our Approach to Disasters
Disaster losses are rising, and the stakes are high for reducing risk. Artificial intelligence (AI) promises new ways to spot danger sooner, coordinate relief more quickly, and save lives and property. But AI doesn’t just drop neatly into a command center.
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LLNL Scientists Explore Real-Time Tsunami Warning System on World’s Fastest Supercomputer
Scientists have helped develop an advanced, real-time tsunami forecasting system that could dramatically improve early warning capabilities for coastal communities near earthquake zones.
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The Rising Threat to New York City’s Food System
The Hunts Point Food Distribution Center, the largest of its kind in the country, serves as the penultimate stop for 4.5 billion pounds of food that feed the city and surrounding areas each year. Losing access to that hub could be catastrophic for a city that produces almost none of its own food.
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Hurricane Katrina: 3 Painful Lessons for Emergency Management Are Increasingly Important 20 Years Later
Hurricane Katrina looms large in the history of American emergency management, both for what went wrong as the disaster unfolded and for the policy changes it triggered. As efforts to reform –and possibly rebalance –the U.S. emergency management system continue, it is essential to remember and heed the costly lessons of Hurricane Katrina.
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20 Years After Katrina, New Orleans’ Levees Are Sinking and Short on Money
The city’s $14 billion flood system faces new threats from climate change, land subsidence, and Trump budget cuts.
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Human-Caused Climate Change Is Expanding California’s Destructive Fire Seasons
Human-caused climate change was responsible for a six-to-46-day earlier start to fire season in California between 1992 and 2020, increasing the period in which large swaths of the state were susceptible to destructive burning. As climate warming trends continue, California’s fire seasons likely will continue to get longer and potentially more destructive.
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Better Predicting and Understanding Cascading Land Surface Hazards
When an extreme weather event occurs, the probability or risk of other events can often increase, leading to what researchers call “cascading” hazards. Such occurrences leave lasting imprints on the landscape that can prime the Earth’s surface for subsequent events.
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AI-powered Tool Developed for Near Real-Time, Large-Scale Wildfire Fuel Mapping
Researchers have developed a new system that could help enhance nationwide wildfire preparedness by combining satellite imagery with artificial intelligence to rapidly and accurately identify wildfire fuel sources.
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Groundwater Is Drying Out, Heating Up, and Causing Sea Level Rise
Overuse has created zones of “mega-drying” around the world —and caused more sea level rise than Greenland’s ice sheet.
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Asteroid Hunting Using Heliostats?
Most planetary defense efforts use observatory-grade telescopes to produce images of the stars. Within those images, computational methods identify streaks, which are asteroids. This process is precise but time-consuming, and building new observatories is expensive. A Researcher says that heliostats, which typically turn solar energy into electricity, could help find asteroids at night. Most planetary defense efforts use observatory-grade telescopes to produce images of the stars. Within those images, computational methods identify streaks, which are asteroids. This process is precise but time-consuming, and building new observatories is expensive. A Researcher says that heliostats, which typically turn solar energy into electricity, could help find asteroids at night.
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Your Politics, Age, and Gender Predict Your Disaster Readiness
Many Americans remain dangerously unprepared for floods, fires, and other natural catastrophes, but disaster-readiness might depend more on who you are than where you live.
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Cuts to Early Warning Systems Are Leaving the U.S. Unprepared for Summer Floods
The extreme costs and death toll of recent floodings across Texas, New Mexico, and the Northeast have put into question the future of the United States’ emergency preparedness amid major budget and staffing cuts to critical risk-reduction agencies and programs.
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The Surprising Reasons Floods and Other Disasters Are Deadlier at Night
It’s not just that it’s dark and people are asleep. Urban sprawl, confirmation bias, and other factors can play a role.
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Why Drones and AI Can’t Quickly Find Missing Flood Victims, Yet
For search and rescue, AI is not more accurate than humans, but it is far faster.
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The long view
Millions of Buildings at Risk from Sea Level Rise
Sea level rise could put more than 100 million buildings if fossil fuel emissions are not curbed quickly. The analysis focused on Global South and considered multiple scenarios, underscoring urgent need for planning.