Hurricanes

HURRICANE KATRINA: LACK OF RESPONSE OF US GOVERNMENT. ARTICLE PUBLISHED BY SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE NEWSPAPER

by Bernardo Mendez Lugo

A Haven of Last Resort: The consequences of evacuating Florida nursing home residents to non-clinical buildings

by Janelle Christensen

Co-authored with Lisa M. Brown and Kathryn Hyer in Geriatric Nursing.  In press.

Nursing home administrators (n=15) and directors of nursing (n=15) who worked in nursing homes during the 2004-2005... more Nursing home administrators (n=15) and directors of nursing (n=15) who worked in nursing homes during the 2004-2005 Florida hurricane season participated in a series of six focus groups. The purpose of the focus groups was to explore issues faced by nursing home administrators, nurses, and residents during hurricane evacuations. A primary finding was that evacuating nursing home residents to buildings that are not designed to support nursing activities (e.g., a school gymnasium or a church) adversely affected resident feeding, sleeping, movement, and security. These non-clinical buildings also presented serious occupational health concerns for nursing staff members who provided care during emergencies. Recommendations for reducing patient and nursing staff injuries for those forced to evacuate to a non-clinical building as the result of an emergency event are provided.

Policy Actions of Texas Gulf Coast Cities to Mitigate Hurricane Damage: Perspectives of City Officials

by Texas State PA Applied Research Projects

Wilson, James Parker, "Policy Actions of Texas Gulf Coast Cities to Mitigate Hurricane Damage: Perspectives of City Officials" (2009). Applied Research Projects, Texas State University-San Marcos. Paper 312.
http://ecommons.txstate.edu/arp/312

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe the policy actions of Texas Gulf Coast cities to mitigate the risk... more Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe the policy actions of Texas Gulf Coast cities to mitigate the risk for potential hurricane damage. After conducting a review of the scholarly literature on hurricane damage mitigation policy, fourteen mitigation policy actions were identified, and then divided into the following five categories: building codes, the planning process, incentives to mitigate, assess vulnerability and resilience, and mitigation through zoning. After administering a survey to city officials in the Texas Coastal Zone, a preliminary assessment of the utilization of the fourteen mitigation policy actions was conducted.

Method: Survey research was the sole method of data collection for this study. The survey was sent to 71 city officials for cities located in the Texas Coastal Zone with some form of local government. The fourteen policy actions identified in the scholarly literature served as a framework that was used to develop the survey instrument. Descriptive statistics were utilized to analyze the collected survey data; this included the mean, median, mode and frequency distribution.

Findings: Preliminary findings suggested respondents were utilizing policy actions in some categories while neglecting other categories. Specifically, respondents were not using zoning practices to mitigate nor were they offering incentives to landowners to encourage mitigation efforts.

Huracanes y Ciclones en Centroamerica y el caribe (Compilacion)

by Bernardo Mendez Lugo

The Enviro-Biographical Interview: Attachment to Place in the Aftermath of Disaster

by Eleonora Rohland

Co-authored with with Maike Böcker, Gitte Cullmann, Ingo Haltermann and Franz Mauelshagen, in: Oral History and Crisis, edited by Mark Cave and Stephen Sloan. New York: Oxford University Press, in preparation.

This chapter explores the question as to why people return to or stay in a place after the oc-currence of a natural... more This chapter explores the question as to why people return to or stay in a place after the oc-currence of a natural disaster. The research for this study was conducted by the members of the research group “Memories of Disasters” which is part of the “Climate & Culture” program at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities Essen (Germany.) This initiative explores how natural disasters are remembered in different cultures and whether the experience and memory of natural disasters informs future action. The research group unites researchers from four disciplines (history, geography, ethnology and sociology) who each conducted from 60 to 80 qualitative interviews in the aftermath of a natural disaster on different continents (North America, Africa, Europe, Latin America). The calamities researched range from river floods caused by extreme rainfall (Ghana and Germany), to a hurricane and flood disaster (USA) to a volcanic eruption and consequent inundation (Chile).
The first part of this chapter presents a selection of interview excerpts from our four case studies, focusing on interviewees’ reasons to remain in/ return to disaster-prone areas. The second part introduces the interview method that was designed for this interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research endeavor, the enviro-biographical interview. We conclude by comparing culturally specific aspects of attachment to place from the four case studies.

Evacuation and Return of Vietnamese New Orleanians Affected by Hurricane Katrina

by Carl L Bankston

co-authored with Lung Vu, Mark Vanlandingham, and Mai Do

DESASTRES NATURALES EN EL MUNDO, COMPILACION DE BERNARDO MENDEZ LUGO. REFLEXION SOBRE RESPUESTA DE CUBA A DESASTRES NATURALES, UN EJEMPLO MUNDIAL RECONOCIDO POR LA UNESCO

by Bernardo Mendez Lugo

A proposed technique for determining aerodynamic pressures on residential homes

by Aly Mousaad Aly Sayed Ahmed

Fu, T.C., Aly, A.M., Gan Chowdhury, A., Bitsuamlak, G., Yeo, D.H. and Simi, E.
Wind and Structures, An International Journal
Volume 15, Number 1, January 2012

Wind loads on low-rise buildings in general and residential homes in particular can differ significantly depending... more Wind loads on low-rise buildings in general and residential homes in particular can differ significantly depending upon the laboratory in which they were measured. The differences are due in large part to inadequate simulations of the low-frequency content of atmospheric velocity fluctuations in the laboratory and to the small scale of the models used for the measurements. The imperfect spatial coherence of the low frequency velocity fluctuations results in reductions of the overall wind effects with respect to the case of perfectly coherent flows. For large buildings those reductions are significant. However, for buildings with sufficiently small dimensions (e.g., residential homes) the reductions are relatively small. A technique is proposed for simulating the effect of low-frequency flow fluctuations on such buildings more effectively from the point of view of testing accuracy and repeatability than is currently the case. Experimental results are presented that validate the proposed technique. In addition to eliminating a major cause of discrepancies among measurements conducted in different laboratories, the technique allows the use of considerably larger model scales than are possible in conventional testing. The technique is applicable to wind tunnels and large scale open jet facilities, and can help to standardize flow simulations for testing residential homes as well as significantly improving testing accuracy and repeatability. The work reported in this paper is a first step in developing the proposed technique. Additional tests are planned to further refine the technique and test the range of its applicability.

Flow simulation in 12-fan Wall of Wind testing facility

by Aly Mousaad Aly Sayed Ahmed

Tuan-Chun Fu, Aly Mousaad Aly, Girma Bitsuamlak, Arindam Gan Chowdhury, Emil Simiu

The 2nd American Association for Wind Engineering Workshop (2AAWE), Marco Island, Florida, USA, August 18-20, 2010

To develop a cohesive and systemic approach to building hurricane resilient communities research is needed on the... more To develop a cohesive and systemic approach to building hurricane resilient communities research is needed on the complex interaction between hurricanes and the built environment. Florida International University (FIU) is working in stages on the construction of a large state-of-the-art Wall of Wind (WoW) facility to support research in the area of wind engineering. Three different types of tests are envisioned: (i) aerodynamic (ii) hydro aerodynamic, and (iii) destructive. This paper describes the new facility, provides some details on boundary layer simulation, and discusses these three types of testing capabilities. The testing is aimed at developing innovative hurricane damage mitigation technologies. A small-scale replica of the 12fan WoW was built and different wind profiles were simulated using passive flow management devices. A novel testing methodology applicable to residential homes and other relatively small structures is proposed to achieve testing that is repeatable and free of the very large errors typically inherent in current tests of low-rise buildings.

Disaster and the Vietnamese of New Orleans East: The Assets and Liabilities of Ethnic Cohesion

by Carl L Bankston

Curriculum Vitae

by Jill Malmstadt

A Rhetorical Response to Hurricane Katrina

by Marcia Dawkins

Mainstreaming Local Perceptions of Hurricane Risk Into Policymaking: A Case Study of Community GIS In Mexico

by Krishna Krishnamurthy