Breaking News: Natural Disasters

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Dr. Phillip Bitzer of The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) wants to learn more about long-stroke lightning that makes things sizzle.

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A surprising new study suggests that major insect outbreaks--contrary to current thinking and forest management guidelines--can reduce forest fire damage.

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Federal investigators found the “black box’’ that could reveal why the El Faro cargo ship sank off the Bahamas in a hurricane last fall. The University of Rhode Island played a key role in the discovery. URI’s acclaimed Inner Space Center at the Graduate School of Oceanography provided telepresence technology—and its expertise—to assist with the search.

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With the monsoon fast approaching, the landslide risk in Nepal remains high a year after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake that killed more than 8,000 people, according to a University of Michigan-led research team.

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Thanks to millions of years’ accumulation of the wind-deposited, highly-porous sediment from which China’s Loess plateau takes its name, the region has been called the most erosion-prone on Earth. However, despite the prominent geomorphic role gravity erosion plays on the slopes, the process isn’t well understood due to the complexity of soil failure occurrence and behavior, Researchers at Dalian University of Technology present their findings in this week’s Review of Scientific Instruments.

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New research by astrophysicists has revealed the fastest ultraviolet winds ever detected near a supermassive black hole more than 10 billion light-years away.

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Research from the University of Adelaide hopes to provide advances in the planning for flood risk, thanks to a new, faster method of assessing the highly complex factors that cause floods in a specific location.

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“If you live in flammable countryside, you’ve got to work with fire. You can’t make it go away,” according to professor Mark Cochrane, a wildfire expert and senior scientist at the Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence. That means moving from the notion that fires are unnatural and toward a managed approach that involves reintegrating fire as a vital landscape process and building communities that are resilient to fire.

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More people live close to sea coast than earlier estimated, assess researchers in a new study. These people are the most vulnerable to the rise of the sea level as well as to the increased number of floods and intensified storms. By using recent increased resolution datasets, Aalto University researchers estimate that 1.9 billion inhabitants, or 28% of the world's total population, live closer than 100 km from the coast in areas less than 100 meters above the present sea level.

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Groups of 2 or single individuals less likely to be caught in an avalanche than larger groups, according to a new report in Wilderness & Environmental Medicine.

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Identifying Corrective Actions from Agricultural Response, or ICAAR, is a new tool being developed by Kansas State University's National Agricultural Biosecurity Center to help with agricultural emergency management.

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Strong ties to the community and a bond between neighbors can help areas affected by natural disasters recover faster, according to a survey conducted by Purdue University students and faculty.

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University of Auckland researchers test frame components from a 20-story building damaged during the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes to help engineers improve earthquake design and assessment guidelines

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In emergencies, people may trust robots too much for their own safety, a new study suggests. In a mock building fire, test subjects followed instructions from an “Emergency Guide Robot” even after the machine had proven itself unreliable – and after some participants were told that robot had broken down.

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The Aliso Canyon natural gas well blowout, first reported on Oct. 23, 2015, released over 100,000 tons of the powerful greenhouse gas methane before the well was sealed on Feb. 11, according to the first study of the accident published today in the journal Science. The results confirm that Aliso Canyon is the largest methane leak in U.S. history.

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Small disturbances, like the flapping of a butterfly’s wings, don’t really matter for weather forecasts. What's more important is getting accurate observations at larger scales.

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If you’re enjoying a lovely day on the beach, there’s something you should do if the ground shakes, the water retreats or the ocean make a strange noise. “Run,” said Elena Suleimani, because those are signs that a tsunami is coming. “It’s a matter of minutes. Don’t return for at least twelve hours.”

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In Japan and areas like the Pacific Northwest where megathrust earthquakes are common, scientists may be able to better forecast large quakes based on periodic increases and decreases in the rate of slow, quiet slipping along the fault.

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The Disaster and Community Crisis Center (DCC) at the University of Missouri is developing tools that can help children and youth affected during this disaster as well as future events. Recently, the program released animated, online disaster preparedness videos that will aid teachers and counselors who work with school-aged children.

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Journalists are invited as guests to find great news leads and meet experts at the Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting in Arlington, VA, December 6-10, 2015.

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Researchers from the University of Southampton are using mobile phone data to monitor the movement of people affected by the earthquake in Nepal and help with the continuing relief effort in the country.

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Photographs from Google Street View before and after a major natural disaster could help researchers and civil engineers to assess the damage to buildings and improve resistance against future events, according to new research from the University of Southampton.

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FSU's internationally recognized experts are available to provide commentary on Hurricane Patricia.

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After scientists led by NASA publish a study in the journal Earth and Space Science, the U.S. Geological Survey issues statement that raises doubts on the studies earthquake forecasts for the greater Los Angeles area.

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A team of international researchers, including James Beasley, assistant professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Georgia Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and the Warnell School Forestry and Natural Resources, has discovered abundant populations of wildlife at Chernobyl, the site of the 1986 nuclear accident.

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Hurricane Joaquin could result in power failure for as many as 14 million people, according to power outage forecasts by researchers at Texas A&M University and University of Michigan.

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To combat complacency and improve disaster preparedness, a University at Buffalo researcher is heading a new project focusing on two locations: Kīlauea in the Hawaiian Islands, and the Long Valley caldera and volcanic field in eastern central California.

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A new book details, over a seven year period, the impact of Hurricane Katrina on children in New Orleans and surrounding areas. It includes insights into why and how children's post-disaster trajectories differed and provides policy recommendations for lessening children's suffering in the next disaster.

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Leading up to the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, nationally acclaimed disaster experts will gather at Tulane University for a one-day conference highlighting interdisciplinary research on outcomes for storm survivors.

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A decade after hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, experts say the flooding that caused over 1,800 deaths and billions of dollars in property damage could have been prevented had the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers retained an external review board to double-check its flood-wall designs.

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Hurricane season started June 1, and Broward College has several experts available to discuss issues surrounding hurricane preparation and awareness, including:

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Please join S&T and the Coastal Resilience Center on Twitter @dhsscitech on August 27 from 12 to 1 p.m. EST for a lively discussion about how the DHS COEs are working with the homeland security enterprise to make our nation safer and more resilient.

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Researchers from the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine presented findings at the “2015 Hurricane Sandy Conference: Translating Research into Practice,” showing that strong neighborhood relationships reduced the incidence of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder among older adults exposed to Hurricane Sandy, the superstorm that devastated the Northeast United States. The findings provide new information about how the neighborhoods where older adults live can be bolstered in the face of natural disasters.

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DePaul University faculty experts are available to provide insight and commentary on the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina from a variety of angles including climate change, race relations and social enterprise.

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According to the Sandy Child and Family Health Study, a major report on NJ residents living in Superstorm Sandy’s path, over 100,000 experienced significant structural damage to their primary homes. Conducted by Rutgers University, New York University (NYU), Columbia University and Colorado State University, research finds that tens of thousands still live with unfinished repairs, disputed claims and recurrent mold, all associated with increased odds of mental health distress, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression.

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• Among patients scheduled to have dialysis during the landfall of Hurricane Sandy at clinics where electricity had been deprived, 26.3% missed dialysis sessions and 66.1% received dialysis at non-regular dialysis units. • The percentage of patients who carried their insurance information and detailed medication lists with them were 75.9% and 44.3%, respectively.

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Aug. 29, 2015 marks the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making U.S. landfall. GW experts are available to discuss.

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Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMCNA), a division of Fresenius Medical Care (NYSE: FMS) and North America’s largest provider of kidney care, hospitalist services and renal products, today hailed a new study by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week showing that dialysis patients who received treatments immediately before Super Storm Sandy experienced a much better survival rate and less frequent visits to the hospital. FMCNA provided pre-storm, weekend care to a wide section of the area surveyed by the study, indicating that the company’s efforts made an appreciable difference in patients’ lives.

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Other topics include; do x-rays really cause cancer? And more.

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As floodwaters surge along major rivers in the midwestern United States, a new study from Washington University in St. Louis suggests federal agencies are underestimating historic 100-year flood levels on these rivers by as much as five feet, a miscalculation that has serious implications for future flood risks, flood insurance and business development in an expanding floodplain.

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The National Weather Service this summer is introducing new online forecasts based on research by a team of risk communication experts at NCAR. The new graphics will better communicate local forecasts and potential weather threats for the millions of Americans who rely on the NWS website.

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