Emergency Preparedness Experts Available to Discuss Pakistan Flood Crisis

ALBANY, N.Y. (Sept. 13, 2022) — Pakistan is facing a massive humanitarian crisis after months of heavy, record-breaking rainfall has left one-third of the country underwater.

As of last week, the cumulative number of related deaths since June rose to more than 1,200, the country's National Disaster Management Authority reported. Nearly a half million people have been forced to leave their homes and move into temporary shelters.

The flooding has been described as the worst the country has ever seen, with experts directly connecting it to human-driven climate change, illustrating how countries with the lowest contributions to global warming are becoming increasingly vulnerable to its effects.

Experts at the University at Albany are available to discuss Pakistan’s response to the devastating floods and the urgent need for additional international aid, including:

Samantha Penta, assistant professor, College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity

Penta’s research focuses on health and medical care in crises, decision-making in preparedness and response, and humanitarian logistics. She has worked on projects examining evacuation and preparedness challenges for long-term care facilities, disaster donations behavior, and community recovery and resilience to disasters and epidemics. 

Her most recent work examines the processes involved in planning and implementing international crisis medical relief efforts, focusing on health and medical responses to the 2015 Nepal earthquake and the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

Quote:

“Providing relief to affected communities is going to be a huge logistical undertaking. The disruption to critical infrastructure and lifeline systems is generating substantial need across Pakistan, and it is those very same disruptions that make delivering that aid so challenging. Even as relief directed towards immediate needs makes it to affected populations, the severity and geographic scale of the flooding means that the country will face years of recovery. People affected by these floods will need assistance long after the immediate response comes to an end.”

Amber Silver, assistant professor, College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity

Silver’s primary research interests focus on how individuals and groups make decisions before, during, and after high-impact weather. More specifically, she is interested in the roles that public attention, risk perception, and communication play in protective action decision making during extreme events.

Her most recent research focuses on the ways that new technologies, including social media, influence how individuals obtain, interpret and respond to official and unofficial warning information.

Quote:

“The sheer scope of the unfolding humanitarian disaster in Pakistan has underscored the complex and nuanced relationship between people and their environment, particularly in the context of global climate change.”

About the University at Albany: 

A comprehensive public research university, the University at Albany-SUNY offers more than 120 undergraduate majors and minors and 125 master’s, doctoral and graduate certificate programs. UAlbany is a leader among all New York State colleges and universities in such diverse fields as atmospheric and environmental sciences, business, education, public health, health sciences, criminal justice, emergency preparedness, engineering and applied sciences, informatics, public administration, social welfare and sociology, taught by an extensive roster of faculty experts. It also offers expanded academic and research opportunities for students through an affiliation with Albany Law School. With a curriculum enhanced by 600 study-abroad opportunities, UAlbany launches great careers.

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