Newswise — From prediction to recovery, Florida State University's experts are among the best in the nation when it comes to the study of hurricanes and their impact on people and property. These experts are available to answer media questions and give perspective to news stories throughout the 2007 hurricane season.
FORECASTING, FORMATION AND TRACKING
* James Elsner, professor of geography. Elsner is an expert on hurricanes and statistical models for long-range prediction. His research is on developing the science and technology for modeling the risk of a catastrophic storm along our nation's coastline. He studies the relationship of hurricanes to climate factors including El Niño and global warming. His recent work compares hurricane activity along the Gulf Coast measured from historical and geological records.
* T.N. Krishnamurti, professor of meteorology. Krishnamurti is an international expert in computer modeling in tropical meteorology and numerical weather prediction. He developed the Super Ensemble technique that collects forecasts made by a world community of models and yields a best consensus long-range track, landfall and intensity forecast. In 1999, he became one of the few Americans ever to win the International Meteorological Organization Prize, the world's top meteorology award.
* James J. O'Brien, the emeritus Robert 0. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Meteorology and Oceanography and former director of the FSU Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies. An internationally known expert on El Niño and related weather phenomena, O'Brien also is the past state climatologist of Florida. He believes that global climate change is not, in fact, causing an increase in the intensity or number of hurricanes. He can discuss the influence of climate variability on hurricanes.
* Paul Ruscher, associate professor of meteorology. Ruscher is working with graduate students on issues related to hurricane intensification changes at landfall and on small-scale boundary layer interactions affecting hurricane strength. During the past few years, many new high-density data sets and improved numerical models have become available that allow scientists to study such rapid intensity changes. In addition, Ruscher directs the K-12 activities of the meteorology department, which provides an up-to-date Web site for teachers and the general public on the status of storms in the Atlantic basin. Visit www.met.fsu.edu/explores/tropical.html for information throughout the season.
HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT AND SAFETY
* Jeff Chanton, the John Widmer Winchester Professor of Oceanography. Chanton's research focuses on the production and release of greenhouse gases, such as methane and carbon dioxide. He can discuss the freshwater needs of estuaries and the coastal ocean and groundwater discharge and emissions into the Gulf of Mexico.
* Katherine Mason, professor and dean of the School of Nursing. Mason, a past president of the Florida Nurses Association, has extensive expertise and experience in disaster-related public health services delivery. She can discuss the recruitment, education, deployment and management of health care practitioners; the opening and management of public shelters; and surveillance for detection and prevention of communicable disease.
* Todd L. Walton Jr., director of FSU's Beaches and Shores Resource Center.Walton is an expert on storm-related coastal erosion. Under his leadership, the Beaches and Shores Resource Center gives technical guidance to the state for the Coastal Construction Control Line Program, which provides protection for Florida's beaches and dunes while assuring the reasonable use of private property. In addition, the center has provided research to improve the accuracy of estimations regarding the storm tide return period, dune erosion and beach nourishment performance.
PREPAREDNESS
* Earl J. "Jay" Baker, associate professor of geography. Baker, a founding member of the National Hurricane Conference, is an expert on human response to hurricanes. Baker studies how people respond to warnings and evacuation orders and how emergency managers use forecasts to implement evacuation plans. He has studied vulnerability perceptions and hurricane preparedness of people in most areas of the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coasts and is extending that work to the Mid-Atlantic states and New York City. He is currently studying how well prepared households are to subsist on their own following a hurricane.
RESPONSE AND RECOVERY
* Robert Deyle, professor of urban and regional planning. Deyle has expertise in hurricane hazard mitigation and disaster recovery planning. He and a colleague developed a gaming simulation for training local officials about hurricane recovery planning, operations and decision making. He co-authored a best practices handbook for the Florida Department of Community Affairs that provides guidance to local governments for integrating hazard mitigation and recovery planning into comprehensive plans. In addition, he and two other researchers recently completed an analysis of the effectiveness of local growth management policies in reducing community vulnerability to hurricane flooding and the impact of growth in coastal communities on hurricane evacuation clearance times.
RISK AND INSURANCE
* Randy E. Dumm, associate professor of risk and insurance. Dumm is an expert on the impact of hurricane losses on insurance prices and availability in Florida and how modeling is used to determine the pricing of the hurricane component of residential property insurance. He is chairman of the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology and can discuss the commission's goals, objectives and purpose.
STRESS, TRAUMA AND GRIEF
* Charles Figley, professor of social work and director of the FSU Traumatology Institute. Figley has achieved international recognition for his work in the area of psychological stress, traumatology and compassion fatigue, and in 2005 he coined the term "hurricane fatigue" in reference to the psychological impact of the repeated battering from storms. He also can discuss the role of National Guard services and compassion fatigue in the animal care community in the wake of disasters. * Wayne A. Hochwarter, professor of management. Hochwarter has studied the long-term effects of stress on employees as they return to the workplace following a hurricane. Such effects include increased rates of depression and anxiety, higher incidences of interpersonal conflict at work, higher levels of organizational cynicism and increased rates of employee burnout. The ramifications for employers include higher rates of employee turnover, more absenteeism and reduced productivity.
TOURISM
* Mark Bonn, the Robert H. Dedman Professor in Services Management. Bonn is an expert on the effects that hurricanes have on the tourism industry in Florida. His areas of research and expertise also include hospitality, travel and tourism services as they relate to marketing and quality.
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