DRC in the Media

The University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center is home to renowned experts who share insights from their research to better understand breaking news, developing events, and the complex conditions that lead to disaster. Offering a broad range of disciplinary perspectives and expertise, they have been cited in such outlets as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. Discover what our experts have to say:

DRC in the Media

FEATURED DRC MEDIA PLACEMENTS

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Evacuating is expensive. Recovery is long and hard.

EXPERT: Jennifer Trivedi
 
FEATURED IN: Perci — Monday, September 18, 2023
 
OVERVIEW: “Jennifer Trivedi, Assistant Professor of Anthropology is Core Faculty at University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center. She studies “the people . . . part of disasters. How people make decisions before, during and after a disaster and what influences those decisions – their personal histories and circumstances as well as larger social and cultural contexts they find themselves in.” She spoke with us recently. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.” …
 
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This N.J. town erected barriers to hold back the sea. A public fight erupted.

EXPERT: A.R. Siders
 
FEATURED IN: Washington Post — Friday, August 18, 2023
 
OVERVIEW: NORTH WILDWOOD, N.J. — From atop the local lifeguard headquarters, Mayor Patrick Rosenello looks out over the shrinking shoreline of his . . . hometown.

To the north, past the kaleidoscope of umbrellas that dot the beach, he can see the massive bulkheads the city has installed to hold back the encroaching sea — the same ones at the heart of an ongoing fight with the state, which has sued North Wildwood and fined it more than $8.5 million for that and other work it says was unauthorized, misguided and destructive.
 
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A history of Hawaii’s sirens and the difference it could have made against Maui fires

EXPERT: Sarah Elizabeth DeYoung
 
FEATURED IN: National Public Radio (NPR) — Monday, August 14, 2023
 
OVERVIEW: DRC Core Faculty contributed to this recent article on the key factors that should be considered in warning systems in the context of the #MauiFires
 
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Journalists interested in interviewing our experts?
Call 1-302-NEWS or email us at mediarelations@udel.edu

DRC MEDIA PLACEMENTS: 230


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Prediction of population behavior in hurricanes

EXPERT: Prosper Kosi Anyidoho
FEATURED IN: No longer available — Friday, April 1, 2022
OVERVIEW: My new publication on the “Prediction of population behavior in hurricanes”
 
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Regional county-level housing inventory predictions and the effects on hurricane risk

EXPERT: Caroline Williams
FEATURED IN: Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences — Wednesday, March 30, 2022
OVERVIEW: Regional hurricane risk is often assessed assuming a static housing inventory, yet a region’s housing inventory changes continually. Failing to include changes in the built environment in hurricane risk modeling can substantially underestimate expected losses. This study uses publicly available data and a long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network model to forecast the annual number of housing units for each of 1000 individual counties in the southeastern United States over the next 20 years. …
 
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Here’s how disaster declarations work—and why aid takes so long

EXPERT: Jennifer Trivedi
FEATURED IN: Southerly — Friday, February 18, 2022
OVERVIEW: Last year, 58 major natural disasters hit the United States. Twenty-one of those disasters caused $1 billion or more in damage, making 2021 the third costliest year for natural disasters, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Last year’s were also the deadliest since 2011. …
 
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How Bitcoin Adoption Could Bring Major Prosperity to Puerto Rico

EXPERT: Christopher Tharp
FEATURED IN: Bitcoin Magazine — Sunday, January 30, 2022
OVERVIEW: By 2017, I was peripherally aware of the existence of Bitcoin as an idea, though it remained unknown to me as a global phenomenon. I had yet to learn about Bitcoin as the antifragile and sovereign monetary system able to compete globally at scale with the U.S. dollar — as the political economic worldview grounded in anarcho-capitalist, “cypherpunk” philosophies of power, value, individual autonomy and mutualist community sovereignty. …
 
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Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Initial Assessment Report

EXPERT: Eileen Young
FEATURED IN: FEMA — Thursday, December 23, 2021
OVERVIEW: FEMA’s IAR reviews the first several months of the COVID-19 response. I helped in this as a contractor on the survey team, reviewing early surveys done in the regions, working with my supervisor to develop and conduct the FEMA-wide survey, and taking point on all the survey analytics. I also wrote the data callout on PDF page 70 of the IAR, but mostly I did the survey stuff. …
 
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Hurricane Ida destroyed affordable rental units, hundreds of families still can’t find new ones

EXPERT: Jennifer Trivedi
FEATURED IN: The Philadelphia Inquirer — Thursday, December 9, 2021
OVERVIEW: “If you’re already in a precarious situation financially … that narrow slice of availability can get erased,” said Jennifer Trivedi, a faculty member at the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center. …
 
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A Disastrous Book Collection: How a Tornado Inspired a Student’s Journey

EXPERT: Logan Gerber-Chavez
FEATURED IN: — Tuesday, November 16, 2021
OVERVIEW: First in a series of articles highlighting the winners of the third annual Seth Trotter Book Collecting Contest, sponsored by the Friends of the University of Delaware Library. Fourth-year doctoral student in the Disaster Science and Management Program at the University of Delaware, Logan Gerber-Chavez collection recounting stories of tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, mining spills, climate change, toxic chemical exposure, pandemics and more. …
 
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Newark rally calls for action on climate change

EXPERT: Sarah DeYoung
FEATURED IN: Newark Post Online — Monday, November 8, 2021
OVERVIEW: More than 100 demonstrators gathered in Newark’s Kells Park on Sunday during a rally calling for action on climate change. The rally was planned to coincide with the COP26 Climate Summit in Scotland, where world leaders have gathered to discuss ways to combat climate change. …
 
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New study shows pandemic response has swamped workforce and crippled other services

EXPERT: Jennifer Horney
FEATURED IN: UDaily — Thursday, October 21, 2021
OVERVIEW: The cruel impact of COVID-19, the virus that emerged in late 2019 and has claimed 5 million lives to date, is chronicled in daily headlines. It has robbed us of loved ones, jobs, plans and so much more. The impact on those who treat the sick and dying has been the focus of much study and the exhaustion of health care workers pulling extra shifts and covering for inadequate staffing is well documented. …
 
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All Animals Must Be Safe and Sound During Disasters

EXPERT: Sarah DeYoung
FEATURED IN: Psychology Today — Friday, September 17, 2021
OVERVIEW: I recently read a riveting and most important book by Drs. Sarah DeYoung and Ashley Farmer titled All Creatures Safe and Sound: The Social Landscape of Pets in Disasters, in which the authors offer, “a comprehensive study of what goes wrong in our disaster response that shows how people can better manage pets in emergencies—from the household level to the large-scale, national level,” and conducted on-the-ground research at seven recent disasters in the United States. …
 
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DRC MEDIA PLACEMENTS: 230

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COVID-19: Exploring the unanswered questions (Video)

EXPERT: Jennifer Horney
FEATURED IN: Newswise.com — Monday, March 16, 2020
OVERVIEW: Jennifer Horney joins the Newswise Live Expert Panel discussion on unique angles to the COVID-19 outbreak of interest to the public and the media, including public health, testing, business and financial markets, 2020 elections and more.
 
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The Big Rhetorical Podcast Episode 34

EXPERT: Jenn Trivedi
FEATURED IN: The Big Rhetorical Podcast — Monday, March 16, 2020
OVERVIEW: Charles Woods covers academic and institutional responses to the COVID-19 global pandemic. This episode features three guests: Dr. Jenn Trivedi, Assistant Professor and Core Faculty Member at the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware, Allegra Smith, Ph.D. student and Assistant Director of the Purdue Professional Writing Program at Purdue University, and Alek Janakievski, an undergraduate student at the University of Dayton.
 
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EXPERT: Tricia Wachtendorf
FEATURED IN: MarketWatch: Outside the Box — Monday, March 16, 2020
OVERVIEW: Opinion written by Tricia Wachtendorf, Professor of Sociology at University of Delaware and Director of the Disaster Research Center. “But rather than focus too much attention on that choice, what we should instead be concerned about is how supply chains and related just-in-time or vendor-management inventory models are highly efficient during routine times, but prove less agile with the sudden and uncertain conditions of an emerging crisis” says Wachtendorf.
 
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Trump says pandemic crisis was unforeseen, but lots of people foresaw it

EXPERT: Jennifer Horney
FEATURED IN: CNN.com — Sunday, March 15, 2020
OVERVIEW: “I think everyone is well aware that our travel, economy — everything — is so closely linked globally that there would be almost no potential for an infectious disease not to spread globally at this point,” said Jennifer Horney.
 
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In the U.S. coronavirus crisis, the buck stops here,

EXPERT: Jennifer Horney
FEATURED IN: Deutsche Welle — Friday, March 13, 2020
OVERVIEW: The World Health Organization is advising consumers to use contactless payments whenever possible. Epidemiologist Jennifer Horney says this is essential because even in advanced countries where mobile payment is widespread, infections couldn’t be contained.
 
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What does it mean to declare a pandemic?

EXPERT: Jennifer Horney
FEATURED IN: Healthline.com — Thursday, March 12, 2020
OVERVIEW:
 
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Confusing Oval Office address failed to calm public’s virus fears, experts say

EXPERT: Jennifer Horney
FEATURED IN: Sinclair Broadcast Group — Thursday, March 12, 2020
OVERVIEW:
 
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Handling travel concerns as coronavirus anxieties continue

EXPERT: Jennifer Horney
FEATURED IN: EverydayHealth.com — Tuesday, March 10, 2020
OVERVIEW: Although the number of COVID-19 cases is growing, Jennifer Horney, PhD, professor of epidemiology and core faculty with the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware, encourages people to proceed cautiously but not to overreact.
 
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Coins carry virus better than paper money, experts say as China begins sterilizing cash

EXPERT: Jennifer Horney
FEATURED IN: BusinessInsider.com — Tuesday, March 10, 2020
OVERVIEW: How should you handle your money in the times of COVID-19? Epidemiologist Jennifer Horney of the University of Delaware says credit cards are least risky to use, since those can be wiped down.
 
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Fact Check: White House falsely claims the coronavirus has been contained in the U.S.

EXPERT: Jennifer Horney
FEATURED IN: CNN.com — Saturday, March 7, 2020
OVERVIEW: “As many states in the US report an increasing number of cases, I do not believe it would be accurate to say that COVID-19 is contained globally or in the US,” said Jennifer Horney, professor and founding director of the epidemiology program at the University of Delaware.
 
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