DRC NEWS PLACEMENTS: 43
Disaster Science Reaches Out
Students provide accessible research for emergency professionals
The first topic selected for the DRC It! hurricane project focused on how residents decide whether and when to evacuate from an approaching hurricane. It’s a topic that draws intense interest from emergency management professionals each Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1.
Vulnerable communities
You would be hard pressed to find a person on the planet who hasn’t been impacted in some way by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
But some communities have been hit harder than others, particularly those vulnerable segments of society and mothers who have infants they need to feed. Others have experienced other disasters — tornadoes, drought, floods — on top of the current health crisis that can overwhelm populations and their health care and emergency preparedness systems.
How is COVID-19 Impactning Delawareans?
he University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center wants to interview as many people in and around Delaware as possible about the impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on their lives.
“What Delawareans are experiencing right now is important to contributing to a better response in future disasters,” said Tricia Wachtendorf, director of the Disaster Research Center. “Our focus is both on the University of Delaware community, but also very much on those residents, organizations, businesses and groups in and around Delaware who have been impacted.”
Clemson’s powerful football coach commits coronavirus fumble
DRC core faculty Jennifer Trivedi discusses messaging, disasters, and college football.
DRC Welcomes New Core Faculty Member
Dr. Shangjia Dong
DRC is thrilled to announce that Shangjia Dong will be joining us in fall, 2020 as part of UD’s disaster science cluster initiative.
Coastal Retreat
New study with UD researcher examines federal homeowner buyouts
he University of Delaware has been at the forefront of trying to understand where and why FEMA-funded buyouts are offered and accepted. After Hurricane Sandy, Professors Sue McNeil, Joe Trainor, and Alex Greer (then a doctoral student at UD) studied why homeowners accept FEMA-funded buyouts.
The University of Delaware has been at the forefront of trying to understand where and why Federal Emergency Management Agency-funded buyouts are offered and accepted. A new study by a team involving UD researcher A.R. Siders is the first to examine nationwide data on FEMA’s buyout program.
Adapting to climate change
When it comes to climate change, moving people and development away from at-risk areas can be viewed, not as a defeat, but as a smart strategy that allows communities to adapt and thrive.
That’s the case for carefully planned “managed retreat” made by three environmental researchers in an article published Aug. 23 in the Policy Forum section of the journal Science. The article was written by lead author A.R. Siders of the University of Delaware, with co-authors Miyuki Hino and Katharine J. Mach of Stanford University and the University of Miami, respectively.
A Celebration of Success
College of Arts and Sciences honors alumni, faculty, students
The University of Delaware’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) honored the accomplishments of alumni, faculty and students during the 2018-19 academic year at its annual spring Celebrating Achievement and Success event on Tuesday, May 21.
In Memoriam:
DRC Co-Founder Russell Dynes
Russell R. Dynes, an early pioneer in the field of disaster research and co-founder of the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center (DRC), passed away Feb. 10, 2019. He was 95.
Professor emeritus of sociology, Dr. Dynes came to Delaware in 1982, serving as chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice until 1988. During his tenure as chair, the DRC and the late Enrico Quarantelli moved to UD from Ohio State University. In 1963, Dr. Dynes and Dr. Quarantelli founded the DRC there, focusing on social science aspects of disasters. The center’s work became internationally known and developed cooperative relations with scholars around the world.
Hewlping Communities Prepare for Hurricanes
$1.99 million NSF grant supports disaster research project at UD
Katrina. Sandy. Maria. These and other hurricanes have devastated countless Americans. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that in 2018, between four and seven hurricanes will form off the Atlantic Coast, and the East Coast is recovering from the damage of Hurricane Florence. After that? The hurricanes will keep coming — that’s not a question. The question is to how to mitigate the damage when these events inevitably take place.
DRC NEWS PLACEMENTS: 43
October 31, 2023
CHEER Hub Member Awarded Funds to Host Climate-themed Video Game Jam in 2024
The supplementary funding will be used to host a video “game jam” in early 2024 and elevate women women in ocean, climate, and computer science fields.
Dr. A.R. Siders, a member of the CHEER hub and a core faculty member at the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center, has been awarded a supplementary grant from the National Science Foundation to support an oceans video “game jam” project that will connect the CHEER Hub to the United Nations Ocean Decade and Playing for the Planet initiative.
August 18, 2023
This N.J. Town Erected Barriers to Hold Back the Sea. A Public Fight Erupted.
The fray between North Wildwood, N.J., and state regulators over how to combat erosion offers a glimpse into the sort of conflicts likely to unfold more often in the age of climate change.
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.
August 4, 2023
Friday Fellow Feature: Tykeara Mims
Our featured fellow for August is TyKeara Mims, a DrPH student studying Epidemiology at Texas A&M University
Our featured fellow for August is TyKeara Mims, a DrPH student studying Epidemiology at Texas A&M University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Spelman College and a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree in Community Health Education (epidemiology minor) from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
August 3, 2023
UD Welcomes CHEER Hub Students
National Science Foundation grant helps first cohort of students to research tensions and tradeoffs in disaster preparedness.
If you follow the news, you’ve probably read headlines over the last year about hot housing markets, where limited supply and rising demand results in higher prices. You may also be aware that overpaying for a house can leave your pockets feeling empty.
It’s less likely that you’ve considered how hurricane and flooding risks affect the housing market, but that is just what Nyla Howell, a geography and environmental studies major at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, focused on this summer.
September 20, 2022
Coastal Community Resilience
UD’s Disaster Research Center awarded $16.5 million to study interplay between resilience, equity and economic prosperity
The Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware has been awarded $16.5 million from the National Science Foundation to lead a multi-institutional effort exploring the tension and tradeoffs between a community’s goals of managing hurricane risk while also achieving equity and economic prosperity.
The UD-led hub — Coastal Hazards, Equity, Economic prosperity and Resilience (CHEER) — is one of five NSF-funded projects announced recently as part of the agency’s Coastlines and People program, which is infusing $51 million in research funding to protect the natural, social and economic resources of U.S. coasts, and to help create more resilient coastal communities.
The work will require intense input from public policy, sociology, meteorology, engineering and other disciplines.
“The Disaster Research Center at UD has a long and successful track record of interdisciplinary research, analysis and problem-solving focused on some of society’s most complex challenges, so it is fitting that they will lead this latest effort,” UD President Dennis Assanis said. “Through collaboration with institutions nationwide, the CHEER hub will help make coastal communities more resilient in the face of growing threats from climate change.”
The five-year project will be led by Rachel Davidson, a core DRC faculty member and UD professor of civil and environmental engineering. Co-principal investigators include Sarah DeYoung, core DRC faculty member and associate professor of sociology and criminal justice at UD; Linda Nozick, professor and director of civil and environmental engineering at Cornell University; Brian Colle, professor and division head of atmospheric sciences at Stony Brook University; and Meghan Millea, professor of economics at East Carolina University.
July 5, 2022
Sharing Essential Messages
In these days of disinformation, misinformation and twisted words, how does anyone get an essential message out to the public in times of danger and crisis?
The Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) turned to the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center for help with this question. The DRC has decades of experience in all areas of disaster research.
The partnership has produced the third in a growing collection of research-backed tools designed to help emergency management professionals and others make smart decisions as they address a variety of crises. This one focuses on risk communication during a public health crisis.
July 21, 2021
Helping our dogs
As workers move back into the office, dogs are left alone and anxious, but there are ways to ease the transition
When the coronavirus pandemic upended the United States, among other nations, a silver lining emerged: America’s dogs were really, really happy.
Seeking connection during an isolating time, people rescued so many homeless mutts, shelters began running out. With their guardians homebound, these pooches experienced regular snuggling, belly rubbing and behind-the-ear scratching.
June 11, 2021
UD Researcher Examines How Pets are Managed During Disasters
Sarah DeYoung, a UD professor, is co-author of a new book that examines how pets are managed during disasters and provides tips for keeping them safe.
August 28, 2020
Lessons from Katrina
New book details the recovery and provides lessons for current hurricane season
Jennifer Trivedi prepares for the release of her new book, Mississippi after Katrina: Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction on the Gulf Coast. The book, which centers on Biloxi, was years in the making — she spent six weeks there in 2006 and another 11 months there in 2010-2011, around the fifth anniversary, with extra trips sprinkled in.