Natural Disasters

"The most critical problems related to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina are related less to the lack of technological solutions than to the absence of a sound national policy for dealing with such events," says Shahin Vassigh, associate professor of architecture at the University at Buffalo.

The hundreds of thousands of refugees from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina join 25 million people worldwide displaced by environmental catastrophes, events and processes, according to Lynda Schneekloth, professor of architecture at the University at Buffalo.

While the victims of Hurricane Katrina have begun to grieve by expressing their anger at the shortcomings of relief efforts intended to help them, they can not yet mourn the losses they have incurred because they themselves are still struggling to survive, says Thomas T. Frantz, a University at Buffalo professor who is an expert on bereavement counseling and grief education.

The media, especially TV media, are clearly uncomfortable discussing issues of race or racism in its coverage of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, according to Elayne Rapping, a media critic and pop-culture expert at the University at Buffalo.

A federal policy of urban neglect is partly to blame for the extensive damage done to New Orleans by Katrina and the disastrous conditions left in its wake, according to Mark Gottdiener, Ph.D., an expert on urban culture and policy.

While Louisiana and Mississippi residents struggle to evacuate, to relocate and -- above all else, to survive -- many of the youngest among them face years of recovery from a variety of traumas Hurricane Katrina has dispersed upon them.

Intestinal diseases like diarrhea and dysentery, along with outbreaks of West Nile virus, are likely to occur because of floodwaters affecting New Orleans and other areas along the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, according to microbiologist Iain Hay at the University at Buffalo.

The hundreds of thousands of Gulf coast residents left homeless by Hurricane Katrina have not only lost their homes, possessions and possibly loved ones, they also have lost their sense of security, says Hilary Weaver, associate professor of social work at the University at Buffalo.

Efforts to remove floodwaters from New Orleans should focus on flood bypass, strategic pumping and channel improvement, according to Christina Tsai, Ph.D., an expert on open-channel hydraulics and water-resources engineering at the University at Buffalo.

Techniques developed to safeguard buildings from earthquakes developed by engineers such as those affiliated with the University at Buffalo's internationally known Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research may be key to protecting buildings and bridges from the kind of widespread damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.