Health Risks Are Rising in Mountain Areas Flooded by Hurricane Helene and Cut Off From Clean Water, Power and Hospitals

EXPERT: Sarabeth Baxter Lowe
FEATURED IN: The Conversation — Tuesday, October 1, 2024
OVERVIEW: Hurricane Helene’s flooding has subsided, but health risks are growing in hard-hit regions of the North Carolina mountains, where many people lost access to power and clean water. …
 
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Planning Now for the Disasters of Tomorrow

EXPERT: Jennifer M Trivedi
FEATURED IN: UDaily — Saturday, August 10, 2024
OVERVIEW: “Disasters know no boundary lines. Floods, earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, drought, conflict — they happen anywhere and everywhere on our planet. It’s why the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center (DRC) has a global reach, and it’s why that reach has global impact. You could see both DRC’s reach and impact during a daylong workshop for graduate students, held during its 60th anniversary celebration earlier this year. The study and work those students were doing will help policy makers and leaders around the world prepare for disasters of the future.”…
 
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How heat and a hurricane combined for misery in Houston

EXPERT: Jennifer M Trivedi
FEATURED IN: E&E News by Politico — Friday, July 19, 2024
OVERVIEW: “Compound disasters such as hurricanes and heat waves are increasingly testing Texas and other states along the Gulf of Mexico, said Jennifer Trivedi, an expert on disaster vulnerability at the University of Delaware. […]”

“‘There’s a phrase people use: “There’s’ no such thing as a natural disaster,”‘ Trivedi said. ‘Really what we mean by that is there is always some sort of human intervention, human decision-making, human structures that are shaping the systems that really ramp a hazard into a disaster.’ […]”

“At the same time, experts say equitable citywide access to cooling centers and other emergency resources is crucial for protecting vulnerable populations when the lights do go out. And, in the long term, building up climate resilience in socially vulnerable communities is key to better outcomes when disasters strike. ‘It really is an equity question,’ Trivedi said. ‘That’s something that has to be part of these conversations.’ […]”
 
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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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Friday Fellow Feature: Tykeara Mims

EXPERT: Sarabeth Lowe
FEATURED IN: The Bill Anderson Fund — Friday, August 4, 2023
OVERVIEW: 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. …
 
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A Caribbean island’s quest to become the world’s first climate-resilient nation

EXPERT: Jennifer Trivedi
FEATURED IN: BBC — Wednesday, April 19, 2023
OVERVIEW: … “This element of neighbourly communication is hugely important for early warning systems, says Jennifer Trivedi, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center. ‘Often, when I ask people in the field where they heard about an incoming hurricane, or changing floodwaters, they talk about hearing it from friends or neighbours,’ she says. ‘Someone knocked on their door. A friend called their house. They heard about it at church. Those networks are essential because people know them, they trust them.’ This intricate communication chain provides important layers to reach people in more ways, she adds, over and above warnings sent to smartphones. ‘We can’t expect that will be the only warning system. Many people around the world don’t have [a smartphone], don’t use all its capabilities, or maybe they’re in an area that doesn’t get a signal as well.'”…

…”For Trivedi, habitability ultimately hinges on cooperation between people on many different levels – from local cultural decision-making to international policy changes. ‘Keeping areas habitable is a decision that has to be made not only in local city halls, but also in spaces like the United Nations.'”…
 
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How I Teach – Anthropology

EXPERT: Jennifer Trivedi
FEATURED IN: UDaily — Tuesday, April 11, 2023
OVERVIEW: “How I Teach – Anthropology” featuring Dr. Kedron Thomas and speaking with Dr. Jennifer Trivedi. “An applied anthropologist, Trivedi said she wants her students — regardless of their class year or major — to learn the fundamentals of the discipline and, most importantly, how they can use that knowledge in their daily lives.”
 
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What Happened to Us

EXPERT: Valerie Marlowe
FEATURED IN: New York Times Magazine — Wednesday, February 22, 2023
OVERVIEW: Quoted in an article re: Columbia’s COVID-19 Oral History Project
 
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How to Support Employees with High-Risk Concerns During a COVID-19 Outbreak

EXPERT: Jenn Trivedi
FEATURED IN: SHRM.com — Tuesday, March 24, 2020
OVERVIEW: “If they absolutely have to come to work, everyone and every space they’re in contact with needs to take recommended precautions,” said Jennifer Trivedi of the University of Delaware Disaster Research Center.
 
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The balance between climate change and the coronavirus disaster

EXPERT: James Kendra
FEATURED IN: EcoRight News — Tuesday, March 24, 2020
OVERVIEW:
 
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Frontline healthcare workers in China report high rates of anxiety, street, depression, and insomnia since the coronavirus outbreak began

EXPERT: Jennifer Horney
FEATURED IN: Insider.com — Tuesday, March 24, 2020
OVERVIEW: Jennifer Horney, an epidemiologist at the University of Delaware, told Insider that other disaster studies also found that women were more likely to develop anxiety and depression than men.
 
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COVID-19, panic, social distancing and interventions

EXPERT: Jennifer Horney
FEATURED IN: The Financial Express — Tuesday, March 24, 2020
OVERVIEW: Dr. Jennifer Horney, a leading expert and director of epidemiology at the University of Delaware, observes that a little more panic that provides a sense of control could be particularly helpful as a coping strategy as long as it does not impact others equally in distress, following public health interventions such as self-isolation or quarantine.
 
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FEMA Tackles COVID-19 While Also Facing Past Disasters, Spring Flood Season

EXPERT: James Kendra
FEATURED IN: Insurance Journal — Monday, March 23, 2020
OVERVIEW: The Insurance Journal quotes an article from Bloomberg News where James Kendra, who directs the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware, discusses FEMA’s limits.
 
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Why it’s so important to flatten the curve

EXPERT: Jennifer Horney
FEATURED IN: Delaware State News — Monday, March 23, 2020
OVERVIEW: Article by Jennifer Horney and Katie Kirsch dives into the importance of slowing the spread of COVID-19.
 
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COVID-19 Challenges the Psyche of a Fractured Nation

EXPERT: Tricia Wachtendorf
FEATURED IN: U.S. News — Monday, March 23, 2020
OVERVIEW:
 
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Coronavirus and Climate Change Could Stretch FEMA Past Its Limit

EXPERT: James Kendra
FEATURED IN: Bloomberg News — Saturday, March 21, 2020
OVERVIEW:
 
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How to Triage Patients Who Need Intensive Care

EXPERT: Jennifer Horney
FEATURED IN: Scientific America — Friday, March 20, 2020
OVERVIEW: Patients with COVID-19 have inundated hospitals in Italy, forcing doctors to make agonizing decisions about who should receive lifesaving care. Patient surges could soon demand distressing triage decisions in U.S. intensive care units (ICUs), too. As of Thursday, there were more than 13,000 confirmed cases in the U.S., and the nationwide death toll had risen to 175. …
 
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How are professors coping with the sudden campus closure

EXPERT: Jennifer Trivedi
FEATURED IN: The Review — Friday, March 20, 2020
OVERVIEW: The university’s announcement to move spring break up to March 14, much like coronavirus, took everyone by surprise. Uncertainty and confusion followed the notice, issued after multiple members of the university community tested positive for the disease. …
 
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