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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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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Journalists interested in interviewing our experts?
Call 1-302-NEWS or email us at mediarelations@udel.edu

DRC MEDIA PLACEMENTS: 232


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Pushed by lawmakers and the formula shortage, FEMA boosts efforts to support breastfeeding families during disasters

EXPERT: Sarah E. DeYoung
FEATURED IN: The 19th — Monday, June 6, 2022
OVERVIEW: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) updated its website last week to make clear that breastfeeding resources are eligible for financial assistance for families affected by disasters – a message that’s all the more crucial as parents contend with a nationwide formula shortage. …
 
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As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

EXPERT: Sarah E. DeYoung
FEATURED IN: The 19th — Thursday, May 5, 2022
OVERVIEW: When Hurricane Laura hit Louisiana in August 2020, over 10,500 residents from the southwestern part of the state fled their homes for New Orleans. A central evacuation resource hub where evacuees could go to find basic necessities like food, water and clothing was set up downtown. …
 
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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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DRC MEDIA PLACEMENTS: 232

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Advocacy groups call for including Type 1 diabetes among prioritized vaccine recipients

EXPERT: Jennifer Horney
FEATURED IN: The Hill — Thursday, January 21, 2021
OVERVIEW: Jennifer Horney, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Delaware, said a reason why Type 1 diabetes may not have been initially considered as an underlying condition is because of the other health effects of Type 2 that have garnered more attention from the medical community.
 
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EXPERT: Tricia Wachtendorf
FEATURED IN: Florida News Station: My News 13 — Wednesday, January 13, 2021
OVERVIEW: “You gain trust in drops and lose it in buckets,” – DRC director Tricia Wachtendorf on COIVD-19 missteps on communication and the challenges that lie ahead when another disaster strikes.
 
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Older and less healthy

EXPERT: Tricia Wachtendorf
FEATURED IN: Healthline — Wednesday, January 13, 2021
OVERVIEW: “Less dense areas might be at an advantage compared to geographic areas that are more densely populated, and they may also be less connected to some areas where there’s a concentrated case,” Wachtendorf said. …
 
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Local response to chaos at the capitol

EXPERT: Tricia Wachtendorf
FEATURED IN: ABC 6 Action News — Tuesday, January 12, 2021
OVERVIEW: Matt O’ Donnell spoke with Tricia Wachtendorf University of Delaware’s Director of Disaster Research and Professor of Sociology & Criminal Justice. They discuss how major catastrophes (COVID, weather events, insurgence,) expose other major issues & can spur tremendous change in society.
 
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Genie Chance and the Great Alaska Earthquake: An Update

EXPERT: Tricia Wachtendorf
FEATURED IN: The New York Times: The Daily — Thursday, December 31, 2020
OVERVIEW:
 
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Genie Chance Alaska Earthquake

EXPERT: Tricia Wachtendorf
FEATURED IN: The New York Times — Thursday, December 31, 2020
OVERVIEW:
 
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Eliminate Billion-Dollar Disasters: Equitable Science-Based Disaster Policy for a Resilient Future

EXPERT: A.R. Siders
FEATURED IN: dayoneproject.org — Thursday, December 3, 2020
OVERVIEW: Dr. A.R. Siders’s has been working with two faculty at the University of Maryland to write up a short policy brief on how the Biden Administration could overhaul disaster policy in the US to make it more equitable and transparent. Their recommendations are being released online and are in the short document available for download on the website.
 
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Entangled Roots and Otherwise Possibilities: An Anthropology of Disasters COVID-19 Research Agenda

EXPERT: Jennifer Trivedi
FEATURED IN: — Wednesday, December 2, 2020
OVERVIEW:
 
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Disasters Leave a Rise in Suicides in Their Wake: Study

EXPERT: Jennifer Horney
FEATURED IN: U.S. News and World Report — Friday, November 20, 2020
OVERVIEW: Researchers found that the severe emotional distress and anxiety for those who have lived through major disasters can also lead to suicide. The authors examined 281 natural disasters during a 12-year period and their impact on suicide rates in those communities. …
 
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Disasters Leave a Rise in Suicides in Their Wake: Study

EXPERT: Jennifer Horney
FEATURED IN: U.S. News — Friday, November 20, 2020
OVERVIEW: Researchers found that the severe emotional distress and anxiety for those who have lived through major disasters can also lead to suicide. “That finding is important, I think, because those could be preventable deaths with better disaster preparedness and response,” said study author Jennifer Horney, founding director of the epidemiology program in the College of Health Sciences at the University of Delaware.
 
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