![]() ![]() ![]() Hurricane Katrina played an important role in my decision to come to Northeastern and launch the new Master of Science in Security and Resilience Studies program. In what ways has the impact of Hurricane Katrina affected the courses you teach? It is insane to simply fix what is damaged and return to “business as usual.” The goal must be to rebuild better and smarter. Lastly, there is a new appreciation for how important it is to plan for and invest in recovery and adaptation after a disaster. Louis demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to pull together and rebuild in the aftermath of the storm. ![]() ![]() Along the Gulf Coast, hard-hit communities in Mississippi like Gulfport, Biloxi, and Bay St. “Green infrastructure” such as wetlands and sand dunes can play as important a role in protecting a community from storm surge as a floodwall.Īnother is the importance of social capital when it comes to coping with a disaster. One of the most important resilience-related outcomes from Hurricane Katrina has been a stronger appreciation for the role of the natural environment in either reducing or elevating resilience. What advancements or new practices have the resiliency field adopted as a direct result of Hurricane Katrina? Equally important is investing in mitigation and recovery measures. They are also working with emergency management professionals on helping communities go beyond improving their readiness to respond to a disaster. Resilience experts are informing planners on how to calibrate a mix of design, conservation, and sustainability efforts so that built and natural environments are better able to meet the challenges of rising sea levels and extreme weather. Climate change is real and coastal cities like Boston, New York, Miami, and Norfolk, Virginia, are increasingly in the crosshairs of the risks associated with it. Today, there is a growing recognition among urban planners and developers that the tragedy New Orleans experienced a decade ago could still happen in many of the places where we live. Second, you can’t prevent hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires so you have to be willing to invest in ways to mitigate their impact and be prepared to nimbly respond to and recover from them. First, naturally occurring disasters can cause as much or even more mischief than man-made threats. When Katrina roared ashore on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and triggered the flooding of New Orleans, it served as a brutal reminder of two things. In the aftermath of 9/11, Americans became fixated on the risk of terrorism to the exclusion of almost all other hazards, and our elected leaders aggressively pursued a “prevention-at-all-costs” approach to confronting that risk. Perhaps the one silver lining to arise from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina is that it helped spark a growing focus on bolstering resilience as a national imperative. How has Hurricane Katrina influenced how resiliency experts, emergency management officials, and urban developers have approached their work over the past decade? Here, Flynn examines what the resiliency field learned from Hurricane Katrina and how it has influenced his work. Many evacuees have still not returned home.Īmong the many lessons learned in the aftermath is how to improve infrastructure resilience and disaster mitigation, says professor of political science Stephen Flynn, who is the director of Northeastern’s Center for Resilience Studies and co-director of the George J. Thousands of lives were lost and entire neighborhoods were wiped out. The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina a decade ago is still being felt today along the Gulf Coast. This is the second story in three-part series commemorating the 10th anniversary of what FEMA called the single most catastrophic natural disaster in U.S. history. ![]()
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