Geography Alumni Respond to Disaster

Isaac Brewer, Ph.D. 2005

Isaac left on Tuesday, August 30 to go to Atlanta. He may be moving to New Orleans, but is planning to send updates from the field.

Isaac is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in Penn State's School of Information Science and Technology, funded by the Department of Central Intelligence. Read more about the Intelligence Community (IC) Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program. His dissertation dealt with geo-spatial technologies in emergency response management, with a focus on hurricanes.

Update #1

(Based on the Centre Daily Times, Sept. 23, 2005)

Issac recently returned from Atlanta with a native of Louisiana. Read the Centre Daily Times article, "Researcher helps La. man get back on his feet" for more information. Isaac is planning a return trip to the south this coming week, where he will pick up his truck, then head to Tallahassee, Fla., to work on disaster recovery there.

Kara Deutsch, B.S. 1998

Kara left on Tuesday, August 30 and will be on disaster-relief duty starting in Memphis for at least the next month. She is planning to send updates from the field.

Kara is an Environmental Protection Specialist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District. She is one of eight employees deployed to provide emergency management support along
the Gulf Coast. Read a press release from the Baltimore District, Public Affairs Office for more information.

Update #1

Tuesday, September 6, 2005

It's been pretty hectic ramping up down here. We were in Memphis for a few days, and our mission management team drove down to Baton Rouge last Friday. The Army Corps of Engineers supports the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) under the National Response Plan. I am officially the Mission Specialist but splitting the position of Mission Manager as well. We are working in the FEMA office currently set up here in Baton Rouge. We are responsible for the debris mission for Louisiana. Most parishes near Baton Rouge and west had very little debris, and the little they had was vegetative (tree limbs, etc.). East of Baton Rouge gets more into damage to structures the more you move towards the place of landfall. Several parishes are still flooded, but many homes in the eastern parishes are destroyed. The Corps will work on demolition and debris removal/disposal for those parishes, as requested.

The Corps also has ice, water, housing, roofing, and power missions. Things are getting rolling here and we are picking up debris in several parishes already.

Love to all.

Kara

Kelly Vanderbrink, B.S. 2004; Current M.S. student

A Letter from Jocelyn M. Vanderbrink on behalf of Kelly Vanderbrink:

On September 2, Kelly Vanderbrink ('04 BS Geog), a second year master of science student, was deployed to provide disaster relief in Louisiana. He is currently stationed in Hammond, LA which is approximately twenty miles north of Lake Pontchartrain.

After a slow first ten days (lots of driving, debriefings, and paperwork), his National Guard unit has received several missions. To date these missions have involved food distribution and escorting tractor trailers into New Orleans (apparently a truck carrying supplies into the city was highjacked). Most recently his unit was informed that it would be conducting a recon mission in the Bayou. They were not given specific details on what the mission would entail but were told to pack infrared goggles. Needless to say, Kelly was excited to be using his military training and expertise.

Kelly anticipates returning to school at the beginning of October. In the meantime, he is keeping a journal and catching up on reading some articles.

Andy Vlack, Current student in the MGIS program

A Letter from Andy Vlack:

I just got the call from FEMA giving me the green light. I'm being sent to Jackson, Mississippi as my staging area, and then I will be sent out to a Disaster Recovery Center near the coast in Mississippi. I will be down there as of September 20. In addition to my FEMA duties, I'm a member of the Civil Air Patrol, and will be assisting the CAP with air missions when my FEMA duties allow it.

Andy is a Disaster Assistance Employee for FEMA specializing in hazard mitigation programs, damage assessment, and GIS disaster operations.

GeoDecisions Alumni Contribute to Hurricane Relief Efforts:

Alumnus Todd Smith (B.S. Geography/GIS 1999) sent an update from his company, GeoDecisions, whose IRRIS application has contributed to Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. Read more about this technology. Other Department of Geography alumni playing a role on the IRRIS Team include: Brendan Wesdock, Kelly Fisher (Deiseroth), Bryan Reid, Scott Mencer, and Tim Cooley.

Adam Rose, Professor of Energy, Environmental, and Regional Economics

In the spring 2006 semester, Dr. Adam Rose will be offering a course entitled, "Human Dimensions of Natural Hazards". The course will focus on the role of social science in evaluating alternative mitigation strategies for natural hazards with a significant component dedicated to analyzing recently acquired data on Hurricane Katrina. Read more about this new course.

During the week of August 29, Dr. Rose was contacted by economists at the Department of Homeland Security. He was asked to provide them with advice on estimating the economic impact of Hurricane Katrina. "This is an outgrowth of work I have been doing for a dozen years on hazard loss estimation," says Dr. Rose. "This work has more recently been extended to homeland security issues." His work is exemplified by the following two papers:

Rose, A. "Economic Pinciples, Issues, and Research Priorities in Natural Hazard Loss Estimation," in Y. Okuyama and S. Chang (eds.), Modeling the Spatial Economic Impacts of Natural Hazards, Heidelberg: Springer, 2004, pp. 13-36.

Rose, A., G. Oladosu, and S. Liao. "Regional Economic Impacts of Terrorist Attacks on the Electric Power System of Los Angeles: A Computable General Disequilibrium Analysis," paper presented at the Second Annual Symposium of the DHS Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events, USC, Los Angeles, CA, August 2005.

Dr. Rose also served as a research track leader on a report to congress on the benefits of FEMA hazard mitigation grants. The report is entitled:

Applied Technology Council. 2005. "Independent Study to Assess Future Savings from FEMA Mitigation Activities," report to the National Institute of Building Sciences Multi-hazard Mitigation Council at the request of the U.S. House of Representatives, Redwood City, CA.

Peirce Lewis, Emeritus Faculty Member

Peirce Lewis comments on New Orleans tragedy in national publications:

• We’ll all feel the pain, As New Orleans staggers, ripples of its fate spread over the nation
  (Courtesy of Newsday.com)

• Vanished, Under Force of Time and an Inconstant Earth
  (Courtesy of The New York Times)