Emergency managers, public officials and industry executives are meeting today to discuss the latest in disaster preparations, loss mitigation and rapid recovery in the face of hurricanes and other storms.
The Hurricanes, Major Disasters, Coastal Protection and Rapid Recovery in Texas and the Gulf Coast Region conference is sponsored by the Texas Hurricane Center for Innovative Technology and the UH Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Department of Industrial Engineering.
Cumaraswamy Vipulanandan (Vipu), professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Texas Hurricane Center for Innovative Technology, produces the annual conference to update emergency managers, suppliers, community members and the academic community with the latest practices and research.
“Minimizing the flooding, minimizing the wind damage all those we are working new technologies,” said Vipu. “We are working on monitoring, using drones and other technologies, to give that feedback so that recovery can be much faster.”
He said Hurricane Harvey is a hot topic and how they're getting ready for the next flooding event.
“They’re also going to talk about the flooding we’ve had in the last few years to get prepared for the next year,” said Vipu. “We are looking at introducing new technologies to rapidly come back to a normal life after a disaster.”