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Changing climate dynamics have resulted in a confluence of disaster events to which Louisiana government leaders and emergency managers have never before had to respond simultaneously: a global pandemic and an “epidemic” of landfalling hurricanes during the 2020 season (eight cones over Louisiana) with challenging, unusual characteristics: (1) two hurricanes passing over the same location within 36 hours, a fujiwhara – Hurricanes Marco and Laura, (2) 150 mile-per-hour winds inadequately forecasted and of an almost unprecedented speed, (3) a difficult to forecast surge magnitude that led to incorrect immediate response, (4) delayed long-term recovery efforts from responders outside of the area because of initial reporting errors regarding surge heights and wind speed, and (5) a storm, Zeta, that passed directly over a densely populated area that would have been hard hit by rain if the storm had slowed. In addition, the number and closeness in dates of storm occurrences led to lengthy coastal high-water levels. To these co-occurring threats forecasters, state and local officials and residents responded with expertise and commitment, adhering to close collaboration, modifying evacuations and undertaking protective measures, all contributing to a low death rate from storms and a modest death rate from COVID. More just outcomes were supported by the general capacity of the responders, commitment to keep the residents informed about both risks and appropriate responses to them and the provision of special services, calculated for the new situation of the pandemic and the storm epidemic, for those without the means to respond adequately to both.

Purpose — A new method of collecting hurricane evacuation data using time-dependent stated choice is developed and evaluated in this study.

Methodology/approach — Hypothetical storms are presented in a video in a sequence of scenarios showing prevailing conditions at discrete points in time as each storm approaches land. Respondents are exposed to nine hypothetical storms representing a range of hurricane characteristics. One of the hypothetical storms is secretly the same as an actual storm the respondents experienced in the past and for which they are required to report their behaviour in a revealed preference survey.

Findings — Stated and actual behaviour was compared and general agreement was found between what people say they would do and what they did. The revealed preference (RP) data was supplemented with time-dependent data from official sources and hurricane evacuation demand models estimated on this enhanced RP data, as well as on a combination of the enhanced RP and time-dependent stated choice (SC) data. When the models were applied to a different data set than the ones on which the models were calibrated, the combined time-dependent RP/SC model performed slightly better than the enhanced RP model. Detailed accounting revealed that time-dependent SC data is 25 percent more expensive to collect than enhanced RP data, although some of this cost may be due to the first-time collection of this type of data.

Responding to emergency incidents by emergency response organizations such as fire, ambulance and police during large disaster and emergency events is very important. The purpose of this paper is to provide some insights into response patterns during the 2013 ice storm in the city of Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, using temporal and spatial analyses.

The City of Vaughan Fire and Rescue Service data set containing all responses to fire and other emergency incidents from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2016 was used. The 2013 Southern Ontario ice storm occurred from December 20, 2013 to January 1, 2014, and, for this study, December 20–31 is considered the “study period.” Temporal, spatial and spatiotemporal analyses of responses during the study period are carried out and are compared with the same period in other years (2009–2012 and 2014–2016).

The findings show that temporal patterns of response attributes changed significantly during the 2013 ice storm. Similarly, the spatial pattern of responses during the 2013 ice storm showed some major differences with other years. The spatiotemporal analyses also demonstrate significant variations in responses in the city during different hours of the day in the ice storm days.

This study is the first study to examine the spatiotemporal patterns of responses made by a fire department during the 2013 ice storm in Canada. It provides some insights into the differences between response volumes, temporal and spatial distributions during large emergency events (e.g. ice storm) and normal situations. The results will help in mitigating the number of responses in the future through public education and technological changes. Moreover, the results will provide fire departments with information that could help them prepare for such events by possible reallocation of resources.

Planning inventories for emergency supplies such as bottled water, non‐perishable foods, batteries, and flashlights can be challenging for retailers situated within the projected path of a severe storm. The retailer's inventory decisions are complicated by the inherent volatility of storm forecasts and the corresponding demand predictions. The purpose of this paper is to explore both proactive and reactive inventory control policies within the context of probable pre‐storm demand surge for a fast‐moving emergency supply item, and identify the conditions that are most conducive to each strategy according to the minimax decision criterion.

The inventory system is formulated based on an underlying economic order quantity framework. Minimax decision rules are developed analytically. Sensitivity analysis is facilitated by both analytic and numerical methods.

The conditions that are conducive to a proactive ordering strategy are limited supplier flexibility, acute demand surge, and exorbitant reorder costs; otherwise, the minimax inventory control policy is given by a reactive ordering strategy.

The above‐mentioned findings are based on a stylized inventory model characterized by assumptions that are consistent with the academic literature. In order to assess the implications of these results in practice, the model should be extended according to the relevance of each assumption to specific real‐world inventory systems.

Householders preparing for probable evacuation or post‐storm power outages typically overwhelm grocery and home improvement stores during a brief period prior to the impact of an approaching weather system. This phenomenon triggers a temporary spike in demand for several stock keeping units, which is oftentimes accompanied by pervasive inventory shortages that proliferate community vulnerability and engender a sense of disarray throughout the local populace. Effective inventory management of emergency supply items during this period can help alleviate some of these social dilemmas.

Few academic publications address inventory management from the perspective of humanitarian relief. Among existing studies, the emphasis has been coordination of emergency supplies for post‐disaster relief and recovery activities. This paper appears to be the first academic investigation of an inventory system driven by the pre‐storm demand surge for emergency supplies that typically occurs in the presence of an ominous and potentially devastating weather system. Additionally, this study conceivably represents the first minimax distribution free approach to inventory control within the context of humanitarian logistics and disruption management.

The main reason for the low accuracy of magnetometer-based autonomous orbit determination is the coarse accuracy of the geomagnetic field model. Furthermore, the geomagnetic field model error increases obviously during geomagnetic storms, which can still further reduce the navigation accuracy. The purpose of this paper is to improve the accuracy of magnetometer-based autonomous orbit determination during geomagnetic storms.

In this paper, magnetometer-based autonomous orbit determination via a measurement differencing extended Kalman filter (MDEKF) is studied. The MDEKF algorithm can effectively remove the time-correlated portion of the measurement error and thus can evidently improve the accuracy of magnetometer-based autonomous orbit determination during geomagnetic storms. Real flight data from Swarm A are used to evaluate the performance of the MDEKF algorithm presented in this study. A performance comparison between the MDEKF algorithm and an extended Kalman filter (EKF) algorithm is investigated for different geomagnetic storms and sampling intervals.

The simulation results show that the MDEKF algorithm is superior to the EKF algorithm in terms of estimation accuracy and stability with a short sampling interval during geomagnetic storms. In addition, as the size of the geomagnetic storm increases, the advantages of the MDEKF algorithm over the EKF algorithm become more obvious.

The algorithm in this paper can improve the real-time accuracy of magnetometer-based autonomous orbit determination during geomagnetic storms with a low computational burden and is very suitable for low-orbit micro- and nano-satellites.

This study aims to examine the effects of levee construction and tropical storms on regional economic growth of a coastal community. The study's goal is to highlight feedbacks important to climate change adaptation in the coastal zone.

The research utilizes a dynamic feedback model that includes coastal engineering, urban economic development, and natural ecosystem response. The model is a tool to help discuss important long‐term issues and to highlight areas of policy intervention. The data for the model come from US Census data, the global DIVA coastal database, and IPCC projections.

The results show urban areas facing elevated levels of exposure because of residents' low understanding of climatic risks. Coastal managers may actually increase long‐term exposure by attempting to protect coastal regions from long‐term sea‐level rise. Coastal defenses lead to a false sense of safety, increasing economic development in the short term, but causing larger economic losses in the long term, especially after a storm. Storm intensity and levee protection are important in determining an “economic tipping point” of long term growth – whether a community continues to grow or faces economic stagnation or decline. If storm damage is large enough, the community passes the tipping point and economic growth never recovers. The presence of levees changes the tipping point dynamic, making communities more resilient as long as there is no levee breach.

Coastal communities face increasing risk from accelerated sea‐level rise and tropical storms. Understanding the long‐term dynamics of protection decisions is important for creating effective adaptation policies.

Coastal flooding has disastrous consequences on people, infrastructure, properties and the environment. Increasing flood risk as a result of global climate change is a significant concern both within the UK and globally. To counter any potential increase in future flooding, a range of potential management options are being considered. This study aims to explore future coastal management practice for flood alleviation, incorporating the influence of climate change.

The Taf estuary in South West Wales, a macro-tidal estuary which has a history of coastal flooding, was chosen as the case study in this paper to investigate the impact of coastal management interventions such as construction of hard defences, managed realignment or altering land use of affiliated ecosystems such as salt marshes on the complex hydrodynamics and hence flooding of the surrounding areas of the estuary. The study was carried out using a numerical hydrodynamic model of the Taf estuary, developed using the process-based Delft3D modelling software.

The role of the selected management interventions on coastal flooding was investigated using an extreme storm condition, both with and without the impact of future sea level rise. The results highlight the scale of the effect of sea level rise, with the selected management interventions revealing that minimising the increase in flooding in future requires careful consideration of the available options.

This paper explores the highlighted role of coastal management practice in future with the influence of climate change to study how effective alternative methods can be for flood alleviation.

On the morning of Friday, 16th October, 1987, the country awoke to the news that the South East corner of England had been swept by the most severe winds on record. The majority of the people in the affected areas were already only too aware of the news and a great many were still wondering what had hit them. Unfortunately, for many this was only the beginning of the nightmare. The storm affected everybody in that South East corner to some degree and for a lot of people it led to the submission of their first insurance claim. For the insuring public this was the testing time for their insurance companies and I would suggest that the industry, as a whole, came out of the disaster very well, financial implications excepted, of course. It is doubtful whether or not the full cost of the storm for the insurance companies will ever be known, bearing in mind the diverse nature of claims and the industry itself. The claim figures may amount to £850m but this is felt to be an understatement. However, even now claims relating, or allegedly relating, to the storm are still being received by insurers.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the long-term impacts of hurricanes on schools and discuss approaches to improving recovery efforts.

Interviews with 20 school districts in Texas and North Carolina after Hurricanes Harvey (2017) and Matthew (2016). In total, 115 interviews were conducted with teachers, principals, district superintendents and representatives from state education agencies. Interview questions focused on the impact of storms and strategies for recovery.

The authors uncovered three long-term impacts of hurricanes on schools: (1) constrained instructional time, (2) increased social-emotional needs and (3) the need to support educators.

This paper focuses on two storms, in two states, in two successive years. Data collection occurred in Texas, one academic year after the storm. As compared to the North Carolina, data collection occurred almost two academic years after the storm.

This paper illuminates strategies for stakeholders to implement and expedite hurricane recovery through; (1) updating curricula plans, (2) providing long-term counselors and (3) supporting educators in and out of school.

To date, very few studies have explored the ways in which schools face long-term impacts following a disaster. This paper provides insight to the challenges that prolong the impacts of disasters and impede recovery in schools. With hurricanes and related disasters continuing to affect schooling communities, more research is needed to identify the best ways to support schools, months to years after an event.

Suicide prevention is a priority issue in HM Prison Service of England and Wales. Past training in this area has concentrated on the completion of paperwork over direct interactions with suicidal people. HM Prison Service commissioned STORM, a training scheme focusing on interviewing skills and the identification of risk factors, successfully used in community health settings, piloted it in five prisons and retained it as part of its compulsory training for prison assessors of suicide risk. Although from spring 2007 STORM will no longer be compulsory, its impact has been shown in plans for future development of training.