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Perspectives on the Hurricane Katrina anniversary

August 18, 2006 By

Aug. 29 will mark the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which brought devastation to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The University of Wisconsin–Madison has experts who can offer perspectives on the anniversary.

  • Nine of the students who transferred to UW–Madison last fall because their chosen universities fell victim to Hurricane Katrina have continued their enrollment at UW–Madison. Seven of them are from Wisconsin, one is an international student and one is from California. Seven of those students are undergraduates, one is a law student and one is a medical student. There is a possibility that at least one of them would be available to media to discuss their decision. Contact Liz Beyler, (608) 263-1986, lbkraak@wisc.edu, to schedule an interview.
  • Marvin Birnbaum, professor emeritus of medicine and president of the World Association of Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM), (608) 263-7094, mlb@medicine.wisc.edu. Birnbaum is also director of emergency medical services at UW Hospital and Clinics and medical director for Madison Fire Department paramedics. His leadership with WADEM is helping establish international standards for disaster response. The organization and its corresponding journal, Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, is dedicated to completing detailed reviews of disaster responses and disseminating recommendations for improvement. Birnbaum can offer perspectives on the Katrina response and on ways that disaster response in general can be improved.

  • Chris Velden, researcher and team leader of the Tropical Cyclones group at the Space Science and Engineering Center, (608) 262-9168, chrisv@ssec.wisc.edu. Velden says that although the start of the Atlantic hurricane season has not been as dramatic it was in the past couple of years, the parameters are still in place for an above-normal season this year. He cautions that the season is just entering its most active phase.

    Since 1982, the Tropical Cyclones group has been developing specialized tools used by forecasters with weather satellite data. The group forges techniques of use to forecasters, and for any major tropical storm its Web site transfers large amounts of data to researchers, forecasters and the general public. During Hurricane Katrina, the site experienced 1.8 million hits.

  • Dan Anderson, the Schultz Professor of Risk Management and Insurance in the School of Business, (608) 263-5717, danderson@bus.wisc.edu. Anderson is an expert in catastrophic insurance, environmental risk management and government insurance programs. He can talk about the insurance and risk issues that developed in the aftermath of Katrina and offer comments on the recent court case in which a federal judge ruled that a Mississippi Gulf Coast couple could not collect from its insurance company because their policy did not cover damage from floodwaters or a storm surge caused by the hurricane.