Registration Now Open for TAMEST Natural Hazards Summit
Registration for Part I of the TAMEST Natural Hazards Summit — Responding to and Mitigating the Impacts — is now open. The virtual summit will take place on October 19, 2021 via Zoom and is hosted by the Hurricane Resilience Research Institute (HuRRI) at the University of Houston.
Texas faces unprecedented challenges from natural disasters. It leads the country in some of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes in recorded history, suffered $500 million dollars in damages from wildfires spreading through 4 million acres of Texas land in 2011, and endured a catastrophic winter storm in February 2021 that left millions without power. Understanding the impacts of natural hazards on the economy and wellbeing of Texas communities is critical.
Summit Co-Chair Hanadi Rifai, Ph.D., John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Houston, said examining response and resiliency toward natural hazards is more important than ever.
“The past year has shown us just how many unexpected events can occur at the same time and how important it is to expect the unexpected,” Dr. Rifai said. “While we can’t ever know what will come our way next, we can learn a lot from recent events and put together a plan of action for the next disaster.”
The virtual summit will convene government officials, research leaders and insurance industry representatives to take a hard look at what the state needs to know and do to prepare for future natural disasters, unprecedented weather events and global pandemics.
“[We must] engage with each other and dialogue and hear from leaders in the field about the latest thoughts and directions,” she said. “It is also a chance to be part of the journey towards resilience and presents an opportunity to bring your thoughts and ideas to the conversation.”
Summit Co-Chair Kishor C. Mehta, Ph.D. (NAE), TAMEST Member and P.W. Horn Professor of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering at Texas Tech University agrees.
He says the summit will include national and state experts with authority in forecasting storms, issuance of warnings, emergency response and the resilience of constructed facilities.
“The summit is designed to publicize the impacts of natural hazards and to seek solutions and policy changes to reduce the suffering of people,” Mehta said. “People will understand that significant technological advancements in the past few decades have been made.”
The Virtual Summit is now free and open to the public.
View the summit agenda here.
Save the Date: Part II of the summit will take place on May 16, 2022, in Lubbock, Texas. The session, presented by the National Wind Institute (NWI) at Texas Tech University, will take place at Texas Tech University’s International Cultural Center (601 Indiana Avenue, Lubbock, TX 79409).
