The eye of Hurricane Irma passing the eastern end of Cuba at about 8:00 am (eastern) on September 8, 2017, as captured by the NOAA GOES-16 infrared satellite. Source: NOAA/NASA GOES Project, 2017.
By Lori Peek
Unprecedented. Unbelievable. Historic. Catastrophic.
These are just a few of the words now regularly used by the media when attempting to describe disasters that seem beyond description.
Raging wildfires. Tornado outbreaks. Massive hurricanes. Severe flooding. Sweltering heat and bone-chilling cold.
Every year, environmental extremes destroy critical infrastructure and cost taxpayers billions of dollars. They also kill, injure, and displace people, especially the most vulnerable among us.
Although many recent disasters have shattered historical records, in some ways, they are not without precedent.
Hazards and disaster researchers have consistently and systematically studied the causes and consequences of such events for more than seven decades. This research community has amassed an enormous amount of knowledge regarding everything from the root causes of disaster to the long-term ramifications of unjust recovery policies.
Make no mistake, with each fresh catastrophe comes new questions and new opportunities for learning. But there are also important commonalities that have been documented time and again across disasters.
The lessons from past disasters matter and we must make them widely available. In this era of the mega-disaster, the stakes are too high for findings to sit on a shelf. The decisions that are being made are too important for evidence-based insights to be sidelined in the process. Facts matter. Research counts.
The Natural Hazards Center is committed to uplifting the work of others and bringing it to new audiences. To that end, we launched the Research Counts initiative in 2017. Since then, this series has served as an important platform for hazards and disaster researchers to provide insights regarding major findings and enduring lessons. It has also provided a forum for raising new questions worthy of exploration and identifying urgent challenges in need of solutions. The pieces in the series are brief and intended for broad consumption. We want to work with our community to get this knowledge into the hands of those who need it most.
Research Counts includes numerous original briefs from experts in a variety of disciplines, ranging from anthropology to engineering. These scholars are lending their voices to help us understand the catastrophes that are disrupting lives and livelihoods and to place them in broader context. This series is showcases the commitment of hazards and disaster researchers to share knowledge with practitioners, policymakers, and the private sector to help reduce hazards risk and to ameliorate the terrible suffering caused when disaster strikes.
As all more people and places are affected by disaster with each passing year, it is even more pressing that our research community respond by sharing the lessons learned from prior and ongoing work to a larger public audience. Thank you to those who contributed to this volume, and thank you to those who take the time to read these pieces and move them into action.
Please take care of yourself and others.
Lori Peek, Director Natural Hazards Center
Lori Peek is director of the Natural Hazards Center and professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is principal investigator of the National Science Foundation-funded CONVERGE initiative and author of Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans after 9/11, co-editor of Displaced: Life in the Katrina Diaspora, and co-author of Children of Katrina. She also is a contributing author to FEMA P-1000 Safer, Stronger, Smarter: A Guide to Improving School Natural Hazard Safety. She earned her PhD in Sociology from the University of Colorado Boulder.