Featured
October 26, 2023

NCDP 20th Anniversary Reflections and Impacts

Shortly after the 9/11 attacks and the anthrax exposures, centers throughout the United States were set up to prepare for and make our nation more resilient. In 2003, the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), Columbia University, was founded to provide an academically based, interdisciplinary center focused on the capacity to prevent, respond to, and …

Continue reading “NCDP 20th Anniversary Reflections and Impacts”

Read More

The Beginnings of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP)

Shortly after the 9/11 attacks and the anthrax exposures, centers throughout the United States were set up to prepare for and make our nation more resilient. In 2003, the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), Columbia University, was founded to provide an academically based, interdisciplinary center focused on the capacity to prevent, respond to, and …

Continue reading "The Beginnings of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP)"

Read More

Federal Disaster Funding at Play in Fiscal Year 2024 and Government Shutdown Negotiations

The Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) is running dangerously low as the busiest time of the disaster season arrives and lawmakers debate spending levels for the coming year. Members of Congress are negotiating a budget deal to fund the federal government for FY 2024, as well as a Continuing Resolution (CR) as a stopgap measure for …

Continue reading "Federal Disaster Funding at Play in Fiscal Year 2024 and Government Shutdown Negotiations"

Read More

Avoidable Fatalities in “Tipping Point” States: Impact of Presidential Actions and Policies on States

The avoidable death count from COVID-19 continues to rise. Using simple comparative mortality rates we have expanded the prior national comparative study to look at how we can also estimate the number of lives that might have been avoided if these states had the same benefits from national leadership as the neighboring province of Ontario, …

Continue reading "Avoidable Fatalities in “Tipping Point” States: Impact of Presidential Actions and Policies on States"

Read More

Financing catastrophe: 4 ways we pay for disasters

This piece was originally published on January 28, 2019, in The Hill. Looking back, 2018 was another remarkable year of billion-dollar disasters. In the last 20 years, climate-related disasters have cost the world $2.25 trillion, a 250 percent increase from the $895 billion spent between 1978 and 1997, and that trend is only looking to increase …

Continue reading "Financing catastrophe: 4 ways we pay for disasters"

Read More

Five reasons not to underestimate Hurricane Florence

This piece was originally published on September 12, 2018, in The Hill. As Hurricane Florence approaches the East Coast as a major hurricane, there is also a collective sigh of relief among many that the route of the storm avoided areas like Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico that are still recovering from the 2017 hurricane …

Continue reading "Five reasons not to underestimate Hurricane Florence"

Read More

Private sector can shoulder more responsibility for disaster readiness

This post was originally published on March 15, 2018 in The Hill. I just returned from Texas, where I was assessing the relief progress of our partners six months after Hurricane Harvey made landfall. Tens of billions of dollars have been invested into rebuilding coastal towns and cities that endured the worst damage of the …

Continue reading "Private sector can shoulder more responsibility for disaster readiness"

Read More