Hurricane!

With increasing human population, cyclones and other natural disasters bring increasing casualty reports.

With growing population and infrastructures the world’s exposure to natural hazards is inevitably increasing. This is particularly true as the strongest population growth is located in coastal areas (with greater exposure to floods, cyclones and tidal waves). To make matters worse any land remaining available for urban growth is generally risk-prone, for instance flood plains or steep slopes subject to landslides.

Click through for more pictures of the University of Iowa.

It’s ironic that Iowa City was destroyed by a Cyclone, but like always, we’ll bounce back. It’s only about five months until we get a rematch with Cyclones of a different sort, and once again, the University of Iowa will be in the midst of the path of destruction. But this time, we’ll be the ones doing the destroying.

Very good post on a Cyclone workshop.

One of the nice things about a being a scientist is that you can sometimes go to workshops and meetings and actually hear something new now and again. At the well-timed Tropical Cyclones and Climate Workshop at Columbia a week or so ago, I got a chance to sit in and listen to Emanuel, Landsea, Knutson and Bell talking about their recent work, but I also got to hear some new voices (and issues) in the discussion. It was all pretty enlightening even if it didn't end up in complete reconciliation of the different views.

Note the bit on the NOAA.