NSF's Issues Grants To Learn The Lessons of Katrina

The National Science Foundation is funding research teams to go to the Gulf Coast region to draw as many lessons as possible from the Hurricane Katrina disaster before evidence is lost.

1 minute read

September 29, 2005, 12:00 PM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced the first of several dozen grants to send research teams into the Gulf Coast regions devastated by Hurricane Katrina. These "rapid-response" teams will seek to draw as many lessons as possible from the disaster before evidence is lost and memories can fade.

Examples include:

  • group led by Raymond Seed of the University of California, Berkeley, will do an engineering analysis of why New Orleans' levee system failed;
  • group led by Robert Cook of Louisiana State University will analyze the complex mix of organic matter dissolved in New Orleans flood waters;
  • group led by Vishal Shah of Dowling College, New York will test a new chemical method for decontaminating flood waters;
  • group led by Bimal Paul of Kansas State University will study what factors led people to comply or not comply with mandatory orders to evacuate the area in advance of the hurricane.

    Thanks to Ashwani Vasishth

  • Thursday, September 29, 2005 in National Science Foundation

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