Ryan Vachon

November, 2017

In the face of the terrible loss of life, infrastructure, economy and resources from the 2017 hurricane season, we can learn from the destruction.  The impacts of disasters are a combination of a hazard’s ferocity and community preparedness for the event.  We cannot change the power of hurricanes, however, soon after events, there is a brief window of opportunity to learn about what was needed or missing in preparedness. Now is the time to examine how community readiness can be improved, and implement the most informed and in-advanced measures to reduce the impacts of the next, foreseeable event.