UH Hosts Conference on Hurricane Preparation and Recovery

The University of Houston will hold its annual hurricane conference Friday, Aug. 7, focused on helping coastal communities prepare for, and recover from, a major storm.

The Texas Gulf Coast has been spared a major hit in the past few years, but as the 2015 season enters the most active months, Cumaraswamy “Vipu” Vipulanandan, director of the Texas Hurricane Center for Innovative Technology at UH, said it always makes sense to be prepared.

The Texas Hurricane Center for Innovative Technology studies ways to prepare for and mitigate disaster caused by hurricanes, serving as a testing and research facility for developing hurricane protection products and systems, and repair technologies to mitigate losses, both onshore and offshore. Vipulanandan is a professor of civil and environmental engineering in the UH Cullen College of Engineering.

Panels will include speakers from government, academia and industry, on topics ranging from emergency management during a hurricane to rapid response for repairs and satellite monitoring. Vipulanandan will moderate a panel on coastal protection and modeling.

The conference will take place from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Hilton University of Houston Hotel, on the UH campus. In addition to the Texas Hurricane Center for Innovative Technology, sponsors include the UH departments of civil and environmental engineering and industrial engineering.

For more information, see http://hurricane.egr.uh.edu/sites/hurricane.egr.uh.edu/files/files/2015/thc-2015-conf-brochure-6-22-15.pdf

WHAT:                           7^th Annual Hurricanes, Major Disasters, Coastal Protection and Rapid Recovery in

                                       Texas and the Gulf Coast Region Conference at the University of Houston         

 WHEN:                           8 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Friday, Aug. 7

 WHERE:                         Hilton University of Houston Hotel

                                       Off Calhoun Road, Entrance 1 – parking in hotel garage

 WHO:                            Speakers include Jay Hall, state coordinator, Texas Emergency Management; Gavin Smith,

                                       director, U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Coastal Resilience Center of

                                       Excellence at the University of North Carolina; Jack Steele, executive director,  

                                       Houston-Galveston Area Council, and Michael Talbott, director, Harris County

                                       Flood Control District.