First Responders

These coming weeks, Tropical Storm Kay approaches the north as a Category 1 hurricane, creating a climate crisis-fueled heatwave. Rain has begun falling from far Southern California and far southwest Arizona, with increased risk of flash flooding. In the meantime, wildfires continue to burn in…

On Wednesday, a fast-moving brush fire in Orange County, California, torched at least 20 homes and prompted emergency evacuations. The Laguna Niguel fire began Wednesday afternoon and spread to nearly 200 acres as it swept down houses along hillside streets in one of California's wealthiest areas.…

Now, about a week out from the oil spill in southern California, wildlife and environmental experts are attempting to assess the damage done to the wildlife population. The spill was estimated to have leaked anywhere from 31,000 to more than 120,000 gallons of oil into the water off the coast of…

The Pentagon is temporarily extending FireGuard, a surveillance program that provides military and government satellite images to firefighters to implement effective firefighting strategies and evacuations. FireGuard was scheduled to end on September 30th, 2021, but its temporary renewal will last…

Microsoft Corp. has announced a partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy to develop artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help first-responders manage dynamic, fast-moving natural disasters. The tech giant and government department will co-chair “The First Five Consortium,” which is an…

The Xinjia Hotel in Quanzhou, China that was be used to quarantine people that tested positive for COVID-19 or had come in contact with people who had the virus, has collapsed. 70 people got trapped as the hotel caved in on itself, and an estimated 38 people have been rescued. Families of the…

Structural engineers are a type of civil engineers that are specialized in understanding the stability of any structures, like the framework of buildings and bridges. Structural engineers have a particular role in the context of emergency preparedness and disaster response - at the scene of a…

A building collapse in downtown New Orleans on Saturday morning killed two workers, injuring at least eighteen. A worker is still missing as of Sunday afternoon, and rescue teams are urgently searching for the person in fear of another collapse. The cause of the building collapse is unknown at the…