California fires: Virginia Tech experts on wildfire, smoke, disaster response, post-disaster recovery

Virginia Tech offers several interview opportunities with experts in wildfires, smoke and the impacts on health, resources for optimal disaster response, along with disaster resilience and disaster recovery…

 

This Map Shows Earth’s Volcanic Activity Over The Past 10,000 Years

A map created by ESRI, a company specialized in geographic information systems, shows known volcanic eruptions in the past 10,000 years. The dynamic map displays the location of the eruption and associated Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI), a relative measure of the explosiveness of a volcanic eruption running from 0 to 8 (the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens has a VEI of 5)….

 

New Technology Helps Prepare For Wildfire Disasters

There is no easy way to prepare for disaster like a wildfire.

Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen says they have learned a lot from past wildfires, which allowed them to be in position, poised, and ready for the Easy Fire in an unprecedented way.

After the 2017 Thomas Fire, the state created a program of Pre-Positioning. In advance of the Easy Fire they saw that there were significant winds coming and before it blew into the Simi Valley area, the fire department and joint divisions got resources in place and ready to go.

“So when the fire occurred, not only did we have additional resources here in the county, but so did LA County and LA City and Kern County. Santa Barbara County. And that meant that everybody, including our partner agencies could send us more resources more quickly than normal. So that was the significant success that we had was getting so many resources here so much quicker than we used to,” said Lorenzen…