Hurricane Katrina was an eye-opener for the United States, said Susan Cutter, director of the Hazards Research Lab at the University of South Carolina.
Cutter spoke to more than 80 students and faculty members Thursday in Coor Hall about natural hazards and their effects on the country, as part of a lecture series hosted by the geography department.
"It's a great time to be engaged in disaster research," she said.
Hurricane Katrina showed the government that improvements in sociological and scientific research to prevent future disasters are needed, she said.
The government needs to have better estimates of tourists and undocumented workers, as well as the homeless and lower-income populations in hurricane-prone areas, Cutter added.
"We don't have a good handle on the less visible populations," she said.
Hurricane Katrina hit land Aug. 29, two days before people on welfare receive their monthly checks, she added.
"People had used all their resources," she said. "They might have had automobiles to leave in, but they couldn't afford the gas to get out of the city."
Geography graduate student Andrew Burnett said he was particularly interested in the social impact of Katrina.
Burnett compared Hurricane Katrina to the 2005 landslides in Laguna Beach, Calif.
"The people of Laguna Beach were wealthy, so they weren't ruined by it," he said. "The people of New Orleans were ruined by [Katrina]. The social impact was much higher."
Government warnings about the hurricane were part of the problem, Cutter said.
She said forecasters estimated where Katrina would make landfall, but officials were afraid to make concrete warnings to the public because it could have turned out not to be as serious as originally thought.
Steve Gordon, a visiting professor from the Air Force Academy, said he found the warnings less than stellar.
"The whole idea that there could have been more of a warning is interesting," he said.
Cutter said she hopes a database she helped create will help change existing government policies relating to hazards.
The Spatial Hazards Events and Losses Database is a new county-by-county database that tracks 18 different types of hazards across the country.
It gives a list of the date of the hazard, the number of deaths and injuries occurred, and property and crop losses, Cutter said.
"It's part of taking science and moving it into the public-policy domain," she added.
Reach the reporter at kristi.eaton@asu.edu.
