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Disaster Forensics

Prof. Alexis Kwasinski of UT ECE travels to the worst natural disaster sites around the world to assess the damage inflicted on communication networks and electric power grids. Dr. Kwasinski has surveyed the aftermath of three major Gulf Coast hurricanes, including Katrina, and stood in the rubble caused by earthquakes in Chile, New Zealand, and Japan. He believes that studying the world’s worst natural disasters can lead to better designs and critical infrastructures that can better withstand the brunt of a storm or the upheaval of an earthquake.

What can electrical engineers learn from the world’s worst natural disasters?
By ALEXIS KWASINSKI

From IEEE Spectrum

It’s my job to drive straight into the heart of disaster zones.

On 11 March, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake triggered a monstrous tsunami that smashed into Japan’s northeast coast, killing more than 15 000 people in minutes and reducing entire towns to rubble. In the days that followed, more than 80 000 Japanese citizens fled their homes after the tsunami started a meltdown at three of the reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station. Those citizens left their whole lives behind, and most are still living as refugees. But in early April, I drove into the wreckage of Japan’s coastal towns to see what lessons I could learn in the ruins.

As an electrical engineer with a keen interest in what I call ”disaster forensics,” I travel to the worst natural disaster sites around the world to assess the damage inflicted on communication networks and electric power grids. I’ve surveyed the aftermath of three major Gulf Coast hurricanes, including Katrina, and I’ve stood in the rubble caused by earthquakes in Chile, New Zealand, and Japan. As I’ve collected field data, I’ve begun to challenge the common belief that humans can’t compete with nature’s fury and that most of our creations will fail in a hurricane’s winds or a tsunami’s waves. That fatalism doesn’t sit well with me. I think that studying the world’s worst natural disasters can lead to better designs and critical infrastructures that can better withstand the brunt of a storm or the upheaval of an earthquake.