INTRODUCTION

It was the most destructive and costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States. It devastated New Orleans and the Mississippi and Alabama coasts in late August 2005. It was Hurricane Katrina.

Humanitarian efforts sprang up across the nation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The University of South Carolina (USC) took a leading role in our state’s Midlands region. USC also took an additional step within days of Katrina’s devastation to award nearly $400,000 in grants to fund 18 research projects on the societal and environmental impact of the massive storm. Summaries of each project, along with brief biographies of each researcher, are offered on the pages that follow.

“We have all been touched by the tragedy and humanitarian crises which unfolded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,” said Dr. Harris Pastides, USC Vice President for Research and Health Sciences. “As a natural ‘laboratory,’ Hurricane Katrina offers an opportunity to examine all aspects of coastal resiliency, including the immediate and delayed, long-term impacts on natural ecosystems and human communities.”

The grants enabled USC researchers and their collaborators at universities in the Gulf Coast, including Louisiana State University, Tulane, and the universities of Southern Mississippi and South Alabama, to investigate the disaster, capture perishable data necessary to understand all aspects of coastal resiliency, and examine the recovery of natural processes and ecosystems and the societal changes that occur with the relocation of residents and the rebuilding of communities.

“Coastal resiliency has obvious relevance for South Carolina,” Pastides said. “Our coastline measures 2,876 miles when all our bays, inlets, and islands are considered. There are 504,000 acres of coastal marshes. Almost a million people call our 6 coastal counties home. More than 8 billion dollars of the state's tourism revenue is generated along the coast.

“Knowledge derived from the natural, engineering, health and social sciences, as well as the humanities, is essential for the development of the data, models, tools and understanding that will enable critical improvements in coastal resiliency in the future.

“Advancements in our understanding of coastal resilience and vulnerability science also provide USC an opportunity to translate state-of-the-art research findings to public-policy decision making, while demonstrating the relevance of university-based research to improve our state, region and nation and underscoring why USC is poised to play a major role in responses to future natural and willful disasters.”