We’re not looking to initiate a disaster-of-the-week section, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t note the massive flooding in the U.S. Southwest, home to Advisory Board member Doug Lenat and several member organizations. Needless to say, technology can help, and various conference sessions in the past have addressed them (John Woodward on protecting critical infrastructures, Austin, Feb 2001; Pat Gambaro on business continuity, Washington D.C., Nov 2001; Art Botterell on resilient communications, Philadelphia, Apr 2006; Charles Perrow on diversity as a way of reducing risk, Philadelphia, Apr 2006;Michael Mastrandrea and Noah Diffenbaugh of the IPCC, San Francisco, Dec 2014; and many others) and will continue to do so. In the meantime, our hearts go out to everyone affected. We likely won’t devote an entire meeting to the implications of volatile weather (though we have considered it) but you’ll continue to see us address disaster recovery, contingency planning, real-time environmental assessment and all of the other elements that people and businesses need to survive such natural disasters.
