Provost shares fruits of post-Katrina analyses

Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans more than six months ago, but it remains a hot topic of conversation for University administrators and students alike.

Penn Provost Ron Daniels, Donald Kettl, director of the Fels Institute of Government, and co-Director of the Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at Wharton Howard Kunreuther gave a presentation at the bookstore Monday night on a book that they all edited.

The book, entitled On Risk and Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina, gathers information from leading experts about lessons learned from Katrina on how best to prevent and manage risks in future disasters.

In the aftermath of the hurricane, Daniels helped organize the National Symposium on Risk and Disaster in Washington December of last year. The book was published soon after by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

The decision to convene the conference and the subsequent publication of the book were inspired by President Amy Gutmann's Penn Compact, her three-pronged vision for the University's future that was outlined in her inaugural address.

Daniels emphasized that an "interdisciplinary character" like the one promoted by the compact was needed to tackle questions posed by such events.

"Economics, political science, philosophy are needed to understand the appropriate role of government intervention," Daniels said.

Kettle visited New Orleans two weeks ago and was stunned by the scope of the devastation .

"Imagine the area between here and the Schuylkill River flattened," he said.

Kettle said that little has been done so far to rebuild the city because of the need to restore New Orleans' surrounding levees to the strength that they should have been before the storm. Their rebuilding requires elevation maps that have not yet been released.

According to the book, problems such as this one show the need for both private- and public-sector involvement. The framework that forms the discussion of risk management in the book is based on an assessment of the risk of future disasters and psychological and emotional factors.

Kunreuther described the principles behind these issues, such as the so-called "Samaritan's Dilemma," or, "if you believe someone will help you after the disaster, why protect yourself before?"

College freshman Samantha Goldstein, who attended the lecture Monday, will be going to New Orleans over spring break with Hillel to see the magnitude of the disaster.

"There is no way without going there people can understand the severity of the problem and lack of leadership," Goldstein said. "People must realize the problem is not isolated in that region."

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