Revelation and Resilience After Superstorm Sandy: Experts Discuss Extreme Weather, Hurricane Ida and Impact on Climate Change

Rutgers has resources, experts and stories on the impacts for any of your Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Ida and climate-related coverage. Please let me know if you’d like to speak with an expert or discuss work and research related to climate change and coastal resilience solutions. 

• Photos and video: In Sandy’s Wake: Revelation and Resilience After the Superstorm
• By the Numbers: New Jersey Climate Change. A decade after Sandy, how have conditions changed and what’s at stake? See the infographic from the New Jersey Climate Resource Center at Rutgers.

EXPERTS (others available):

• James Hughes, Economic Impacts, Housing Markets and Real Estate

Hughes is a nationally recognized expert on the economy, demographics, housing markets and real estate development.

• David A. Robinson, New Jersey State Climatologist, Understanding Extreme Weather

Robinson is a Distinguished Professor and the nation’s longest-serving state climatologist. Robinson also manages the Rutgers NJ Weather Network.

• Clinton J. Andrews, Real Estate, Infrastructure, Municipal Fiscal Distress

Andrews has done work in Sea Bright and Union Beach, N.J. He has produced models and publications in real estate market impacts of storm events, where he found flood risk is kept from the buyer in many cases.

• Robert E. Kopp, Sea-Level Rise, Climate Change and Risk

Kopp is a national expert on climate change. His research focuses on past and future sea-level change, the economic impacts of climate change, and the use of climate risk information to inform decision-making.

• Jeanne Herb, Resiliency Planning and Policy, NJ Adapt

Herb is an executive director of the Environmental Analysis and Communications Group, which heads NJADAPT.org, which provides interactive maps that allow community planners to see how infrastructure, population and the environment are vulnerable to storm surges, coastal flooding and sea-level rise.

• Marjorie Kaplan, Resiliency Planning and Policy

Kaplan, who was the first director of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Climate and Energy, manages the full portfolio of Rutgers Climate Institute activities with her co-directors. She also co-facilitates the New Jersey Climate Change Alliance and is co-director of the New Jersey Climate Change Resource Center. She develops research and analyses related to natural carbon sinks, climate and health, climate resiliency and climate and agriculture.

• Anthony J. Broccoli, Climate Modeling, Meteorology

Broccoli studies the dynamics of the climate system, with a specific emphasis on understanding the fundamental mechanisms that are involved in changes in climate, both past and future. His interests include the simulation of past climates and the influence of climate change on extreme weather events. Looking at past changes in climate can lead to a better understanding of the key feedbacks and processes that determine how the climate system responds to increases in greenhouse gases. Understanding how climate change influences weather extremes is essential for anticipating some of the high-impact consequences of climate change. He is a Distinguished Professor who co-directs the Rutgers Climate Institute.

• Karen M. O’Neill, Social and Policy Issues in Coastal Adaptation

O’ Neill is a sociologist researching coastal climate adaptation on land and water, which includes understanding who wins and who loses under different policies. This includes river flood control; coastal storm vulnerability and hazard reduction; and projects to move people and infrastructure from the coast. She is a co-editor of Taking Chances: The Coast after Hurricane Sandy (2016).

IMPACTS:

Ten years ago, Superstorm Sandy rocked the Eastern Seaboard from Maine to Florida, destroying homes, flooding communities, and taking lives. Its aftermath revealed the vulnerability and challenged the viability of coastal communities. But in Sandy’s wake, Rutgers led the search for solutions.

• Living at the Shore After Sandy: Should Residents Stay – or Go?

Kenneth Miller, a Rutgers expert in global warming and sea-level change, has warned that New Jersey needs to prepare for at least a three-foot rise by 2100. For some shore communities, rebuilding may be worth it. But others are being left out entirely.

• The Robot and The Storm Prophet

As Sandy approached, Rutgers oceanographer Travis Miles journeyed off the New Jersey coast in rough seas to launch a robot to gather data from the storm-infused waves. The mission later prompted partnerships with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Weather Service, the U.S. Navy and 40 other institutions.

• The “Blue” Renewal

New Jersey towns bearing the brunt of climate change have turned to Rutgers ecologist Brooke Maslo to redevelop shore property and flood-prone areas into meadows, marshlands, and forests, through a state initiative known as Blue Acres.

• Tomorrow’s Climate Change Problem Solvers

Robert Kopp is helping to forge the next generation of climate-change problem solvers. Rutgers won funding from the National Science Foundation to provide graduate students with training to learn and work together with local municipalities confronting real-time issues brought about by climate change. 

• Where Will the Flood Water Go?

With drones hovering overhead and lasers beaming from a Rutgers van, engineering professor Jie Gongis generates maps of New Jersey’s roadways and towns to predict flooding and other threats to infrastructure and buildings.