ODU Professors Focus on Hurricane Planning During a Pandemic

July 29, 2020
By: Sherry DiBari

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts a busy Atlantic hurricane season. More than a dozen named storms are expected. Of those, half have the potential to become hurricanes.

This hurricane season occurs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The public health crisis necessitates precautions such as physical distancing and isolation of populations with symptoms.

This raises an important question: How might emergency mangers and health officials alter planning assumptions related to evacuation and sheltering practices under the threat of COVD-19?

Two Old Dominion University professors have reached out nationally to answer this question.

Wie Yusuf, a professor in ODU's School of Public Service in the Strome College of Business, and Joshua G. Behr, associate professor at ODU's Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC), led an effort with the University of South Florida (USF) to conduct a series of six National Science Foundation-sponsored national working groups focused on the dynamics of evacuation and sheltering during COVID-19.

Topics for the working groups included infectious disease control, shelter capacity and management, staffing and volunteers, and psychological adjustment.

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