Old Dominion University Partners With Hampton Roads Community Foundation to Speed Severe Weather Recovery

Old Dominion University is partnering with the Hampton Roads Community Foundation in a significant regional effort to lessen the expected displacement of vulnerable populations following damaging hurricane winds and flooding.

ODU researchers at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Research Center (VMASC) will use a five-year, $500,000 grant from the foundation to help establish Recover Hampton Roads (RHR), an organization that will focus on speeding housing repair and recovery.

ODU researchers will begin developing a Convergence, Inventory, Matching & Assignment (CIMA) platform, which is the linchpin to the objectives of RHR.

"This is an important effort not just for the region, but nationally as the management platform is innovative and addresses a known gap in recovery efforts and may be deployed in other coastal areas," said Joshua G. Behr, research associate professor at VMASC. He is leading the effort with Rafael Diaz, who specializes in solutions to manage the complexity inherent in dynamic supply-chain environments.