UConn Works To Reduce Potential Disaster Impact

STORRS — An epidemic, hurricane, or other catastrophe can strike at any time. There are individuals at UConn who are taking steps to prepare for potential disasters in the future.

Bruce Wilbur, director of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resource’s Communications and Information Technology department, is the Connecticut contact for the Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN). Within this nationwide organization, a variety of Cooperative Extension System professionals are available to reduce the impact of national and manmade disasters throughout the recovery phases.

“People think ‘first response’ in terms of disasters, and in fact there’s a lot of work on all the edges, before and after,” Mr Wilbur said.

In referring to the Cooperative Extension’s mission and structure, he said, “We’re an educational resource. We’ll still be here long after the first folks leave.”

As part of its mission, EDEN conducts research and education programs, establishes relationships with existing state and federal agencies and anticipates future disaster education needs.

“What I’m trying to do as a coordinator is…provide access to resources” and refer professionals to others who can help them, Mr Wilbur said. “For an example, we have an Agricultural Extension Educator who works in livestock, and I can connect them [sic] up with someone in another state who’s got a disaster plan for livestock…all we’re looking for are people who have integrated their area of expertise.”

Mr Wilbur said that although Connecticut is not the target of many natural or manmade disasters, there are rising concerns about avian influenza. In Connecticut, the spreading of avian influenza would be human to human as a mutated virus. Connecticut people with “accurate, unbiased material” will be a top priority in terms of preparing for a possible outbreak, he said.

EDEN demonstrated what it could do in a disaster situation during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. For example, it provided business specialists to help hurricane victims navigate paperwork and set up 4-H centers as evacuee sites. Connecticut was involved with several websites that brought the experience of EDEN specialists to evacuees, and Mr Wilbur aided in setting up several communication systems.

According to Mr Wilbur, being prepared is very important even though “you cannot be totally prepared for everything.” He hopes his efforts in Connecticut will get disaster education integrated into the system for those times when it is most needed.