Rice experts available to discuss 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

Rice University
Office of Public Affairs / News & Media Relations

EXPERT ALERT

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Amy McCaig
217-417-2901
amym@rice.edu

Rice experts available to discuss 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

HOUSTON – (Aug. 28, 2015) – Rice University experts are available to comment on a variety of topics as the U.S. marks the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes in the country’s history.

Retired Brig. Gen. Tom Kolditz, executive director of Rice’s Doerr Institute for New Leaders, can discuss leadership in times of crisis.

Stephen Klineberg, professor of sociology and founding director of Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, can discuss the impact of the Katrina experience on the psyches of Houstonians and data about the hurricane’s impact collected through the Kinder Houston Area Survey.

Rick Wilson, a professor of political science, of statistics and of psychology, can discuss New Orleans evacuees in Houston.

Bob Stein, a professor of political science and a fellow in urban politics at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, can discuss hurricane evacuation and the benefits of preparing for natural disasters.

Phil Bedient, a professor of engineering and director of Rice’s Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center, can discuss the effect of flooding during Katrina. He is the creator of the Web-based Flood Alert System, which uses a free mapping service provided by Google to enable users to see how much flooding will occur in the next 60-90 minutes.

Mark Jones, professor of political science, can discuss the political impact of Hurricane Katrina on Louisiana and Texas (especially in Houston).

Rice University has a VideoLink ReadyCam TV interview studio. ReadyCam is capable of transmitting broadcast-quality standard-definition and high-definition video directly to all news media organizations around the world 24/7.

For more information or to schedule an interview an expert, contact Amy McCaig, senior media relations specialist at Rice, at 217-417-2901 or amym@rice.edu.

-30-

Follow Rice News and Media Relations on Twitter @RiceUNews.

Photo credit: Rice University

Photo link: https://news2.rice.edu/files/2011/11/katrinalarge1.jpg

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,888 undergraduates and 2,610 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for best quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. To read “What they’re saying about Rice,” go here.