President's Page

Disasters occur where hazard meets vulnerability. They damage infrastructure, disrupt lives, and can overwhelm our ability to cope (as defined by the Red Cross and World Health Organization). Calamities challenge decision making but can also bring out our human best. Hurricane Harvey inundated Houston in late August 2017 — just four weeks before the scheduled SEG International Exposition and 87th Annual Meeting. An epic 52 inches (1.3 m) of rain fell in four days — a North American record for a single storm — with an estimated 34 trillion gallons of water. For perspective, that is equivalent to some 20 years of the world's total oil production (but, as a colleague of mine said wryly, “I'm glad it wasn't oil that fell, then we'd really have a glut!”). South Texas suffered substantially, ultimately with upward of US$150 billion in loss (possibly the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history).