The objective of this study is to determine a predicted energy capacity of disaster debris for the production of emergency power using a combined heat and power (CHP) unit. A prediction simulation using geographic information systems (GIS) will use data from past storms to calculate an estimated amount of debris along with an estimated energy potential of said debris. Rather than the expense and burden of transporting woody debris such as downed trees and wood framing materials offsite, they can be processed (sorting and chipping) to provide an onsite energy source to provide power to emergency management facilities such as shelters in schools and hospitals. A CHP unit can simultaneously produce heat, cooling effects and electrical power using various biomass sources.This study surveys the quantity and composition of debris produced for a given classification of disaster and location. A comparison of power efficiency estimates for various disasters is conducted.

Tropical Storm Irene’s most extreme rainfall resulted in record-breaking sediment loads from upland tributaries to the Connecticut River. However, was the event exceptional with respect to resultant deposition downstream? Off-river waterbodies to the Lower Connecticut River, such as cut-off meanders and blocked valley lakes, are a particularly important floodplain environment, which have been shown to serve as a focal point for the trapping of sediment and associated contaminants. This study evaluates the relative role of extreme events like Tropical Storm Irene in infilling these off-river environments. To meet this objective we compare the magnitude and composition of resultant sedimentation from Irene to that observed following the 2011 and 2013 spring freshets. Tropical Storm Irene deposits were identified as compositionally distinct, grey layers that were relatively inorganic compared to sediments deposited by the annual spring freshet. Sediment within the Irene deposit was enriched in elemental potassium and depleted in zircon, a finding consistent with being enriched by glacigenic lacustrine and till sediments. Decreased mercury levels in the Irene deposits suggest that this event served to cap highly contaminated, industrial era sediment with a layer of relatively clean, fine-grained silt and clay. Resampling of these waterbodies in Fall 2012 revealed preservation of the 2-3 cm thick Irene deposit as well as 3-4 cm of more recent sediments deposited on top of this event. Sediment contributions from rare events, like Tropical Storm Irene, were found to be less influential than the annual spring freshet in the long-term infilling of waterbodies along the Lower Connecticut River. However, sediments from Irene are compositionally unique and serve to highlight the importance of this event in removing glacially derived fines from the river’s upland catchments.

Over recent years, offshore wind energy has been growing around the world. This necessitates placing wind turbines directly in or near the oceans where hurricanes can be. Previous research has suggested that hurricane wind veer and direction change can have adverse loading effects on the turbine. Such effects can create damage to the blade or worsen existing ones. Currently, there is no known design standard for addressing wind veer and direction change specifically from hurricanes. Quantifying the loading contribution from these phenomena is not abundant either. This thesis seeks to demonstrate a proposed procedure for defining design veer profiles and direction changes from hurricanes using statistical averages and percentiles of veer and direction change magnitudes. Using simulated wind field data that describes a stationary Category 5 hurricane, the maximum veer profiles and direction changes will first be determined. Methods for statistically characterizing these wind field phenomena will be applied to provide design veer profiles and direction changes. These maximum and design veer profiles and direction changes will be applied to a feathered IEA-15MW turbine blade at 0 and 180 degrees azimuth, and the effects on the static blade loadings will be examined using blade element theory. Baseline scale factors describing the loading increase from veer or direction change will be established for the maximum and design veer profiles and direction changes. Rated scale factors describing the loading increase from veer and wind speed or direction change and wind speed relative to the rated condition loadings will also be established. The purpose of these scale factors is to estimate increases in loads from these wind field characteristics and not be directly used in any serious wind blade design. This thesis will show that hurricane wind veer and direction change can each, individually, increase the blade loading greater than the wind velocity can on a feathered blade. The wind speed/wind veer loadings can induce resultant moments up to 2.5 times rated with veer contributing 87.5% of the increased loading while the wind speed / direction change loadings can induce resultant moments up to 2.8 times rated with direction change contributing 88.8%.

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Modern forestry research and management emphasize infusing management practices with an understanding of natural disturbance regimes -- often called ecological forestry. Forestry practices emulating aspects of natural disturbance regimes are considered an effective tool to balance silvicultural and ecological objectives. Size, shape, and spatial distribution of canopy gaps formed by Hurricane Michael were studied across multiple site factors in a longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) woodland in southwest Georgia. No significant differences were observed in gap size or shape among landscape factors, but spatial distribution of gaps differed among landscape factors. The results observed highlight the ecological importance of the event and provide some insight into interactions at the landscape level. The implementation of a large, rapid, single disturbance event as a model for ecological silviculture may be more practically applied than disturbances such as lightning or insects which occur over longer timeframes.

Hydrogeologically important features of fault zones include undamaged country rock, the damage zone, and the core zone. Fault cores generally have low porosity and permeability, and often act as a barrier to groundwater flow. The damage zone, by contrast, consists of small faults and fracture networks, which can act as conduits. Timpoweap Canyon near Hurricane, Utah has superb exposures of the fault core and damage zone of the Hurricane Fault. Also within the canyon, springs discharge from the damage zone into the Virgin River, providing an ideal natural laboratory for the study of groundwater discharge from a fault zone. The Hurricane fault is an active, steeply dipping, normal fault that is 250 km long, and exhibits about 2500 m of displacement. The damage zone in Timpoweap Canyon controls thermal groundwater (~40°C) and CO2 gas discharge from highly fractured limestone. Total spring discharge is 260 L/s. Approximately 4 L/s of CO2 gas also discharges with the springs. The δ^2H and δ^16O composition of the springs exhibits a geothermal shift from the global meteoric waterline. This suggests that the circulation depth is about 3 km below the ground surface (bgs) in basement bedrock. The CO2 gas discharging originates from either magmatic sources or from diagenesis. The fracture density in a typical damage zone decreases with increasing distance from the fault, thus spring discharge should also decrease with increasing distance from the fault. The damage zone in Timpoweap Canyon does not follow this pattern because pre-existing fractures that developed from Laramide and Sevier Orogeny stresses suppress the pattern. Collapse structures from gypsum dissolution and large fractures also control the location of spring discharge.

Since the 75th anniversary of the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane in 2003, a growing number of journalists and historians writing about the disaster have incorporated Zora Neale Hurston's 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God as part of the official historical record of the hurricane. These writers often border on depicting Their Eyes as the authentic experience of black migrant workers impacted by the hurricane and subsequent flood. Within the novel itself, however, Hurston theorizes on the potential epistemic violence that occurs when a piece of evidence—a photograph, fallen body, or verbal artifact—is used to judge a person. Without a person's ability to use self-representation to give an "understandin'" (7) to go along with the evidence, snapshots or textual evidence threaten to violently separate people from their prior knowledge of themselves. By offering the historical context of photographs of African Americans in the Post-Reconstruction South, I argue that Janie experiences this epistemic violence as a young girl when seeing a photograph of herself initiates her into the racial hierarchy of the South. A few decades later, while on trial for shooting her husband Tea Cake, Janie again faces epistemic violence when the evidence of Tea Cake's body is used to judge her and her marriage; however, by giving an understandin' to go along with the evidence through self-representation, Janie is able to clarify that which other forms of evidence distort and is able to go free. Modern texts appropriating Their Eyes run the risk of enacting epistemic violence on the victims of the hurricane, the novel, and history itself when they present the novel as the complete or authentic perspective of the migrant workers in the hurricane. By properly situating the novel as a historical text that offers a particular narrative of the hurricane rather than the complete or authentic experience of the victims, modern writers can honor Hurston's literary achievement without robbing the actual victims of the hurricane of their voice.

Resiliency measurement is a great tool for evaluating system performance and proposing solutions to prevent damage and to recover from disruptive events. This study proposes an analytic approach to quantify narrow waterway systems’ resiliency during disasters. First, metrics are introduced to quantify the resiliency before, during, and after a disruption. The existing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Maritime Transportation Systems (MTS) are examined, and two metrics, 1) the number of inbound and outbound vessels and 2) Total Stopped Vessel-Hours, are selected to measure the resiliency of a waterway system. Second, a heuristic method is developed to derive the KPIs from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) data. Finally, the proposed methodology is performed for the Houston Ship Channel (HSC) AIS data before, during, and after Hurricane Harvey, in August 2017. The results are presented for the entire channel and highlight useful information about the performance of individual docks, terminals, and waterway zones within HSC. This study helps decision-makers identify the weaknesses and potential bottlenecks in a waterway confronting a disruption and come up with remedies.