Strengthening the Disaster Resilience of the Academic Biomedical Research Community Protecting the Nation's Investment (2017) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
2 Impacts of Prior Disasters on the Academic Biomedical Research Community
2 Impacts of Prior Disasters on the Academic Biomedical Research Community
Pages 49-84
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 49... ...
. Tasked with describing the extent of the impact of prior disasters on the academic biomedical research community, the committee relates here selected events that have befallen academic research institutions in the past several decades, predominantly in the United States, but also drawing from overseas disasters where they are informative.
|
From page 50... ...
Primary power outages compounded by generator failures; major flooding surpassing maximum predicted levels and overwhelming flood walls, pumps, and other physical barriers; an emphasis on emergency plans for hospitals but not for research centers -- the surprises of disasters are numerous and far-reaching. A review of prior disasters reveals that the planning failures that lead to the greatest damage are often rooted in flaws that are systemic to an institution or to general practices across institutions: generators and other utilities stored on low floors; animal vivaria housed in basements; emergency plans that do not account for employees' inability to reach the site and implement them, and so on.
|
From page 51... ...
About 4 weeks after Hurricane Katrina's rains subsided, L ouisiana State University Health Science Center (LSUHSC) faculty were instructed to be available for work and to possibly be prepared to commute to Baton Rouge or other locations (Savoie et al., 2007)
|
From page 52... ...
In addition, a major event that affected one institution often affected others nearby. As a direct result of Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, 3,200 faculty, staff, and students at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHSC-H)
|
From page 53... ...
Temporary disruptions may become permanent either based on an institutional decision to let people go, or of researchers taking the initiative to leave and restart their research programs elsewhere as soon as possible After Hurricane Katrina, LSU continued to pay salaries and benefits to all faculty, even when the university was only partially reopened, into November 2005 (Savoie et al., 2007)
|
From page 54... ...
. Personal and Psychological Impacts Hurricane Katrina provides one of the more striking examples of how both careers and personal lives can be affected simultaneously.
|
From page 55... ...
response to this element of the Tropical Storm Allison tragedy as requiring special attention to the mental and physical well-being of the animal-care-and-use staff: The recognition of both physical and emotional loss was a key element of the personal recovery of dedicated staff members from both the CLAMC [Center for Laboratory Animal Medicine and Care] and research labora tories.
|
From page 56... ...
Disruption or loss of momentum can damage competitiveness. Even in cases when research projects were not completely destroyed, researchers subject to d isasters describe a loss of momentum as they spend precious time acquiring new research animals and getting their research fully back on line, while simultaneously dealing with damage to their own homes (Ortolon, 2009)
|
From page 57... ...
Although it is essentially impossible to determine whether such redirection positively or negatively affects research outcomes, disasters do create opportunities for scientists to redesign their research or restructure their laboratories. Hurricane Katrina hit graduate student research very hard.
|
From page 58... ...
This undoubtedly meant sacrificing time that they could have spent restarting their own research. About 400 faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students were seriously affected by Tropical Storm Allison, with research projects and graduate training programs significantly delayed (Goodwin and Donaho, 2010)
|
From page 59... ...
This led to the creation of the Secretaries Advisory Committee on Structural Safety, which created and in 1975 formally approved H-08-8, the first special seismic design provisions for all VA facilities. In 1987 the Whittier Narrows California earthquake caused severe damage to California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA)
|
From page 60... ...
. The Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 did major damage to a laboratory animal production facility; the impacts of this are discussed in the next section (Ikeda, 2012)
|
From page 61... ...
Tropical Storm Allison dumped 10 million gallons of water into the UTHSC-H Medical School basement, putting more than 1 million gross square feet of space out of service for months (Goodwin and Donaho, 2010)
|
From page 62... ...
Less well known are the similar stories of courage and the emotional distress of failed rescue efforts that took place behind the closed doors of research facilities. Goodwin said, for example, that many of TMC's animal care providers attempted during Tropical Storm Allison to reach vivaria through waist-deep water and closed roadways (Goodwin and Donaho, 2010)
|
From page 63... ...
. When Hurricane Ike arrived 7 years later, it tested the improvements UTHSC-H had put in place after Tropical Storm Allison.
|
From page 64... ...
The Lyons Research Building was broken into during World Laboratory Ani mal Liberation Week, resulting in extensive damage to equipment, computers, videotape, and research data and the theft of research animals involved in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease studies. Estimated damage: over $2 million (Bailey et al., 2010)
|
From page 65... ...
The floods that took the lives of so many animals during and after Tropical Storm Allison in Houston destroyed the cages they lived in as well as an array of other equipment, some of it new and very expensive, including a 6-month-old magnetic resonance imaging instrument as well as computers and diagnostic instruments, which were housed in the basement (Goodwin and Donaho, 2010)
|
From page 66... ...
In July 2007, CDC ordered the cessation of work on select agents and toxins at Texas A&M University while it investigated a mishap with Brucella and Coxiella burnetti. This cost Texas A&M $1 million from its research compliance funds in the form of a fine to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
|
From page 67... ...
. Utilities and Other Critical Infrastructure When the Whittier Narrows earthquake struck southern California, all physical sciences building utilities were lost, including emergency power (Pine, 1988)
|
From page 68... ...
Most of the presumptive fires occurred in residential structures, but they were also reported in laboratories, chemical plants, and oil refineries. The ShakeOut scenario broadly tested southern California's resilience to a major earthquake; while the after-action report does not reference specific impacts to academic research, the high concentration of research universities in the region implies that their potential role in fostering earthquake resilience for their own communities could be substantial.
|
From page 69... ...
Tropical Storm Allison's floods quickly severed underground-routed electricity (RMS, 2001)
|
From page 70... ...
A critical pressure point in this situation was also an issue at NYU Langone during Hurricane Sandy: communications. Communications infrastructure systems can fail in many ways.
|
From page 71... ...
. The storm surges from Hurricane Sandy completely flooded the basement floor on which the NYU Langone IT data center was located.
|
From page 72... ...
In some cases, a supply chain may remain in place after a disaster, but the demand for supplies may be too great to fill. In other cases, as documented in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the demand for resources may be too great to process by understaffed organizations; a special report of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs found that FEMA did not have enough staff to process requests for critical supplies even for humanitarian aid (Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 2006, p.
|
From page 73... ...
President Cowen and Board Chair Pierson, in their correspondence with the Association [AAUP] , repeatedly and correctly pointed to the unprecedented disaster Hurricane Katrina represented for the entire city of New Orleans.
|
From page 74... ...
Tropical Storm Allison compromised an estimated $105 million in sponsored research awards at UTHSC-H (Goodwin and Donaho, 2010)
|
From page 75... ...
Because of the enormous impact that Hurricane Katrina had on affected universities' ability to remain operational, this disaster represents the most extreme example of the legal ramifications of a disaster in the context of the academic biomedical research community. Indeed, research buildings were damaged, and some were closed due to safety -- or possibly liability -- concerns.
|
From page 76... ...
. Lawsuits related to insurance claims were also seen after Hurricane Katrina.
|
From page 77... ...
After Hurricane Katrina, some grant reviewers began to question
|
From page 78... ...
Berger of NYU Langone described how the devastation of his laboratory essentially gave him a chance to redo his study and to do it better the second time around.12 11 Ibid. 12 Personal communications, Jeffrey Berger, NYU Langone, July 14, 2016.
|
From page 79... ...
. Conclusion: For the events reviewed, there are common impacts, some of which are unique to the academic biomedical research community: destruction to the physical laboratory workspace, loss of supportive utilities and specialized equipment, and deaths of research animals have been among the most salient immediate impacts.
|
From page 80... ...
In 2013, the 62 research institution members of the Association of American Universities had combined operating budgets of $152 billion, issued 3,460 patents and executed 3,068 licensing agreements, and initiated 479 start-up companies (AAU, 2017) The disruptions to the work of the academic biomedical research community described herein therefore reach beyond even the researchers, students, their institutions, and their sponsoring agencies, to affect their local economies.
|
From page 81... ...
Special appropriations, such as the DRAA, while temporary, may also be a reaction to disasters and may affect the academic biomedical research community's response, recovery, and mitigation capacities. Conclusion: Governing bodies, including local, state, and federal gov ernments, and professional associations that promulgate standards, can affect the disaster resilience of the academic biomedical research community through the development of laws, regulations, policies, standards, requirements, and other instruments.
|
From page 82... ...
2006. Hurricane Katrina: A nation still unprepared.
|
From page 83... ...
2005. Hurricane Katrina -- Summary of impact on LSUHSC and focus on LSUHSC department of pharmacology.
|
From page 84... ...
2001. Tropical Storm Allison, June 2001: RMS event report.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.