News

Read CCRM's recent AI to Zoonoses blog post about the After-Action Report on the 2025 Fires:

https...Read more about After-Action Report on the 2025 LA Fires

Rune Storesund, Carl Macrae and Peter Martelli will edit a special issue of Safety Science on High Reliability Organizations.

Here is the call for papers:...Read more about Call for HRO Papers by Safety Science

Check out CCRM's new substack post on climate change and wildfire smoke:

https://ccrm90.substack.com/p/where-theres-smoke-theresparticulatesRead more about Climate Change and Wildfire Smoke

Our recent CCRM substack post considers the meaning of "cascading risks" in the context of anticipating and preparing for a Parisian extreme heat event. Pescaroli and Alexander argue that the toppling dominoes metaphor can be misleading.

Here's a link to our most...Read more about Cascading Risks as Toppling Dominoes?

Announcing a new book edited by a longtime friend of CCRM, Mathilde Bourrier, who is Professor of Sociology at the University of Geneva. She has worked for decades on issues related to nuclear power and organizational reliability.

The book is...Read more about Decommissioning Aging Installations and Declining Technologies: Burden or Inspiration?

As we near the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, FEMA staff have issued a "Katrina Declaration" and "Petition to Congress." The Declaration argues that the Trump Administration is working against the intent of the Post-Katrinna Emergency Reform Act (PKEMRA) of 2006, which was passed after...Read more about FEMA Staff Issue "Katrina Declaration"

Read Emery Roe's recent blog on "gaps in communication" in emergency management: https://mess-and-reliability.blog/2025/08/20/which-gaps-in-communication-in-...Read more about Which “gaps in communication” in emergency management?

Read CCRM's latest blog post on multi-hazard planning and subscribe for free to our susbstack newsletter--From AI to Zoonoses: The Science and Practice of Catastrophic Risk Management:

https://ccrm90.substack.com/p...Read more about Multi-hazard Planning

The New York Times has a front page article today on the health effects of fighting wildfires on widlfire crews ("Unmasked in Smoke, Wildfire Crews are Getting Fatally Ill"). The article makes a couple of important points. First, wildland firefighting used to be a seasonal job, but it...Read more about Health Effects on Wildfire Crews

Starting in August, CCRM will begin monitoring policy and program changes with relevance for catastrophic and that occur at the Federal and California levels. Our hope is that these observatories can provide a useful way to stay updated about current policy and program developments.

See...Read more about Announcing Federal and California Observatories

Paul Schulmantakes on the concept of safety in the most recent installment of the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management's "From AI to Zoonoses" blog, asking "Is Safety a Noun or a...Read more about Is "Safety" a Noun or a Verb?

The New York Times reported today on their investigation of Jeju Air Flight 2216 Crash, which occurred on December 29, 2024 as the flight was landing at Muan International Airport in Korea ("Decades of Blunders Left Deathtrap at Runway's End"). Birds knocked out an engine just before landing,...Read more about Jeju Air Flight 2216 Crash Investigation

It seems fitting that the great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov (1981) was among the first authors to seriously discuss catastrophes. After all, a catastrophic risk is basically the potential for a devasting future, and it can take a lively imagination to...Read more about What is a Catastrophic Risk?

With a tornado taking her off to the Land of Oz, Dorothy knew something about extreme weather…But could she have predicted it?

Read our new substack newsletter on lead times in extreme weather forecasting:...Read more about Accurate and Timely Extreme Weather Forecasting

CCRM is pleased to announce our new substack: From AI to Zoonoses, where we will address topical issues related to the science and practice of risk management.

Substack is a newsletter/blogging platform that delivers content directly to email. We think it is a way for...Read more about New CCRM Substack: From AI to Zoonoses

CCRM researcher and flooding expert Anna Serra-Llobet was quoted in a July 12th New York Times article about building in high hazard flood zones (...Read more about Pitching a Tent in the Highway

Minho Kim, Cristobal Pais, and Marta Gonzalez have just published a new article on Fire Spread Models in Scientific Reports. Their research evaluates a cellular automata-based Fire Spread Model, Cell2Fire, against...Read more about Fire spread simulations using Cell2Fire on synthetic and real landscapes

Following the terrible flooding disaster on the Guadalupe River in Texas, the New York Times has examined underinvestment in early warning systems ("Around the World, Early Warning Systems Struggle to Prevent Flash Flooding Disasters," July 14, 2025). The article points out the...Read more about Early Warning Systems for Flash Flooding

Benjamin Oreskes in the New York Times reports on the impact of delays in funding for security and counter-terrorism ("FEMA Delays $2.4 Billion in Grants to Fight Terror, and States Feel the Pinch," July 11, 2025).

In the past, FEMA's security grant program has supported a wide variety of...Read more about Delays in FEMA Security Funding Affects State and Local Governments

We are absolutely dismayed by the magnitude of the flooding tragedy in Texas. Sadly, this is not an isolated event, as many other regions in the United States are exposed to devastating flash floods.

A couple of days ago, in a conversation with KQED reporter Ezra...Read more about 2025 Texas flash floods: Could that happen in California?