News

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?

World Weather Attribution, a scientific group that monitors extreme weather, has released a report investigating 67 extreme temperature events from May 2024-May 2025. The report presents two major findings:

1) "4 billion people — about 49% of the global population — experienced at least...Read more about World Weather Attribution Study-Extreme Heat

At a June 10, 2025 White House Press Conference to discuss the upcoming wildfire season, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, speaking to President Trump, said "You've been very clear that you want to see FEMA eliminated as it exists today, so I'm preparing all these governors that they...Read more about White House Plans to Eliminate FEMA "As It Exists Today"

The New York Times ("California’s Wildfires Could Be Brutal This Summer", June 16, 2025) and the Los Angeles Times ("California’s 2025 wildfire season was already going to be dangerous. Trump has made it worse", June 18, 2025) report that a high risk fire season lies ahead of...Read more about Concerns about the Upcoming Wildfire Season

The 8th Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction was help in Geneva on June 2-6, 2025. It was attended by 3000 participants from 164 countries. The theme of the meeting was “Every Day Counts, Act for Resilience Today." The main closing output of the meeting, called the Co...Read more about Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction 2025

The Desert Research Institute has recently published a study reviewing 43,000 atmospheric river storms across 122 watersheds on the West Coast of the U.S between 1980 and 2023. They found that "flood peaks were 2-4.5 times higher, on average, when soils were already wet." The key takeaway...Read more about Atmospheric River Storms and West Coast Flooding

The Los Angeles Times reports that approximately half of the post-fire debris has been successfully removed by mid-April ("As heavy as 100 Eiffel Towers: Monumental L.A. County fire debris removal could finish by June"). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been responsible for the clean up,...Read more about Los Angeles Fire Debris Removal Progress

The Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) has issued a scoping report on fire recovery after the Los Angeles fires. To speed rebuilding, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive order temporarily relaxing the "all-electric" building code regulation. The CLEE report...Read more about "All Electric" Fire Recovery?

The New York Times ("After Wildfires, L.A.’s Clear Skies Conceal a ‘Toxic Soup’") reports on a research project to monitor airborne toxins after the 2025 Los Angeles fires. The article follows a research group tracking volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, in ultra-fine particles...Read more about Post-Fire Airborne Toxins

On Urban Wire, Urban Institute authors Andrew Rumbach, Sara McTarnaghan, Kameron Lloyd, and Aleszu Bajak compare housing recovery rates after four major wildfires: the Carr and Camp Fires in Northern California (2018), the Marshall Fire in Boulder County, Colorado (2022), and the Maui...Read more about Housing Recovery Timelines After Major Wildfires