Hollings Scholar: Impacts of extreme weather events in Alaska

Using a database of storm and other extreme events, the Hollings Scholar Lauren Zuromski compiled a catalog of impacts and determined the linkages between extreme events and impacts.

Impacts were be grouped into categories such as: 

• Infrastructure damage e.g. buildings flooded, roads washed out
• Societal impacts, e.g., fatalities, evacuations (required and precautionary), transportation disruptions and delays, public facility delays and closures (e.g. school)
• Environmental impacts, e.g. erosion, vegetation damage, animal impacts

Sources of information (available via web or UAF library) 

• Post event governmental reports (federal, state, local and native/tribal agencies)
• Complementary media accounts, e.g. newspapers

Analyses include:

• Regionality of event impacts, e.g. I’d expect freezing rain is more impactful in northern Alaska than Southeast: flooding has greater impact for communities not on the road system.
• Areal scale of events vs. impacts