As Tropical Storm Francine hurtles toward the Gulf Coast where it is expected to make landfall in Louisiana Wednesday, Rice University’s Dominic Boyer and James Elliott, co-directors of the recently launched Center for Coastal Futures and Adaptive Resilience , are available to discuss the vulnerabilities of the “Third Coast” to major storms.
Elliott, the department chair and David W. Leebron Professor of Sociology, is an expert in social inequality and the environment and researches the intersection of natural and industrial hazards. Boyer, who also serves as a professor of anthropology, is an expert on climate mitigation and climate adaptation.
“In the U.S., there are hundreds of thousands of people living in dozens of urban areas that will face dire social and economic risks from sea level rise and routine coastal flooding in the next three decades,” said Elliott.
“These impacts have the potential not only to damage industrial infrastructures, but will threaten the long-term resilience of local economies, ecosystems, communities and public health,” said Boyer.
Francine is the sixth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season. For a comprehensive list of Rice experts available to discuss an array of hurricane-related topics, click here.
To schedule an interview with Boyer, Elliott or any other Rice hurricane expert, contact Amy McCaig, senior media relations specialist at Rice, at 713-348-6777 or amym@rice.edu.