by Xinhua writer Tan Jingjing
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Emergency management professionals, public safety specialists and disaster mitigation experts from across the globe joined a leading expo in Southern California on Wednesday and Thursday, to explore the latest strategies to prepare, respond to and recover from national disasters.
Disasters Expo USA was held in Anaheim Convention Center in Orange County of Southern California, focusing on the leading preparation, management, and recovery solutions for natural disasters.
The expo drew a variety of disaster management and response professionals, showcasing the latest tools, strategies, and insights to enhance protection for communities around the world from disasters.
A series of seminars were held during the expo, offering platforms for professionals and industry experts to share their insights on how to better tackle natural disasters today.
"There is no doubt climate change is affecting the severity and frequency of weather-related disasters, and our social landscape has highlighted the diversity of our population, including how disasters impact some groups more than or differently than others," said Lori Nezhura, deputy director for planning, preparedness, and prevention at California Office of Emergency Services.
"As emergency managers, we are changing the way we do business, specifically with regard to planning, response technologies, and public communications," she said.
Steven Goldstein, liaison of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters, shared his expertise on disaster preparedness and response to Maui wildfires in Hawaii.
He said human modifications to the island may have played a critical role in the occurrence of the fires, noting that NOAA's ability to predict these disasters is a key tool for protecting life and property.
Hawaii could model California, which has a well distributed network of observing stations, according to Goldstein.
"California gets lots of flooding. The Central Valley can get severe storms. And California can have extreme heat like we saw in the Southwest and even in parts of Hawaii this year," Goldstein told Xinhua in an interview.
"As the demographics of the country are changing, we have to educate emergency responders to the hazard they are going to be accessible to," he noted.
Lots of exhibitors were on the show floor at Anaheim Convention Center, showcasing disaster preparation and response equipment, such as solar panel generators, firefighting gear, ready-to-eat meals, instant shelter tents and more.
Leading solar power technology solution provider, Jackery, showcased their solar generators at the expo, drawing the attention of professionals and distributors from around the world.
John Zhao, head of the Americas at Jackery, told Xinhua that the company is committed to offering advanced solar power storage solutions for emergency preparedness, outdoor tasks such as carpentry work, as well as stable power supply for medical equipment.
Jackery has been responding quickly to California fires and wildfires. The company worked directly with the mayor's office to distribute power stations and solar panels to fire-affected families.
Mary Boyer, disaster risk management specialist at the World Bank, said that in the coming years, disasters caused by climate impacts, geophysical hazards and health emergencies will continue to disproportionately impacts low and middle-income countries, leading to losses in development gains and regional spillover effects.
The expo was held amid the U.S. National Preparedness Month, which falls in September. The U.S. government set up the National Preparedness Month as a one-of-a-kind campaign to enforce the importance for all citizens to be prepared for disasters and emergencies.
