{"id":10406,"date":"2019-06-14T17:33:54","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T17:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=10406"},"modified":"2019-06-14T17:33:54","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T17:33:54","slug":"utrgv-students-share-disaster-preparedness-research-findings-with-area-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=10406","title":{"rendered":"UTRGV Students Share Disaster Preparedness Research Findings with Area Officials"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Maria Elena Hernandez<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS \u2013<\/strong> There are almost 180,000 people in the Rio Grande Valley living with a disability, and most are not prepared to deal with a disaster like a hurricane.<\/p>\n

Recent findings like those from students in a disasters studies course<\/a>\u00a0at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley showed a disturbing trend of unwillingness among area residents to abandon their homes in favor of personal safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were surprised that so many respondents were unwilling to evacuate,\u201d said Lisa Tresnicky, a UTRGV senior from Mercedes who is majoring in sociology. \u201cThat just showed how important it is that we share this information and that we spread the awareness of how critical it is that they do prepare and take a proactive approach to disaster preparedness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Link:\u00a0Team of UTRGV professors researching the Valley\u2019s hurricane preparedness<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FILLING RESEARCH VOID<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tresnicky was one of a group of UTRGV students who presented their research findings to local emergency management officials during a panel forum in May.<\/p>\n

Antonio Lopez, Weslaco emergency management coordinator, was one of the panelists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a lot of times tasked with the response, the mitigation and the recovery of things,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a lot of time to do that research. So, when we partner up with the university to bring that data to us, it\u2019s going to make our response a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopez said some of the numbers presented were higher than expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe research from the four groups from this program really puts it into perspective for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"

A group of UTRGV students recently presented their research findings on public disaster response to local emergency management officials, during a special panel forum. Almost 180,000 people in the Valley live with a disability, the students found, and many are not prepared to deal with a disaster like a hurricane. Dr. Dean Kyne, UTRGV assistant professor in the disaster studies program, said the research shows a disturbing trend of unwillingness among area residents to evacuate, preferring to remain in their homes rather than ensuring their personal safety. Area emergency management representatives who attended said collaboration with the university on the research data helps with disaster preparation efforts. Courtesy Photo<\/p><\/div>\n

SHARING INFORMATION DIRECTLY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Dean Kyne, a UTRGV assistant professor in the disaster studies program, said disaster preparation can be a very complicated process.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow the students know there are a lot of challenges for the preparedness, especially for the disabled population. The complexity is there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The conventional way to share research is by publishing in a peer-reviewed journal. And while there are plans to publish the findings, Kyne said that as part of the course\u2019s service-learning component, \u201cWe have to provide the findings directly to the end-user, who are the emergency managers here.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SEEING THE STUDY\u2019S IMPACT<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the overall goal of the research is to improve the Valley\u2019s disaster resiliency and sustainability, the forum also helped students see the value of their work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great opportunity to share the data we gathered with key stakeholders in the community,\u201d Tresnicky said. \u201cIt made me feel that what we did is important. Our data can help enhance the preparedness of this vulnerable population.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopez, the Weslaco emergency management coordinator, said he is optimistic about future disaster communications in the Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy getting this research \u2013 and hopefully in the future continuing the collaboration with the UTRGV disaster studies program \u2013 this will give us all the data we need to continue improving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To learn more about the UTRGV disaster studies program, visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.utrgv.edu\/sociology\/graduate\/disaster-studies-ma\/index.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

To learn how to prepare for a disaster, visit\u00a0ready.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Maria Elena Hernandez RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS \u2013 There are almost 180,000 people in the Rio Grande Valley living with a disability, and most are not prepared to deal with a disaster like a hurricane. Recent findings like those from students in a disasters studies course\u00a0at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley showed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10408,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10406\/revisions\/10408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}