Media Tip Sheet: Emergency Response to Hurricane Ian in Florida and Southeastern U.S.


September 30, 2022

Search and rescue efforts continue in Southwest Florida, where Hurricane Ian made landfall as one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the United States. Communities and emergency management teams in South Carolina are now bracing for Ian, which strengthened back into a Category 1 hurricane over the Atlantic Ocean.

GW Professor Joseph Barbera

If you would like more context on this matter, please consider Joseph Barbera, associate professor of engineering management and systems engineering at the George Washington University. Barbera is a board-certified emergency physician with a 35-year history in developing emergency response systems and responding to local, national, and international emergencies and disasters. He has extensive experience participating in the management of response to earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes, such as Katrina in 2005. Through the GW Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management, he studies disaster response and recovery, risk management, and business continuity.

Barbera can speak to the expected immediate response to impacted areas that is currently occurring as Ian's severe winds move away from the impacted areas, and the concerns expected as it returns to the Southeast U.S.

If you would like to speak with Prof. Barbera, please contact GW Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass at [email protected].

-GW-