by Chip Benight, Ph.D.

When considering topics for this Director’s Corner article, my thoughts kept returning to the two recent, major hurricanes that struck Florida in rapid succession during a two-week period. The last one, Hurricane Milton, struck south of Tampa in Sarasota as a Category 3 hurricane only weeks after Hurricane Helene hit the same area and then wreaked havoc inland with particular devastation in the Appalachian region of the southeastern U.S. 

The impact has been and continues to be massive with billions of dollars in property damage and the loss of as many as 240 human lives. The main thing that stands out to me from the latest hurricane is not the physical damage, but rather the impact of the storm on those indirectly affected, including all of us.

I was listening to a news report with a meteorologist who was talking about the sudden drop in barometric pressure as Hurricane Milton gained strength over the gulf. You could see the psychological toll on him as he was overcome with emotion and began to cry as he watched the hurricane grow to a Category 5 storm. Another meteorologist, clearly stunned by the unfolding events, commented in disbelief that she had never seen a storm of this strength, and noted that the magnitude of the storm had reached the limits of our ability to measure.

The point to this is that we are all now adapting to a changing world that will challenge our ability as a species to maintain our individual and collective resilience. We will see massive migrations of people and animals as drinking water becomes unavailable and increasing temperatures force populations to seek refuge in more temperate climates. 

Migrations will put intense pressure on infrastructure that is already struggling under current usage levels, as people try to find ways to cope with the economic and personal hardship. Undoubtedly, these changes will result in widespread human trauma. If history is any guide, these pressures may lead to limited resources, political unrest, cultural clashes, and outright violence.

I am convinced that preparing populations for what is happening and building collective strength for what’s to come is a vital area that the Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience must address from multiple angles. We can prepare and develop critical skills to help ourselves and each other find ways to adapt with compassion. At the Institute, our researchers, clinicians, and community engagement professionals are working to understand the impact, interventions, and preparedness components of how to help.

That being said, we do need to find partners in this work who can provide critical resources to help support these efforts, and we need to bring more experts into this fight to be able to meet this challenge.  If you are interested in joining this critical mission, please reach out to me at cbenight@uccs.edu.