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An expert shares lessons learned from successes and challenges of recovery efforts in New York City after Hurricane Sandy. As the U.S. was hit hard by hurricanes this year, this interview further highlights the importance of considering past experiences in order to better prepare for future disasters.

Since hurricanes Maria and Irma, much of Puerto Rico still lacks electricity, cell phone signals, and clean water. The storms' impact extends to the seismic network, with several seismometers, solar panels and other instruments lost. The losses have raised questions on how to make data transmission and communications more resilient in disaster-prone areas.

This document represents an aggregation of the best available disaster damages caused by the 2017 Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and is an initial assessment of the cost to rebuild a stronger, more resilient Puerto Rico

Following the devastation wrought on his Caribbean island home by Hurricane Maria, the Prime Minister of Dominica, Mr. Roosevelt Skerrit, is calling on the world not “to turn its back” on the problem of climate change and for greater investment in disaster risk reduction.

Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico's electricity grid hard, leaving the U.S. territory almost entirely in a blackout. But farmers with solar panels have experienced the advantage of not being dependent on the electricity grid, as they are already back in business while their competitors await diesel for their generators.

Environmental conservation is in many situations a crucial part of disaster risk reduction. Coastal mangroves and wetlands protect against the impacts of storm waves and winds, and forests and grasslands against flooding and mudslides. It points to the need, alongside improved building codes and flood maps, to consider how we can scale-up conservation efforts.

Experts from the University of Tennessee Knoxville discussed issues related to power outages in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. Some of the issues identified were the exposure of electricity lines and the need to finance better options, such as buried power lines or microgrids, compared to what is used today.

The increasing impact of extreme weather events, the most recent being Hurricane Maria, has top United Nations officials urging efforts to boost resilience and strengthen damage mitigation measures. Hurricane Maria is following the same path of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Jose through the Caribbean.