The following UC Davis faculty members are available to speak on topics related to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. If you need information on a topic not listed, please contact Mitchel Benson at the UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9844, mdbenson@ucdavis.edu, or David Ong, UC Davis Health System Public Affairs, (916) 734-9049, pager (916) 762-5331, david.ong@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu.

FLOOD RISKS FOR U.S. CITIES -- UC Davis geologist Jeffrey Mount is a watershed expert and a vocal critic of urban flood "management" that relies upon costly and fallible levees, channels and dams, such as those built to protect New Orleans and Sacramento. Mount says, "New Orleans lost the battle with the inevitable; the same will eventually occur here in Sacramento." Mount directs the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. He is a member of the State Reclamation Board, which is charged with controlling flooding along the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and their tributaries in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Contact: Jeffrey Mount, Geology, (530) 752-7092, jfmount@ucdavis.edu.

EMERGENCY AND DISASTER RESPONSE -- UC Davis Medical Center pulmonary and critical care specialist Steven Tharratt is a national authority on emergency preparedness and response to catastrophic events, including floods and bioterrorist acts. He is also medical director for Sacramento County Emergency Medical Services and all Sacramento city and county fire agencies. He is a member of the state's Standing Committee on Terrorism, the Northern California FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and the California State Threat Assessment Team. Tharratt was one of two physicians deployed to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, with the Sacramento Urban Search and Rescue Team. Contact: David Ong, UC Davis Health System Public Affairs, (916) 762-5331 (pager).

THREAT OF DISEASE -- UC Davis Medical Center infectious disease expert Stuart Cohen can comment on the prevention and treatment of water- and vector-borne diseases that are common following floods and other natural disasters. In addition, he can advise individuals traveling to affected regions how to reduce their risk of infection. Cohen specializes in the prevention and control of infectious disease outbreaks in hospitals and the community. He is professor of infectious diseases and director of Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control and, in addition, directs the department's Traveler's Clinic. Contact: David Ong, UC Davis Health System Public Affairs, (916) 762-5331 (pager).

HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS AND THE MISSISSIPPI -- Environmental historian Ari Kelman can discuss the historical relationship between New Orleans and the Mississippi River. In his 2003 book "A River and Its City: The Nature of Landscape in New Orleans," Kelman discusses the conflict between public and private control of the river, and describes how floods, disease and evolving technology have impacted the river and the city. Contact: Ari Kelman, History, (530) 752-1634, akelman@ucdavis.edu.

IMPACT ON TRANSPORTATION FUELS: UC Davis transportation expert Daniel Sperling says the rise of oil and gasoline prices in the wake of Hurricane Katrina will have an immediate effect on the national debate over the feasibility of alternative vehicle fuels, and the security and diversity of our existing transportation-fuels system. Sperling is a UC Davis professor of civil engineering and of environmental science and policy, and founding director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis). He regularly advises national and international policymakers and industry leaders on transportation technology assessment, energy and environmental aspects of transportation, and transportation policy. Contact: Daniel Sperling, ITS-Davis, (530) 752-7434, dsperling@ucdavis.edu.

OIL AND GAS SUPPLIES: Jeffrey Williams, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, studies price relationships and the institutional features of markets, including the variability in commodity supplies. He can discuss the short- and long-term impacts of Hurricane Katrina on the price and availability of natural gas and oil. Contact: Jeffrey Williams, Agricultural and Resource Economics, (530) 754-7625, williams@primal.ucdavis.edu.

GASOLINE SUPPLIES AND PRICES: The spike in gasoline prices caused by Hurricane Katrina is mostly due to a shortage of refinery capacity, says Paul P. Craig, professor emeritus of engineering at UC Davis and an expert in energy policy. Globally, limits on oil supplies, production and refining capacity mean that uncertainty will dominate the global energy market for the foreseeable future, he says. Craig has worked as a physicist and researcher at the Los Alamos and Brookhaven National Laboratories. From 1970-75, he served under the President's Science Advisor as deputy director and acting director of the Office of Energy R&D Policy at the National Science Foundation. He joined the UC Davis Department of Applied Science in 1975. In 1997, he was appointed by President Clinton to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, reviewing the feasibility of the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain nuclear, Nev. He resigned from the board in 2004. He is a member and former Chairman of the Sierra Club's National Energy Committee. Contact: Paul P. Craig, (925) 370-9672 (fax), (925) 370-9729 (phone), ppcraig@ucdavis.edu.

INTEGRATED EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT -- Capt. Shawn Cullen of the UC Davis Fire Department is interim emergency manager at UC Davis and has been a faculty member of FEMA's Emergency Management Institute and Healthcare Leadership training programs since 1997. He teaches a course on integrated emergency management at FEMA's facility in Maryland. About emergency efforts for Katrina, Cullen said officials evidently worked well with the news media to accomplish such large evacuations in a short time. A firefighter with more than 22 years experience, he is also serving on a committee of California's Office of Emergency Services that is developing training and exercises to implement the federally mandated National Incident Management System. Contact: Capt. Shawn Cullen, Fire Department, (530) 752-1236, swcullen@ucdavis.edu.

INVESTOR REACTION -- Brad Barber, a professor in the Graduate School of Management at UC Davis, can comment on how investors react to dramatic events. He has published widely on the psychology of investing. Contact: Brad Barber, Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-0512, bmbarber@ucdavis.edu.

MARKETS AND BUSINESS CONFIDENCE -- Disasters can raise frightening questions about their impacts on financial markets and business confidence, says economist Robert Smiley of the Graduate School of Management at UC Davis. Contact: Robert Smiley, Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-7366, home (530) 757-1766, rhsmiley@ucdavis.edu. Available beginning Sept. 5.

EMERGENCY AND DISASTER RESPONSE, TOXIC DANGERS -- Timothy Albertson, professor of medicine, emergency medicine, pharmacology and anesthesiology, has extensive experience in preparing for and responding to disasters. Albertson has been a member of the California National Guard for 17 years, where he has served as state surgeon for three years. His work with the California National Guard includes contributing his expertise to the guard's mission of readiness for disasters. Albertson also provides expert advice to California physicians and residents on toxic substances and poisonings. As medical director of the Sacramento Division of the California Poison Control System, he is frequently consulted by Northern California physicians when they encounter a puzzling poisoning question. Contact: David Ong, UC Davis Health System Public Affairs, (916) 762-5331 (pager).

HOSPITAL EVACUATIONS -- Carol Robinson, senior associate director at UC Davis Medical Center, has played a central role in devising plans for the evacuation of the hospital, a process that hospitals in New Orleans are undertaking or may be forced to consider. In extreme cases, Robinson says, the patients most likely to survive would be transported first. Most hospital patients are dependent on technology of some kind, and a disaster of the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina has serious impacts. Under dire circumstances, such as prolonged periods without electricity, very sick patients dependent on ventilators, as well as neonates, would probably die, Robinson says. Ironically, the availability of electricity would make matters more complicated, according to Robinson, because hospital personnel would then have to decide which patients are stable enough to be transported and which can stay behind and still be supported. Contact: David Ong, UC Davis Health System Public Affairs, (916) 762-5331 (pager).