EP107: From Blue Roofs To Rebuilds

From blue roofs to rebuilds: why communities can (or cannot) construct after catastrophes A hurricane hits. You survive the storm, but your house doesn’t. And to complicate matters, you don’t have the documentation to prove the house was actually yours to begin with. What do you do? Construction engineering doctoral student Jess Talbot recently traveled to Puerto Rico, a country still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Maria back in 2017. Along with her mentor, Assistant Professor Cristina Poleacovschi, Jess studied how communities are … or are not … able to reconstruct after a catastrophic event. Special acknowledgement to the research team of Cristina Poleacovschi and Jess Talbot, including: Sara Hamideh (Stonybrook University), collaborating professor Carlos Santos, undergraduate student Luis Gallardo & Alison Chopel, Habitat for Humanity And thank you to the multiple UPR students and the stakeholders and community members tho shared their stories with us. For a full transcript of this episode, go to our website at news.engineering.iastate.edu/factoranalysis/