UCF in the News

There’s much potential for Orlando to be what Austin is to Texas, what Atlanta is to Georgia — a booming hub where startups flock from around the world to dream, innovate, and grow. The numbers are already showing potential: New PitchBook data found that in the first half of this year, a little more than $360 million was invested in the Orlando-Kissimmee metro area, way more than the $144 million invested in H1 last year. It has an emerging art scene, an incubator of talent from the University of Central Florida, which is one of the largest schools in the United States, and good weather with a low cost of living compared to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and even Miami.

Hurricane Ian is now the deadliest hurricane in the continental United States since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It made landfall on September 28 along Florida’s gulf coast at Category 4 strength, with sustained winds of 155 mph driving a storm surge as high as 18 feet, flinging boats and sweeping homes off foundations. “I think we, as Floridians especially, we know that we are always going to have hurricanes,” said Abdul-Akeem Sadiq, a professor of public administration at the University of Central Florida who studies disaster response and recovery. “We cannot let our guard down.” “We have to always remember that this could happen again and we should be ready for the next one,” Sadiq said. In addition, there wasn’t much effort made to interrogate past hurricane forecasts and to educate the public about how to respond to uncertainties, particularly when a storm takes a different course than what was predicted, according to Sadiq. It can also be hard to appreciate how much planning and evacuations saved lives, even if they may be an overreaction in some cases. “The next time a prediction like that is made, people are less likely to heed that warning,” Sadiq said.

While many questions still linger, Florida has learned a lot about itself, the National Hurricane Center and the future of forecasting in the 10 days since Hurricane Ian ravaged the state. The Category 4 hurricane roared ashore in Southwest Florida with 150 mph sustained winds, making landfall at Cayo Costa State Park and headed up into Charlotte Harbor just like Hurricane Charley in 2004. Ian then traveled northeast up the state knocking on Central Florida's door with Category 1 winds. Dr. Kelly Stevens, an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida with a background in state meteorology, pointed to not only the NHC’s consistent forecasting but also the extreme difficulty in projecting a path for this particular storm due to atmospheric factors. “The leading factor that made this challenging was that there was a cold front that was forecast to come down from the continental United States, which would eventually turn the storm to the right,” she said. “But the forecasting on where that cold front would be, how strong it would be, how far south it would make, was really undetermined.”

Wind and surf are the twin dangers in a hurricane. But how to measure them, and warn people, remains a challenge for forecasters. The conundrum that persists is that the public views both phenomena from the same lens, the hurricane category plus the projected path, despite efforts by meteorologists and others to decouple them. “When coastal residents consider storm surges, the perceived magnitude of risk is directly related to the intensity of the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale category despite the best efforts of scholars and emergency managers,” wrote University of Central Florida researcher Jeane Camelo and Emory University mathematician Talea Mayo in a 2021 study published in the Weather and Climate Extremes journal.

Five years have passed since Hurricane Maria destroyed parts of Puerto Rico and killed thousands. The damage forced families to leave the island and move to Central Florida. During Hispanic Heritage Month, Channel 9′s Alexa Lorenzo met with one of the students who made that move. For thousands of students at Colonial High School, it was just the start of another typical day. But for a handful of them, it was the start of what felt like another life. “It’s OK to be sad,” said UCF student Zuleyka Avila. “It’s OK, it’s OK to cry.” Avila was one of the roughly 3,000 students who enrolled in an Orange County Public School after Hurricane Maria decimated Puerto Rico in 2017. She remembered how frantic everything was and the fear she and so many others felt when arriving in Orlando. Superintendent Dr. Maria Vazquez helped register students, but once they arrived in the classroom, the dread and doubt remained. Five years after Hurricane Maria, Zuleyka knows this journey is going to lead her to the most rewarding moment in her life when she walks across the stage as a UCF graduate and hopefully an OCPS educator. “Thank you, God, I made it,” Avila said. “Incredible.”

Though Hurricane Ian will be measured by the death and destruction it caused across the state, experts warn the storm's aftermath will also include lingering harm to many Floridians' mental health. Deborah Beidel, a psychologist and University of Central Florida psychology professor, said those who found their homes uninhabitable after the storm may experience trauma responses to cope with the losses. “You might be experiencing a lot of depression at this time because everything that you build your entire life in some cases has been washed away,” Beidel said. Beidel has been serving the State Fire Marshal’s office since Sept. 30, coordinating the mental components of urban search and-rescue teams. She said events like Ian can trigger anxiety and stress for those going through recovery. Beidel said this is the time for educators to be kinder and more understanding with students impacted. UCF’s provost, Michael Johnson, has urged faculty to consider postponing assignments, exams and due dates in the storm’s wake.

On the eve of the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico was hit again by Fiona, a category one storm. Sadly, many Puerto Ricans find themselves again without water, electricity and other basic services. Some may ask, how is this possible? Didn’t Puerto Rico receive millions in federal aid after Maria for its dilapidated infrastructure? Those are simple questions with complicated answers. Hurricane Fiona is the latest episode in a series of events that unfolded in the last five years, including the removal of then-Gov. Ricardo Rossello in the summer of 2019 after the crude content of a private group chat that he was in was leaked. Also in the mix, allegations of public corruption, seismic activity and the COVID-19 pandemic. Then Fiona hit, exposing to the world —again — the fragility of an island home to 3.2 million American citizens.

Hurricane Fiona struck the U.S. territory Monday, killing four, triggering mudslides and crushing bridges while displacing more than a thousand and leaving more than a million residents without power. Some wonder whether the storm will prompt the kind of exodus seen after Hurricane Maria. Fernando Rivera, a sociology professor at the University of Central Florida, agreed. “As days without electricity and water are prolonged along with rising temperatures and the potential of other rain events, there is a high likelihood that those with family and friends in New York or Florida will come stateside to seek some relief, particularly those dealing with health issues,” he said.

Alexander Cartwright President, University of Central Florida As president of the University of Central Florida, Alexander Cartwright is a living example of the role education can play in a person’s success. He came to UCF in April 2020 from his chancellor position at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Even more significant was that Cartwright was the first in his family to receive a college education. He has a passion for opening pathways to success for anybody willing to put in the work. “Universities continue to find new ways to broaden our ability to serve our communities, expanding beyond education to fuel economic prosperity through innovations, partnerships, and discoveries that impact society,” he explains.