College of Arts and Sciences

Researchers study resiliency after 2008 flood
By Bonnie Barker ’75 MS ’77

Two anthropologists from Western Illinois University are working to put human faces andHeather McIlvaine-Newsad and David Casagrande photo voices on the consequences of last summer’s flooding of the Mississippi River by meeting with area residents who were seriously affected by the 2008 floods and are willing to share their insights.

In June 2008, the Illinois governor’s office requested that WIU provide expertise and technical assistance in determining the economic, environmental and social impacts of the flooding in the region. The findings from this research will be integrated into disaster recovery policy.

The information collected will be used to help develop better disaster responses, according to Heather McIlvaine-Newsad, an associate professor of cultural anthropology at Western. She and David Casagrande, assistant professor of anthropology, received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for their work.

Also conducting flood research at the request of the governor’s office are the College of Arts and Science’s Institute for Environmental Studies (IES) and the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Center, and Western’s Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs.
English and Journalism professor Bill Knight ‘71 also contributed to this report.

Photo: WIU researchers Heather McIlvaine-Newsad and David Casagrande at a house in Meyer, (Adams County, IL) six months after the 2008 flood.

 

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