Document Type
Report
Publication Date
2025
DOI
10.25776/sc5d-wb34
Pages
1-154 pp.
Conference Name
Virginia Tornado & Straight-Line Wind Summit, October 15, 2025, Isle of Wight County, Virginia
Abstract
Background
The Virginia Tornado and Straight-Line Wind Summit, the first of its kind in the Commonwealth, was held on October 15, 2025 in Isle of Wight County, Virginia. The Summit had several goals, including:
- Understanding Virginia’s wind risk and learning the science behind it.
- Hearing lessons learned from emergency managers who have experienced extreme wind events.
- Learning about practical steps to prepare, mitigate, and respond to severe wind events.
- Learning best practices for timely and actionable communication with the public before and after events.
- Strengthening interagency coordination and connecting with others to share resources, align priorities, and coordinate resilience planning.
The idea for the Summit emerged from discussions during a state-wide meeting about the state’s hazard mitigation plan update. The discussion identified the need for an awareness program on the impact of tornadoes and straight-line wind. Dr. Monica Arul and Dr. Joshua Behr took the idea for the Summit and created an organizing team that would do the heavy lifting for planning and executing the Summit. They also created a Planning Committee (see Table 1) to provide input into the Summit agenda, speakers, and other aspects.
ORCID
0000-0003-3599-1417 (Yusuf), 0000-0002-0472-3068 (Behr), 0000-0002-7602-1778 (Lawsure)
Original Publication Citation
Yusuf, W., Arul, A., Behr, J. Lawsure, K., Pham, A. H., & Attivor, H. (2025). Improving understanding and connections for preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery for tornado and straight-line wind events in Virginia: Summary of the inaugural Virginia tornado and straight-line wind summit. Isle of Wight County, Virginia, Old Dominion and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. https://doi.org/10.25776/sc5d-wb34
Repository Citation
Yusuf, Wie; Arul, Monica; Behr, Joshua; Lawsure, Kaleen; Pham, An Huy; and Attivor, Henry, "Improving Understanding and Connections for Preparedness, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery for Tornado and Straight-line Wind Events in Virginia: Summary of the Inaugural Virginia Tornado and Straight-line Wind Summit" (2025). School of Public Service Faculty Publications. 84.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/publicservice_pubs/84
Included in
Emergency and Disaster Management Commons, Meteorology Commons, Public Administration Commons, Public Affairs Commons, Public Policy Commons