Hurricanes are America's most destructive natural hazards, causing more deaths and property damage than any other type of disaster. Since 1980, these powerful tropical storms have done more than US$1.5 trillion in damage and killed more than 7,000 people. The No. 1 cause of the damages and deaths from hurricanes is storm surge . Storm surge is the rise in the ocean's water level, caused by a combination of powerful winds pushing water toward the coastline and reduced air pressure within the hurricane compared to the pressure outside of it. In addition to these factors, waves breaking close to the coast causes sea level to increase near the coastline, a phenomenon we call wave setup, which can be an important component of storm surge.

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It has also collaborated with large organizations, including Microsoft. The system uses machine-learning algorithms on satellite imagery to categorize damage in the disaster area at a much faster rate than is possible using other existing methods. This method is incredibly important given the number of separate earthquakes and aftershocks that have occurred since the first earthquake incident in the early hours of February 6. Yesterday, February 20, for example, another 6.4 magnitude tremor struck near the city of Antakya, close to the border with Syria, trapping more people under the rubble. An MIT Technology Review report points out that xView2 has recently also been deployed in response to wildfires in California as well as during recovery efforts after flooding in Nepal, where it helped to identify damage from landslides caused by the floods.

The helmet allows firefighters literally see through smoke. Veuer's Tony Spitz has the details.

Technological advancements are changing every industry and healthcare is no exception: you can argue that the value of artificial intelligence (AI) is never greater than when it's used to improve patients' conditions and even save lives An example of how AI improves patient care is Amsterdam UMC's partnership with SAS. The project was able to clinically diagnose patients with colorectal liver cancer, the third most common cancer worldwide, using Computer vision and predictive analysis. Previously, this process required manual examination which was time-consuming and subjective to the radiologist. Automating this process has increased accuracy and saved time to ensure patient survival. Whether it's image analysis to detect cancer or other diseases immediately, predicting the number of patients to ensure the right number of doctors and hospital beds are available or using natural language processing (NLP) to understand lengthy patients reports – the potential for technological enhancement in healthcare is colossal.

The Covid-19 crisis has placed the spotlight on the healthcare systems around the world. It placed an additional strain on systems that in many cases were already under stress to meet demand and led to a growth in digital medicine. A video from the BBC observers that Covid-19 brings remote medicine revolution to the UK "Apps which allow doctors to connect with patients remotely have been available for a while, but the coronavirus pandemic has seen doctors finding new ways to consult with critical patient care, including reviewing scans and X-rays from home." McKinsey in an article relating to the US healthcare situation and entitled "Preparing for the next normal now: How health systems can adopt a growth transformation in the COVID-19 world" state that "Covid-19 unprecedented impact on health, economies, and daily life has created a humanitarian crisis. Health systems have been at the epicenter of the fight against COVID-19, and have had to balance the need to alleviate suffering and save lives with substantial financial pressures."

New technologies in healthcare are being implemented at an increasingly rapid pace, creating game changers in the way medical personnel approach, diagnose and treat life threatening emergencies. As a current example, a recent partnership between MedyMatch Technology and Samsung Neurologica could lead to invaluable information gained and time saved in the processes of providing aid to stroke victims. By doing so, EMTs and paramedics will be able to assess stroke victims faster in their pre-hospital environments. Ambulance-based mobile stroke units that are already equipped with Samsung Nuerologica's CereTom computed tomography scanner will receive integration with the artificial intelligence technology. This will enable first responders to more easily use CT scans to determine with more accuracy whether the patient is suffering from a blood clot or a brain hemorrhage.

The Covid-19 tragedy and crisis has placed the spotlight on the healthcare systems around the world and placed an additional strain on systems that in many cases were already under stress to meet demand and led to a growth in digital medicine. A video from the BBC observers that Covid-19 brings remote medicine revolution to the UK "Apps which allow doctors to connect with patients remotely have been available for a while, but the coronavirus pandemic has seen doctors finding new ways to consult with critical patient care, including reviewing scans and X-rays from home." McKinsey in an article relating to the US healthcare situation and entitled "Preparing for the next normal now: How health systems can adopt a growth transformation in the COVID-19 world" state that "Covid-19 unprecedented impact on health, economies, and daily life has created a humanitarian crisis. Health systems have been at the epicenter of the fight against COVID-19, and have had to balance the need to alleviate suffering and save lives with substantial financial pressures." "Health systems' income statements are likely to see negative pressure as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. While health systems have ramped up capacity to handle COVID-19 cases and incurred additional costs to procure personal protective equipment and operationalize surge capacity plans, they also have had declines of up to 70 percent in surgical volume and 60 percent in emergency department traffic. In a recent McKinsey survey of health system CFOs, more than 90 percent of respondents reported that COVID-19 will have a negative financial impact, even after accounting for federal and state funding."

The U.S. Department of Energy and Microsoft on Tuesday announced a partnership to develop artificial-intelligence tools aimed at helping first-responders better react to fast-changing natural events, such as floods and wildfires. From a report: "There are just so many technologies where we can solve some of the toughest problems, in a moment where we're having an explosion of wildfires and floods and some really major natural disasters," said Cheryl Ingstad, director of the Energy Department's Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office. "And we think we can bring AI to bear here and help save lives." The First Five Consortium, a nod to the importance of the first five minutes in responding to a natural disaster, aims to build between 10 and 30 different AI-powered systems. Microsoft will provide technological resources, including its Azure cloud for AI model training and inference.

The idea came to Zheng around the turn of the Lunar New Year. Wuhan had just been put on lockdown and the number of cases and deaths was rising rapidly every day. As an engineer, Zheng wanted to do something to contribute to the relief effort. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, he heard from his friend, Dong Jiahong, executive president at Beijing's Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, that the biggest problem was that of frontline workers getting infected. Gathering a team, Zheng set to work converting two mechanized robotic arms with the same technology used on space stations and lunar explorers.