We have an opportunity right now right after disasters while governments are more receptive to influence policy from the start.

Scientists have to get involved with the policy-making community right from the beginning and try to understand what the constraints on policy-making are.

We can't actually stop hurricanes or tsunamis or other extremes of nature. But ... we can avoid a lot of unnecessary human and economic losses.

It's time to change the mind-set that natural disasters are inevitable.

It's time to change the mindset of governments, who tend to plan too little for natural disasters.

We realized Turkey was a great opportunity for using that process to have some influence.