Water Sector Natural Disaster Threat Briefing – 2026 Hurricane Season Forecast and EPA’s New SWIFT Initiative

On May 20 at 2 pm ET, WaterISAC will convene the next event in its quarterly Water Sector Natural Disaster Threat Briefing series. With the start of the official hurricane season quickly approaching, this webinar will include a detailed seasonal forecast, as well as highlight an important new EPA program to help water and wastewater utilities strengthen their operational resilience in the face of growing natural hazards.

The briefing will begin with a hurricane season forecast from Dr. Philip Klotzbach, Senior Research Scientist at Colorado State University (CSU), which is now in its 43^rd year of issuing hurricane season forecast products. CSU predicts the season will have somewhat below-normal activity. However, for coastal areas it only takes one hurricane to make landfall to make it an active season, which should encourage water and wastewater utilities in hurricane prone areas to start preparing now.

The briefing will conclude with a presentation by Curt Baranowski, Director of EPA’s new Strengthening Water Infrastructure for Tomorrow (SWIFT) initiative. The SWIFT initiative partners with drinking water and wastewater utilities, technical assistance providers, and other water sector stakeholders throughout the country to help boost system resilience against natural hazards and other emergencies. Through technical assistance, SWIFT provides location-specific natural hazard data and practical risk assessment tools to identify and evaluate resilient strategies.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how your utility can benefit from the EPA’s new resilience program and to start preparing for the upcoming hurricane season.