Firas is the Director of Product Management at Moody's. He oversees the North America flood and wildfire modeling solutions. He has a strong professional track record and academic achievement in quantitative research and implementing forward-looking analytics to assess weather-related physical risk.
As recent weather events in California demonstrate, most property owners should be doing much more to prepare for heavy rains and flooding.
One of the factors exacerbating floods in California is the compound interactions between chronic drought and acute floods. This adds an extra dimension of complexity because drought leads to soil crusting and compaction, which means less groundwater infiltration and more runoff, hence higher risk of flooding.