dr. william hook, we welcome you, bob ryan, senior meteorologist, abc, "washington journal l.a., covering 5 west virginian counties. and you do warn us. the professor of the department of civil and environmental engineering at stanford university. and a professor of computational engineering at the university of texas at austin. you all are extraordinary in what you know. without getting into a, let's get into you. dr. hooks, let's start with you. give your testimony. >> thank you, mr. chairman. today we grieve for those who suffer loss because of violent weather in recent weeks. we can best honor that by working together to reduce the risks of further tragedy in late coming years. thank you for convening this conversation on this topic and thank you for letting us take part. because of its size and location of the united states bears a unique degree of risk from natural hazards. we suffer from as many winter storms as russia or china, we have as many hurricanes as china or japan, and our coasts are exposed not just to the storms but also earthquakes and tsunami is, does polls, wild fires