What happens when the systems designed to warn us about emergencies don't work? For millions of Americans, the answer is Watch Duty — the wildfire-tracking app that hit #1 in the App Store during the January 2025 LA fires.Watch Duty founder John Mills may be the only founder who dreads growth: when your app tracks wildfires and floods, every new user is someone in harm's way. "It's not a success story," he says. "It's a failure story."In this episode of Disasterproof, we go behind the scenes of Watch Duty, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit building a real-time early-warning network for communities facing wildfire and flood. Rooted in America's long tradition of citizen storm reporting, Watch Duty brings together volunteer reporters and local experts to track incidents, verify information, and help communities understand what's coming before it's too late. We visit John at the off-grid Sonoma County property where it all started, meet the volunteers listening to radio scanners 24/7 across all 50 states, and hear from the firefighters who now rely on the app themselves.Disasterproof is a series exploring the people, technology, and ideas building real resilience for communities facing climate-driven disasters.Subscribe for more conversations on disaster tech and community resilience and follow Disasterproof on social media for updates on new episodes!Instagram: instagram.com/disasterproofteamLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/113534498/X: https://x.com/disasterproofHQChapters:0:00 - The Failure Story Behind This Disaster Tracking App1:33 - Tornadoes: A Citizen Alert Case Study3:04 - Who is Filling the Gap in America's Emergency Alert System?06:19 - How Watch Duty Turns Signals Into Community09:21 - How Firefighters and First Responders Are Using Tech to Save Lives11:10 - Disaster Tech's Unfortunate Growth Into Critical Infrastructure13:10 - What a Resilient Future Looks Like for Disaster-Prone Communities
Billion-dollar wildfires are driving insurers out of California, leaving homeowners exposed just as fire risk climbs and disasters get bigger. The stakes go beyond who pays after a house burns down - it's about whether we can keep living in the places we love at all. Dan Preston, CEO of Stand Insurance, thinks the industry has it backwards. Instead of insuring homes and waiting for them to burn, Stand uses 3D modeling to find the exact points where a house is most likely to fail, without sacrificing the character and aesthetics homeowners want to protect. In this episode of Disasterproof, we visit a Stand-insured home in California to see fire-resilient design up close, and sit down with Dan to talk about turning insurance from a payout after disaster into the thing that prevents it. We also dive into Stand's expansion into hurricane country, and what it would take to build a world with less need for insurance. Hit subscribe here and follow Disasterproof on social media for new episodes!Instagram: Instagraminstagram.com/disasterproofteamLinkedIn: LinkedinDisasterproof | LinkedInX: Xdisasterproof (@disasterproofHQ) on X Chapters:0:00 The wildfire crisis and California's housing crisis are intertwined6:41 The most proximate stakeholder in climate resilience10:00 What causes a house to burn down?11:05 Wine country: Ground zero for California wildfire risk11:40 Building a defensible space15:16 Disaster resilience isn't one-size-fits-all18:30 Modeling wildfire before it happens19:29 Fencing, aesthetics, and the real cost of fire resilience 22:47 Tackling $100 billion disasters in Florida25:29 The future of insurtech32:13 Fire-safe gutters, vents, and defensible landscaping36:00 From predicting disasters to preventing them
The Great Salt Lake has lost more than half its surface area since 1850, and the snowpack that's supposed to refill it is disappearing too. This past winter was the worst in at least 50 years, with precipitation increasingly falling as rain instead of snow. In this episode of Disasterproof, we go on the ground with Rainmaker, a company using autonomous drones to seed clouds with silver iodide and coax more snow out of the sky. Rainmaker says it's the first company in history to unambiguously prove it's inducing precipitation, and it's now working with the state of Utah to try to reverse the decline of the Great Salt Lake within the decade.Cloud seeding itself isn't new, the U.S. has been doing it for over 70 years. What's changed is the urgency, and the technology now being used to validate it. We also look at the Aral Sea's cautionary tale, and sit in on Rainmaker's "Save Our Snow" pitch to a room full of investors, skiers, and scientists who all want to know the same thing: can this actually work?Chapters: 00:00 The Great Salt Lake's Vanishing Act 01:54 On the Ground With a Snow Scientist 04:04 70 Years of Cloud Seeding, Reinvented 05:55 Inside Rainmaker's Operations Center 07:16 How Silver Iodide Seeds a Cloud 08:32 A Live Flight Over a Cow Field 09:43 Proving the Precipitation Is Real10:30 The Aral Sea's Warning 11:40 Project Save Our Snow 12:32 Q&A: Funding, Ethics, and Skepticism 14:38 Fact vs. Fear on Cloud Seeding
George Whitesides has spent his career on systems-level problems: NASA chief of staff, Virgin Galactic CEO, co-founder of Megafire Action, and now the U.S. Congressman representing one of California's most fire-prone districts. In this episode of Disasterproof, we sit down with Whitesides near the site of the Sandy Fire to talk about what it actually takes to fix the wildfire crisis, from the five systems working against each other, to the "valley of death" stalling wildfire startups, to two bills moving through Congress right now. He also gets personal about evacuating his own home during the January 2025 fires. Chapters00:00 The cost of wildfires 00:34 Introducing George Whitesides03:15 The wins that keep you inspired06:00 Why wildfire is "existential" for California09:06 The five systems behind every wildfire11:42 The one disaster we can get ahead of12:28 Why new tech moves so slowly through government14:19 What NASA taught him about build vs. buy18:30 The "valley of death" for wildfire startups19:38 A trillion-dollar problem, a broken budget21:50 Inside the Acero Act and Fix Our Forests Act26:00 Pitching a wildfire tech fund27:50 What it's like to watch your district burn
In late May, the Sandy Fire broke out on a hot, windy afternoon in Simi Valley, California and grew to more than 2,000 acres and forced over 10,000 evacuations. When it was over, only one home had been lost.California Congressman George Whitesides calls wildfire existential for the state, the defining risk of an era increasingly shaped by fire. The Sandy Fire is exactly the kind of threat he means.In this episode of Disasterproof, we go on the ground with Whitesides and the Ventura County Fire Department to understand how. The answer is a layered one. Strict 100-foot defensible space requirements bought firefighters room to work. Remote sensing aircraft and satellite heat detection told them where the fire was moving. And when the wind reversed in the afternoon, air tankers and hand crews held the line on steep, dangerous terrain. The Sandy Fire shows what is possible when preparation and fast response come together.Chapters:00:00 A Brush Fire off Sandy Avenue 00:58 Why Wildfire Is "Existential" for California 01:58 The First 30 Minutes of the Fire03:17 Defensible Space and the Tech Behind the Response04:18 On the Fire Line 06:05 The Case for More Fire 07:25 Still Playing Catch-Up