The National Research Council's Committee on Natural Disasters was established to maintain readiness for conducting postdisaster reconnaissance studies and documenting perishable information valuable to researchers, planners, designer, practitioners, and building officials, as well as to emergency preparedness officials, for their use in mitigating future natural disasters. The committee will continue this work as well as encourage future planning, including the conduct of meetings, seminars, or symposia in the interests of (a) implementing recommendations of the quick-response teams, and (b) improving our ability to cope with future natural disasters.