Long-Term Community Recovery from Natural Disasters

The Problem
Purpose and Approach
A Basic Consideration
Specification
Two Vignettes: The Makings of a Disaster
From Extreme Natural Hazard Event to Community Disaster
Social Definitions, Experiential Congruence, and Initial Consequences
Metrics and Extreme Natural Hazard Events
What, Then, Is an Extreme Natural Hazard Event?
Communities as Complex, Open, and Self-Organizing Social Systems
Meaning of "Complex," "Open," and "Self-Organizing"
And Then, a Great Disturbance
Categorizing Consequences
Real Problems for Real People in Real Places
Postdisruption: Real Problems for Real People in Real Places
The Local Economy May Unravel
Housing and Rebuilding Issues
Postevent Demographic Changes
Social and Psychological Consequences
Impacts on Local Government
Workload and Employee Stress
The Building Department as an Example
Unmet Expectations and New Roles
Conflicting Demands between Home and Work
Consequences of Employee Stress
Diminished Revenue Base
Expenses and Shortages
Funding for Long-Term Recovery
Community Disaster Recovery: Definition, Processes, and Obstacles
What Constitutes Community Recovery?
Community Recovery Processes
Will It, Can It, Ever Be the Same?
Variables That Impede or Facilitate Recovery
Facilitating Recovery
Who’s in Charge?
First Things First
Assessing the Nature and Extent of the Consequences
Ensure That Local Government Is Up to the Demands That Will Be Placed on It
Devise a Local Recovery Strategy
Ensure Two-Way Communication
A Recovery Starting Point
Shaping the Postevent Community Trajectory: Rebuilding or Restoring the Economy
Seven Strategies
Pitfalls to Avoid
What to Do before the Next Disaster
Prerequisites for Taking Precautions against Risks Associated with Extreme Natural Hazard Events
Other Concerns: Moral Hazard, Learned Helplessness or Dependency, and Political Opportunism
Goals and Means for Mitigating the Risks Associated with Extreme Natural Hazard Events
Things to Do Now, before the Next Disaster
Index

Biography

A professor of management, Lucy A. Arendt’s research into planning and decision making spans more than two decades. Her interest in decision making in the wake of extreme natural hazard events led to a conviction that the best way to facilitate recovery is to engage in pre-disaster planning that engages a diversity of stakeholders and that builds collective efficacy and yields action intended to mitigate the consequences of disaster. This book integrates her thinking and research on human action and inaction when faced with the devastating consequences that result from the collision of extreme natural hazard events and human decisions.

A former senior social scientist with RAND, where he focused on urban phenomena, and, more recently, as a professor of public administration and planning, Daniel J. Alesch has become a seasoned, skilled student and analyst of disasters, disaster recovery, and disaster mitigation strategies and policies. In this book, he brings what he has learned over more than three decades of field experience, including multi-year analyses of each of more than two-dozen communities as they struggled with the immediate and long term consequences of an extreme natural hazard event.

"Typical books on disaster response focus on rebuilding the infrastructure of a city. This unique book draws on the authors’ experience with over two dozen community disasters to design a holistic approach to not just rebuilding, but recovering from an extreme natural hazard. The authors examine the normal development of communities, and then consider the ways in which a natural disaster interferes with this development. This enables readers to identify the specific issues that require policy intervention and devise a plan that recruits the appropriate branches of government. Specific topics include workload and employee stress, the effect on the local economy, and the starting point of recovery."
—Ringgold, Inc. Book News, February 2015