Long-Term Community Recovery from Natural Disasters

Abstract

We are and have been deeply concerned with understanding and facilitating community disaster recovery. We have understood for a long time that an extreme natural hazard event is not synonymous with a disaster; a community disaster occurs when an extreme natural hazard event results in significant adverse consequences for that community. Some extreme natural hazard events result in little more than a short-term inconvenience. Others can result in catastrophic long-term and farreaching consequences, but most lie somewhere between the extremes. The adverse consequences that extreme events trigger or exacerbate tend to continue to unfold and, often, cascade through the community long after the earth stops shaking, the wind diminishes, or the floodwaters recede. The initial losses are, almost always, just the beginning of a new normal. Restoring the built environment, while often necessary, is rarely sufficient to ensure community recovery. We began our analysis for the book by working backward, based on our experience and that of others, about the adverse consequences that extreme natural hazard events often generate in communities. We looked into what led to those adversities—what typically triggered them and how some unfolded through the days or weeks and months following the initial event. Following the path backward from the consequences, we explored what, if anything can be done to prevent or mitigate adverse consequences and, subsequently, what actually constitutes a disaster. As we put together our analysis and conclusions, we concluded it made sense to write the book such that the reader would not have to cope with our analytical iterations. Thus, we wrote it in the reverse order of our analysis. We think that makes it more straightforward and comprehensible. We begin with a discussion of what constitutes an extreme natural hazard event and how that is different from a disaster. Then, we examine the adverse consequences that constitute the disaster, the nature of those consequences, and how they ripple through a community and, sometimes, beyond it. This analysis reinforces our belief that building a robust community—one that is disaster prepared and, should an extreme natural hazard event result in adversity,