Building disaster resilience using social messaging networks: the WeChat community in Houston,Texas, during Hurricane Harvey

Analyses of disaster resilience have focused increasingly on the role of social capital and online social networks in recovery. This study complements this field of work by investigating three key issues. First, it examines how a social messaging application, WeChat, helped individuals to access and to mobilise three types of social capital—bonding, bridging, and linking—during Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm that made landfall in Louisiana and Texas in the United States in August 2017, resulting in significant flooding and loss of life. Second, it pinpoints and assesses quantitatively how individuals' WeChat group usage and social capital influenced their post-disaster well-being. Third, it demonstrates how a minority and immigrant community in Houston, Texas, overcame the disadvantages commonly observed in other disaster research through the utilisation of social media. The findings of this study should aid governmental and community efforts to foster resilience in the face of natural and human-induced hazards.     

Business closure and relocation: a comparative analysis of the Loma Prieta earthquake and Hurricane Andrew

The occurrence of a number of large‐scale disasters or catastrophes in recent years, including the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004), the Kashmir earthquake (2005), Hurricane Katrina (2005) and Hurricane Ike (2008), have raised our awareness regarding the devastating effects of disasters on human populations and the importance of developing mitigation and preparedness strategies to limit the consequences of such events. However, there is still a dearth of social science research focusing on the socio‐economic impact of disasters on businesses in the United States. This paper contributes to this research literature by focusing on the impact of disasters on business closure and relocation through the use of multivariate logistic regression models, specifically focusing on the Loma Prieta earthquake (1989) and Hurricane Andrew (1992). Using a multivariate model, we examine how physical damage to the infrastructure, lifeline disruption and business characteristics, among others, impact business closure and relocation following major disasters.     

The clearinghouse concept: a model for geospatial data centralization and dissemination in a disaster

The disaster clearinghouse concept originates with the earthquake community as an effort to coordinate research and data collection activities. Though prior earthquake clearinghouses are small in comparison to what was needed in response to Hurricane Katrina, these seminal structures are germane to the establishment of our current model. On 3 September 2005, five days after Katrina wrought cataclysmic destruction along the Gulf Coast, FEMA and Louisiana State University personnel met to establish the LSU GIS Clearinghouse Cooperative (LGCC), a resource for centralization and dissemination of geospatial information related to Hurricane Katrina. Since its inception, the LGCC has developed into a working model for organization, dissemination, archiving and research regarding geospatial information in a disaster. This article outlines the formation of the LGCC, issues of data organization, and methods of data dissemination and archiving with an eye towards implementing the clearinghouse model as a standard resource for addressing geospatial data needs in disaster research and management.     

Patterns of substance use among Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Houston,Texas

This paper focuses on changing patterns of substance use among low income, African American drug users evacuated from New Orleans, Louisiana, during Hurricane Katrina of August 2005. It examines the relationship between increases and decreases in alcohol and tobacco (AT) use and illicit drug (ID) use after Katrina and pre‐disaster and within‐disaster factors. Data from structured interviews with 200 Katrina evacuees currently living in Houston were collected 8–14 months after the disaster. Multivariate analysis revealed that rises in AT use were positively associated with education. Females and younger evacuees were more likely to have increased AT use. ID use increase was positively associated with resource loss and leaving the city before Katrina. Decreases in AT and ID use were found to be associated with disaster‐related exposure. The paper discusses the specific consequences of disasters on disadvantaged minority substance users and the importance of developing public health disaster policies that target this population.     

Communication,neighbourhood belonging and household hurricane preparedness

This paper reports on an examination of data on how local residents in Tuscaloosa, a mid‐sized city in the state of Alabama, United States, responded to Hurricane Ivan of September 2004. The evaluation revealed that an integrated connection to community‐level communication resources—comprising local media, community organisations and interpersonal networks—has a direct impact on the likelihood of engaging in pre‐hurricane preparedness activities and an indirect effect on during‐hurricane preparedness activities. Neighbourhood belonging mediated the relation between an integrated connection to community‐level communication resources and during‐hurricane preparedness activities. Neighbourhood belonging was determined to increase the likelihood of taking preparedness actions during Hurricane Ivan, but not prior to it. In addition, we discovered an interesting pattern for two different types of risk perceptions: social and personal risk perceptions. Social risk perceptions increase the likelihood of taking preventative steps before a hurricane while personal risk perceptions are positively related to engaging in preventative action during a hurricane.     

Campaign contributions,lobbying and post‐Katrina contracts

This research explores the relationship between political campaign contributions, lobbying and post‐Hurricane Katrina cleanup and reconstruction contracts. Specifically, a case‐control study design is used to determine whether campaign contributions to national candidates in the 2000–04 election cycles and/or the employment of lobbyists and lobbying firms increased a company's probability of receiving a post‐hurricane contract. Results indicate that both a campaign contribution dichotomous variable and the dollar amount of contributions are significantly related to whether a company received a contract, but that lobbying activity was not. These findings are discussed in the context of previous research on the politics of natural disasters, government contracting and governmental and corporate deviance.     

Humanitarian aid and local power structures: lessons from Haiti's ‘shadow disaster’

This paper investigates the confluence of humanitarian aid, centralisation, and politics. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti on 12 January 2010 led to more than USD 16 billion in pledges. By contrast, Hurricane Matthew, which made landfall in Haiti on 4 October 2016, stayed in the shadows, attracting about one per cent of the amount. While the earthquake exhibited one face of centralisation, the Category 4 storm laid bare rural vulnerabilities shaped by postcolonial state neglect, and reinforced by the influx of non-governmental organisations in the ‘Republic of Port-au-Prince’. The study draws on data from four case studies in two departments to illuminate the legacies of hyper-centralisation in Haiti. Compounding matters, Matthew struck in the middle of an extended election that the international community attempted to control again. The paper argues that disaster assistance and politics are uncomfortably close, while reflecting on the momentary decentralisation of aid after the hurricane and its effectiveness.     

Water Quality in the Near Coastal Waters of the Gulf of Mexico Affected by Hurricane Katrina: Before and After the Storm

Water quality was assessed following Hurricane Katrina in the affected waters of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Post-landfall water quality was compared to pre-hurricane conditions using indicators assessed by EPA’s National Coastal Assessment program and additional indicators of contaminants in water and pathogens. Water quality data collected after Hurricane Katrina suggest that the coastal waters affected by the storm exhibited higher salinity and concentrations of chlorophyll a, dissolved inorganic phosphorus, and total suspended solids following the storm compared to the previous 5-year averages. Higher bottom dissolved oxygen concentrations and light attenuation were also observed. Contaminant concentrations measured in the water column were very low or undetectable, as were the presence of pathogens. Overall water quality did not significantly differ from water quality assessed in the five years preceding the storm. Statistical analyses indicate that use of a probabilistic survey design is appropriate for making pre-storm and post storm comparisons for water quality condition on an areal basis. The information in this article has been funded wholly (or in part) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It has been subjected to review by the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory and approved for publication. Approval does not signify that the contents reflect the views of the Agency, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. This is contribution number 1280 from the Gulf Ecology Division.     

The post‐disaster negative health legacy: pregnancy outcomes in Louisiana after Hurricane Andrew

Disasters and displacement increasingly affect and challenge urban settings. How do pregnant women fare in the aftermath of a major disaster? This paper investigates the effect of pregnancies in disaster situations. The study tests a hypothesis that pregnant women residing in hurricane‐prone areas suffer higher health risks. The setting is Louisiana in the Gulf Coast, United States, a state that continually experiences hurricane impacts. The time period for the analysis is three years following the landfall of Hurricane Andrew in 1992. We analysed low birth weight and preterm deliveries before and after landfall, as a whole and by race. Findings support an association between hazards and health of a community and indicate that pregnant women in the affected area, irrespective of race, are more likely to experience preterm deliveries compared to pre‐event births. Results suggest there is a negative health legacy impact in Louisiana as a result of hurricane landfall.     

‘You fix my community,you have fixed my life’: the disruption and rebuilding of ontological security in New Orleans

Using the concept of ontological security, this paper examines the physical and psychological loss of home and community following Hurricane Katrina. This qualitative longitudinal study includes 40 heads of households with school‐age children who lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Participants describe a breakdown in their social fabric at the individual and structural/community levels that contributes to a sense of community loss and social displacement, disrupting their ontological security—their notion of safety, routine and trust in a stable environment. Three interrelated reactions were common: 1) experiencing nostalgia for their old neighbourhoods specifically and New Orleans in general; 2) experiencing a sense of loss of people and things that represented a level of security or constancy; 3) initiation of a process for re‐establishing ontological security whether or not they returned to New Orleans. The paper concludes that intangible losses have an important psychological effect on community redevelopment and recovery from trauma.