It seems obvious that communities hit by disasters are doomed to repeat history if they don’t recover in ways meant to anticipate similar events in the future. However, many emergency management experts are concerned that long-term recovery isn’t receiving the attention it needs.
The crux of the problem is a lack of coordination between the players contributing to long-term recovery.
Federal, state, nonprofit and volunteer groups tend to respond to emergencies independently, often rebuilding the same vulnerabilities that compounded the disaster in the first place. Public empathy and zeal to rebuild often propel well intended recovery efforts without those involved knowing relevant regulations, according to Gavin Smith, executive director of the Center for the Study of Natural Hazards and Disasters at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. States tend to be sluggish about communicating that data to recovery groups, often doing so after efforts are near completion. In some cases, federal funding that could have helped recovery becomes available long after projects have started.
It seems that society’s natural inclination is to find a uniform approach for all communities to make long-term recovery improvements. However, most experts warn that’s a foolish expectation, given the diversity of needs and resources in local areas. Emergency management officials and analysts can offer examples of what works, but most agree that the real answers are within each community.
Uniform Coordination Myth
Most agree that more coordination between the different players in a recovery is essential for effective long-term efforts. However, Smith said it’s unrealistic for federal or state planners to mandate uniformly who the coordinating organization should be. This lack of uniformity can be maddening for government planners, especially at the federal level, due to the logistics involved in disbursing funds. Pronouncing that recovery funds will always go to "agency X” is simpler to administrate.
“In different communities, different players take on the collaborative leadership role,” Smith said. “It could be a neighborhood association. It could be local government. It could be a member of the private sector. I’m suggesting the federal, state and local governments’ role can be to provide education and outreach training for teams at the local level — not necessarily dictate recovery, but help them build their capacity.”
Smith said he’d like to see a new federal recovery act that mandates federal or state agencies to coach individual communities in identifying who their recovery players and leaders are. That lead player would interact with federal and state agencies regarding funding. Smith also wants to see this act earmark funding for long-term preventive recovery activities, especially training.
“There has been post-Katrina legislation. At least on its face, it’s trying to address some of these issues, but it’s hard to tell how effective that is,” Smith said. “The federal government tends to spend the bulk of its time dealing with the postdisaster aftermath, rather than investing in pre-event planning for postdisaster recovery or investing in capacity-building.”
Once that coordination happens, state and federal agencies need to be ready to update the recovery groups on relevant regulations immediately after a disaster strikes, said Nancy Dragani, executive director of the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.
“You can’t wait anymore. You can’t even wait until day three or four,” Dragani said. “When the water is still up, you need to begin communicating with the constituents and volunteer groups.”
“Recovery starts the minute the response to an event occurs,” said John S. Fernandes, administrator of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management.
His agency is widely viewed as having a well organized long-term recovery coordination for mudslides. Mudslides in Southern California typically result from wildfires eliminating the vegetation that would normally contain that mud during rainstorms. While the fires are still burning, Los Angles County begins setting up incident management centers devoted to the mudslides anticipated to result months later.
“We establish teams to assess the fire damage areas and look at the weather pattern trends in respect to what to expect in terms of rainfall,” explained Fernandes.
Based on that analysis, the incident management team conducts a public outreach campaign advising citizens on what to expect and where to go for assistance. The team also uses the data to plan where to set up temporary shelters.
Smith said there’s a common misconception that nonprofits can do no wrong during disasters.
“They cut through the red tape. They may assist individuals more quickly than the federal government. They may, for example, repair their house shortly after the storm, whereas it might take months, and in some cases years, to get federal assistance,” Smith explained. “They’re well intentioned efforts, but oftentimes nonprofits rebuild the damaged homes to their previous conditions in areas that just received storm surges or flooding. They’re in essence setting the stage for the next disaster.”
Ohio recently learned that the hard way after a local flood. The state waited several days before advising volunteers on the new base-flood elevation rules and requirements for “substantially damaged” homes.
“There was intense motivation to rebuild very quickly — to build within one or two days. By day five, our flood plain managers got in and said, ‘Wait a minute, you have substantially damaged homes, which fall under different criteria for rebuilding,’” Dragani said. “People were already halfway through a rebuild. They didn’t want to hear it at that point. I wouldn’t have wanted to hear it at that point.”
