Kelly Mahoney WAS-IS – 8/14/08

1. Vulnerability and resilience in two populations:1. Human impact in Eastern NC following Hurricane Floyd2. The Homeless Kelly Mahoney WAS-IS – 8/14/08

2. Hurricane Floyd • Personal experience: • September 1999 • Storm itself relatively minor in Raleigh; during landfall, helped take calls at emergency management’s makeshift headquarters downtown • Following storm, helped coordinate student relief effort on campus; also worked with abandoned pets at NCSU vet school • May 2000: week-long “Learning Laboratory” to observe storm’s effect on people, families, homes, universities, agriculture

3. Hurricane Floyd Quick details • September 14 – 18, 1999 • 57 deaths directly attributed to Floyd • 48 in inland (freshwater) drowning • 55% of deaths vehicle-related; 80% male • Damage estimates ~ $6 billion. • Specifically in North Carolina: • 35 deaths • 7,000 homes destroyed; 17,000 homes uninhabitable; 56,000 homes damaged • Most roads east of I-95 flooded; 1500+ people rescued from flooded areas; 500,000+ without electricity; 10,000+ in temporary shelters; • severe agricultural damage (hogs, crops); environmental hazards (hog waste, sewage). • "Nothing since the Civil War has been as destructive to families here…The recovery process will be much longer than the water-going-down process." - H. David Bruton, Secretary of Health and Human Services

4. Hurricane Floyd “Normal” (pre-Floyd) Two weeks after Floyd • Extent of flooding:

5. Hurricane Floyd: Vulnerability • Physical vulnerability due to location (flood plain), topography; social vulnerability • Rural, low-income communities in low-lying, flood-plain areas hit hardest • Less than 5% of homes damaged/destroyed had flood insurance • Eastern NC: • Most politically-marginalized region in state (Leubke 1998; Edwards and Ladd 2001) • Home to 30% of NC population but 42% of state’s poor; poverty rates exceed 20% • Socioeconomic inequalities persist: • 53% of NC’s African Americans live in poverty here • Median household incomes among whites more than double that of black households

6. Hurricane Floyd: Vulnerability • 10,000+ mobile- and low-income-household homes abandoned and never repaired; 30% of people reported receiving “no assistance with necessary repairs” (Van Willigen et al. 2005) • Differential impacts: • Higher-income households less severely affected, yet were provided more financial assistance/aid recovery than lower-income households • African American households typically two times more likely than whites to have evacuated, suffered damages to their homes, and experienced loss of personal property

7. Hurricane Floyd: Vulnerability and resilience • Additional impacts on specific populations/communities: • Physically disabled additionally vulnerable (Van Willigen et al. 2002) • Households with disabled member more likely to have home damages • Damage costs a greater proportion of incomes of households with a disabled member. • Households with physically disabled members less likely to evacuate: • Directly attributable to a lack of (or perceived lack of) access to services, assistance. • Students (at East Carolina University) found to be more resilient; university found to provide a “buffer” against storms lasting effects, economically and psychologically. • Floyd introduced many of the same social inequality/vulnerability issues that would become obvious to rest of nation following Katrina in 2005 • My personal lucky/privileged viewpoint: Response in Raleigh/surrounding suburbs would have likely been far different…hog waste issues alone would be an “emergency”…

8. Vulnerability of another specialized population: The Homeless

9. Vulnerability of another specialized population: The Homeless • Experience/viewpoint: Heavily involved in homelessness aid, organizing, and activism 1999 – 2003 • Obvious vulnerabilities of homeless population: • Temperature extremes: both heat and cold a problem • Shelter • Appropriate clothing • Severe weather • Forecasts/communication/preparedness • Shelter

10. Vulnerability of a special population: The Homeless • Specific concerns and vulnerabilities: • Shelter availability policies • Temperature cut-offs vs. subjective measures of “cold” • Individual screening (for drugs, alcohol)) • Shelter shortages • Even with overflow shelters, often not enough • Adequate warning time necessary to mobilize/open/staff overflow shelters • Information distribution • How to best communicate risk and warnings, options for assistance? • Issues of trust of information/aid-providers • Potential for individual’s refusal of shelter system • Shelters replete with problems • How then to avoid dangers (e.g., hypothermia, death)? • Drugs and alcohol: users not admitted to shelters; weather extremes may increase alcohol-related risks • Mental illness: may be an obstacle to adequate communication/individual action • Resiliency: Possibility that homeless may actually be more resilient in certain types of natural disasters?

11. Vulnerability of a special population: The Homeless • No easy answers! • The homeless are so marginalized that the effects of weather and weather disasters on this population is not at all well understood • Transience and trust can be problems in certain types social science studies requiring individual tracking and feedback • Much room for future research!