Vulnerability and resilience in two populations:

1. Human impact in Eastern NC following Hurricane Floyd2. The Homeless

Kelly Mahoney

WAS-IS – 8/14/08

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

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

Hurricane Floyd• Extent of flooding:

“Normal” (pre-Floyd) Two weeks after Floyd

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

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

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”…

Vulnerability of another specialized population: The Homeless

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

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?

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!