Natural Hazards Observer
| May 2006 | Volume XXX | Number 5 |
New Quick Response Reports from
the Natural Hazards Center
The following Quick Response reports are now available from the Natural Hazards Center. They can be accessed online at www.colorado.edu/hazards/qr/qrrepts.html.
QR182 Hurricane Stan Response in Guatemala, by Robert E. Hinshaw. 2006. This research was conducted one month after Hurricane Stan caused major flooding and mudslides in western Guatemala in October 2005. The levels of interclass and interethnic cooperation and the role of the military in the response and recovery for Hurricane Stan were compared with the aftermath of the 1976 earthquake in the same region. Losses due to Stan were spread much more universally across divisions of wealth and ethnicity, and greater cooperation in evacuation and relief efforts was observed. The political ramification of the military’s role in the relief effort was found to require additional time for further analysis.
QR183 Analyzing Tribal Drought Management: A Case Study of the Hualapai Tribe, by Cody Knutson, Mark Svoboda, and Michael Hayes. 2006. This research provides a specific case study of drought impacts and management on the Hualapai reservation in Arizona. The research team conducted interviews on the reservation to assess drought planning measures implemented, including the development of a drought plan; to identify the barriers to implementing drought planning and response; and to develop lessons learned that could be used to improve drought management in the future.
QR 184 Disaster Realities in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: Revisiting the Looting Myth, by Lauren Barsky, Joseph Trainor, and Manuel Torres. 2006. Reports of looting were widespread in the days after Katrina swept through the Gulf Coast, conflicting with the sociological literature on disasters that portray looting as a disaster myth. These researchers conducted interviews to examine the scope of the looting and to differentiate criminal behavior from appropriating behavior (taking items necessary for survival). Findings indicate that there is no clear distinction between looting and appropriating behavior, media reports affected operations and citizen responses and were not always accurate, and prosocial behavior was also exhibited.
QR185 Strengthening Resilience of Rural Communities to Wildfire in the Pacific Northwest, by Kathy Lynn and Arleen Hill. 2006. To explore the ways that mitigation programs can integrate place, poverty, and social needs into efforts to address access to information and resources in a rural community, the researchers conducted a survey of residents affected by the 2005 Deer Creek fire in southern Oregon. The survey assessed if response and recovery efforts during and after the wildfire considered the perspectives and needs of the community, whether mitigation programs influenced successes or challenges during the wildfire, and if losses to life, property, natural, or cultural resources resulting from the wildfire event were influenced by poverty or geographic isolation.
QR186 Reconstructing Childhood: An Exploratory Study of Children in Hurricane Katrina, by Lori Peek and Alice Fothergill. 2006. In this study, the researchers examined children’s experiences in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Data was gathered through participant observation, focus groups, informal interviews, and in-depth formal interviews with parents, grandparents, day care service providers, school administrators, elementary school teachers, mental health service providers, religious leaders, and evacuee shelter coordinators in Louisiana. This report describes the experiences of children and their families in the days and weeks following the storm, discusses what was done on behalf of children to reduce their vulnerability, and illustrates various things that children did for themselves and for others to lessen the impacts of the disaster.