The Process
The best way to ensure community sustainability after a future disaster is to have a thorough plan for a holistic recovery.1 But even without such a plan, there are many things that can be done during recovery that will increase community sustainability, simply by using the holistic recovery framework as a guide and the disaster recovery process as the catalyst. A community must strive to fully coordinate available assistance and funding while seeking ways to accomplish other community goals and priorities. Holistic disaster recovery does not differ from “normal” disaster recovery—it is part of what should be normal disaster recovery. A good recovery engenders a sustainable community.
A community does not need a new or separate planning or recovery process to build sustainability. The sustainability perspective can be accommodated in different ways and to varying degrees within most standard procedures used by localities for comprehensive planning, mitigation planning, disaster recovery, or other efforts.
The Red River of the North After the disastrous 1997 floods on the Red River of the North, thousands of households in the Greater Grand Forks area had damage serious enough to necessitate the replacement of their furnaces and/or hot water heaters. The recovery decisionmakers realized that this was a chance to effect a massive upgrade of the heating systems in the area. Rebates of $200 were offered to each homeowner and small business owner who replaced his or her damaged furnace or water heater with an energy-efficient unit. About 5,500 households and businesses (about half of those flooded) took advantage of the rebates. These new furnaces consume less fuel and give off fewer pollutants, improving quality of life in the Red River Basin.
(International Red River Basin Task Force, 1999)
A good, all-purpose planning process—the so-called 10-Step Planning Process—is one that is recommended for localities seeking funding, technical assistance, or recognition under such federal programs as the Community Rating System of the National Flood Insurance Program, several flood control programs of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and the Flood Mitigation Assistance Program administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It follows the basic procedures of gathering information, analyzing problems, setting goals, and finding ways to implement and fund agreed-upon activities. The section beginning on the next page shows one way in which the principles of sustainability could be incorporated into that process after a disaster.2 As always, a community needs to tailor this procedure to meet its own needs.
1. An excellent guide for preparing a comprehensive recovery plan before a disaster strikes is Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction, by Schwab, et al., listed in the “References and Information Resources.”
2. More detail on how sustainability can be addressed during disaster recovery can be found in Holistic Disaster Recovery: Ideas for Building Local Sustainability after a Natural Disaster, by the Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center. The 10-Step Process is described in more detail, with an eye toward minimizing flood damage, in Flood Mitigation Planning: The CRS Approach by French Wetmore and Gil Jamieson. Both of these publications are in the “References and Information Resources.”