Working Paper 102

A Review of the Literature and Programs on Local Recovery from Disaster

Jeanine Petterson
Federal Emergency Management Agency

1999

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE: THEORETICAL AND APPLIED LITERATURE

OVERVIEW OF RECOVERY

  • Dynamic Nature of Community Recovery
  • The Context of Community Recovery
  • Implications for CRAT Framework

RECOVERY PLANNING

  • Value of Pre-existing Recovery Plans
  • Plan Failure or Non-existence
  • Post-event Planning for Community Recovery
  • Activities while Planning is Underway
  • Linking Recovery Planning with Existing Efforts
  • Implications for the CRAT Framework

POLITICS, TIMING, AND PERCEPTION

  • Politics after a Disaster
  • Differences in Pre- and Postdisaster Politics
  • Rebuilding Opportunities Take Time
  • Getting Around the "Return to Normalcy"
  • Long-term Community Perceptions as Obstacles to Mitigation
  • Timing the Initial Intervention

LOCAL VISION, COORDINATION, AND PARTICIPATION

  • Shared Long-term Vision for Community
  • Locally Based Efforts are Best
  • Coordination
  • Building Local Capacity
  • Public Participation
  • Community Recovery Groups
  • Local Leadership
  • Neighborhood Groups

POSTDISASTER ASSISTANCE

  • Information Needs
  • Damage Assessment and Hazard Evaluation
  • Postdisaster Personnel
  • Roles and Responsibilities of Local Officials
  • Economic Impacts, Finances, and Outside Assistance
    • Philosophical and Equity Concerns
    • Relations among Federal, State, and Local Officials
    • Guidance on Other Financial Resources
    • Private Relief
  • Need for Priorities in Recovery

MITIGATION

  • Integrating Mitigation into Recovery
  • Realism
  • Mitigation as a Criterion for Team Effectiveness
  • Mitigation during Two Stages of Recovery
  • Beyond Codes to Community Design
  • State Legislation

OTHER RECOVERY ASSISTANCE ISSUES

  • Business Recovery
  • Housing
  • Historic Preservation
  • Community Relations and Media Strategies

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND LONG-TERM RECOVERY

  • Disaster Aid/Mitigation and Community Goals
  • Experiences and Tools

ORGANIZING TO PROVIDE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

  • Customizing Assistance to Each Community
  • Beginning Approach to Postdisaster Technical Assistance
  • Determining Technical Assistance Needs
  • Identifying the Client
  • Building Trust
  • Composition of Team
  • Scope of Work and Establishing Protocols
  • External Interactions
  • Critical First Tasks
  • Closure

PART TWO: EXISTING PROGRAMS, PLANS, AND IDEAS

INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT

  • Recovery Annex to the Federal Response Plan
  • Early Implementation Strategies for Mitigation
  • President's Action Plans for Long-term Recovery and Redevelopment

PREDISASTER RECOVERY TRAINING AND ASSISTANCE

  • Local Recovery Team Training
  • Guidance on Planning for Recovery and Reconstruction

SHORT-TERM RESPONSE AND RECOVERY ACTIVITIES

  • Public Assistance Program
  • Community Emergency Response Teams
  • Emergency Management Assistance Contract Program
  • Peer Exchange Program
  • States Using In-House Resources
    • Kansas Emergency Management Assistance Teams
    • North Carolina Local Disaster Assistance Teams
    • California Emergency Managers Mutual Aid Plan

INTEGRATING MITIGATION AND RECOVERY

  • Hazard Mitigation Technical Assistance Program
  • Territorial Acquisition/Relocation/Elevation Teams
  • Federal Cultural Heritage Roster
  • Mitigation Component of the Recovery Annex
  • Other Postdisaster Mitigation Assistance
  • Mitigation Opportunities Assessment Tool
  • Resolution on Post-flood Mitigation Opportunities
  • Florida's Local Mitigation Strategies
  • Florida's Resource Identification Strategy Database

LONG-TERM RECOVERY AND SUSTAINABLE REDEVELOPMENT

  • Economic Development Administration Technical Assistance
  • Housing and Urban Development Technical Assistance Teams
  • Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development
  • Urban Land Institute Advisory Panels
  • American Institute of Architects Advisory Teams

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

This working paper represents one of the products of a project undertaken in 1998-1999 by the Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center with funding from the Public Entity Risk Institute. The purpose of the project was to develop a framework for a program through which small teams of recovery experts would be deployed to disaster-stricken communities to aid their recovery efforts. One of the early tasks of the project was to review the literature to determine what was already known about how communities recover from disaster.

At the outset of this exercise, it was difficult to conceptualize how a traditional review of the literature on community recovery would be of much assistance in the design of a program to deploy postdisaster recovery assistance that included teams of experts. Rather than presenting a series of abstracts of recovery literature, therefore, this working paper reviews both the academic and more informal literature, draws lessons from it, and summarizes the programs that are already in place for providing technical assistance in the postdisaster setting.

Part One directly analyzes and applies the findings in the recovery literature to the task of developing a recovery assistance program. Admittedly, those sources that are based on direct interaction and experiences rather than an academic review of postdisaster experiences were easier to apply than were theoretical constructs of community recovery. Nevertheless, the range of sources cited throughout this paper all provide some information relevant to the development of a program for deploying community recovery assistance teams (CRATs).

In Part Two, the existing programs for providing technical assistance are described briefly. These range from training courses to the provision of teams of specialized experts to state programs for mitigation. This information was drawn from agency and organizational documents and from contacts with key informants in both the public and private sectors.

During this initial exploration, the conceptual framework for this team technical assistance program must apply to all localities and types of disasters. This initiative's application to specific communities will depend on many factors yet to be determined. Some of these factors can be controlled and will rely on the guidance of the project's advisors (e.g., the pre-existence of community planning), while many others will be uncontrollable (e.g., the whims of Mother Nature during a given year and the receptivity of the impacted local governments to outside assistance).

Because of these unknowns, there is comfort in finding a thread of common themes and lessons, despite the dissimilarity of communities and events studied. This review explores those findings on community recovery only as they relate and apply to the design of a program of technical assistance that will help communities plan and implement a long-term, sustainable recovery after a natural disaster.

* This literature review was conducted while the author was a member of the staff of the Natural Hazards Center, 1998-1999. December 1999