The Recovery Divide: Sociospatial Disparities in Disaster Recovery from Hurricane Katrina along Mississippi's Gulf Coast

University South Carolina Research Foundation, Columbia SC

Investigators

Abstract

Recovery from disaster is a social and physical process involving the restoration of communities and the natural environment. The differential impact of a hazard event coupled with the underlying social vulnerabilities of communities work in tandem to influence the rate and extent of recovery. For example, communities with few institutional and financial resources often experience more lengthy recovery periods when compared to more affluent communities. Similarly, there is ample social science evidence that gender, race, and class differences significantly influence disaster recovery patterns. While communities along Mississippi's Gulf Coast shared the impact of Hurricane Katrina, their demographic and economic compositions vary considerably. This project uses Hurricane Katrina and its impact on Mississippi's Gulf Coast to understand those factors that influence the rate of recovery in the region, but more importantly, the potential inequalities in the process. The research combines baseline geographic data on the social, built environment and hazard vulnerability of the region, a historical narrative on past conditions that influence the current (pre-Katrina) settlement history, a statistical analysis of historical rates of settlement and demographic change in the region, and forecasts for the future trajectory of settlement and demographic change as well as its geographic footprint. Lastly, the project documents the recovery processes itself and the role of inequalities in shaping it through interviews with key individuals in selected case study communities. In this way, the research not only furthers our understanding of the pace of recovery and its geographic extent, but also the role of inequalities in the recovery process and those antecedent conditions that could give rise to a "recovery divide".