Resiliance and Recovery from Environmental Disaster in Remote Alaska

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

May 3, 2012 commemorates the third anniversary of the environmental flood disaster in Eagle, Alaska, and Eagle Village, Alaska. This RAPID project aims to systematically examine social factors that may affect post-disaster resilience and recovery and seeks to identify characteristics that optimize the adaptive capacities of persons facing disaster that may be mitigated or exacerbated by class, race, and gender effects. The PI presents the argument that vulnerability to environmental change is affected by numerous social factors - age, race, ethnicity, socio and economic class, number of children, occupation, etc and that each of these factors are affected by gender. Thus without a full understanding of how women and men experience and view their vulnerabilities the ability to promote resilience is limited. This research is proposed under the RAPID funding mechanism because time is passing and peoples' memories about the flood are fading and changing, thus time is of the essence.