Increasing Community Resilience in the Gulf States Region
Community resilience is not only about emergency response. Nor is it solely about reconstruction. These capabilities are certainly critical to communities when disaster strikes. But community resilience goes further.
Community resilience requires participation from the whole community to improve response and recovery, and to plan for disaster recovery over the long term. Community resilience is based on lessons from past disasters to strengthen future response and recovery efforts — lessons that help communities bounce back more quickly in the aftermath of adversity.
This is a lesson that the U.S. Gulf States have learned in the last decade, and their experiences are helping teach other communities across the nation how to become more resilient.
Listen to Podcasts on Community Resilience
Learning Lessons in (and from) the Gulf States
After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf States and the recovery was underway, researchers examined the lessons learned and — as other disasters loomed — used their experiences in the Gulf to prepare and strengthen communities in the Gulf as well as elsewhere.
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In this video, Jordan Fischbach discusses how RAND helped Louisiana develop its 2012 Coastal Master Plan and key lessons that can make other communities more resilient in the face of natural disasters.
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In this January 2013 Congressional Briefing, Jordan Fischbach discusses how RAND helped Louisiana develop its 2012 Coastal Master Plan and key lessons that can make other communities more resilient in the face of natural disasters.
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“Super Storm” Sandy has created a rare moment when New York City and surrounding areas are singularly focused on the infrastructure needed in a changing environment. It is a moment to look south at Louisiana.
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Just as public agencies across the country conducted terrorism risk assessments in the wake of 9/11, a comprehensive infrastructure assessment may be in order to understand natural hazard risks and the potential exacerbating effects of climate change, write Gary Cecchine, David Groves, and Jordan Fischbach.
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Seven years after Hurricane Katrina, it's clear that New Orleans and other cities along the Gulf Coast are applying what they learned then in preparation for Hurricane Isaac, write Gary Cecchine and Jordan R. Fischbach.
Why the Focus on Resilience?
RAND has helped many areas dealing with the after-effects of natural and man-made disasters, and one realization was that communities that were resilient were better able to recover. Below are some examples of research RAND conducted in areas where having a resilient community would have been helpful.
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Ensuring the availability of needed mental health resources was critical in the immediate aftermath and recovery phase of the 2011 Joplin, Missouri tornado. Authorities in Oklahoma must ensure that such services are in place early so that Moore's residents can begin the long journey to recovery.
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With an event like this, “recovery” doesn't mean a return to normal, because lives have been permanently altered. Recovery can only mean finding a new normal, a new path forward. And schools, those places of safety and healthy development, can help with that process, by providing a structure and community to support healing, writes Lisa Jaycox.
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Recent global disasters vividly illustrate that recovery entails more than simply restoring physical infrastructure such as roads and buildings; it is also a long process of restoring the social infrastructure—the daily routines and networks that support the physical and mental health and well-being of the population, write Anita Chandra and Joie Acosta.
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If Hurricane Sandy causes extensive disruptions in public schools—particularly in hard-hit New York City—our research shows that choices made by parents and policymakers could significantly limit the negative short-term effects of changing schools under such difficult circumstances, writes John Pane.
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The composition of households in New Orleans made the city's families more vulnerable to breakup during the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina. Two-thirds of the city's households at that time saw at least one family member move away, an unusually high number even given the tremendous destruction of the hurricane.
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Haiti's future prosperity and peace depend on its ability to build a more resilient state, one capable of providing public services like education and health care as well as responding effectively to natural disasters.
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The vast majority of the 200,000 Louisiana students displaced from their public schools by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita missed weeks or more of school, and most did not return to their original schools by the end of the 2005-06 school year. As a result, many may experience long-term academic problems.
How Can Resilience Be Developed?
After realizing the need for increased community resilience, RAND researchers worked across disciplines to develop training programs for individuals, communities and organizations to learn more about what they can do to be prepared — before disaster strikes.
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The philosophy and motivation surrounding community resilience has strongly resonated with community leaders but there remains a divide between how experts articulate resilience policy and how that policy translates to on-the-ground implementation. Building Community Resilience: An Online Training addresses that tension.
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This easy-to-use, self-guided online training shows organizations and communities how to strengthen their resilience, helping them recover and learn from disaster—both natural and man-made.
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Resilient communities withstand and recover from disasters. They also learn from past disasters to strengthen future recovery efforts. The Resilience in Action website offers toolkits, training, multimedia, newsletters, and other resources to help communities build and strengthen their resilience.
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The path to climate change preparedness should start at the intersection of resilience and robustness — that is, building resilient communities with the individuals and organizations within those communities making robust decisions, ones designed to work well over a wide range of ever-changing conditions.
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Communities can build resilience to disasters through efforts such as joint planning of government and non-governmental organizations and the development of community networks.
