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Do communities recover well from disaster?

Do communities recover well from disaster?. John Handmer Centre for Risk and Community Safety & Bushfire CRC RMIT University. Rapid change & definitions. Recovery needs to be understood in the context of rapidly changing communities, economies, environments & climate.

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Do communities recover well from disaster?

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  1. Do communities recover well from disaster? John Handmer Centre for Risk and Community Safety & Bushfire CRC RMIT University

  2. Rapid change & definitions • Recovery needs to be understood in the context of rapidly changing communities, economies, environments & climate. • Climatic disasters occur on top of existing trends and stresses, and may exacerbate them – or provide opportunities. • Definitions determine the answer to the recovery question

  3. Recovery? • “Back to normal” for a community that has little official income, lack of insurance, with people who can leaving, assets running down, and essential services withdrawing, poor health status …[Fires & droughts] • recovery as an opportunityto improve/ develop/build capacity/etc. “It is not possible to go back to a pre-disaster state….we can move forward or backward. Recovery programs should be developmental rather than remedial”. [eg Cyclone Larry]

  4. Community • Do we mean the spatially defined community there before disaster or after? Which sector of the economy? (the Cyclone Larry housing story is normal); • What recovery is depends on where we are, how severe the event is, and whose perspective we take.

  5. Local economic vitality • We argue that local economic vitality is the key to recovery from most if not all disasters. Networks (which may be dormant and emerge after the disaster) are also key – but often do this by encouraging cash flow [eg - Viet in New Orleans]; • This means “flows” not assets by themselves … while assets are being repaired/replaced people will need cash flow. More debt? • Recovery support may undermine the local economy, or target part of the economy that is less important to local people.

  6. Capacity • ‘People affected by a disaster are more likely to make a good recovery if they have access to appropriate levels of support, including support from a high quality [mental & physical] health system’. The National Rural Health Alliance (2004: 8). • The longevity gap is almost 20 years.

  7. Recovery and resilience? • Recovery starts at impact; • Recovery officers could be community development facilitators; • Some groups treat recovery as an ongoing process of community strengthening –– including health and networks; • This would involve identifying & reducing vulnerabilities before disaster.

  8. To help ensure recovery?Remove impediments: EXTERNAL: • Failure to draw on local sources/suppliers • Complex bureaucracy /delays / decision paralysis INTERNAL/INDIVIDUAL: • Lack of insurance • High levels of debt – servicing and increasing • Health (mental & physical) • Resilience

  9. Support facilitating factors: • Leadership • Networks/social capital • Promote market mechanisms, eg insurance • Local economic flows • Support livelihoods by normal coping mechanisms – eg off-farm employment • Identify trends and vulnerabilities

  10. Crises may be unavoidable http://www.abc.net.au/canberra/galleries/bushfires/pages/Fire.htm But we can do much to reduce the short & long term impacts

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