In the recovery phase of the emergency management cycle, policymakers aim to repair, reconstruct, and restore what has been lost during a disaster. Recovery policies and activities also ideally aim to reduce future vulnerability to natural hazards, so that renewal might result in a physical and socio-economic environment that looks and functions somewhat different when compared to the original community. This is where recovery and mitigation may overlap in the cycle. During recovery, for example, city planning experts may call for rethinking how a community wiped out by a storm surge or tsunami is designed so that it has greater resilience than the original. Rebuilding employing methods designed so that the buildings can better withstand a storm surge – such as elevating the buildings above base flood elevation - would be the simplest example. Moving buildings to a safer location is also an option. There are many other details and considerations that can be incorporated, some of which were discussed in the Managed Retreat and Smart Building modules of the course. Consensus is recently being reached that building back communities exactly as they were is not the wisest path to take.
Effective recovery requires financial resources, usually in the form of cash or loans. Cash can come from a variety of sources, depending on the context and circumstances of a particular disaster. The local and national governments of affected countries are typically the first source of funds. In some countries, including the U.S., there are funds reserved for disasters but – particularly in poorer countries – funding available from these sources may be insufficient to cover a large disaster or multiple smaller disasters.
Donations of various kinds are a second major source of funds, particularly in major international disasters, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami or the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Donations can come from other governments (as in the case of the United States Agency for International Development’s efforts in countries affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami), from non-profit, non-governmental organizations like the International Red Cross/Red Crescent, from direct donations by private citizens and businesses, and from various other sources. Insurance payouts are a third source of funding for recovery.
Individuals and businesses in developed countries are often required by governments and lenders to carry insurance, but insurance is far less common in developing countries. In those countries, loans typically make up the remainder of recovery funds. These loans are often offered by major international financial institutions, particularly the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Such loans are sometimes controversial because they usually come with political and economic strings attached that policymakers and citizens of recipient countries dislike. These lending institutions played a major role in financing recovery in nations affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami. In summary, internal government transfers, donations, insurance, and loans typically provide local governments, institutions, emergency managers, and private citizens with needed financial resources to pay for recovery.
Tsunamis and storm surges are tremendously destructive to the built environment of coastal communities, and the aftermath is overwhelming as houses and businesses are wrecked and infrastructure is crippled. Restoring basic infrastructure is the first line of business after the water recedes. This includes restoring water, sewerage, roads, electricity, and telecommunications. The funds come from a combination of local government funds, utility company coffers, and state and national government aid. Local government funds rely on property and business tax receipts, but if much of the tax base has been destroyed in the disaster, then sufficient local funds for rebuilding infrastructure cannot be sustained. Consequently, in most cases, funds for the reconstruction of water, sewer, and roads must come from state and national government aid.
The task of rebuilding homes and businesses – all the buildings damaged by the event also must be funded and typically, building reconstruction is funded with a combination of insurance payouts, government aid, and other funds from private and non-profit sources. For private homeowners, this is a very stressful and often expensive process and can take a great deal of time, during which your family may need to be living elsewhere. As we have noted in Module 11, it is a process that proves much easier for people with strong economical means and can be very hard for people who have few resources.
Ideally, rebuilding should not be done in a business-as-usual way, using the same locations and with construction techniques led to damage in the initial disaster. However, meeting higher standards and building in a different, safer location can be expensive. Following a hurricane disaster in the United States, insurance payouts and government aid are contingent on rebuilding houses with hurricane-resistant designs to reduce future hurricane risk. This can include elevating the house to a new level required for insurance coverage and using materials and methods that make the building more resistant to hurricane damage.
After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Louisiana in 2005 many homeowners were unable to rebuild to the new standards and had to move to different communities further inland. Communities such as Cameron, Louisiana, which was devastated by Hurricane Laura in 2020 had only 400 residents at the time. The census data show that Cameron’s population diminished by 79% between the years 2000 and 2010 during which it was impacted by Hurricanes Rita and Ike. Another phenomenon is the change in demographics in certain communities over time after multiple storms impact them. For example, Grand Isle, Louisiana, Dauphin Island, Alabama, and other barrier island and beach communities which were home to modest fishing camps and year-round housing prior to the multiple storm events that have occurred over the past few decades, now boast many more very large, expensive structures belonging to wealthy business-people or corporations. They are now often rented for short-term vacations. This trend has changed who can enjoy coastal areas.
The photo below shows a typical elevated, storm surge-resistant house in Charleston, South Carolina. The first floor of the house is designed not for living, but instead for parking, storage, and building access. Special construction designs, like elevated slab and elevated crawlspaces, and use of non-water-sensitive materials, are also important. Eventually, all buildings in storm surge-prone locations of the United States will be replaced by similar surge-resistant designs.
There are many other aspects of recovery besides the reconstruction of infrastructure and buildings. Economic recovery is obviously vital because a strong local economy can help residents recover more quickly than a weak economy. At the same time, social and psychological recovery must be emphasized and not overlooked. Every aspect of peoples’ lives are disrupted by disaster, and many people suffer from psychological issues such as PTSD in post-disaster situations. The stress of the recovery process, including financial strain, separation of families, and other stressors can have very negative effects on a community.
Environmental recovery is also fundamental because the natural environment provides essential ecosystem services, so recovery cannot be complete without a healthy environment. Storm surge can cause severe environmental damage as many spills occur as a result, including overflows of sewerage treatment plants, oil and gas storage facilities, and wells, among others. After Katrina, whole neighborhoods near New Orleans were contaminated with petroleum from a refinery. These types of environmental impacts take a great deal of time to resolve. Additionally, agriculture and fisheries in an area impacted by a storm surge or tsunami can be devastated.
The combination of infrastructure, building, economic, environmental, and social recovery demands input from many stakeholders. For example, building recovery plans require input from local planning departments, homeowner associations, contractors, utility companies, and many others. As a result, it is important to adopt policies that identify stakeholders in building recovery – as well as in economic recovery, environmental recovery, and socio-psychological recovery – and ask them to join with government actors to participate in creating a post-disaster recovery plan during the mitigation phase of the emergency management cycle.
Expanding on these ideas about recovery, a hurricane-related disaster can have tremendous impacts on a local economy. For example, although Hurricane Charley in 2004 brought no significant storm surge, the storm’s category 4 winds severely affected the City of Punta Gorda, Florida. Many of the buildings in the downtown area were destroyed. The unemployment rate for the city rose 2.2 percent in the following month, and it took more than a year for the unemployment rate to return to pre-disaster levels. Thus, coastal disasters are huge drains on local economies and – if the scale of the disaster is big enough, as in the cases of Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy – on national economies, at least in the short- to medium-term (see case studies).
In the business sector, industries that are affected by a coastal disaster are often specific to the country and locality, but typically include at least some combination of tourism, health care, agriculture, fishing, and manufacturing. In 2020, Hurricane Laura ruined sugar cane and rice crops, killed hundreds of cattle, and sank fishing boats in southwest Louisiana. Farmers and fishermen have a long road to recovery after these types of impacts.
Tsunamis, hurricane storm surge, and other coastal hazards can destroy important tourist and health care infrastructure, including hotels, restaurants, and eldercare facilities. Recovery of the tourism and healthcare sectors is a priority for many coastal local governments. The health care sector is particularly important in many coastal communities of the southern United States, which have a high proportion of elderly residents that have retired from colder climates to warmer beach communities.
The environment provides many services to humans and wildlife, and our lives are intricately linked with our environment. So, when a major disturbance to the environment occurs, such as a tsunami or storm surge, the natural environment – the natural ecosystems - in the affected area can be severely impacted, and the ecosystem services may be destroyed or disrupted. For tsunami and especially hurricane protection, coastal ecosystems like mangroves, barrier islands, wetlands, and coral reefs can absorb and reduce wave energy and water height, thereby protecting the land from erosion, but at the same time, they can sustain heavy damage from the energy of the water. For these and many other reasons, environmental recovery and restoration are important elements of disaster recovery. Some of the examples of environmental restoration after tsunami and storm surge disasters include beach and sand dune restoration, wetland restoration, and water and soil protection, and recovery. Other environmental recovery activities include the restoration of urban forests, habitat recovery for wildlife, and debris recycling.
An example of the importance of coastal ecosystem services and the damage caused by hurricane storm surge can be found in Louisiana at the time of Hurricane Katrina. The US Geological Survey estimated that a loss of more than 200 square miles of coastal wetlands was attributed to Katrina’s storm surge in Louisiana, an area representing approximately eight times the annual land loss rate already taking place (remember a football field of land on the Mississippi delta disappears every 100 minutes, so this is a lot of land!). The protection and economic benefits afforded coastal communities in Louisiana by these fragile and rapidly declining ecosystems were already well documented and recognized by the state. Following Katrina’s devastation, the state stepped up its existing coastal restoration program, creating a new State Coastal Master Plan and a new state agency to oversee and monitor restoration activities. As a result of devoting a new level of human and monetary resources, today Louisiana is a world leader in the science and engineering of coastal restoration and protection.
Other forms of environmental damage that must be remediated after a disaster include spills and other kinds of pollution resulting from the destructive forces of tsunamis and storm surges. The article The Indian Ocean Tsunami and its Environmental Impacts [4] outlines environmental impacts from the 2004 tsunami.
Finally, recovery is not complete without psychological and social recovery. After a disaster, many people suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Among other symptoms, people with disaster-related PTSD can relive the hazard event repeatedly, feel in danger constantly, have difficulty sleeping, and refuse to return to places associated with the disaster. Victims’ psychological well-being and social life can therefore be severely affected by PTSD. As a result, PTSD and other psychological conditions of victims must be addressed as part of recovery. Social recovery is critical, too. Loss of jobs can lead to migration away from a community, and deaths of key community figures can change social dynamics. Although there is little that responsible organizations can do to directly influence these outcomes, it is important to be aware of these impacts in recovery efforts. Cultural recovery efforts, such as the rebuilding of religious landmarks and institutions, also improve the overall recovery.
In conclusion, it is important to note that the recovery period provides governments and emergency managers with a special opportunity to develop a more disaster-resilient society. Many of the older buildings with dated building codes and outmoded infrastructure have been destroyed, and people have become more aware of the risks associated with natural hazards. Thus, policies that mitigate by updating building codes, replacing obsolete infrastructure, and developing hazard-conscious land-use plans in the recovery phase will face fewer obstacles. At the same time, families will be more willing to mitigate by purchasing insurance and engaging in household preparedness activities.