Disasters are often, outside disaster studies, viewed as singularities. This characterization of disaster disallows analysis of racial violence and dispossession structurally instituted across multiple disasters. As a result, repeatedly poor pre-disaster and post-disaster planning is leveraged to displace and disenfranchise marginalized communities. With climate change, disasters are projected to become more intense and frequent, necessitating a serious inquiry into inequalities occurring across repeated disasters. This essay uses theories of colonialism and coloniality from Puerto Rico to examine how colonialism operates through repeated disaster, in this case hurricanes. Building off of research on environmental colonialism in Puerto Rico, the concept of disaster colonialism is proposed to explain how procedural vulnerability is deepened through disasters and subsequently leveraged to deepen coloniality. To illustrate the utility of this term, a brief overview of Puerto Rico's environmental history with hurricanes is examined through the lens of disaster colonialism. Ultimately, the commentary poses three questions to planners relative to the concept of disaster colonialism.

In theorizing community organizing, Saul Alinsky’s model still forms the dominant narrative in the United States. Yet, countless communities do not map neatly onto this model. In particular, there is growing recognition of César Chávez’s organizing in South Texas and, additionally, how this work differs from Chávez’s more well-known organizing in California. In the 1960s, Chávez created the Community Union model, which forms the basis of contemporary organizing in much of the region’s colonias, extralegal communities within 150 miles of the United States/Mexico border that suffer from a dearth of basic services and infrastructures. By providing these basic services and political support, the Community Union model has become the dominant mode of organizing and engagement in South Texas colonias. Through an insurgent historiography provided by colonia organizers in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, a counternarrative of colonia organizing shows the past, present, and potential future of the Community Union model in South Texas colonias. This counter narrative was composed through archival research on the United Farmworkers and open-ended interviews with colonia organizers conducted between 2014 and 2017. Ultimately, this analysis of the Community Union model suggests that Latinx organizing may be marginalized in organizing literature due to their “everyday” characteristics: slow movements, non-direct actions, and (re)questioning of priorities. From this, the role of organizing theories from organizers on-the-ground becomes central: we cannot assume organizers everywhere operate under universally applied theories. As such, it is important to see organizers as dynamic and context-specific in their motivations and guiding theories.

Approximately 1.6 million people live in border communities called "colonias," settlements along the U.

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Equity is a major goal in post-disaster recovery and reconstruction. However, although extensive research demonstrates the connections between race/class and heightened vulnerability to disasters, few examine or name the mechanisms responsible for this correlation. Such mechanisms are referred to as procedural vulnerabilities or historical and ongoing power relations that lead to inequitable outcomes. We interrogate the role of procedural vulnerabilities in generating inequitable recovery by analyzing LUPE et al. v. FEMA (B:08-cv-487 [2008]). This legal case emerged from the experiences of colonia residents in the R ıo Grande Valley of South Texas following Hurricane Dolly in 2008. From this case, we found that, first, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) unclear definitions of deferred maintenance and insufficient damages negatively affected low-income households. Second, even with clear definitions, post-disaster recovery and reconstruction outcomes would remain inequitable due to historic patterns of disinvestment in the colonias.Takeaway for practice: From this case, two key implications for planners emerge. First, planners must acknowledge the historic concerns facing low-income communities of color that lead to inequitable outcomes in FEMA funding. Unincorporated communities of color are less likely to be able to access strong environmental planning, placing them at higher risk of disaster. Second, local stigma surrounding communities can greatly influence the efficacy of post-disaster reconstruction and recovery by predetermining who is or is not "deserving" of assistance. Engaging local histories of racism and prejudice is key to addressing and redressing these inequities.

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