The Northridge Earthquake: Community‐based Approaches to Unmet Recovery Needs

Abstract

The 1994 Northridge, California earthquake has proven to be one of the most costly disasters in United States history. Federal and state assistance programmes received some 681,000 applications from victims for various forms of relief. In spite of the flow of US$11 billion in federal assistance into Los Angeles and Ventura counties, many victims have failed to obtain adequate relief. These unmet needs relate to the vulnerability of particular class and ethnic groups. In response to unmet needs, a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have become involved in the recovery process. This paper, based on evidence collected from hundreds of in-depth interviews with the people involved, examines the activities of several community-based organisations (CBOs) and other NGOs as they have attempted to assist vulnerable people with unmet post-disaster needs. We discuss two small ethnically diverse communities in Ventura County, on the periphery of the Los Angeles metropolitan region. The earthquake and resultant disaster declaration provided an opportunity for local government and NGOs to acquire federal resources not normally available for economic development. At the same time the earthquake created political openings in which longer-term issues of community development could be addressed by various local stakeholders. A key issue in recovery has been the availability of affordable housing for those on low incomes, particularly Latinos, the elderly and farm workers. We discuss the successes and limitations of CBOs and NGOs as mechanisms for dealing with vulnerable populations, unmet needs and recovery issues in the two communities.

Challenges to social capacity building in flood-affected areas of southern Poland

“…Moreover, weak links may allow the transfer of knowledge about local natural hazards to e.g. new inhabitants (Berke et al, 1993;Bolin and Stanford, 1998). Abundant resources of both types of social capital (including social trust) should facilitate the taking of joint decisions (Adger, 2003) and lead to an increased involvement in participatory risk management (Dynes, 2002;Murphy, 2007;Lara et al, 2010;Schelfaut et al, 2011).…”

Emergency Preparedness: Knowledge and Perceptions of Latin American Immigrants

“…Studies of earthquakes in California suggest that poor Latinos, undocumented immigrants, and monolingual ethnic groups are among the groups that encounter the most problems in acquiring resources and recovering. [11][12] Low-wage Latinos with fragile homes and livelihoods had limited access to post-disaster resources following Hurricane Andrew. 13 This paper describes the level of public emergency knowledge and perceptions of risks among a group of Latin American immigrants, and their preferred and actual sources of emergency preparedness information (including warning signals).…”

From Big to Little Data for Natural Disaster Recovery: How Online and On-the-Ground Activities are Connected?

“…In addition, the capacity of local communities-including social, economic, and physical factors (Bolin and Stanford 1998;Buckland and Rahman 1999;Afzalan and Muller 2014)-plays an important role in their vulnerability to natural disasters. Human and social capital, encompassing income level, social networks, and ethnicity, affect communities' preparedness to respond to natural disasters (Buckland and Rahman 1999).…”