UNCOVERING THE: Hidden Costs OF Coastal Hazards

Vulnerability of coastal communities to sea-level rise: a case study of Cape May County, New Jersey, USA

“…Several recent studies have addressed the vulnerability of United States coastal communities to contemporary natural hazards, especially extreme coastal storms (Clark et al 1998, David et al 1999, Mileti 1999, Morrow 1999, Cutter et al 2000, H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment 2000). Most of these studies noted that climate change would affect the vulnerability of coastal communities, but none of them had a research design that directly addresses the impacts of climate change.…”

Communities Living With Hazards

“…Loss of life and property, and the economic costs associated with suppressing fires and recovering from fire, are significant and obvious outcomes of bushfire, however there are many other impacts and costs of bushfire which are often not anticipated because they are more indirect and therefore not as obvious to the general public. These include social and economic costs to the individual, family and community such as the loss of livelihoods, interruption of life patterns and relationships, and in some cases the entire social fabric that defines a population as a community can be severely weakened (David, Baish & Hearn Morrow, 1999).…”

“…Indirect costs, particularly social costs, are difficult to measure, and are often omitted in official loss statistics complied in the aftermath of a natural disaster, and thus do not reflect the true costs of a disaster (David, Baish & Hearn Morrow, 1999). Therefore, unless one has experienced a disaster, it is difficult to actually know what to expect, and given that people generally do not expect a bushfire to occur, they perceive a low risk of damage to their homes (Holden et al, 2000) and are over-confident in their ability to cope in the event of a bushfire (Odgers & Rhodes, 2002), it is not surprising that they are shocked when a bushfire does occur.…”

“…Furthermore, the unequal distribution of resources created considerable conflict between the three communities. Unequal distribution of aid appears to be a common occurrence post-disaster, but is nevertheless unexpected (David et al, 1999;Moore et al, 2004), and people of lower socioeconomic status are often further marginalised (Fothergill & Peek, 2004).…”

The Impact of Hurricane Floyd on Eastern North Carolina's School-Aged Children

“…In fact, they found studies indicating 30% to 50% of children exhibit and report moderate to severe PTSD symptomatology following hurricanes Lonigan et al, 1991;Shaw, Applegate, Tanner et al, 1995;Vernberg et al, 1996). The severity of children's PTSD symptoms has reportedly been influenced by various factors such as: age, ethnicity, sex, social support, property damage, predictability, perceived threat to life, duration of the exposure to hurricane, parental distress, number of victims, and predisaster level of depression and/or anxiety (David, Baish, and Morrow, 1999;LaGreca & Prinstein, 2002;Vernberg et al, 1996;Webb, 1994).…”