Why disasters highlight social inequality

Disaster response and recovery require strong assistance programs. However, the allocation of resources is often unequal due to the complex interplay of environmental, social, and institutional factors. A recent study investigated how exactly these factors interact with each other and how they affect population migrations.

All over the world, hurricanes, rising sea levels and other climate-related phenomena are growing increasingly severe, posing a challenge to countries and communities.

This worrying development makes it crucial to look at how public disaster aid is distributed, how it affects people moving away after disasters, and how social vulnerability makes it harder for some groups to get the help they need.

Research can help policymakers to address these challenges and facilitate better recovery from future disasters.

Multiple factors at play

Besides the immediate devastating effect on homes and businesses, post-disaster rebuilding and recovery usually take a lot of time. As a result, natural disasters are often followed by massive population displacements.

After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, for example, housing damage led to both short-term displacement and long-term migration. This made it extra complicated to allocate hazard relief resources in a proper and efficient manner.

The problem is compounded by the fact that extreme weather and climate events are especially dangerous to the socially vulnerable. They are more easily harmed due to factors like income, resources, or social support.

As recovery aid is not always distributed fairly, the most vulnerable people or communities are often left with less help, even after suffering serious damage. Strong public assistance programmes can prevent them from moving away.

Another key factor in this respect is national flood insurance, which can help communities to rebuild faster and even make it less scary for people to live in flood-prone areas.

A holistic approach

The interplay between social factors and disaster management measures is extremely complex. Previous research in this area focused on isolated impacts of disasters on the migration of socially vulnerable populations or the fair distribution of post-disaster assistance.

The authors of the new study take a more holistic approach by integrating multiple factors into a statistical model that can provide a better understanding of the relationships between social vulnerability, natural disaster, public disaster assistance, national flood insurance, and population migrations in the United States.

The American Situation

In recent times in the US, damages from natural disasters have been approaching or even exceeding $100 billion per year.

Disaster risk reduction and recovery are mainly handled by federal programmes run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Over the last 30 years, FEMA has spent more than $347 billion on reducing risks from hazards.

FEMA programmes offer funding for purposes such as pre-disaster planning, affordable flood insurance, emergency response, post-disaster recovery, and loans for people affected by natural disasters.

These public programmes are very important for building community resilience. However, they can be complicated to manage, since each programme has its own application process and eligibility criteria. This complexity can be especially burdensome for vulnerable communities.

Data collection and analysis

The authors of the study collected and combined data from multiple sources.

At the county level across the US, population migration data came from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and data on natural hazard impact from the Spatial Hazard Events and Losses Database for the United States (SHELDUS).

Information on flood insurance, hazard mitigation, and housing assistance was gathered from FEMA.

Data on disaster loans were obtained from the Small Business Administration (SBA), and community social vulnerability was measured using census data from the American Community Survey.

To analyse all this data from different sources, the authors used a structural equation model (SEM). This is a method that allows researchers to test theoretical causal relationships between multiple variables, including both observed (measured) and unobserved (latent) constructs.

Implication for Policy and Practice

Highlighting disaster equity in disaster management is not just a matter of fairness; it is essential for effective recovery and long-term resilience.

The study results show how the interplay between these variables has influenced population migration in the US over the past 20 years in different ways.

Social vulnerability is negatively associated with population migration, public disaster assistance, and flood insurance participation, both directly and through indirect pathways. These negative associations suggest that current allocation mechanisms inadvertently disadvantage the most vulnerable communities.

Policymakers must understand that disaster assistance programs don't operate in isolation. Solid public disaster assistance and good insurance coverage help to reduce out-migration, speed up recovery, and build community resilience.

This story is an adaptation of a published journal article: Han, Y., Ye, X., & Zhu, C. (2024). The Unequal Impact of Disasters: Assessing the Interplay Between Social Vulnerability, Public Assistance, Flood Insurance, and Migration in the US. Urban Informatics, 3(1), 30. It has been adapted with permission from the authors and in accordance with the copyright license: CC BY 4.0

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