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Kevin M Fitzpatrick, Matthew L Spialek, Review of Hurricane Harvey’s Aftermath: Place, Race, and Inequality in Disaster Recovery, Social Forces, Volume 100, Issue 2, December 2021, Page e7, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soab059
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In Hurricane Harvey’s Aftermath: Place, Race, and Inequality in Disaster Recovery, Kevin M. Fitzpatrick and Matthew L. Spialek embark on an ambitious undertaking, drawing on multiple literatures and using mixed-methods research to address a crucial question: “How do place and race intersect in the response to and recovery from a natural disaster?” (pg. 8). Hurricane Harvey is one of the costliest and most catastrophic disasters (Blake and Zelinsky 2018), and is thus an important post-disaster research context. Here, we highlight the timely contributions of this work and offer a pointed critique.
The authors create a narrative of what life is like in several Texas gulf communities before, during, and after Hurricane Harvey, delineating disparities in community cohesion, social capital, and trust in preparedness, response, and recovery. They highlight how location, displacement path, and race and ethnicity influence experiences of and satisfaction with post-disaster assistance and health and well-being in recovery. Fitzpatrick and Spialek make an important plea: that we stop making the same disaster mistakes. They suggest a range of community spaces within which to incorporate disaster planning in order to ensure “whole-community” planning actually includes everyone. We agree that a resident1- and community-centered approach could create a planning process that better accounts for diverse intersectional needs, vulnerabilities, and capacities in communities.
