Compounding Disasters in Gulf Coast Communities 2020-2021 Impacts, Findings, and Lessons Learned (2024) / Chapter Skim
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5 Lessons Learned
5 Lessons Learned
Pages 169-198
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From page 169... ...
The committee defines lessons learned as the identification of either shortcomings or successes in disaster preparation, response, or recovery modifications to implement for future events. It acknowledges that some lessons are merely recognized, some are embraced and implemented, and some are forgotten with the passage of time, but the committee includes all phases of that process in this chapter.
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From page 170... ...
Participants in the committee's information-gathering sessions acknowledged most of these gaps. Opportunities for Broader Adoption of Lessons Learned More effective coordination of leadership, the creation of incentives to share duties and responsibilities, preparation of mutual aid agreements among agencies, and improved communication among agencies and between agencies and the public present opportunities to shift lessons recognized to learned (Donahue and Tuohy, 2006)
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From page 171... ...
Burby (2006) asserts that economic priorities sometimes eclipse "safe development." In the years following Hurricane Camille's landfall along the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 1969, local policies restricted development near the shore to avert the devastating storm surge.
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focus specifically on locally based knowledge of flood risk and mitigation, or what might be considered a repository of lessons learned, which they refer to as "flood memory." They underscore that flood memory is built on collective 1 The International Residential Code is a comprehensive, stand-alone residential code that establishes minimum regulations for one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses using prescriptive provisions. It is founded on broad-based principles that make possible the use of new materials and is designed using model code regulations that safeguard the public health and safety in all communities, large and small (International Code Council, 2018)
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consistently advocated for more community-guided hazard planning that tapped local expertise. LESSONS RECOGNIZED AND LEARNED: THEMES FROM THE INFORMATION-GATHERING SESSIONS Panelists in each of the information-gathering sessions spoke about the importance of implementing lessons learned and highlighted common 2 For more information on social capital, see the Chapter 2 section entitled "Social Capital and Cohesion."
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communication, vulnerabilities, disaster recovery service delivery, and housing needs. The following section organizes panelists' lessons learned by these themes.
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Panelists emphasized that plans and structures need to allow for creative solutions that work. In Texas and Southwest Louisiana, experiences with Winter Storm Uri prompted recommendations to plan for the unexpected by considering events not included among high-probability hazards.
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Yet the same sectors and systems instituted to navigate pandemic lockdowns were vital to later navigating the compounding disaster recovery process once the storms struck. Still, the COVID-19 pandemic consumed much of the bandwidth that normally would have been directed to preparing for the hurricane season, challenging response and recovery efforts, particularly when considering physical distancing.
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This type of change would particularly aid small towns or counties with limited reserves for disaster recovery, much less a rapid succession of disasters. Box 5-1 describes recent federal efforts to advance the disaster recovery process.
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introduced legislation designed to expedite the provision of immediate disaster recovery funds to states in the aftermath of a disaster. The Expediting Disaster Recovery Act (H.R.
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Participants from other places noted that restrictions on early-stage COVID-19 funds limited use of those funds for storm recovery efforts. The "pre-positioning" of flexible pandemic relief funds provided some municipalities with unexpected resources to meet acute needs such as emergency rental and utility assistance, localization of capacity to meet acute needs in vulnerable communities, and long-term recovery support for critical sectors such as housing.
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NGOs in coastal Alabama assembled listservs to streamline communications and distribute "living" community resource guides that were continually updated. NGO staff manually monitored and responded to social media posts to direct individuals to resources for and information on essential community services.
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Disaster Recovery Service Delivery The importance of equitable delivery of services to affected communities emerged as a powerful theme in the panel discussions on lessons learned. Some panelists in each session voiced the need to incorporate equity into planning for and recovery from future disasters.
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While these concerns exist for all disaster responses, they become more acute when compounding disasters occur, a time when increased local capacity is needed and household vulnerability is heightened. There was an abundance, even an excess, of food available in Lake Charles after Hurricanes Laura and Delta.
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As a Louisiana state official explained, "There's just so much of a gap between where the response assistance ends and where recoveries begin." State and federal programs provide temporary shelter, but local officials recommended adding transitional, longer-term sheltering options and advanced planning of staged temporary housing. Additionally, given the lack of public transportation options in many rural communities and even small cities, they suggested that aid should extend to those who have lost not just houses but also cars, so they are able to maintain their jobs.
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All sessions exposed a keen awareness of the compounding impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on staffing and emergency response. NGOs and CBOs Panelists representing NGOs and CBOs tended to be most attentive to vulnerable communities.
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If this was true in the days following Hurricane Katrina, it is even more pertinent as the GOM region faces the effects of compounding disasters.
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Serving as formal documentation of lessons learned, they typically report on lessons from a singular event rather than multiple, sequential events and are a common feature of disaster response and recovery actions and have been for decades. Louisiana Following Hurricanes Laura and Delta in 2020 and Hurricane Ida in 2021, the state of Louisiana prepared a Proposed Master Action Plan (State of Louisiana, 2022)
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Texas Following Winter Storm Uri in 2021, the city of Houston prepared a recovery action plan (City of Houston, 2022) , which included an assessment of unmet needs.
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Documentation and effective distribution of lessons learned after disasters and the subsequent incorporation of these lessons into enduring protocols and practices is an essential building block of adaptive capacity. Moreover, the committee contends that even communities that consider themselves to be "resilient" must not be complacent or expect to endure future events without systematic investment in adaptive capacity at the community level.
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Using buses as warming shelters was a novel tool for Harris County during Winter Storm Uri. While municipal buses have been used as temporary shelters and cooling centers in the GOM region, their application for warming needy residents and charging cell phones was a lesson learned put into action during Uri.
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Parish officials men tioned that they now establish predisaster contracts for debris removal and home repair with contractors who are familiar with the architectural style of historic buildings to expedite the restoration process. Officials in Southwest Louisiana implemented a number of lessons learned from Hurricane Rita that paid dividends during Hurricane Laura.
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Cameron Parish buried its broadband cables after Hurricane Rita and reported that this service survived Hurricanes Laura and Delta. The 2-1-1 program, an emergency call center hotline established after Hurricane Rita to connect residents with active aid organizations that could assist with specific needs, proved effective following the 2020 storms.
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may provide evidence of lessons implemented following the study period. For example, Louisiana is the highest-performing state in building code adoption and enforcement among the GOM states, and second only to Florida in the region, increased its overall score 10 percent between 2018 and 2024 by adopting the latest International Residential Code (2018)
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The yellowshaded column is the year treated as the reference frame preceding the study period; the green-shaded column is the year treated as the frame for potential lessons implemented following the study period. SOURCE: Component scores provided by IBHS derived from the five IBHS reports from 2012 to 2024.
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For example, 16 of the 24 permitting jurisdictions within Mobile and Baldwin Counties enforce the Coastal Construction Code Supplement created after Hurricanes Ivan (in 2004) and Katrina (in 2005)
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The repeated recognition of lessons learned underscores the tendency among hazard managers and society in general to allow for an erosion of readiness and a loss of the sense of urgency, and highlights the importance of taking steps 4 The Texas State Comptroller (2021) reports several steps taken to address the power delivery crisis that resulted from Winter Storm Uri: The legislature has taken action to (1)
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The small increase in construction costs to meet modern building codes through structures capable of with standing the impact of extreme events pales in comparison with the direct -- and indirect -- costs of rebuilding. to perpetuate and institutionalize lessons learned.
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learned remain in various states of adoption and implementation. While it is common to identify and document lessons learned through a disaster recovery process, it is also common to identify the same lessons repeatedly over time without improving planning, response, and recovery procedures to improve disaster outcomes.
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198 COMPOUNDING DISASTERS IN GULF COAST COMMUNITIES 2020–2021 The committee's information-gathering sessions also underscored the need to intentionally incorporate equity and climate change into the fabric of disaster management, particularly mitigation efforts that seek to reduce both community exposure and long-standing vulnerabilities, including residential building codes, construction standards, and affordable housing.
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