Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-29T08:11:21.333Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Impact of Adaptive Capacity on Disaster Response and Recovery: Evidence Supporting Core Community Capabilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2014

Rebecca S. Zukowski
Rebecca S. Zukowski*
Affiliation:
Mount Aloysius College, Cresson, Pennsylvania USA
*
Correspondence: Rebecca S. Zukowski, PhD, RN Mount Aloysius College Main Building, Office 307 7373 Admiral Peary Highway Cresson, PA 16630 USA E-mail rzukowski@mtaloy.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Introduction

The aim of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between the development of adaptive capacity and disaster response and recovery outcomes. Hospitals and health care systems are a critical element in community planning for all phases of the disaster cycle. There is a lack of research, however, to validate the relationship between the development of these capabilities and improved response and recovery outcomes.

Hypothesis/Problem

Two hypotheses were formulated to address the research question. The first hypothesis argued that counties or parishes that developed adaptive capacity through pre-event planning, community engagement, training, and the use of national response frameworks would have improved response and recovery performance outcomes. The second hypothesis argued that adaptive capacity, along with response and recovery performance outcomes, predicts the trajectory of recovery progression.

Methods

This study employed a quantitative cross-sectional survey methodology and existing community demographic data to explore the development of adaptive capacity and its ability to predict disaster response and recovery outcomes in communities affected by major disaster in 2011. A total of 333 counties and parishes were included in the final sample, providing a 95% confidence interval with a 5% margin of error. Data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Multiple, hierarchical, and robust regression were used to find the best fitting model. Multi-level modeling with random intercepts was used to control for the nesting effects associated with county, state, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) region sampling.

Results

Descriptive results provide a baseline assessment of adaptive capacity development at the community level. While controlling for other variables, hypothesis testing revealed that pre-event planning, community engagement, full-scale exercises, and use of national frameworks predicated overall response and recovery performance outcomes (R2 = .43; F13,303 = 13.34; P < .001). In terms of recovery progression, pre-event planning, overall response and recovery performance outcome, total time of disruption, and percent of people below poverty were significant (R2 = .15; F14,302 = 4.53; P < .001).

Conclusions

Establishment of empirical data provides communities with reinforcement to continue resilience-building activities at the local level. However, findings from this study suggest that only full-scale exercises were significant in improving response and recovery outcomes. Implications for re-evaluation of disaster training warrant further exploration.

ZukowskiRS. The Impact of Adaptive Capacity on Disaster Response and Recovery: Evidence Supporting Core Community Capabilities. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2014;29(4):1-8.

Keywords

adaptive capacitydisaster resiliencedisaster response and recovery
Type
Original Research
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , August 2014 , pp. 380 - 387
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Marcozzi, D, Sanders, M, Vanderwagen, WC. A nation prepared: inspiration in the face of tragedy. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2007;1(Suppl. 1):S6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2. Armenian, HK, Meldonian, AK, Hovanesian, AP. Long-term mortality and morbidity related to degree of damage following the 1988 earthquake in Armenia. Am J Epidemiol. 1998;148(11):1077-1984.Google Scholar
3. Noji, EK. Disaster epidemiology. Emerg Med Clin North Am. 1996;14(2):289-300.Google Scholar
4. MacFarlane, C, Joffe, A, Naidoo, S. Training of disaster managers at a master's degree level: from emergency care to managerial control. Emerg Med (Fremantle). 2006;18:451-456.Google Scholar
5. Culley, JM, Effken, JA. Development and validation of a mass casualty conceptual model. Image J Nurs Sch. 2010;42(1):66-75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6. Berke, PR, Campanella, TJ. Planning for post-disaster resiliency. Ann Am Acad Pol Soc Sci. 2006;604(1):192-207.Google Scholar
7. Federal Emergency Management Agency. A whole community approach to emergency management: principles, themes, and pathways for action. FEMA website. http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=4941. Accessed November 15, 2013.Google Scholar
8. U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Presidential policy directive PPD/8. DHS website. http://www.dhs.gov/presidential-policy-directive-8-national-preparedness. Accessed November 15, 2013.Google Scholar
9. Mothershead, J. Disaster response in the United States. In: Ciottone GR, Anderson PD, Auf Der Heide E, Darling RG, Jacoby I, Noji R, Suner S, eds. Disaster Medicine, 1st ed. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA: Mosby; 2006:79-83.Google Scholar
10. Boin, A. Designing resilience: leadership challenges. In: Comfort LK, Boin A, Demchak CC, eds. Designing Resilience. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA: University of Pittsburgh Press; 2010:129-142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11. McEntire, DA, Fuller, C, Johnston, CW, Weber, R. A comparison of disaster paradigms: the search for a holistic policy guide. Public Adm Rev. 2002;62(3):267-281.Google Scholar
12. Paton, D, Johnston, D. Disaster Resilience: An Integrated Approach. Springfield, Massachusetts USA: Charles C. Thomas; 2006.Google Scholar
13. Rose, A. Defining and measuring economic resilience to disasters. Disaster Prev Manag. 2004;13(4):307-314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14. Adger, WN, Hughes, TP, Folke, C, Carpenter, SR, Rockstrom, J. Social-ecological resilience to coastal disasters. Science. 2005;309(5737):1036-1039.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
15. Wisner, B, Blaikie, P, Cannon, T, Davis, I. At Risk: Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability, and Disaster, 2nd ed. London, England UK: Routledge; 2004.Google Scholar
16. Norris, FH, Stevens, SP, Pfefferbaum, B, Wyche, KF, Pfefferbaum, RL. Community resilience as a metaphor, theory, set of capacities, and strategy for disaster readiness. Am J Community Psychol. 2008;41:127-150.Google Scholar
17. U.S. Department of Homeland Security. National response framework. DHS website. http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nrf/nrf-core.pdf. Accessed November 15, 2013.Google Scholar
18. U.S. Department of Homeland Security. National disaster recovery framework. DHS website. http://www.fema.gov/pdf/recoveryframework/ndrf.pdf. Accessed November 15, 2013.Google Scholar
19. U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Public Law 93-288) as amended. DHS website. http://www.fema.gov/robert-t-stafford-disaster-relief-and-emergency-assistance-act-public-law-93-288-amended. Accessed November 15, 2013.Google Scholar
20. McEntire, DA. Local emergency management organizations. In: Rodriquez H, Quarantelli EL, Dynes RR, eds. Handbook of Disaster Research. New York, New York USA: Springer; 2007:168-182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21. Hamilton, LC. Statistics with STATA. Boston, Massachusetts USA: Brooks /Cole; 2013.Google Scholar
22. Britton, NR. National planning and response: National systems. In: Rodriquez H, Quarantelli EL, Dynes RR, eds. Handbook of Disaster Research. New York, New York USA: Springer; 2007:347-367.Google Scholar
23. Kahn, LH, Barondess, JA. Preparing for disaster: response matrices in the U.S. and UK. J Urban Health. 2008;85(6):910-922.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
24. Comfort, LK. Shared Risk: Complex Systems in Seismic Response. New York, New York USA: Pergamon; 1999.Google Scholar
25. Longstaff, PH. Security, resilience, and communication in unpredictable environments such as terrorism, natural disasters, and complex technology. Retrieved from Harvard University, Center for Information Policy Research website. http://pirp.harvard.edu/pubs_pdf/longsta/longsta-p05-3.pdf. Effective November 2005. Accessed November 15, 2013.Google Scholar
26. Cutter, SL, Burton, CG, Emrich, CT. Disaster resilience indicators for benchmarking baseline conditions. Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. 2010;7(1):1-22.Google Scholar
27. U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Exercise design. DHS website. http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is139.asp. Accessed November 15, 2013.Google Scholar
28. Finch, C, Emrich, CT, Cutter, SL. Disaster disparities and differential recovery in New Orleans. Popul Environ. 2010;31:179-202.Google Scholar
29. Fischer, HW. Response to Disaster, 3rd ed. Lanham, Maryland USA: University Press of America; 2008.Google Scholar
30. Paturas, JL, Smith, D, Smith, S, Albanese, J. Collective response to public health emergencies and large-scale disasters: putting hospitals at the core of community resilience. J Bus Contin Emer Plan. 2010;4(3):286-295.Google ScholarPubMed
31. Hegel, J, Markiewicz, M, Benson, P, Horney, J, Rosselli, R, MacDonald, P. Lessons learned from North Carolina public health regional surveillance teams’ regional exercises. Biosecur Bioterror. 2011;9(1):41-47.Google Scholar