Experiencing a single disaster - a hurricane, tornado, flood, severe winter storm, or a global pandemic - can wreak havoc on the lives and livelihoods of individuals, families, communities and entire regions. For many people who live in communities in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico region, the reality of disaster is starker. Endemic socioeconomic and health disparities have made many living in Gulf of Mexico communities particularly vulnerable to the effects of weather-climate hazards. Prolonged disaster recovery and increasing disaster risk is an enduring reality for many living in Gulf of Mexico communities. Between 2020 and 2021, seven major hurricanes and a severe winter storm affected communities across the region. As a backdrop to these acute weather events, the global COVID-19 pandemic was unfolding, producing a complex and unprecedented public health and socioeconomic crisis.
Traditionally, the impacts of disasters are quantified individually and often in economic terms of property damage and loss. In this case, each of these major events occurring in the Gulf of Mexico during this time period subsequently earned the moniker of “billion-dollar” disaster. However, this characterization does not reflect the non-financial human toll and disparate effects caused by multiple disruptive events that increase underlying physical and social vulnerabilities, reduce adaptive capacities and ultimately make communities more sensitive to the effects of future disruptive events. This report explores the interconnections, impacts, and lessons learned of compounding disasters that impair resilience, response, and recovery efforts. While Compounding Disasters in Gulf Coast Communities, 2020-2021 focuses on the Gulf of Mexico region, its findings apply to any region that has similar vulnerabilities and that is frequently at risk for disasters.
I stayed in lousiana near the gulf for a while and passed through there a few times over the past 5 years. Its incredible how much of the stuff never rebuilt, not just from katrina but all the damage since in multiple cities just entire areas where 60% of the houses have blue tarps on the roofs and knocked over trees and collapsed sheds/fences never dealt with. It gets noticeably worse each time i pass through. It is not all just the poorest areas either, its areas where you would think people would have insurance coverage but at this point insurance is falling into “discretionary” spending category as people need to just buy necessities and hope for the best. there are parts that look like post-collapse movie or something where people just do whatever makeshift ghetto rigged patches and stay.