Effect of near-miss events on pre-disaster recovery planning for public housing

• Published in: International journal of disaster risk reduction 2024-12, Vol.115, p.105063, Article 105063
• Main Authors: Khajehei, Sayma, Chandrasekhar, Divya
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Disaster planning; Near-miss event; Pre-disaster planning; Preparedness; Public housing; Recovery
• ISSN: 2212-4209; 2212-4209
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.105063

Post-disaster housing challenges for public and subsidized housing tenants are severe, but there is often too little done to plan for their recovery in advance of a disaster event. The problem is exacerbated in communities that have high catastrophe risk but lack the experience with them because experience has been shown to improve pre- and post-disaster disaster planning. The consequences of such poor planning may be particularly severe for public housing residents who depend upon government-led recovery of their housing units. In this paper, we explore typical efforts to pre-disaster public housing recovery planning in communities with high catastrophe risk but low or no experience and then examine the opportunities and challenges presented by experiencing a ‘near-miss’ event to such planning. We use Salt Lake and Utah Counties, UT as case studies to explore these questions because both counties are at substantial risk of experiencing a high-magnitude earthquakes which have not yet occurred. We conducted archival review and semi-structured interviews with 22 key informants from local emergency management, city planning, and housing agencies. We found that near-miss events do contribute to increased awareness of disaster risk and interest in developing or improving upon recovery plans but translation of this awareness and interest into action is stymied by poor interagency coordination and lack of information-sharing, insufficient funding, and inadequate championship for pre-disaster planning altogether. The findings of the study support pre-disaster planning for public housing recovery in high-risk communities by highlighting potential of near-miss events to inform such action.