Perceptions of disaster resilience in four Texas coastal communities

ABSTRACT

Scholars and practitioners have long noted the importance of community resilience to disaster recovery and environmental risk mitigation. Yet we know surprisingly little about how local residents perceive the resilience of their local communities, including how closely their perceptions align with objective measures of resilience or whether these perceptions affect community engagement and support for resilience building activities and policies. In this paper, we utilise the results of public opinion surveys of residents of four Texas coastal shoreline counties (Brazoria, Nueces, Galveston, and Cameron) to address this gap in the literature. The results reveal that perceptions of community preparedness largely reflect social trust and disaster awareness while perceptions of recovery reflect perceived risks and preparedness.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• disaster
• recovery
• community preparedness
• social trust

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Data for Social Vulnerability are taken from http://webra.cas.sc.edu/hvri/products/sovi2010_data.aspx (accessed on 15 June 2015). See also the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) Mapping Dashboard at http://svi.cdc.gov/map.aspx?txtzipcode=77802&btnzipcode=Submit (accessed on 11 June 2015).

2. Dual frame sampling, which combines a traditional landline and cell-phone sample, provides another alternative. Because cell-phone samples can be difficult to target to local geographies, address-based sampling provides the best option for the proposed research.

3. Once raked, sample estimates presented in Table 4 closely approximate census population estimates. For example, our population estimates for race (percent nonwhite non-Hispanic) and ethnicity (percent Hispanic) are listed as follows: Brazoria – .24 nonwhite; .29 Hispanic; Cameron – .07 nonwhite; .89 Hispanic; Galveston – .20 nonwhite; .24 Hispanic; Nueces – .13 nonwhite; .63 Hispanic.

Additional information

Funding

Publication supported in part by an Institutional Grant (NA14OAR4170102) to the Texas Sea Grant College Program from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.

Notes on contributors

Kirby Goidel

Kirby Goidel is Professor of Communication and Director of the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M University, USA. Previously, he was the Scripps Howard Professor of Mass Communication in the Department of Political Science at Louisiana State University where he also served as director of the Public Policy Research Lab. Dr. Goidel received his PhD from the University of Kentucky.

Jennifer A. Horney

Jennifer A. Horney is Professor and Founding Director of the Program in Epidemiology and Core Faculty at the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware. USA. Previously, she was the Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health. Dr. Horney received her PhD and MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Paul M. Kellstedt

Paul M. Kellstedt is Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University, USA. His research publications include The Mass Media and the Dynamics of American Racial Attitudes (Cambridge University Press, 2003), which won a 2004 Goldsmith Book Prize, given by the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University. He serves as the Editor in Chief of Political Science Research and Methods.

Emily Sullivan

Emily Sullivan is a graduate of the Master of Urban Planning Program at Texas A&M University, USA. Her research interests include disaster mitigation and recovery, and the incorporation of public health practices into urban planning policy. Emily has conducted research for the Institute for Sustainable Communities, the Superfund Research Center, and the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M University.

Stephanie E. V. Brown

Stephanie E. V. Brown is a Ph.D. student in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Texas A&M University, USA. Her primary research interests centre on sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. She has conducted research at the Haas Center for Economic Research and Development at the University of West Florida and the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M University.