Hurricane Harvey: equal opportunity storm or disparate disaster?

ABSTRACT

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, multiple media sources claimed the event was an “equal opportunity” storm. These claims challenge existing social vulnerability research that finds marginalised groups have both unequal risk exposure and subsequent differential impacts from disasters (Cutter, Boruff, and Shirley 2003, “Assessing Current and Future Freshwater Flood Risk from North Atlantic Tropical Cyclones via Insurance Claims.” Scientific Reports 7 (February): 41609; Faber 2015, “Superstorm Sandy and the Demographics of Flood Risk in New York City.” Human Ecology 43 (3): 363–378. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-015-9757-x; Thomas et al. 2013, Social Vulnerability to Disasters. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press). To understand the accuracy of this “equal opportunity” assertion, we use ordinary least squares, simultaneous autoregressive, and geographically weighted regression techniques to investigate the relationships between indicators of social vulnerability and FEMA-approved housing damages from Hurricane Harvey across five cities in the Houston area. Findings suggest Harvey had disproportionate impacts on housing damages for Black, Latinx, and mobile home residents. These results serve as a foundational analysis for the broader purpose of informing policy decisions regarding recovery efforts and future approaches to improving flooding resilience in the Houston area.

KEYWORDS:

• Hurricane Harvey
• vulnerability
• environmental justice
• flood impacts
• resilience

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Drawing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2014. CDC Social Vulnerability Index vulnerable population categories and data sources. https://svi.cdc.gov/map.aspx.

2 This report defines community resilience as the “ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to actual or potential adverse events.”

3 hudgis-hud.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/dr-4332-tx-housing-damage-by-block-group/data.

4 https://tnris.org/data-catalog/entry/fema-national-flood-hazard-layer/.

5 https://msc.fema.gov/portal.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Office of the Vice President for Research at The University of Texas at Austin under a rapid response grant.