Before, During & After a Storm

Take, for example, Victoria Cortes, an emergency management planner for Henderson County, North Carolina. A few days before Hurricane Helene hit last fall, Cortes attended a National Weather Service webinar for storm updates. Her team then urgently ramped up conversations with partners across the region about community needs and resources.

This list was dizzying: Arrange for a swift water rescue team from Charlotte; coordinate with 13 fire departments to ensure enough staff; get food and water for first responders; communicate with hospitals and long-term care facilities about patient intake; obtain two high-water vehicles from the National Guard (to supplement the county’s one); send a reverse 911 call to evacuate. By the time people started to leave their homes because of flooding, the county opened an emergency shelter. A second shelter was set up at an elementary school.

“I would go to sleep and dream about all the things I needed to do,” said Cortes, who holds a certificate in nonprofit management from Duke.

Communication between various players – Duke Energy, the NC Department of Transportation, nonprofit disaster relief organizations, schools, hospitals, law enforcement officers and first responders – was key but also challenging, given the loss of cell and Internet service. A satellite link kept a call center going.

One of the many partnerships of her department is the NC State Medical Assistance Team (SMAT), volunteers from various medical care entities who respond to disasters.

SMAT members in Cortes’ region coordinated with counterparts on Duke’s SMAT team, which was assisting with Helene response efforts on the ground in another part of western North Carolina.  

“Partnerships are essential to success,” said Cortes. “Collaboration is the goal for all first responders,” said Cortes.  

Longer-term Recovery

The length of the emergency response phase is proportional to the type and level of disaster. Then comes longer-term recovery – restoration and reconstruction. This period can take years, or decades.

Jonathan Phillips, director of energy access at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, owns a house in Bat Cave, N.C., that was severely damaged in Helene. The house is a second home, so he will not be getting any money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and he did not have flood insurance.

But as soon as they were able, contractors with heavy equipment and church groups with chain saws were coming by to move trees.

Associate professor of environmental policy Elizabeth Albright refers to this type of work, where neighbor helps neighbor, as “social capital.” Albright said, “People who have connections, who are part of a broader community, such as civic or faith-based organizations, tend to do better after a disaster than those who don’t.”

“The outpouring of generosity has helped me think about recovery in a more manageable way,” he said. However, he stressed, “It’s the federal safety net that will make or break Western N.C. in terms of rebuilding roads, power lines and getting communities back on their feet.”

Engineering professor David Schaad says exposing students to recovery work important. “Who suffers the most during the disaster are the people who can least afford it. … From a learning standpoint, it’s important for students to plug into that,” he said.

After Katrina, his students had carried the destroyed contents of people’s lives to the curb and then worked with Habitat for Humanity to build houses.

Duke students are helping with recovery efforts in Western N.C. For example, Jewish Life recently organized a trip to work with Nechama, a Jewish emergency disaster response organization. Most of the tasks they completed were manual labor, such as adding insulation and putting up new drywall.

Listening to Community Needs

Albright’s work focuses on long-term recovery, studying how communities rebuild and rethink long-term objectives with an eye on resilience. One study looked at the December 2021 Marshall Fire in Colorado, which destroyed 1,200 homes. With interviews of community leaders and surveys of 1,300 residents and survivors, Albright and the team came up with several findings that could be useful for wildfire-affected communities.

One major finding highlighted the difficulties of those who can least afford recovery. “We found that households recovered at difference speeds — with those with more resources and insurance coverage recovering faster,” said Albright.

Before the Marshall Fire, of those surveyed 97% of homeowners reported having insurance compared with 70% of renters. And a year after the fire, renters were significantly more likely to be displaced from their home (62%) compared with homeowners (40%), the study found.

Renters and residents with lower incomes were also less likely to participate in local recovery processes, such as fire-related public meetings, the researchers said.

Albright recommends making public meetings accessible to communities with different needs and abilities, such as by providing childcare.

Albright says that in building back, community leaders often try to make changes that could reduce disaster loss in the future; however, such changes can make people skeptical, especially if they involve added costs.

“Local officials we interviewed stressed that clear communication about rebuilding costs is essential,” said the researchers.

To rebuild to higher standards, Albright recommends the types of incentive programs that were showing early signs of success in Colorado. As one example, the Colorado Office of Energy offered energy efficiency rebates to residents who lost their homes in the fire. Although many households made energy efficiency improvements on their own, without a mandate to do so.

Thoughtfully Engaging Residents

Albright’s work has extended to floods. In 2013, the front range of Colorado was hit by 20 inches of rain over three days. Seven communities were highly damaged. Albright and colleagues followed these communities over five years to look at what efforts drove recovery.

Albright cites a community that did better than others: Lyons, Colorado. “They were severely impacted, with few staff,” Albright said. “But they thoughtfully engaged residents in a long-term recovery process by having about eight different recovery working groups, such as parks and recreation and housing. Each group proposed a set of projects for consideration.”

What about the next big disaster, or if the same place is hit again? A big challenge is to help people across the country understand their disaster risks and what that risk means for their homes and communities. “It’s a big nut we all need to crack together,” said Sara Oliver, director of Pratt’s new Climate and Sustainability Engineering Master's Program.

When she was an engineer in industry, Oliver worked on a FEMA project communicating risk with communities. “People can’t protect themselves if they’re not aware,” said Oliver. Oliver stresses those efforts need to be locally led, and people need capacity and resources to take action.

The next story in the series will highlight Duke efforts in the mitigation and preparedness cycle parts of the disaster management cycle.

Jonathan Phillips, director of energy access at Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, shares a photo of his wife, Sanford adjunct instructor Jennifer Chow, surveying the new riverbed running through their yard in Bat Cave, N.C., after Hurricane Helene.

January 22, 2025

When a Disaster Hits Home

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