As a summer URSP student, I am working under Dr. Stefanie
Haeffele-Balch investigating the determinants of federal disaster aid after
Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Haeffele-Balch and her colleagues at the Mercatus Center
at George Mason University have been investigating the causes of community
recovery from Hurricane Katrina as part of the Gulf Coast Recovery Project for
the past few years. The aim of my summer project was to use the
recently-released Federal Emergency Management Association data on the Individuals
and Households Program and investigate what social determinants affected the
amount of funding received by different communities. The Individuals and
Households Program provides assistance to people affected by a disaster to
address needs and expenses not met through other forms of disaster assistance
or insurance. IHP often covers costs related to personal property compensation,
medical care, dental care, and funerals. The goal of this program is to help
individuals and families most at risk after a disaster, especially those
without insurance. However, prior literature has suggested that FEMA is limited
in determining how to allocate resources after a disaster. Furthermore, many
researchers have argued that vulnerable populations (in terms of income, education,
disability, political capital, and other such factors) are less likely to
receive assistance. This summer, I reviewed the prior literature on individual
and community disaster recovery in order to determine what demographic factors
led to post-disaster struggles to recover. This literature review has guided
our selection of variables to investigate as potential factors that could have
affected the aid received by a community. Through this process, we decided to
investigate a range of demographic features (for example, average education
level, average number of adults per household, voter turnout, and community
racial makeup) and spatial variables (distance from medical centers, flood
levels, and dependency on nearby communities). Over the next few weeks, we will
use spatial econometrics to investigate the relationship between these
variables and IHP funding. Through this project, we hope to learn more about
how FEMA allocates funding after disasters, and how we can better ensure that
post-disaster support reaches those most in need. I have learned a lot through
this project, and read more papers than I can count! The summer URSP program
has given me the chance to explore my interest in community resilience, crisis
response, spatial econometrics, and learn key skills that will help me in
graduate school and beyond.
