Rebuilding Communities After Hurricanes

The arrival of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma has left communities in the United States and the Caribbean reeling. In times of disaster, it is both common and necessary for communities to thrust themselves into the rebuilding process, aided by a number of private and public organizations. But the absence of coordinated relief efforts or a clearly defined action plan threatens to stall this recovery, leaving cities, towns, and even entire regions suffering for years after.

How are communities expected to rebuild in the wake of a hurricane? What challenges stand in their way and how do they properly allocate their resources to best serve local residents? To answer these questions, my NYUSPS Urban Lab colleague Aria Bendix and I caught up with Corinne Packard Beasley, a faculty member at the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate and an expert on post-disaster reconstruction.

What is the first step that cities should take to rebuild their communities? Do they start with power lines, transportation, or housing?

A lot of people initially think housing is most important, but its actually not. Generally you find that the most important things to people are community centers, places of worship, and schools. Obviously, you cant have those things without infrastructure in place, so the governments first responsibility is to get infrastructure up and runningincluding power water, sewage, and public transportation. Often, the government gets so involved in peoples personal houses that it actually slows down the process.

The other thing that can be detrimentalespecially in third-world countriesis when governments try to give out free supplies. When international companies come in and give out free food and tents, that actually warps normal supply and demand economics. I always tell people after disasters to be really cautious about whom youre giving money to and know what theyre doing with your money.

How can the government, NGOs, and members of the private sector work together to coordinate their efforts?

Its inevitable that there will be some missteps in the beginning. Because disasters tug on peoples emotions, people dont act rationally. In the absence of a normal governmental structure thats organizing things, you have a lot of NGOs coming in just doing what they do best. For example, you might have an NGO that builds houses and doesnt care where the city is building schools or fixing roads. So there should be some sort of organizational structure that includes governmental and non-governmental organizations. Sometimes these are consortiums that are created by a third party, and sometimes an organization like The Clinton Foundation or an academic institution will help be a facilitator of coordination. [But] its not going to be quick. Even with [Hurricane] Sandy in New York, people are still waiting for money for their houses to be rebuilt. Its going to be a multi-year process, so coordination is key for long-term rebuilding.

How should devastated communities like Florida and Houston go about constructing new housing? Do zoning or building codes get in the way of this construction?

Luckily for Houston, theyre the one city in the entire country that does not have a zoning code, so this might actually be helpful for their rebuilding efforts. Florida is probably very close behind in terms of its lack of regulation, so that wont be as big of a barrier as it was in New York, for example. In a place like Haitithe absolute extremethey dont even have building codes, let alone zoning. The downside to that is that people are going to build houses that are not hurricane or earthquake resistant.

Usually when these types of storms happen, people really look at the building and zoning codes and reassess whats appropriate. Sometimes it takes a big storm like this, unfortunately, to rethink that. Thats when urban planners and real estate developers come in, because you have to think about what a town looks and feels like. If houses are built ten feet up on stilts, it kind of ruins the sidewalk atmosphere.

How can cities make themselves more prepared for hurricanes in the future?

They have to, in a coordinated effort, think about rebuilding neighborhoods and communities and not just individual houses. The governments role is to think about the bigger picture and how you rebuild a community thats stronger. The government shouldnt just be responsible for building protective infrastructure, which isnt always wise. They should think about building neighborhoods that integrate soft infrastructure that prevents flooding and new zoning codes that prevent houses from being inundated with water.

What happened after Sandy was that the government was hyper-focused on providing money to individuals to rebuild their houses. In the long term, that strategy is not going to help prevent this [devastation] from happening again. But you can only prepare so much. The government cant start making rules that make it financially impossible for people to rebuild, like telling everyone they have to spend four times as much money to rebuild their house. Communities also need to be involved in this process.

What is the financial impact of hurricanes and other natural disasters on the real estate market? Do you expect the demand for coastal homes to decline following the hurricanes?

It's not a black-and-white answer. Generally, if regulations (i.e. building codes, zoning codes, etc.) increase post-storm, then the cost of housing along the coast would go up. In normal situations, this would result in demand going downhowever, waterfront property is unique. People will always want it because there is an aspect to being on the water that no economist can explain. What will more likely happen is that urban planners and governments will need to manage development in high-risk areas and people will have to be innovative and creative about how to live smartly along the coast.

Aria Bendix contributed to this article. She is a writer for the NYUSPS Urban Lab. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, CityLab, Bustle, and The Harvard Crimson, among other publications.