Wildfire impacts on education and healthcare: Paradise, California, after the Camp Fire.

The 2018 Camp Fire caused significant damages to the education and healthcare systems in the town of Paradise, CA. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative case study about disaster impacts and disparities, interdependencies, and recovery strategies of schools and hospitals in Paradise. Four major themes of findings emerged from the qualitative analysis of interviews with teachers, counselors, and administrators in Paradise education and healthcare systems and extensive archival research. First, complex and long-standing mental health challenges are the dominant impact on the educational system. Second, educational and healthcare impacts are shaped by social vulnerability. Third, educational and healthcare systems play a critical role for recovery of socially vulnerable groups due to the interconnectedness of community components. Fourth, adapting to new communication norms and technologies is effective for supporting educational and community recovery. Several specific recommendations are provided based on the findings for building back more resilient and equitable education and healthcare services.

Socioeconomic Vulnerabilities and Housing Reconstruction in Puerto Rico After Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

Hurricanes Irma and Maria caused widespread destruction in Puerto Rico in 2017. In the absence of government recovery support and denial of assistance based on ownership, many households have engaged in a process of informal reconstruction. While informal reconstruction can provide an alternate path to recovery, its uncontrolled and unchecked nature carries inherent safety risks and ambiguous legal status. Due to the inherent uncertainties in informal housing and its known consequences, it is important to identify households that may be more likely to engage in informal reconstruction, to promote and support safe building practices and access to resources. This is especially important in a context where informality is often seen as 'inevitable.' Socioeconomic vulnerability is a useful framework to understand these trends as vulnerability can restrict a household's ability to engage with the formal construction sector, encouraging those households to pursue other methods of recovery. This study aims to understand the individual and compounding effects of socioeconomic vulnerabilities on household use of informal reconstruction. Data collection includes household surveys (N = 305) in the municipalities of Loíza and Yabucoa in Puerto Rico. Results suggest that socioeconomic vulnerabilities work in a compounding manner affecting household decisions to use informal reconstruction; specifically, a compounding effect exists in the combination of the absence of ownership documents and unemployment. Results from this study can inform housing recovery programs to identify households that are more likely to engage in informal housing reconstruction and ensure they receive the right support and resources to promote safe recovery.

Postdisaster Housing Stages: A Markov Chain Approach to Model Sequences and Duration Based on Social Vulnerability.

Housing recovery is an unequal and complex process presumed to occur in four stages: emergency shelter, temporary shelter, temporary housing, and permanent housing. This work questions the four-stage typology and examines how different types of shelter align with multiple housing recovery stages given different levels of social vulnerability. This article also presents a Markov chain model of the postdisaster housing recovery process that focuses on the experience of the household. The model predicts the sequence and timing of a household going through housing recovery, capturing households that end in either permanent housing or a fifth possible stage of failure. The probability of a household transitioning through the stages is computed using a transition probability matrix (TPM). The TPM is assembled using proposed transition probability models that vary with the social vulnerability of the household. Monte Carlo techniques are applied to demonstrate the range of sequences and timing that households experience going through the housing recovery process. A set of computational rules are established for sending a household to the fifth stage, representing a household languishing in unstable housing. This predictive model is exemplified on a virtual community, Centerville, where following a severe earthquake scenario, differences in housing recovery times exceed four years. The Centerville analysis results in nearly 5% of households languishing in unstable housing, thereby failing to reach housing recovery. These findings highlight the disparate trajectories experienced by households with different levels of social vulnerability. Recommendations are provided at the end for more equitable postdisaster recovery policies.