Abstract
Hurricanes Fran and Floyd, the two most costly disasters in the history of the state of North Carolina (USA), struck within a three year time span. This provides a unique opportunity to assess the degree to which lessons were transferred from one extreme event to another in terms of the state-level approaches taken to address recovery needs at the local level, including the proactive adoption of supportive state policies advancing hazard mitigation and sustainable development measures in anticipation of the next disaster. The lessons uncovered in a review of these two events include three important themes that are relevant to climate change adaptation: (1) large-scale disasters in the U.S. trigger considerable amounts of post-disaster assistance and attention; (2) the manner in which the “window of opportunity” to garner and effectively coordinate the distribution and use of these resources through changes in policies, plans, public perceptions and programmes varies significantly over time; and (3) the transfer of lessons from one event to another, including the institutionalisation of policies and the hiring of personnel needed to sustain the implementation of these policies requires a significant commitment of political, financial, technical and administrative resources and is difficult to achieve in practice.
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Notes
- 1.
The media and government officials widely reported that Hurricane Floyd’s rainfall produced a “500-year” flood. The United States Geological Survey later revised these estimates based on a more careful review of what were outdated and inaccurate Flood Insurance Rate Maps (Barnes, 2001, pp. 230–231).
- 2.
The all-time record for rainfall from a single tropical system in the U.S. is Tropical Storm Claudette, which dropped 42 in. of rain on Alvin, Texas in 1979 (Hearn 2004, p. 72).
- 3.
Stanley Riggs refers to more recent development patterns in eastern North Carolina as “contoured urban sprawl.” While many of the initial settlements were built on higher ground, more recent growth has occurred in lower-lying areas as development pressure increased. The growth pattern in eastern North Carolina is similar in some ways to that found in New Orleans, Louisiana (USA) as the city core was initially platted on ridges of higher elevation and future development occurred in increasingly vulnerable, low-lying areas (Colten 2005). This development, coupled with the widespread destruction of protective wetlands and Cypress forests and the overreliance on poorly constructed levee systems presaged the Hurricane Katrina disaster in this major U.S. city, which is discussed in Chap. 15.
- 4.
During and in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Floyd, over 1,500 people were rescued (Barnes 2001, p. 260).
- 5.
The 1990’s was an active period for hurricanes in North Carolina as Emily (1993); Bertha and Fran (1996); Bonnie (1998); and Dennis, Floyd and Irene (1999) struck the state (Barnes 2001).
- 6.
In the 1950’s, the role of the federal government in emergency management was ill-defined, as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) did not exist (it was established in 1979) and the State of North Carolina (nor the rest of the country for that matter) did not have in place hazard mitigation programs like those that existed when Fran hit.
- 7.
The 18 ft storm surge was worsened by the fact that it struck on a full moon in October during the highest lunar tide of the year, raising the flood elevation by several feet (Barnes, 2001, pp. 83–84). This reality provides some parallels with climate change-induced impacts as hurricanes of greater intensity are likely to strike areas that are also prone to rising sea levels.
- 8.
Eric Tolbert, originally an emergency manager from North Carolina, was hired by the State of Florida following Hurricane Andrew (a category 5 storm which struck the state in 1992) to assist them deal with the recovery process and establish an enhanced response capability. After Hurricane Fran, the State of North Carolina hired him to serve as the Director of the Division of Emergency Management.
- 9.
Homes acquired using HMGP funds are either purchased and demolished or physically relocated to an area located outside the floodplain. In both cases, the purchased land on which the structure was located is converted to open space and maintained as such in perpetuity.
- 10.
Of the 45,000 homes flooded during Hurricane Floyd, approximately 80 % did not maintain flood insurance (North Carolina Division of Emergency Management 2000, p. 21).
- 11.
The Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, which was passed by Congress, in part due to long-standing issues (e.g., the need to initiate more proactive hazard mitigation measures through planning and pre-event grants) that were further highlighted by Hurricane Floyd, represents an important shift in federal hazard mitigation policy. Specific changes included the provision of pre-event hazard mitigation funds to states and communities to implement a range of risk reduction projects and the development of hazard mitigation plans. Elements of the HMPI and the State of Florida’s Local Mitigation Strategy influenced the makeup of the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000’s enabling rules, including the stipulation that local hazard mitigation plans are required to be developed and adopted by their governing body in order to remain eligible for pre- and post-disaster hazard mitigation assistance.
- 12.
In 1988, the U.S. Congress passed the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to improve the delivery of federal disaster assistance through the consolidation of existing programmes and the creation of several new recovery and hazard mitigation programmes. Key programmes administered under the Stafford Act include Public Assistance, Individual Assistance and the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. The Public Assistance programme funds activities such as the personnel costs associated with state and local response and recovery efforts, the clean-up of disaster-generated debris and the repair and reconstruction of damaged public infrastructure. The Individual Assistance programme pays for the temporary repair of minor damages to housing.
- 13.
While the proceeds from the purchase of rental housing stock was paid to landlords, tenants were provided relocation assistance equivalent to no more than nine month’s rent.
- 14.
In North Carolina, industrial hog farms pump animal wastes into large pits, commonly referred to as “lagoons.” During heavy rains the lagoons can overflow their banks or be overtopped by adjacent rivers and streams. As a result, large amounts of untreated animal waste can flow into nearby water bodies, as was the case following Hurricane Floyd.
- 15.
By 2013, more than 8,000 flood-prone homes located in riverine floodplains have been acquired through a series of pre- and post-disaster hazard mitigation grant programs in North Carolina (State Hazard Mitigation Advisory Group meeting, 2013).
- 16.
Many of the homes located on barrier islands and along the coastal sounds are vacation rental properties which serve as a money making venture for investors. In other cases, property owners desire to live on the coast due to the quality of life or they work in water-dependent jobs like tourism and the seafood or recreational fishing industry. Hurricane Irene, which struck North Carolina in 2011, significantly impacted a number of small sound-side communities, many of which included high levels of low income residents living in low lying areas that are extremely vulnerable to rising sea levels.
- 17.
Relocation has become an increasingly appropriate strategy when compared to elevation given the inherently dynamic coastal environment and associated factors such as coastal storm surge, erosion, subsidence and threats tied to rising sea levels and more intense storms. On the other hand, questions can be raised about the potential feasibility of this approach given a reluctance to sell ocean-front property and the merits of using federal and state funds to pay for the relocation of development that has been placed in such precarious locations.
- 18.
Resettlement is already occurring in some island nations due to sea-level rise. The lessons derived from these examples may be instructive as communities in the U.S. begin to examine similar scenarios.
- 19.
One of the most significant challenges associated with the large-scale, voluntary relocation of flood-prone housing involves the ability to garner the participation of entire neighborhoods or clusters of contiguous properties thereby avoiding what is often referred to as “checkerboarding” where some properties are acquired while other property owners choose to remain in the area. The purchase of larger land areas allow for the removal of supporting infrastructure like roads, water and sewer and eliminates the need to maintain other public services in the area like street maintenance, police protection and the rescue of people trapped in their homes following future floods.
- 20.
This is particularly true on barrier islands in North Carolina where older, generally smaller beach cottages are being replaced by much larger vacation rental properties. Additional development trends include the increased construction of mid-rise condominiums and hotels, which once sited, limits hazard mitigation or adaptation alternatives to abandonment and demolition (which is unlikely given the up-front investment), armoring the shoreline or the regular renourishment of beaches. The latter strategies are expensive, tend to encourage greater investments in these areas, and offer a temporary fix to a problem that is getting worse over time.
- 21.
Linking the receipt of state-level disaster assistance to the development of more stringent local land use policies represents one way to achieve this objective.
- 22.
Hurricane Ike (2008), which struck the Galveston Bay region of Texas (USA), devastated Bolivar Peninsula and the homes located in the area. Following the storm, Galveston County applied for HMGP funds to purchase over 650 homes located on what is essentially a low-lying barrier island. Once complete, this will be one of the largest single acquisition projects in the history of the program (Aulds 2011). The identification of willing sellers contrasts dramatically with the North Carolina experience and merits further analysis to determine the factors that led to such high levels of participation.
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Smith, G. (2014). Applying Hurricane Recovery Lessons in the United States to Climate Change Adaptation: Hurricanes Fran and Floyd in North Carolina, USA. In: Glavovic, B., Smith, G. (eds) Adapting to Climate Change. Environmental Hazards. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8631-7_9
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