Title: Katrina revisited: recovery strategies - redevelopment vs. relocation

Authors: Mark Smith

Addresses: Department of Management, University of Louisiana, Box 3570, Lafayette, Louisiana 70504, USA

Abstract: This paper assesses the policy choice to redevelop all the neighbourhoods of New Orleans Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. This choice was a political choice made against the recommendations of some of the city's development consultants. The research at the time on recovery from major disasters showed the difficulties of cities, like New Orleans, that were losing population before the event, were poor, had large minority populations, experienced long term utility disruption, and had residents relocated to distant locations. A multiple regression analysis that compares 2000 and 2010 census data on race, poverty, and flooding supports the significance of these variables in explaining the dramatic population losses in many New Orleans neighbourhoods. A discussion of the conflict between aspects of resident participation and recovery research concludes the paper.

Keywords: disaster recovery; recovery strategies; policy choice; political choice; neighbourhood redevelopment; relocation; New Orleans; Hurricane Katrina; population loss; race; minorities; poverty; renting; flooding; resident participation; community involvement; census data; recovery policy; natural disasters.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEM.2014.061664

International Journal of Emergency Management, 2014 Vol.10 No.1, pp.91 - 102

Received: 20 Mar 2013
Accepted: 12 Mar 2014
Published online: 03 Mar 2015 *

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