This qualitative research project will be conducted among Hurricane Harvey repeat and first-time evacuees who are relocated in the Houston area. The goal is to capture people's early reactions, feelings, observations, and household negotiations as they plan how to move forward. The researchers particularly want to understand how past experiences with floods and hurricanes affect current planning and decision-making. The researchers anticipate that Houstonian household responses to their third flood in three years is changed by that previous experience of flooding and by memories of past hurricanes, including Ike (2008), Rita (2005), and Tropical Storm Allison (2001). Harvey was not just a catastrophic event, it was the cap on a cumulative 17 year series of flood and hurricane incidents. The researchers are particularly interested in the question of whether flood-fatigued households will have less conflict over decisions to stay or leave than do households without prior flood experience. Findings from this research will be used to develop appropriate primary and secondary interventions to improve the provision of relief and support services in future disasters. Findings also will help improve understanding of how people adjust their assessments over time, which will enable policy makers to create appropriate interventions to help households deal with repeat disasters.
Data collection for this study will consist of digitally-recorded face-to-face in-depth audio interviews, field notes, and archival sources (newspaper reports, internet sites dedicated to Hurricane Harvey evacuees, government and NGO reports). A stratified sample of 80 men and women from 40 households that represent with different backgrounds and circumstances will be recruited to participate in this study. Half of the sample will be from a neighborhood that has not been flooded in recent memory, and half of the sample will from a separate neighborhood that that has been flooded many times. Ten key informant stakeholders, affiliated with Houston government agencies, non-profit groups, and religious organizations, will also be interviewed. The audio-taped interviews will be transcribed and the digital files, along with the field notes and relevant archival documents, will be coded for themes and emergent ideas that will be followed up on in later interviews. The expected outcomes of this research project are: 1) insights into the types of interventions and policies that will help post-disaster households remain viable; and, 2) improved social science theory about factors that produce effective household risk assessment, coping, and survival strategies after repeated and cumulative disaster experiences.
