*** 9632779 Tierney This two-year project addresses three related questions: (1) What longer-term consequences do disasters have for individual businesses?, (2) What factors are associated with differential disaster outcomes for businesses?, and (3) What consequences does heavy and concentrated damage to business and commercial districts have for business activity in those high-damaged areas? The project will focus on two geographic areas that suffered severe damage and disruption in two major disasters: Santa Cruz County, California and its communities of Santa Cruz and Watsonville, which were heavily damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake; and Southern Dade County, Florida and its communities of Homestead and Florida City, which sustained major damage in Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Two main tasks will be undertaken: (1) conducting mail surveys on representative, random samples of businesses in each area: and (2) collecting interview data, social indicator data, and archival material documenting what disaster-related changes, if any, have taken place in heavily damaged business districts.***
