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1. Analyzing Social Media Data to Understand How Disaster-Affected Individuals Adapt to Disaster-Related Telecommunications Disruptions

   Van Wyk, Hannah; Starbird, Kate (May 2020, CoRe Paper – Social Media for Disaster Response and Resilience Proceedings of the 17th ISCRAM Conference)

   McNeill, Fiona; Zobel, Christopher (Ed.)

   Information is a critical need during disasters such as hurricanes. Increasingly, people are relying upon cellular and internet-based technology to communicate that information—modalities that are acutely vulnerable to the disruptions to telecommunication infrastructure that are common during disasters. Focusing on Hurricane Maria (2017) and its long-term impacts on Puerto Rico, this research examines how people affected by severe and sustained disruptions to telecommunications services adapt to those disruptions. Leveraging social media trace data as a window into the real-time activities of people who were actively adapting, we use a primarily qualitative approach to identify and characterize how people changed their telecommunications practices and routines—and especially how they changed their locations—to access Wi-Fi and cellular service in the weeks and months after the hurricane. These findings have implications for researchers seeking to better understand human responses to disasters and responders seeking to identify strategies to support affected populations. 

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2. Analyzing Social Media Data to Understand How Disaster-Affected Individuals Adapt to Disaster-Related Telecommunications Disruptions.

   Van Wyk, Hannah; Starbird, Kate (January 2020, International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM 2020))

   Hughes, Amanda; McNeill, Fiona; Zobel, Christopher W. (Ed.)

   Information is a critical need during disasters such as hurricanes. Increasingly, people are relying upon cellular and internet-based technology to communicate that information--modalities that are acutely vulnerable to the disruptions to telecommunication infrastructure that are common during disasters. Focusing on Hurricane Maria (2017) and its long-term impacts on Puerto Rico, this research examines how people affected by severe and sustained disruptions to telecommunications services adapt to those disruptions. Leveraging social media trace data as a window into the real-time activities of people who were actively adapting, we use a primarily qualitative approach to identify and characterize how people changed their telecommunications practices and routines--and especially how they changed their locations--to access Wi-Fi and cellular service in the weeks and months after the hurricane. These findings have implications for researchers seeking to better understand human responses to disasters and responders seeking to identify strategies to support affected populations. 

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3. Exposure Outliers: Children, Mothers, and Cumulative Disaster Exposure in Louisiana

   Mohammad, Lubna; Peek, Peek (August 2019, Journal of family strengths)

   Only a limited number of studies have explored the effects of cumulative disaster exposure—defined here as multiple, acute onset, large-scale collective events that cause disruption for individuals, families, and entire communities. Research that is available indicates that children and adults who experience these potentially traumatic community-level events are at greater risk of a variety of negative health outcomes and ongoing secondary stressors throughout their life course. The present study draws on in-depth interviews with a qualitative subsample of nine mother-child pairs who were identified as both statistical and theoretical outliers in terms of their levels of disaster exposure through their participation in a larger, longitudinal Women and Their Children’s Health (WaTCH) project that was conducted following the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. During Wave 2 of the WaTCH study, mothers and their children were asked survey questions about previous exposure to and the impacts of the oil spill, hurricanes, and other disasters. This article presents the qualitative interview data collected from the subsample of children and mothers who both endorsed that they had experienced three or more disasters that had a major impact on the child and the household. We refer to these children as exposure outliers. The in-depth narratives of the four mother-child pairs who told stories of multiple pre-disaster stressors emerging from structural inequalities and health and financial problems, protracted and unstable displacements, and high levels of material and social losses illustrate how problems can pile up to slow or completely hinder individual and family disaster recovery. These four mother-child pairs were especially likely to have experienced devastating losses in Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which then led to an accumulation of disadvantage and ongoing cycles of loss and disruption. The stories of the remaining five mother-child pairs underscore how pre-disaster resources, post-disaster support, and institutional stabilizing forces can accelerate recovery even after multiple disaster exposures. This study offers insights about how families can begin to prepare for a future that is likely to be increasingly punctuated by more frequent and intense extreme weather events and other types of disaster. 

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4. Rebuilding Without Papers: Disaster Migration and the Local Reception of Immigrants After Hurricane Katrina

   https://doi.org/10.1177/23294965221125646  

   Brown, Hana E.; Wei, Zhongze; Lazaran, Michelle; Cates, Christopher; Jones, Jennifer A. (January 2022, Social Currents)

   After Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast in 2005, thousands of Latinx immigrants arrived in the region to work in reconstruction, one case of the growing and global phenomenon of disaster migration. Drawing on newspaper content analysis, in-depth interviews with immigrant service providers, and archival materials from Mississippi for the years surrounding Hurricane Katrina (2003-2009), we ask what reception these disaster migrants encountered upon arrival and how that reception changed as they settled permanently in the state. We find that public discourse about immigrants became markedly more positive when disaster migrants arrived en masse, with the media and public characterizing immigrants as valuable, hard workers. Negative characterizations shifted to portray immigrants as drains on public resources. However, these changes were temporary. By 2009, public debate about immigrants reverted to pre-disaster trends with only one exception. Across our study period, we find a steady rise in claims that immigrants faced racism and discrimination. Our findings suggest that disasters may briefly transform the social and cultural bases of material inequalities but are unlikely to produce lasting change. 

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5. Movements of Juvenile Bull Sharks in Response to a Major Hurricane Within a Tropical Estuarine Nursery Area

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-019-00600-7  

   Strickland, Bradley A.; Massie, Jordan A.; Viadero, Natasha; Santos, Rolando; Gastrich, Kirk R.; Paz, Valeria; O’Donnell, Patrick; Kroetz, Andrea M.; Ho, David T.; Rehage, Jennifer S.; et al (January 2019, Estuaries and Coasts)

   Predicting the responses of animals to environmental changes is a fundamental goal of ecology and is necessary for conservation and management of species. While most studies focus on relatively gradual changes, extreme events may have lasting impacts on populations. Animals respond to major disturbances such as hurricanes by seeking shelter, migrating, or they may fail to respond appropriately. We assessed the effects of Hurricane Irma in 2017 on the behavior and survival of juvenile bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) within a nursery of the Florida coastal Everglades using long-term acoustic telemetry monitoring. Most of our tagged sharks (n = 14) attempted to leave the shallow waters of the Shark River Estuary before the hurricane strike, but individuals varied in the timing and success of their movements. Eight bull sharks left within hours or days before the hurricane, but three left more than a week in advance. Nine of 11 bull sharks (~ 82%) eventually returned to the array within weeks or months of the storm. Six of these returning individuals were detected in a different coastal array in nearshore waters ca. 80 km away from the mouth of the estuary during their absence. The remaining three bull sharks moved downstream relatively late (after the hurricane) and may have died. We used binomial generalized linear mixed models to estimate the probability of presence within the array as a function of several environmental variables. Departure from the array was predicted by declining barometric pressure, increasing rate of change in pressure, and potentially fluctuations in river stage. Juvenile bull sharks may weigh multiple environmental cues, perceived predation risk, their own physical size, and shifting prey resources when making decisions during and after hurricanes. 

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