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1. Prolonged Unplanned School Closures Caused by Hurricanes

   https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-6egd-6q32  

   Abbasi, Diako; Safari, Safoura; Nateghi, Roshanak; Reilly, Allison (June 2025, Designsafe-CI)

   Dataset and code for the following paper: Abbasi, D., Safari, S., Nateghi, R., & Reilly, A. C. (2025). Learning after the Storm: Characterizing and Understanding Prolonged Unplanned School Closures after Hurricanes. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 105611. Schools are vital for providing both education and social services, but when closures extend for long periods due to disasters, they can disrupt student learning and cause widespread negative consequences for families and the broader community. This dataset compiles information on Prolonged Unplanned School Closures (PUSCs)—those lasting seven or more unexpected days—linked to hurricanes from the 2011/12 to 2018/19 school years across East and Gulf Coast school districts. It includes data on districts that closed, as well as counterfactuals where closures were avoided or brief. Supplementary district-level data cover socioeconomic factors, geography, school district capacity, and hazard characteristics, along with code used for analysis. This dataset (CSV and XLSX) and code underpin the study “Learning after the Storm: Characterizing and Understanding Prolonged Unplanned School Closures After Hurricanes.” 

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2. The economic impact of school closures during the 2015 flood in Richland County, South Carolina

   https://doi.org/10.1002/rhc3.12242  

   Gall, Melanie; Sheldon, Tamara L.; Collins, Larianne (January 2022, Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy)

   Research on the societal costs of disaster-related US school closures has focused, and due to COVID-19 will likely continue to focus, on pandemics, with very limited research on closures from natural hazards. This is surprising given that school closures occur frequently to protect children, teachers, and staff pre-event as well as post-disaster to convert facilities into emergency shelters, etc. This study investigates the secondary effects from post-flooding, temporary school closures after the catastrophic 2015 flash flood in Richland County, South Carolina. Lost productivity from school closures was quantified using the Human Capital Method. Out of the 208 completed surveys, 75% of households had children that missed school. Post-stratifying survey results on race produced an average of $437 in lost productivity due to school closures and an overall $2175 in lost productivity due to flood-related impacts in general. Expressed in FEMA benefit-cost analysis terms, our study shows that schools have a standard value of $215 per household and per day for the unweighted sample ($180 for the race-weighted sample). Furthermore, households' disutility for a late start is almost as great as their disutility for a school closure. These exploratory findings suggest that unplanned school closures should be minimized, and community characteristics carefully considered to avoid unintended socioeconomic consequences. 

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3. Statistical and Spatial Analysis of Hurricane-induced Roadway Closures and Power Outages

   https://doi.org/10.3390/en13051098  

   Ghorbanzadeh, Mahyar; Koloushani, Mohammadreza; Ulak, Mehmet Baran; Ozguven, Eren Erman; Jouneghani, Reza Arghandeh (March 2020, Energies)

   Hurricanes lead to substantial infrastructure system damages, such as roadway closures and power outages, in the US annually, especially in states like Florida. As such, this paper aimed to assess the impacts of Hurricane Hermine (2016) and Hurricane Michael (2018) on the City of Tallahassee, the capital of Florida, via exploratory spatial and statistical analyses on power outages and roadway closures. First, a geographical information systems (GIS)-based spatial analysis was conducted to explore the power outages and roadway closure patterns in the city including kernel density estimation (KDE) and density ratio difference (DRD) methods. In order to provide a more detailed assessment on which population segments were more affected, a second step included a statistical analysis to identify the relationships between demographic- and socioeconomic-related variables and the magnitude of power outages and roadway closures caused by these hurricanes. The results indicate that the high-risk locations for roadway closures showed different patterns, whereas power outages seemed to have similar spatial patterns for the hurricanes. The findings of this study can provide useful insights and information for city officials to identify the most vulnerable regions which are under the risk of disruption. This can lead to better infrastructure plans and policies. 

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4. Impacts of Hurricanes Irma and Maria on coral reef sponges in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00694-4  

   Gochfeld, D. J.; Olson, J. B.; Chaves-Fonnegra, A.; Smith, T. B.; Ennis, R. S.; Brandt, M. E. (January 2020, Estuaries and coasts)

   null (Ed.)

   Many studies have evaluated the impacts of hurricanes on coral communities, but far less is known about impacts, recovery, and resilience of sponge communities to these extreme events. In September 2017, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, was impacted by two Category 5 hurricanes within 2 weeks: Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Such extreme events occurring in such rapid succession are virtually unprecedented. Pre-hurricane (2015, 2016) surveys of permanent transects at six sites around St. Thomas were compared with those at 10 weeks post-hurricanes (December 2017) to evaluate storm impacts on sponges and on benthic coral reef constituents. These surveys also established a baseline for evaluating future recovery. Percent cover of sponges declined by 24.9% post-hurricanes. In contrast, sponge density increased by 43.9% from 2015 to 2016 and declined slightly after the hurricanes. Overall sponge volume did not vary over time, and whereas sponge diversity was similar in 2015 and 2016, it increased post-hurricanes. Sponge morphologies were differentially affected by the hurricanes; the proportion of upright sponges declined by 36.9%, while there was a 24.4% increase in encrusting sponges. Coral and macroalgal cover did not change significantly over the sampling period, while percent cover of epilithic algae increased and non-living substrata decreased from 2015 to 2016 but did not change further post-hurricanes. At all sites, recruitment and/or regrowth of sponges was observed within 10 weeks post-hurricanes, indicating potential resilience in Caribbean sponge communities. Whether these sponge communities return to pre-hurricane conditions and how long that will take remains to be seen. 

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5. Assessment of Hurricane Irma Impacts on South Florida Seagrass Communities Using Long-Term Monitoring Programs

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-019-00623-0  

   Wilson, Sara S.; Furman, Bradley T.; Hall, Margaret O.; Fourqurean, James W. (January 2019, Estuaries and Coasts)

   Hurricanes are some of the largest environmental drivers of change in coastal systems. We investigated the impacts of Hurricane Irma on benthic macrophyte communities in Florida Bay (FB) and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS), USA. Spatiotemporal analyses were performed at multiple hierarchical levels (site, zone, region) to identify potential changes in the Braun-Blanquet (BB) densities of total seagrass (TSG) and total calcareous green macroalgae (TCAL) post-disturbance and to determine whether changes were attributable to hurricane impacts or normal seasonal and inter-annual variability. There were significant decreases in TSG in one of five zones in FKNMS and in one of six zones in FB, but no change in TCAL was recorded in either system. TSG in the Lower Keys Bayside declined from a mean BB score of 2.6 to 1.2, resulting from storm-induced erosion, whereas TSG in coastal FB declined from 1.05–2.4 to 0.36–2.0, likely due to prolonged hyposalinity and low dissolved oxygen following stormwater drainage. Overall, impacts to South Florida benthic macrophyte communities from Hurricane Irma were not catastrophic and were limited in spatial extent. Our results suggest that coastal areas hit by a storm with heavy winds are more likely to sustain direct physical impacts to the benthos, whereas estuarine areas with longer residence times are more at risk of the indirect effects of stormwater runoff and retention. Our analyses placed putative hurricane impacts within the context of recent variability and historical system baselines through the use of long-term monitoring data coordinated by multiple governmental and academic entities. 

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