Open AccessAddressing Community Needs During the Hurricane Response and Recovery Efforts Through Community Assessments for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER)—United States Virgin Islands, 2017-2018
Author(s) -
Amy Schnall,
Joseph Roth,
Brett R. Ellis,
Krystal R. Seger,
Michelle Davis,
Esther M. Ellis
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
disaster medicine and public health preparedness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.492
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1938-744X
pISSN - 1935-7893
DOI - 10.1017/dmp.2019.6
Subject(s) - public health , preparedness , emergency management , medical emergency , emergency response , suicide prevention , needs assessment , environmental health , mental health , disaster recovery , medicine , occupational safety and health , poison control , nursing , political science , psychiatry , pathology , law
Two category 5 storms hit the US Virgin Islands (USVI) within 13 days of each other in September 2017. This caused an almost complete loss of power and devastated critical infrastructure such as the hospitals and airports METHODS: The USVI Department of Health conducted 2 response Community Assessments for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPERs) in November 2017 and a recovery CASPER in February 2018. CASPER is a 2-stage cluster sampling method designed to provide household-based information about a community's needs in a timely, inexpensive, and representative manner.