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Hurricane Harvey and Greater Houston households: comparing pre‐event preparedness with post‐event health effects, event exposures, and recovery
Author(s) -
Grineski Sara E.,
Flores Aaron B.,
Collins Timothy W.,
Chakraborty Jayajit
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/disa.12368
Subject(s) - preparedness , hazard , flood myth , environmental health , event (particle physics) , emergency management , occupational safety and health , poison control , suicide prevention , medicine , medical emergency , geography , political science , chemistry , physics , organic chemistry , archaeology , pathology , quantum mechanics , law
Most disaster studies rely on convenience sampling and ‘after‐only’ designs to assess impacts. This paper, focusing on Hurricane Harvey (2017) and leveraging a pre‐/post‐event sample of Greater Houston households (n=71) in the United States, establishes baselines for disaster preparedness and home structure flood hazard mitigation, explores household‐level ramifications, and examines how preparedness and mitigation relate to health effects, event exposures, and recovery. Between 70 and 80 per cent of participants instituted preparedness measures. Mitigation actions varied: six per cent had interior drainage systems and 83 per cent had elevated indoor heating/cooling components. Sixty per cent reported home damage. One‐half highlighted allergies and two‐thirds indicated some level of post‐traumatic stress (PTS). Three‐quarters worried about family members/friends. The results of generalised linear models revealed that greater pre‐ event mitigation was associated with fewer physical health problems and adverse experiences, lower PTS, and faster recovery. The study design exposed the broad benefits of home structure flood hazard mitigation for households after Harvey.