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Posts tagged ‘vulnerable populations’

Jan 13

The cost of risk: the post-Sandy realities of flood insurance

The Biggert-Waters bill addresses the problems of the National Flood Insurance Program in the abstract, but it doesn’t address the problems that actually manifested on the ground when the NFIP went into action. Entrenched inequality, the glacial pace of disbursement, the difficulty of navigating the bureaucratic ocean - these problems were enough to sink families after the storm - if they were eligible for flood insurance in the first place. So what is the point of having the NFIP anyway, when so much of it is apparently broken?

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Oct 23

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Tenants: An overlooked vulnerable population in disaster research and recovery

While widespread housing damage from a disaster has happened before in the United States, never has a disaster affected an area so heavily occupied by renters. Almost 70 percent of New Yorkers – double the national average – rent their homes. Yet, they are an often overlooked vulnerable population in disaster response and research. How has this population fared in Sandy’s tumultuous aftermath? And what can we learn from the experiences of renters affected by Hurricane Katrina that can help tenants in New York City recover?

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