Personal and Institutional Timelines for Hurricane Preparedness, Recovery and Mitigation

Abstract

Institutional and personal timelines are constantly placed in tension by hurricanes, from decisions regarding preparedness and evacuation, to recovery and hazard mitigation decisions. Government timelines for evacuation, for example, must allow sufficient time for the large scale movement of a population; but, individually, evacuation timelines are impacted by a myriad of personal decisions including caregiving concerns and employment concerns, both of which tend to push the decision making window further out. Another example is in recovery, where institutional timelines for recovery assistance, spread out across several agencies and timescales, do not readily align with personal and family decision-making timelines in which returning to a sense of normalcy is prioritized highest. These varying timelines result in complications with the marrying of various sources of assistance and lead to both unnecessary confusion and also missed opportunities to maximize recovery assistance. In hazard mitigation, the fact that the majority of funds are available after damages have occurred already creates an inverted timeline in which preventative actions are taken after the fact, but the delays inherent to the management of the programs also create extensive delays to family recovery timelines.