Victims of the Environment: Loss from Natural Hazards in the United States, 1970–1980 PDF
Preview Victims of the Environment: Loss from Natural Hazards in the United States, 1970–1980
Victims of the Environment Loss from Natural Hazards in the United States, 1970-1980 Victims of the Environment Loss from Natural Hazards in the United States, 1970-1980 Peter H. Rossi James D. Wright Eleanor Weber-Burdin and Joseph Pereira Social and Demographic Research Institute University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts PLENUM PRESS • NEW YORK AND LONDON Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry under title: Victims of the environment. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Disaster relief-United States-History. 2. Disaster relief-United States-Re search-United States. 3. Natural disasters-Economic aspects-United States. 4. Natural disasters-Social aspects-United States. 5. Social surveys-United States. I. Rossi, Peter Henry, 1921- HV555.U6V52 1983 363.3'48'0973 83-19228 ISBN-13: 978-1-4613-3771-3 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4613-3769-0 DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4613-3769-0 ©1983 Plenum Press, New York Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1983 A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation 233 Spring Street, New York, N.Y. 10013 All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher Preface The research reported in this volume was designed to provide estimates of the extent of damages and injuries from certain natu ral hazards inflicted on households in the United States. In addi tion, it reports on sources of aid proffered to households and the extent to which there are differences among households in the receipt of help. This volume represents the latest installment in a series of monographs stemming from the Social and Demographic Re search Institute's (SADRI) program of research on the effects of natural hazard events in the United States. The first volume in our series (Wright, Rossi, Wright, & Weber-Burdin, 1979) reported on the long-range effects of natural hazards on the population and housing stocks of neighborhoods and communities. The second volume (Rossi et aI., 1982) assessed the support for hazard mitiga tion policies existing among local and state political elites in a sample of states and local communities in the United States. The main findings of these two monographs can be summarized as follows. First, long-range effects (up to 10 years postevent) of nat ural hazard events are minimal: Local communities and neighbor hoods that have been impacted by floods, tornadoes, or hurricanes appear to be no different in their population and housing growth patterns over the period 1960 to 1970 than comparable commu nities that went unscathed. Apparently, household and communi ty resources plus outside aid were sufficient ordinarily to restore impacted areas to normal growth patterns. Second, our study of political elites indicated that few were deeply concerned about the risks of natural events or showed strong support for measures v VI PREFACE such as zoning regulation designed to lower the occupancy of high-risk areas. The issues of natural hazards risks and hazard mitigation measures paled in comparison to issues that involved immediate material interests, such as inflation and unemployment. Indeed, it appeared as if the only local and state elite members that were deeply concerned with hazard mitigation issues were those whose professional roles required that they be concerned with such is sues. Accordingly, Civil Defense and American Red Cross offi cials, for example, were among those most in favor of their states and local communities adopting hazard mitigation policies and those most knowledgeable about alternative policies. The results of these first two studies were discussed in some detail at a conference held in 1980 in Washington, D.C., attended mainly by social scientists concerned with the socioeconomic as pects of natural hazard impacts. The papers given at that con ference along with summaries of the ensuing discussions are pub lished in Wright et al. (1981). One of the conclusions of the conference was that the so cioeconomic effects of hazards were only partially measured at the level of neighborhoods within local communities. An appro priate next step in the documenting of the unsettling effects of natural hazards would be to study their impact on the more fine grained level of households. Because, in the ordinary natural hazard event, few households would be directly affected, the ef fects of such events ordinarily would be swamped and hence could not be detected on the neighborhood or community levels. Accordingly, we designed the research described in this vol ume to reach a large sample of households and to locate those that had directly experienced the impact of floods, tornadoes, hur ricanes, and earthquakes over the ll-year period 1970 through 1980. The research reported in this volume was generously supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant #PFR-7926741. William Anderson of the National Science Foun dation (NSF) staff monitored the grant and provided advice and vii PREFACE encouragement over the two years involved. We were helped by many individuals. Fred Bates of the University of Georgia, Rich ard Berk of the University of California at Santa Barbara, Charles Fritz (formerly of the National Academy of Science/National Re search Council), Ugo Morelli of the Federal Emergency Manage ment Administration, William Petak of the University of Southern California, Roy Popkin of the American National Red Cross, and William Anderson of the NSF formed an advisory committee that provided help in the design of the study and offered helpful crit icisms of the drafts of the instruments used. Gilbert White of the University of Colorado provided a critical review of an early draft of the manuscript. Of course, neither the National Science Foun dation nor the advisory committee should be held responsible for the faults of the study reported or for its implications. Audits and Surveys, Inc., of New York City collected the data reported in this volume under subcontract to the University of Massachusetts. Of course, the instruments used were designed by the SADRI staff, with Audits and Surveys organizing and carrying out the two-stage household survey involved. As usual, we have been blessed with a secretarial staff Jeanne Reinle, Ken Forfia, and Cindy Coffman-whose patience in dealing with the research staff is only exceeded by the skills they bring to the task of making our sprawling drafts into readable documents. Peter H. Rossi James D. Wright Eleanor Weber-Burdin Joseph Pereira Contents Chapter 1 NATURAL HAZARDS VICTIMIZATION: AN OVERVIEW 1 The Incidence of Disaster Experiences ........................ 2 Hazard-Generated Injuries and Damages ........................... 5 Sources of Help .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Recovery and Lingering Effects 9 Conclusion 10 Chapter 2 ESTIMATING HAZARD EVENTS AND CONSEQUENCES THROUGH A VICTIMIZATION SURVEY ............................. . 11 Introduction ...................... . 11 Research Strategy ................. . 14 Research Design ................... . 18 The Hazards Studied .............. . 21 Plan of the Monograph 22 Chapter 3 THE VICTIMIZATION SURVEY: DATA COLLECTION AND SURVEY IMPLEMENTATION 23 ix X CONTENTS The Screener Telephone Interview 24 The Mail Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 The Event Sample .................. 34 Analysis of Nonresponse ............ 38 Sample Characteristics .............. 42 Summary .......................... 44 Chapter 4 THE INCIDENCE OF HAZARD EXPERIENCES 47 Introduction ...................... . 47 The Base Period and Its Representativeness ................ . 49 Hazard Experiences ............... . 50 Hazard Victimization Experiences 52 Comparisons with Other Estimates 58 Year-by-Year Hazard Victimization Rates, 1970 through 1980 .......... . 60 Multiple Natural-Hazard Victimization- Events ............................ . 61 Calibrating Natural Hazard Incidence ......................... . 65 The Spatial and Social Distribution of Natural Disaster Events ............ . 69 Comparison with Other Noxious Events ............................ . 82 Summary 86 Chapter 5 DEATHS, INJURIES, DAMAGES, AND TOTAL COSTS ............................... . 89 Introduction 89 Estimating "Total Dollar Costs" 91 Defining Serious Hazard Events 93 Injuries and Their Monetary Costs 95 xi CONTENTS Injury Rates by Selected Household Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 "Total Dollar Costs" Resulting from Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 National Estimates of Total Dollar Costs 110 Damage to Property and Personal Possessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 The Distribution of Dollar Costs by Household Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . 121 Summary 127 Chapter 6 PATTERNS OF AID TO HAZARD VICTIMS 129 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 A Technical Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Insurance Coverage and Claims ...... 130 Other Financial Aid Received .. . . . . . 140 Equity in Financial Help ............ 151 Informal Sources of Help . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Help from All Sources .............. 168 Hazard Aftermaths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Summary 181 References 183 Appendix A ESTIMATES OF VICTIMIZATION AND LOSSES BASED ON PRE-1980 DATA 185 Hazard Victimization by Agent: Existing Estimates (as of 1979) 186 xii CONTENTS Appendix B QUESTIONNAIRES USED IN THE NATIONAL TELEPHONE SURVEY AND THE MAILED SURVEY OF HAZARD VICTIMS 201 Index 231
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