Readying for Recovery: Strategies to Support Pre-Disaster Recovery Planning

TIDALBASINGROUP.COM 3 more comprehensive, community-based planning for recovery. Regardless of the hazard, communities from coast to coast have highlighted challenges with recovery operations that could have been alleviated with pre-disaster recovery planning. Hurricane Harvey Hurricane Harvey’s widespread devastation stretched the limits of the local, state and federal response mechanisms. This hurricane also highlighted the complex nature of recovery and the need for formal plans to support comprehensive recovery operations. The Harris County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management’s Hurricane Harvey After-Action Report identified multiple challenges in the transition from response to recovery, as well as the coordination required for comprehensive recovery efforts. The report observed that the transition from response to recovery was challenging and that the County lacked a formal way to transition into short- and long- term recovery. Highlighting the need for future improvement, the report asserted that recovery plans need to be more formalized and communicated, and that additional positions within the EOC (Emergency Operations Center) are needed to support recovery efforts. 5 “… communities from coast to coast have highlighted challenges with recovery operations that could have been alleviated with pre-disaster recovery planning.” In Eye of The Storm: Report of the Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas, another common challenge to recovery was highlighted: the fragmented way in which federal funding is distributed, including the multitude of agencies and departments with recovery missions. Like others before it, the report highlights challenges and inefficiencies in the recovery process. According to the report, this challenge was amplified in the implementation of disaster case management. Delays in grant award and two separate entities applying for case management grants to support statewide case management slowed the process. It took over nine months for the disaster case management program in Texas to begin operations. The report highlights the need for further pre-disaster coordination on these efforts. Another common challenge — contracting —was highlighted as well. The report states that the lack of pre- event contracting significantly delayed temporary housing missions for Texans. The Texas General Land Office (GLO) published Hurricane Harvey: Texas at Risk, a report to collect lessons learned from the GLO’s response to Hurricane Harvey, with a special focus on their primary mission of housing. That report highlighted