Hurricane Harvey's Aftermath

Heartbreaking stories from survivors along the Texas Gulf CoastHurricane Harvey was one of the worst American natural disasters in recorded history. It ravaged the Texas Gulf Coast, and left thousands of people homeless in its wake. In Hurricane Harvey’s Aftermath, Kevin M. Fitzpatrick and Matthew L. Spialek offer first-hand accounts from survivors themselves, providing a rare, on-the-ground perspective of natural disaster recovery. Drawing on interviews from more than 350 survivors, the authors trace the experiences of individuals and their communities, both rich and poor, urban and rural, white, Latinx, and Black, and how they navigated the long and difficult road to recovery after Hurricane Harvey. From Corpus Christi to Galveston, they paint a vivid, compelling picture of heartache and destruction, as well as resilience and recovery, as survivors slowly begin rebuilding their lives and their communities. An emotionally provocative read, Hurricane Harvey’s Aftermath provides insight into how ordinary people experience and persevere through a disaster in an age of environmental vulnerability.

Fitzpatrick and Spialek have illuminated how social ties, location, and race have influenced every aspect of the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Harvey. Based on more than 300 interviews, extensive fieldwork, and a reflexive stance, their penetrating and sympathetic book is an essential read for students, scholars, and disaster managers who want to know about the daily realities of recovery., Fitzpatrick and Spialek unpack the intersecting and overlapping dimensions of spatial and social disparities and how they are magnified when natural disasters strike. They tell more than the individual stories of heartache, destruction, recovery, resiliency, and hope that unfold in the aftermath of disaster. They tell these stories from the perspectives of place and in so doing provide a framework for understanding how space, place and identity shape the collective and individual experiences of disaster., Armed with an excellently synthesized set of surveys and interviews from residents on the Texas Gulf Coast after Hurricane Harvey, Fitzpatrick and Spialek delve deep into how place and race intersect to contribute to unequal post-disaster trajectories. They skillfully intertwine how individuals and communities marshal social capital through the multi-faceted and frustrating recovery process. Vivid vignettes animate the book, and speak to foundational social scientific questions about how communities come together in the wake of disasters.

Kevin M. Fitzpatrick is University Professor of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Arkansas.Matthew L. Spialek is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Arkansas.