Hurricane Michael Impacts, Recovery, and Resilience of different neighborhoods in Panama City, Florida

Keywords: Community, Disaster, Vulnerability, Resilience
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

In places where there is historical disinvestment in minority communities and public infrastructure, disasters like hurricane Michael and recovery-resilience narratives provides possibilities for energizing community movement towards just community development but also as rationalizing logic to maintain uneven status quo. This contestation makes the role and limitations of formal local government planning and community-based organization important. In 2018, Panama City was devastated by Hurricane Michael a Category 5 (Saffir-Simpson intensity scale) hurricane when it made landfall. The impacts of Hurricane Michael was differentiated across the coast of the different county not only due to the differences related to the magnitude of storm surge and hurricane winds, but also because of the difference in physical infrastructure, social, and economic situation. Four years after Hurricane Michael, the City Government and different communities are still working on recovery projects as well as resilience plans which is also subject to the different coastal geographies. This research looked at how hurricane Michael impacted the daily life of people as well as government functions of Panama City. Consequently, it also critically examines the recovery and resilience building at the community-level and at the city-level. It utilized mixed-methodology by combining interviews of community and local government officials with participant-observation and document analysis of the formal long-term recovery planning conducted by the city and community-based planning conducted by a community-based organization. This research provides empirical evidence on how civic engagement and community care practices are leveraged by community-based organization to advocate for transformative resilience that address historical vulnerability.