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In this article, we examine the role of nongovernmental entities (NGEs; nonprofits, religious groups, and businesses) in disaster response and recovery. Although media reports and the existing scholarly literature focus heavily on the role of governments, NGEs provide critical services related to public safety and public health after disasters. NGEs are crucial because of their ability to quickly provide services, their flexibility, and their unique capacity to reach marginalized populations.
To examine the role of NGEs,we surveyed 115 NGEs engaged in disaster response.We also conducted extensive field work, completing 44 hours of semistructured interviews with stafffrom NGEs and government agencies in postdisaster areas in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, Northern California, and Southern California. Finally, we compiled quantitative data on the distribution of nonprofit organizations.
We found that, in addition to high levels of variation in NGE resources across counties, NGEs face serious coordination and service delivery problems. Federal funding for expanding the capacity of local Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster groups, we suggest, would help NGEs and government to coordinate response efforts and ensure that recoveries better address underlying social and economic vulnerabilities. (Am J Public Health. 2019;109:437-444. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2018.304895)
Disasters have significant implications for public health.1,2 Creating immediate risks to health and safety, events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires may also damage electrical grids, communications networks, and transportation infrastructure (Figures 1a and 1b). This leads to serious disruptions in patient care and in access to medical facilities and technology. In Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, the result was a large-scale public health crisis and thousands of deaths.3,4 Over the long run, disasters may reshape local economies as well as neighborhoods and physical environments, with harmful consequences for those living on the social and economic margins.5-8
Media discussions and the existing scholarly literature on disaster response and recovery focus heavily on the successes and failures of government. In this article, however, we examine the role of nongovernmental entities (NGEs) such as nonprofits, religious groups, and private businesses.9-14 Our analysis is grounded in research on the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, and Hurricane Maria (each of which made landfall during 2017), as well as the massive 2017 wildfires in Northern and Southern California. We selected these cases because of their geographic variation,...