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A Philanthropic Approach to Supporting Emergent Disaster Response and Recovery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2019

Jeffrey Schlegelmilch*
Affiliation:
The National Center for Disaster Preparedness, The Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, New York
Jonathan Sury
Affiliation:
The National Center for Disaster Preparedness, The Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, New York
Jeremy Brooks
Affiliation:
The National Center for Disaster Preparedness, The Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, New York
Thomas Chandler
Affiliation:
The National Center for Disaster Preparedness, The Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, New York
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Jeff Schlegelmilch, National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Columbia University, 215 W 125th Street, Suite 303, New York, NY 10027 (e-mail: js4645@columbia.edu).

Abstract

In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey struck the US Gulf Coast and caused more than US $125 billion in damages in Texas. The loss of lives and the economic damages resulted in an outpouring of support for the recovery efforts in the form of federal assistance and private donations. The latter has supported more creative approaches to recovery. Organizations that normally would not receive funding were able to obtain resources to use in novel manners. Using the framework of Dynes typology to identify groups and their respective structures and tasks, this report from the field analyzes Hurricane Harvey and the financial support mechanisms used to support recovery efforts in Texas, what organizations were funded to do, and where they fit into Dynes typology. The authors close by noting the importance of these emerging organizations and the need to support diversity in funding disaster response and recovery efforts beyond large nonprofit organizations.

Type
Report from the Field
Copyright
© 2019 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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