Southeast Texas has been the epicenter of multiple disaster related events over the past few years. As we prepare for the possible increase of these events and strive to ensure that our community is well-prepared to handle all future disasters, it is imperative that we can provide a robust array of services that can meet the needs of all community members. Southeast Texas is also quickly becoming an increasingly more diverse area. As the demographics of this region change, so do the needs of its residents. Therefore, community leaders and those responsible for disaster preparedness should be aware of the barriers to access to disaster response for non-English speaking community members. In conjunction with community representatives, this presentation will discuss these barriers and ways that disaster response services can become more diverse and inclusive to ensure that safety and protection is accessible for all residents of Southeast Texas.
To accomplish this goal, this project will be completed in three stages that rely upon collecting after action reviews and state documents in the Southeast Texas region and conducting survey research across the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida. The first stage involves completing a historical analysis of the South East Texas Region. This will be accomplished through an analysis of archived after action reports and state documents related to declared disasters in the Southeast Texas Region. This portion of the project will be conducted in conjunction with data collection efforts through a collaboration between the Political Science and History departments. These efforts will produce a center report on the history of resilience in the area that can serve as a historical record for the Center for Resilience. The second stage is to conduct an analysis of the after-action review and state documents for archival in a knowledge repository in a manner that the data can be accessed for use by researchers and local emergency management professionals in real time when an event occurs. The goal is to identify how local governments in the Gulf Coast perceive and define resilience for their area of jurisdiction. This research will provide a base knowledge for all future studies for the Center for Resilience. As a definition for resilience is formed, and as indicators of resilience are identified, this research will provide local government the knowledge and tools to determine their ability to create and maintain a resilient community. This ability of self-reflection rather than a boiler plate reflection is vital when we understand that disaster is local, and each community experiences disaster through their own unique socioeconomic makeup.