24 things to watch about disaster recovery
Story for purpose: Disaster Wise
Disaster Wise is a movement of people online who are sharing their experiences of disaster recovery to support community-led action. As part of their online resources, they have a series of videos covering topics such as how we can better listen to communities, why kindness in leadership is important, and what it’s really like to be part of a community recovery committee.
2024 UNSW Utzon / Judith Neilson lecture: Daniel Aldrich
Every year the HowWeSurvive team at UNSW is able to invite a speaker as part of the Utzon lecture series. This year, Prof Daniel Aldrich came to Sydney to talk about social capital and investing in social infrastructure to promote strong disaster recovery.
Disaster Ready 2024: Bhiamie Williamson
In 2024 a bunch of organisations in the Norther Rivers made a huge effort to host the Disaster Ready 2024 summit. Many of the presentations are available online and are well worth a watch. Bhiamie Williamson’s presentation was about Aboriginal perspectives on the Northern Rivers floods.
It’s all about being well: John Richardson
It’s JFR, talking about the challenge of how we frame disaster disruptions and loss and why the complexity of recovery needs a systems approach because the consequences for people are tangled.
Launch of the 10 Years Beyond Bushfires study: Lisa Gibbs, Richard Bryant & Colin Gallagher
This is a few years old now, but still a really relevant summary presentation of research looking at the 3, 5 and 10 year impacts of the 2009 Victorian Black Saturday fires. Some of the topics covered include perceptions of recovery, mental health, relocation and rebuilding decisions, social connections and education impacts.
Community Recovery: Anne Leadbeater, Kate Brady & Erin Pelly
As part of the AIDR Recovery uncovered series, this video is aimed at disaster recovery workers and looks at foundational ideas around community recovery.
Anniversaries & memorials: Shona Whitton & Karen Edmeades
From the Red Cross disaster recovery webinar series, this presentation looks at how communities commemorate anniversaries and events through memorials, and practical considerations for agencies supporting communities.
Catastrophic loss of place: Kai Erikson
This is a short video as part of a series about Hurricane Katrina that I find myself coming back to time and time again. This is a reasonably quick series of points made by Erikson about his reflections on impacts on professionals, loss of a sense of orientation, the inadequacies of how we count the impacts of disasters and how the experiences of the demeaning, stressful and sometimes humiliating ‘aftermath’ of disasters are the disasters themselves, not just the hazard events.
Decision making fatigue: Jolie Wills
From the Red Cross recovery webinar series, Jolie talks from both personal and professional experiences about the heavy burden of decision making in post disaster settings.
Post traumatic growth: Lou Harms & Rhonda Abotomey
In this AIDR webinar Lou and Rhonda give an overview of the concept of post traumatic growth, talk about some of the research that came from the 2009 Victorian bushfires and share personal reflections on the topic.
Experiences of children and young people after disasters: Andrea Baldwin, Sharlene Keleher, Adrienne O’Dell, Sarah Eagland and Michelle Roberts
Part of the AIDR Recovery Matters webinar series, looking at the experiences of children and young people after disasters, and reflections on lessons and future directions.
What can emergency management learn from Vanilla Ice: Dan Neely
This is an oldy (and generally shonky recording) but a goody. In this presentation, Dan talks about the need to think about how communities really work, the role of trust and engagement in the emergency management sector.
Putting the community in Community Recovery Committees: Malcolm Hackett, Kitty Vigo and Dominic Sandilands
Community recovery committees or community recovery groups are one mechanism that get used in community-led approaches to disaster recovery. In this AIDR webinar, Malcolm, Kitty and Dominic discuss different approaches to these groups.
When the Dust Settles: Lucy Easthope
Lucy Easthope is an amazing researcher and emergency management practitioner based out of the UK. She has put out helpful practice guidance, academic papers and books, and basically calls bullsh*t on a lot of the attempts to make concepts in disaster recovery tidy. There are lots of things that you can read from her, and she has a lot of videos
What to expect in the first 6 months: Rob Gordon
As part of the Red Cross recovery webinar series, Rob Gordon presents information for community members and disaster recovery workers about things that can be reasonably anticipated in the first six months after a disaster, and what steps can be taken to improve smoother passage through this difficult time.
Gender and sexuality in disaster risk reduction: Maureen Fordham, Kevin Blanchard, Dejan Greenhalgh-Tomasovic, Dale Dominey-Howes, Tegan Larin
This AIDR webinar looks at how unequal and discriminatory practices play a significant role in determining an individual’s level of risk and the exposure they face before, during and after disaster. Characteristics such as a person’s age, ethnicity, religion, physical and mental ability, location, social status, education, gender identity, and sexual orientation all influence an individual’s experience of disaster.
Big stories, Small Towns – Strathewen
I often come back to this excellent collection of short videos made by people from the town of Strathewen that looks at what their lives and town was like before, during and after the 2009 Victorian bushfires.
The power of convergence: Lori Peek
In this research summit TED talk, Lori talks about why we need to better understand how social problems turn hazards into disasters.
Understanding community dynamics, grief and mental health impacts: Kris Newton, Rose Glassock and David Younger
This AIDR webinar looks at the dynamics of communities, local leadership, grief, loss and the impacts of mental health and wellbeing on children, families and relationships after disasters.
Live Like Kings
This is a mini (3.20 mins) documentary that came out after the Canterbury Earthquakes in New Zealand, and the first time I saw it I think I watched in about 10 times in a row because it was such a different perspective from anything I’d seen before.
The description from the film maker is
“The Christchurch Earthquake left the majority of its population devastated, but for a small group of homeless people, the disaster brought about new and luxurious living opportunities - a taste of what it’s like to live like a king.”
Shaping our future towards climate and disaster resilience: David Lallemant
In this TED x NTU presentation, David Lallemant provides a straightforward summary of some really complex concepts relating to resilience. He has a bit in this that is one of the easiest to understand explanations about what a small shift in the increase of mean temperature means for the number of extreme climate events that we can expect that I’ve ever seen.
Climate Impacts, Extreme Events: Robert Glasser
I have had the opportunity to see Robert Glasser present a number of times, and honestly, I get overwhelmed quickly when listening to him present future trends of disasters and extreme events based on increasing global temperatures. This is a great short summary, with a particular focus on compounding disasters and cascading consequences.
Ethical leadership: Mark Crosweller
In this EMPA webinar, Mark Crosweller talks about the importance of ethics and compassion in leadership in emergency management.
3rd Assessment of Natural Hazard + Disaster Research: Lori Peek
Ending the list on a nod to the short term future… 25 years ago the 2nd assessment of natural hazard and disaster research took place through the Natural Hazards Centre at Colorado University. This year, the 3rd assessment has kicked off, and the team at CU anticipate it will be finished in 2028. The purpose of the assessment is to take stock of the present state of knowledge and sets a research and application agenda. This video is an outline of the purpose, scope, process and potential outputs.