The road to recovery from a natural disaster: voices from the community

Abstract

The study's major theme is that community sustainability after natural disasters depends on adaptive capacities of individuals, families and businesses. Action research grounded in a community resilience theory (Norris, Stevens, Pfefferbaum, Wyche, & Pfefferbaum, 2008) and NVOAD's (National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) recovery model assumptions found support for five community implementation strategies used in a rural community's flood recovery and resilience process. Two years after the flood devastated over 90% of businesses and 65% of homes, collective, yet varied, community voices shared what worked and what did not work.