General and particular observations on sheltering and housing in American disasters

Abstract

After a survey of all the English language social science literature and a review of several case histories, the Disaster Research Center compiled a number of observations on sheltering and housing following sudden onset disasters which are summarized here. The study is aimed at increasing our knowledge of American peace‐time disasters. The four different phases: emergency and temporary sheltering and emergency and temporary housing are defined and discussed. There seems to be little disaster planning and often the co‐ordination of relief efforts is inefficient. It appears that communities could be better informed and that more research is necessary in order to understand and evaluate these phenomena properly. The paper points to areas which could be usefully investigated.