Disasters happen. A massive flood inundates a central downtown. A tornado levels a small town in a matter of minutes. A hurricane ravages a community.

And all disasters are local. They happen in cities and towns of all sizes where citizens look to their local governments to lead the immediate response, guide the longer-term recovery, and reassure them that life will be normal again . . . someday.

Regardless of community size or the nature of the disaster, local government leaders are responsible for overseeing all four phases of emergency management—preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. In the United States, national and state governments play a supporting role in the immediate aftermath and in providing funding and guidance for long-term recovery and mitigation.

Preparation and response—half of the emergency management cycle—generally get the most attention, particularly in high-risk areas. Preparing to respond usually involves significant training and practice to ensure that key local employees and supporting resources are ready to jump into action quickly and that local residents understand their roles and responsibilities in preparing for and responding to disasters.

Local government leaders—particularly those who have been through a major community disaster—recognize that preparing for long-term recovery demands as much attention as preparing for short-term response. After a major disaster, the recovery process takes months and even years to bring a community back to a "new normal" and as strong as or better than before the disaster.

Frances L. Edwards, associate director of the Collaboration for Disaster Mitigation in San Jose, California, and former director of emergency services in San Jose, says the recovery process begins "when the situation is no longer getting worse, all the living have been rescued, and the community has found the floor."

Brett Kriger, director of the Institute for Building Technology and Safety's Disaster Management Group, says the recovery process begins even before the response stage is complete because decisions made while responding to the emergency can affect the recovery process. "There's usually a 30 percent overlap in the middle where the community is still responding while gearing up for recovery.”

Adds Marcy Douglas, city administrator of Northwood, North Dakota, a community of 1,000 that was leveled by a category 4 tornado in August 2007: “If you respond to a disaster with recovery in mind, recovery will happen."

Focusing on Long-Term Recovery
Long-term recovery involves more than debris removal and restoring power, which are considered short-term recovery actions. In the long term, the community needs to restore its ability to function going forward and focus on mitigation strategies that will help minimize the impact of any future disaster. The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), which serves 109 cities and counties in the San Francisco area, has developed a program designed to help cities and counties better prepare for long-term recovery in the event of a disaster. The program focuses on four areas:

• Financing
• Expediting long-term housing recovery
• Supporting recovery of downtown businesses and the local economy
• Ensuring that local government facilities and services recover smoothly.(1)

Long-term recovery strategies and needs will vary depending on the scope of the disaster. In small communities like Northwood, North Dakota, and Greensburg, Kansas, tornadoes damaged or destroyed everything—homes, businesses, municipal buildings, schools, recreation facilities, and more. For those communities, deciding to rebuild was a first step, followed quickly by engaging the entire community to ensure that their hometowns would come back, and then bringing other resources to the table.

In other communities, when significant damage is confined to one area, local leaders must balance ongoing public service expectations with urgent long-term recovery needs while ensuring that the vision for "new normal" keeps the community together.

The following sections highlight long-term recovery approaches and lessons, drawing on the direct experience of managers who have been there.

Economic Recovery
Most managers who have experienced recent disasters say getting the local economy working again is vital to launching a successful comeback. Restarting the economic engine depends on a number of factors:

• A willingness and capacity of business to reopen quickly if facilities aren't severely damaged or to rebuild in the community
• Affordable and available housing for workers
• Large employers with business continuity plans who can get up and running quickly to launch the economic comeback
• Strong connections between government and business to facilitate a recovery partnership.

Bruce Moeller, city manager of Sunrise, Florida, says open communication with the business community is essential. “The city manager needs to have a frank discussion with the business community regarding the importance of business continuity plans in the event of a disaster," Moeller says. "This is particularly true with small businesses to help them understand how to prepare to recover quickly after a disaster."

Kyle Hayes, city manager of Beaumont, Texas, which was hit by Hurricane Rita in 2005 and more recently by Hurricane Ike, notes that businesses ramped up quickly in both cases, which helped sustain the local economy. Because 35 percent of Beaumont's revenue comes from sales tax, the rapid recovery of retail businesses was essential to community recovery.

Hayes explains that the massive devastation sustained in Louisiana and Mississippi from Hurricane Katrina only a few weeks before Hurricane Rita occurred helped Beaumont and other cities in Texas get ready. "We hadn't had a hurricane in decades, and when we saw what happened from Katrina, we started getting ready," Hayes says.

In Northwood, North Dakota, city officials met with all the local businesses right after the tornado to identify needs and figure out how to encourage local rebuilding. "They all had a scared, stoic look but eventually we talked about plans to rebuild," says City Administrator Marcy Douglas. "In a small town like Northwood, buying local is a way of life, and everyone wants everyone else to survive. But the local government is an essential spark to encourage small businesses to stay."

A study published by the Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI) looked at factors that affected the ability of small businesses and not-for-profits to recover from natural disasters and thus contribute to long-term local economic health. The study found these five factors that were critical to long-term survival:

• The disaster's impact on the organization's clientele
• The availability of convenient substitute goods and services that can replace the business while it is trying to rebuild
• The status of the business before the disaster
• Financial resources lost by the business
• The owner's ability to adapt to the new, post-disaster environment.(2)

Leading the Recovery
Most agree that the key factor in successful long-term recovery is local leadership. A clear vision, a well-defined plan, broad and diverse funding to finance the recovery, a supportive and involved business community, and effective partnerships at the national, state, and local levels all contribute. The biggest difference, however, is effective leadership.

In Greensburg, Kansas, recovery was difficult to envision the day after one of the strongest tornadoes on record leveled the town in May 2007. City Administrator Steve Hewitt led the immediate response and helped coordinate development of an ambitious recovery plan. Hewitt was named American City & County magazine's municipal leader of the year for "creating a vision for a better Greensburg and leading his town toward it."(3)

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is still recovering from massive flooding in June 2008 that completely submerged the downtown. While floodwaters were still rising, City Manager Jim Prosser created a recovery and investment coordinating team that led the charge from the start, beginning with response immediately after the flooding and moving to guide long-term recovery. The team includes representatives of every sector of the community.

The team was not part of the city's official response and recovery plan. It was just something Prosser knew he needed to do quickly to bring the community together. He says the broad team has been an effective resource for leading the recovery and coordinating diverse activities.

But the role of local leadership in sustaining the momentum and helping the community weather the ups and downs of long-term recovery is essential. "There's a delicate balance between acting fast to meet the community's need to see progress and waiting for better information, a better plan, a solid response," Prosser observes.

"There's a big push to do something now. But if you don't have a good plan and you can't get the resources, you're setting people up for more disappointment. Overpromising can be fatal in long-term recovery." Cedar Rapids was lucky to have already carried out a visioning process well before the flood.

Financing the Recovery
Financing long-term disaster recovery poses significant and often frustrating challenges for local leaders who must rely on the state and federal governments as major sources of disaster recovery funds. Those challenges are exacerbated in the heat of a crisis when funding is urgent. That's why incorporating a framework for financing long-term recovery improves the odds of success when disaster strikes.

Strategies that can be put in place well before a disaster include (1) understanding all requirements for response and recovery grants where they are available, including required documentation for reimbursements; (2) identifying all potential sources of funding for long-term recovery; (3) establishing lines of credit to provide cash flow for direct expenses and matches while waiting for funds; and (4) identifying internal staff, or external resources, or both, to manage the financial side of recovery.

Knowledge of available resources and the rules governing access to those resources is essential to maximize funds to support long-term recovery.

Community Care
Long-term recovery from a major disaster can be a long, slow process. In Grand Forks, North Dakota, it took more than 10 years. On the Gulf Coast, since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and, more recently, Ike and Gustav, recovery has been ongoing—almost a way of life.

Constant information and community connections are vital. Even when there's no real news, having some news is important to assure a tired community that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Frances Edwards says a long-term recovery plan should include strategies for dealing with the psychological impact of a disaster and the pace of recovery. "It is important to know your community and how segments will be affected by the disaster and the recovery process," Edwards says. During a recovery from a major flood in San Jose, Edwards explains that the city's large Cambodian community was particularly affected because the flood brought back memories of traumas in their home country. "Once traumatized, individuals relive the first trauma while going through the second, and the city needs to be prepared to deal with that," she says.

Trees became a focal point in Northwood, North Dakota, after the tornado. "People didn't have roofs over their heads, but they wanted to plant trees because Northwood was always known for its tree-lined streets," City Administrator Douglas says. "They wanted that normalcy instantly, and we had to manage that need carefully." The city eventually developed a tree recovery program as part of its plan that led to the planting of 1,000 new trees.

In Florida, with each hurricane, local leaders focus on refining their long-term recovery processes. Broward County, for example, created a "vulnerable population registry" to help local leaders pinpoint those most in need after a disaster. "There are so many people who are just getting by," says Sunrise City Manager Bruce Moeller. "A significant event that interrupts normal life will push them over the edge. This registry helps all the local governments in Broward County anticipate those special needs."

Keeping an eye on the pulse of the community—and on the pulse of local government employees who are leading the recovery process—is important for sustaining the momentum and preserving the community spirit.

"We were blessed with strong people who, in many ways, started the road to recovery before the city could do it," says John Schmisek, director of finance and administrative services in Grand Forks. "Their attitude was ‘we know we need to recover and we can do it.' Ten years after the flood, I'm here to tell you—don't ever say never."

Notes
1Linda Min and Jeanne Perkins, "Summary: Long-Term Disaster Recovery Planning by Local Governments in the San Francisco Bay Area" (Oakland, Calif.: Association of Bay Area Governments, October 2008), 1, http://quake.abag.ca.gov/recovery/SURVEYresult2008.pdf. Visit the Web site for the Regional Long-Term Disaster Recovery Initiative at http://quake.abag.ca.gov/recovery/ for additional information and available resources.
2Daniel J. Alesch, James N. Holly, Elliott Mittler, and Robert Nagy, Organizations at Risk: What Happens When Small Businesses and Not-for-Profits Encounter Natural Disasters (Fairfax, Va.: Public Entity Risk Institute, October 2001), https://www.riskinstitute.org/peri/images/file/Organizations_at_Risk.pdf.
3"Municipal Leader of the Year: Come-back Kid," American City & County, November 2008.