Disaster Experiences and Vulnerability Perceptions in the Houston Metropolitan Statistical Area Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Disaster vulnerability is influenced by existing socioeconomic inequalities, the compounding effects of other disasters, risk perception, and community resources to mitigate and resist disaster impacts. Understanding the impact of these different factors and their incorporation into risk assessments is imperative to the future of environmental justice and disaster resilience research and initiatives. This study presents two objectives: mapping demographic and disaster experiences in the Houston Metropolitan Statistical Area (HMSA) and comparing vulnerability perception before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first objective uses univariate and bivariate Anselin Local Moran's I (LISA) to identify significant high and low value clusters of demographics, disaster experiences, and disaster experience by race/ethnicity, gender, and median income. Generally, marginalized racial/ethnic, gender, and income groups experienced more disasters than non-marginalized groups. Additionally, different marginalized groups faced higher proportions of different hazard categories and combinations of disasters, demonstrating that disasters compound and occur unevenly across populations and space in the HMSA. The second objective compares two HMSA surveys from January 2020 and April 2021, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study uses Wilcoxon rank sum tests, contingency tables, mosaic plots, and ordinary least square regressions to analyze and compare responses to floods, hurricanes, petrochemical fires, and chemical spills (ɑ =0.05). Marginalized populations perceived less vulnerability to the studied hazards in 2021 which is attributed to their shift in concerns towards COVID-19 and its disproportionate impacts to those populations. Additionally, respondents reported their well-being (personal financial situation, housing conditions, and overall quality of life) during the pandemic and those who felt worse also reported higher perceived vulnerability to the study hazards. Respondents who were younger than 55, low-income, or spoke English as a primary language were more interdependent with worse well-being likely due to economic, social, and emotional impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. This research contributes to and furthers a long line of research that confronts the disproportionate burden on society’s marginalized communities and offers evidence for policymakers, stakeholders, and the research community for present and future action as disasters increase in frequency with global climate change.