A study of household mitigation and recovery following Hurricane Gilbert in Jamaica

Abstract

The focus of this study is on finding ways to enhance household level mitigation during the recovery period following a natural disaster. Of key concern are the policy issues that disaster planners face in designing effective mitigation and recovery programs. To address these issues, this study has sought to understand which factors affect household decisions for taking mitigation actions. Data were obtained from a random sample of 240 households in St. James and St. Thomas Parishes, Jamaica. Logistic regression was used to determine which key factors were linked to household level mitigation decisions. Empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that household mitigation was an information and awareness mediated event, and infers that informal sources of information played a significant role as intermediating co-factors linking households with certain respondent characteristics to mitigation decisions. The implications of the findings for disaster planners is that an understanding of the nature of the relationships between households and their information sources may be of value for developing a sensitivity to the localized conditions constraining the adoption of mitigation practices, for deciding which types of policies and programs to implement in order to reduce risk and enhance the likelihood of successful mitigation outcomes among recovering households.