Sociol. Forum http://doi.org/bksc (2016)

Assessing the long-term impact of natural disasters on the people caught in them is difficult as it requires access to respondents both before and after the disaster.

Mary Waters and colleagues, working on the Resilience in Survivors of Katrina (RISK) project had a rare opportunity to gain such insight by analysing the impacts of the hurricane on a sample of ∼1,000 predominantly young African American women who had already agreed to participate in a separate study.

Surveys and interviews with this vulnerable group allowed the researchers to uncover hidden aspects of recovery. They found high levels of mental and physical illness among respondents, as well as high levels of relocation. Decisions on whether to return were largely based on access to social networks and feelings of displacement, rather than quantitative decisions regarding economic or educational opportunities.

The research, which forms part of a special issue on risk, climate and the environment, shows how mixed-method, multi-disciplinary, longitudinal research can cast light on the differences between the sometimes obvious recovery of places and the hidden difficulties people experience after major disasters.