Our Country, to be prepared for a disaster such as Katrina, should have developed a temporary shelter beforehand, knowing that eventually it would be in need. By doing so, the FEMA trailers could have been tested to find out what needed to be done to provide a safe comfortable place to call “home.” In addition to being tested, the best way to find out what people need is to ask the publics’ opinion. If our Country would have been ready for a “Katrina,” then FEMA would not have turned into a curse word in the south.
Due to the World Bank, there are four stages of a post-disaster event: migration, preparedness, response, and recovery. However, in a study by Hass and Kates, the four stages are search and rescue, repairing the infrastructure, replacement, and reconstruction. In addition, they discussed four stages of supplying a shelter to displaced victims. Stage one is moving people to emergency shelters, such as the Superdome. Stage two is supplying temporary shelters, such as a tent. Stage three is providing temporary housing, such as a FEMA trailer. The last stage is permanent housing.
Image 1 - Thousands of newly homeless individuals seeking refuge within the Superdome after Katrina destroyed levees within New Orleans
In 1999, responding to an earthquake in Turkey, the World Bank requested that social surveys be conducted by all local universities. From these surveys, the World Bank developed a report that stated that public participation, in collaboration with nongovernmental organizations, would be mandatory in the area’s reconstruction process. The reason for this is participation of the inhabitants would ensure trust within the rest of the community, as well as conveying their “needs” and “wants” to the designer of the temporary shelters. In addition to this, the World Bank conveyed three ways the publics’ opinion would be gathered: surveys, interviews, and focus groups.
The World Bank’s research for gaining the publics’ opinions was very beneficial. However, to be beneficial, the World Bank would have to employ the feedback in their designs. When it came time to use the information they gathered, the World Bank only incorporated small amounts of the publics’ feedback into their design. Due to this, many problems arose. In a report, two problems came to the surface. After being used, the shelters were not designed to fit the cultural needs of the inhabitants. One example is the shelter’s Western style toilet, which is not usually comfortable for the elderly. In addition, they discovered that the average household size in the area was 4.5 people. However, the World Bank provided temporary sheltering that was only comfortably suitable for one to two people.
Image 2 - A small shelter that would be used for a large family in Turkey
After Emal and Sukumar Ganapati’s case study on the World Bank’s actions in response to Turkey’s earthquake in 1999, they developed four recommendations to improve designs for a future disaster. The first recommendation is to rethink the assumption concerning urgency. In their study, they realized that the majority of displaced individuals would be willing to wait a small period of time for temporary sheltering if the end result would be better suited for their “needs.” The second recommendation is to involve the public in the design process of post-disaster shelters. Unlike the World Bank, the Ganapatis’ believe future organizations should not wait until the designs are complete to ask the people what they need. The third recommendation is to create a design through a collaboration of various groups and organizations. Instead of the creation by a single international governmental organization, a shelter solution should be formulated with the participation from private groups, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and the individuals of the community. The last recommendation is allowing feedback from the current shelter to be incorporated in future designs. Once a problem arose, the World Bank should not disregard the users’ comments. However, they should create a design to solve them (Ganapati, 2009).
Image 3 - An aerial view of an apartment complex that was destroyed after the 1999 7.4 earthquake rumbled Turkey
Ganapati, S. (2009 December, 1). Enabling Participatory Planning After Disasters: A Case
Study of the World Bank's Housing Reconstruction in Turkey. Journal of the American
Planning Association. 75, 41-59.
Images
Image 1 - http://photos.thefirstpost.co.uk/assets/library/090817picturepast--
125026218379370800.jpg
Image 2 - http://www.iveknownrivers.org/stories/vol_002/darrell-jordan/superdome.jpg
Image 3 - http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2008/05/pallet13.jpg
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