Flood Performance and Dislocation Assessment for Lumberton Homes after Hurricane Matthew

Abstract

In order to better understand community resilience following a disaster, a multidisciplinary research team from the Center of Excellence (CoE) for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) jointly conducted a series of longitudinal field studies in the U.S. city of Lumberton, North Carolina following major flooding from Hurricane Matthew (2016). Damage surveys on structures and interviews with households were conducted during the first field study to explore physical, economic, and social impacts of major riverine flooding on this small, tri-racial community. This paper is focused on damage to housing and subsequent household dislocation. Empirical damage fragilities were developed for residential buildings using a comprehensive set of engineering damage inspection data collected by the team. Multi-variate models were developed to assess the consequences of physical damage to housing units for household dislocation, including socio-demographic factors. The goal was not to develop the definitive model of household dislocation, but rather to show how engineering and social science data can be combined to better understand the broader social impacts of disasters – in this case, household dislocation. This study may help inform assessments of flood damage and dislocation patterns for other U.S. communities as a function of construction, social, and economic makeup.