Citation

Burton C, Mitchell JT, Cutter SL. Disasters 2011; 35(3): 488-509.

Affiliation

PhD Candidate and Research Assistant at the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute, University of South Carolina, United States Research Associate Professor at the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute, University of South Carolina, and Director of the Center of Excellence for Geographic Education, Department of Geography, University of South Carolina, United States Carolina Distinguished Professor and Director of the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute, University of South Carolina, United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1467-7717.2010.01227.x

PMID

21272057

Abstract

Hurricane Katrina of August 2005 had extensive consequences for the state of Mississippi in the United States. Widespread infrastructure and property damage, massive social dislocation, and ecological loss remain among the many challenges faced by communities as they work towards 'normalcy'. This study employs repeat photography to understand differential recovery from Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi. Revealing change with conventional landscape photography, a process known as repeat photography, is common in the natural sciences. Simply stated, repeat photography is the practice of re-photographing the same scene as it appears in an earlier photograph. Photographs were taken at 131 sites every six months over a three-year period. Each photograph was assigned a recovery score and a spatially interpolated recovery surface was generated for each time period. The mapped and graphed results show disparities in the progression of recovery: some communities quickly entered the rebuilding process whereas others have lagged far behind.

Language: en