Hurricane Andrew: Ethnicity, Gender and the Sociology of Disasters

Hurricane Andrew has proved to be the most costly natural disaster in US history. This book documents how Miami prepared, coped and responded to the hurricanes which slammed into one of the largest and most ethnically diverse metropolitan areas of the US. The essays explore how social, economic and political factors set the stage for Hurricane Andrew by influencing who was prepared, who was hit the hardest, and who was most likely to recover. Disasters are often seen as natural physical phenomena that impact our communities in impartial ways. But disasters are inherently social events; the nature of our communities--how they are organized and how scarce resources such as housing are distributed--are critical factors for understanding disaster impact and natural recovery. The authors ofHurricane Andrewanalyze the consequences of conflict and competition especially associated with race, ethnicity and gender.