Browsing by Subject "Natural hazards"
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Item A comparative study of single family and multifamily housing recovery following 1992 Hurricane Andrew in Miami-Dade County, Florida(2009-05-15) Lu, Jing-CheinAnecdotal evidence in disaster studies suggests that multifamily housing takes longer to recover than single family homes, but almost no studies have provided quantitative evidence to clarify this ?multifamily home lag? phenomenon. This research examines the recovery of single family, duplex, and apartment complex housing in south Miami-Dade County, Florida, after 1992 Hurricane Andrew to determine if there is indeed a "multifamily home lag." This research also provides a better understanding of the factors influencing the recovery trajectories of these three housing types. The findings of this research indicate that duplexes and apartment buildings have slower recovery trajectories than single family dwellings. In addition, rental housing, housing that sustained higher levels of damage, and single family dwellings and duplexes located in predominately non-Hispanic Black neighborhoods show significantly slower recovery trajectories. The analyses specific to apartment buildings also finds that apartment buildings with fewer than 10 units have significantly slower recovery trend than apartment buildings with more than 50 units.Item Hurricane Katrina’s Impact on the Houston Metropolitan Statistical Area(Texas Tech University, 2009-08) Schiller, Anita R.; McComb, Robert P.; Mehta, Kishor C.; Mulligan, KevinHurricane Katrina forced the evacuation of an estimated 130,000 persons to Houston, TX, causing its population to increase by 3% virtually overnight. Most of these evacuees were younger and less-educated than existing residents and remained in the Houston area for at least a year. The first objective of this dissertation is to estimate the effect of this massive in-migration on workers’ earnings in non-tradable goods industries in the Houston Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Using establishment-level data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) and gross sales and use tax receipts from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, the study compares relative earnings per worker within the non-traded goods industries in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth MSAs before and after the Katrina-induced in-migration. Unlike previous studies, this study controls for the influence of an increase in the demand for local goods and services on the demand for labor in normally non-tradable goods and services activities. The study finds evidence that the average payroll per employee in the low-skill non-tradable industries decreased by 3.0% in the Houston MSA relative to the Dallas-Fort Worth MSA as a result of the Katrina-induced shift in labor supply. The study finds no evidence of any effect in the set of high-skill non-tradable industries. The findings also suggest that the failure to control for demand-side influences confounds this effect and severely underestimates the supply-side effect on wages. The second objective of this dissertation is to estimate the possible damage that a natural disaster of the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina could cause in the Houston MSA. Using Census-Track and QCEW data, this study estimates the expected damage, payroll loss, and expected number of affected employees that could be sustained by the Houston MSA. The storm surge analysis is conducted using GIS and the hurricane-related damage is estimated using HAZUS-MH. The study points out the advantages of using GIS to analyze the expected storm surge damage estimation. The advantage of using the HAZUS-MH is that it provides results for a county-wise breakdown in terms of affected essential facilities and debris by tonnage. Also, it provides expected building damage by occupancy type and building type.Item Morphology and structure of the accretionary prism offshore North Sumatra, Indonesia and offshore Kodiak Island, USA : a comparison to seek a link between prism formation and hazard potential(2016-08) Frederik, Marina Claudia Geraldina; Gulick, Sean P. S.; Austin, James Albert; Bangs, Nathan L. B.; Lavier, Luc L; Barnes, Jaime D; McNeill, Lisa CSumatra and Kodiak Islands experienced recent megathrust earthquakes with devastating tsunami; recurrence of large earthquakes is predicted. Studies of the accretionary prism offshore of northern Sumatra, 1-7°N and 92-97°E, reveal a steep outer slope (5-12°), a plateau ~100-120 km wide, and a steep inner slope adjacent to the Aceh Basin. Three primary structural zones are consistent along strike where a predominantly landward vergence zone exists from the deformation front for a distance ~70 km landward. An extended landward vergence zone is not common; for northern Sumatra, a seaward dipping rigid backstop may be the reason, which assists subsequent younger accreted sediment to form the observed zone. The prism toe region shows prominent mass failures presumably related to activation of thrust faults and/or the shaking in response to the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake (Mw 9.1). These seafloor changes suggest that the 2004 rupture energy reached near the accretionary prism toe. The rigid backstop in the inner wedge together with the suggested dynamic backstop within the outer wedge, and the consolidated sediment on the outer slope form a rigid block dynamically, which together allows earthquake rupture to propagate under it and farther seaward toward the Sunda Trench, resulting in enhanced tsunami potential. Along the Aleutian Trench offshore of Kodiak Island, 145-155° W and 55-58° N, exist a distinct horizon, associated with the onset of the Surveyor Fan sedimentation along which the preferred zone forms. Most if not all of the sediment beneath this horizon seemed subducted, smoothing the high relief of the subducting plate. Subduction of large-buried seamounts begins with creation of a proto-thrust zone seaward of the existing deformation front. As a seamount reaches the deformation front, steepening of the prism toe occurs by formation of out-of-sequence thrusts. Upon further subduction, a deformation front jump occurs where the outer limit of proto-thrust zone becomes the new deformation front. This study contributes insights to other subduction zones with similar characteristics such as thick incoming sediment, subducting seamounts, and/or recent megathrust events. This study also underlines the need to establish fundamental time series data sets for mitigation efforts in hazard-prone areas.