Economic Development Recovery and Resiliency Playbook - Flipbook - Page 74
Utilities/Transportation Availability. The ability to quickly restore critical services to a community can have a lasting
impact on its economic recovery. It is important to assess the infrastructure from multiple perspectives. Consider asking the
following questions.
• Are there any known vulnerabilities to the local infrastructure? For example, the power grid in Puerto Rico was in
desperate need of repair prior to the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017. The grid’s substandard condition made
restoring power to the island that much more challenging and expensive.
• Are there any single points of failure in the infrastructure network? For example, if one highway bridge fails, does it cut of
a portion of the community from resources or the ability to evacuate in an emergency?
• Does the geography create any unique challenges to the community’s ability to recover from a disaster? Consider how
response and recovery resources are able to access the community, and examine the availability of temporary shelter,
food, and other support resources for the impacted community.
• Are there any particular geographic features that strengthen recovery and resiliency? Restoring the services that attract
tourism or create export revenue as quickly as possible can enhance the community’s ability to reestablish its economic
vitality post-disaster. Factor in the local availability of goods and services such as food, water, energy, etc. Managing the
distribution of these goods and services rather than relying on a larger network of support can increase local resiliency by
using a self-contained network.
Using the CEDS planning process helps a jurisdiction develop a strategic economic
development plan with contributions from all levels of the private and public sectors
that play a role in its prosperity.
Economic Vitality. The natural geography and land use planning of a community can have an impact on economic recovery,
depending on which portion of the community was impacted by the disaster. Population centers have a larger tax base and
are ofen where the political hub and centralized local services provided to the community are located. This presents unique
challenges to economic recovery; it ultimately becomes a battle for services between the haves and the have nots. For example,
if a key population center and a neighboring rural community are impacted by a disaster — who is more likely to be the focus
of recovery eforts to restore essential services and get the economy back on track? As many California communities have seen
in recent disasters, rural communities ofen have a more dificult time recovering because the primary source of revenue for
that community may not be able to be quickly restored afer a disaster, and in some cases may cease altogether. For example, a
large agricultural producing community ravaged by wildfire could have significant crop loss that would take time to restore to its
original state. In some cases, the disaster may alter the geography in such a way that the crop can never return. For instance, if
100-year old grapevines are destroyed by wildfire, those vines can be replanted but not truly replaced, and this potentially could
result in a particular wine no longer being available.
As mentioned in Chapter 2, the EDA’s CEDS process91 assists a local community or region in planning for resilient economic
development. Using the CEDS planning process helps a jurisdiction develop a strategic economic development plan with
contributions from all levels of the private and public sectors that play a role in its prosperity.
Natural Disasters. The climate and geography of a community can also create unique vulnerabilities. The prevalence of natural
disasters in a community is an important consideration when determining how to increase community resilience. It is important
to understand a community’s past experiences with disasters as well as the potential risk from future disasters; for example, is
the community ravaged by wildfires annually? Is there a natural disaster that would be so devastating to a community that it will
severely hinder economic recovery, such as the Cascadia Subduction Zone risk for the Pacific Northwest? Understanding these
risks is an important step to building community resiliency and improving the ability to economically recover from the natural
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https://eda.gov/ceds/
CALED | Economic Development Recovery and Resiliency Playbook
