Virtual Library Presentation
November 29, 2000 - 12:00 Noon

Evaluation of the Project Impact
Disaster Resistant Community Initiative

by

Kathleen Tierney, Ph. D.
Professor of Sociology
Director, Disaster Research Center
University of Delaware

SUMMARY

EIIP Virtual Library Presentation
Wednesday - November 29, 2000 - 12:00 Noon EST

Evaluation of the Project Impact Disaster Resistant Community Initiative

Kathleen Tierney
University of Delaware

Amy Sebring
EIIP Technical Projects Coordinator

The EIIP Virtual Library topic was "Evaluation of the Project Impact Disaster Resistant Community Initiative." Dr. Kathleen Tierney, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Disaster Research Center (DRC) at the University of Delaware was the guest speaker.

As explained by Dr. Tierney, she and DRC Co-Director Joanne Nigg studied and assessed FEMA's Project Impact initiative that began in 1997. The study, which started with a focus on the seven original Project Impact pilot sites, was expanded to include communities that joined PI after the pilot phase. Dr. Tierney covered the issues the Disaster Research Center explored in its study of Project Impact (PI), how the work was conducted, and the findings after talking with people who are involved with the PI process at the community level.

KATHLEEN TIERNEY, Ph. D.

Professor of Sociology
Director, Disaster Research Center
University of Delaware

Kathleen Tierney is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware. Dr. Tierney received M. A. and Ph.D degrees in sociology from The Ohio State University. Her past academic and research positions include appointments as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles; special consultant to the California Seismic Safety Commission and author of the Commission's official report on the 1983 Coalinga earthquake; adjunct assistant professor at the University of Southern California; and assistant professor in the Social Ecology Program at the University of California, Irvine. She has been a member of the University of Delaware faculty since 1989.

Prof. Tierney has published widely on the societal impacts of hazards and disasters. Her publications include "Businesses and Disasters: Empirical Patterns and Unanswered Questions" (with Gary Webb and James Dahlhamer), in Natural Hazards Review (2000); "Controversy and Consensus in Disaster Mental Health Research" in Prehospital and Disaster Medicine (2000); "Rebounding from Disruptive Events: Business Recovery Following the Northridge Earthquake, (with James Dahlhamer) in Sociological Spectrum (1998); "Business Impacts of the Northridge Earthquake,"in The Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management (1997); "Emergency Preparedness and Response" in the National Academy of Sciences report Practical Lessons from the Loma Prieta Earthquake (1994), and dozens of other articles, papers, and book chapters. Dr. Tierney co-edited Disasters, Collective Behavior, and Social Organization with Russell R. Dynes (1994), and with co-authors Michael Lindell and Ronald Perry, she is currently finishing a new book, Facing the Unexpected: Disaster Preparedness and Response in the United States, which will be published early next year by Joseph Henry Press.

Dr. Tierney's research on disasters has been supported by various agencies, including the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research, the National Science Foundation, the US Geological Survey, the NOAA Sea Grant Program, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She recently completed a study on the long-term business impacts of the Loma Prieta Earthquake and Hurricane Andrew, which was supported by the National Science Foundation. Since 1997, Dr. Tierney and DRC Co-Director Joanne Nigg have been conducting an assessment of FEMA's Project Impact initiative. That study, which began with a focus on the seven original Project Impact pilot sites, has been expanded to include communities that joined PI after the pilot phase. Her forum presentation contains highlights from the first three years of the Project Impact assessment.

For more information on the Disaster Research Center, consult the DRC web site at: http://www.udel.edu/DRC

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