An Exploratory Study on the Association between Community Resilience and Disaster Preparedness in the Rio Grande Valley

Abstract

(1) Background: Severe weather events have impacted over 100 million Americans in the past two years, highlighting the importance of individual disaster preparedness in building community resilience. This study aims to investigate the factors influencing individuals’ perceived disaster resiliency and preparedness in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas. (2) Methods: Data were collected from 846 respondents using the Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART) Assessment Survey instrument. The study employed structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore the association between disaster preparedness and community resilience. (3) Results: The findings of the study revealed a significant association between disaster preparedness and perceived community resilience. (4) Conclusions: The study’s findings provide an assessment of the community strengths (assets) in the Rio Grande Valley, which can be utilized to develop initiatives and programs aimed at enhancing community resilience and individual disaster preparedness. These findings contribute significantly to the theoretical understanding of the interplay between community resilience and individual preparedness for disasters.

A disaster resilience-based approach for sustainable development: An example for managing the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Resilience to disasters has become more and more crucial during the last 20 years. This is the result of many major disaster events around the world and the recognition that disasters have a significant social dimension due to their increasingly devastating impact on people at different scales and, on local communities (Kyne, 2023). According to Sansavini (2017), resilience has emerged in the last decade as a concept to understand the ability of a system to withstand unexpected changes by reducing (absorptive capacity), adjusting to and recovering from the negative effects (adaptive and restorative capacity).…”