Post Hurricane Gentrification
This chapter presents post-hurricane gentrification data and sets out the results of the hurricanes’ impact on accessibility to education and healthcare by the native dwellers living in the areas affected by hurricanes. It also presents post-hurricane poverty levels. Hurricane gentrification falls under climate gentrification, whose climate effects and adaptations lead to significant displacements of an area’s inhabitants following changes in housing and property values. Climate gentrification contributes to housing inequalities (Keenan et al., 2018). In this light, hurricanes contribute to Gentrification by establishing displacement mechanisms following physical, economic, or social upgrading after the storm.
Data Analysis
According to Peer (2021), the Sandy hurricane caused close to 72 deaths and destroyed about 650,000 homes. Its damage cost was estimated at $70.2 billion. The Irma hurricane was established as a Category 4 hurricane. It displaced over 6 million Florida dwellers from the coastal areas. It resulted in about 129 deaths (Huber, 2020). Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico caused nearly 3000 fatalities and destroyed over 300 000 residential units, which accounted for close to one-third of Puerto Rico’s entire housing, (Ma & Smith, 2020)
According to Kim and Park (2023), hurricane Katrina, the worst hurricane, damaged over 70% of the inhabited houses in New Orleans, Louisiana. Roughly 80-90% of the residents were forced to evacuate the city. It wrecked about 200,000 homes and displaced over 800,000 residents from the area (Aune et al., 2020).
Levels of Post-Hurricane Gentrification in Florida, Puerto Rico, Louisiana, and New Jersey
The Irma, Maria, Katrina, and Sandy hurricanes resulted in a short-time spike in house value in the areas affected by the hurricanes. The spike was attributed to the fall in housing supply following the destruction of most houses (Wyczalkowski, 2018). For instance, there was an average spike in housing values by 5 % in Florida (Bolstad, 2018). Neighborhoods in Louisiana, Florida, New Jersey, and Puerto Rico experienced an insignificant drop in interest from homebuyers. Contrarily, these neighborhoods were gentrified since the housing value and the income of homebuyers grew slightly after the hurricanes. It has been established that only affluent buyers could afford to purchase or rebuild homes after the crisis. By the time the house prizes re-stabilized, the wealthier homeowners had already occupied almost a quarter of the houses in hurricane-struck neighborhoods. Also, unlike most of the displaced ordinary residents, affluent families moved into such areas because they could afford to go through a disaster. According to (Milman, 2018), the rich took the in-migration risk since they could rebuild their homes in case the occurrence of similar catastrophes or re-currencies of the hurricane damages them. Residents of gentrification-eligible after the hurricane were significantly more likely to be people of color, with poor education, lower income earners, unemployed, and rented homes rather than having home ownership (Anguelovski et al., 2019).
In Puerto Rico, Gentrification began in San Juan, the capital, but later extended into the island and remote towns like Rincon (Ma & Smith, 2020). Most of the native home renters were forced to move from the coastal areas to affordable neighborhoods. The major driving force for Gentrification in New Jersey was Sandy Hurricane.
Accessibility to Healthcare Services and Quality of Health
Founded on the available research results, we established that the hurricanes had a devastating impact on healthcare accessibility, greatly compromising the health quality of affected occupants. These hurricanes resulted in risky health outcomes among vulnerable groups. The sanitation systems were damaged, contaminating the water, eventually leading to an outburst of waterborne diseases (Schnake-Mahl et al., 2020). All forms of pathogens came with the flooding waters, leading to serious ailments. Also, the storm completely or partially destroyed healthcare facilities or there was a power shortage for quite some time. Many people fell sick because of contaminated water and food. Another crucial health effect of the hurricane was Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among the surviving natives. There was a significant increment in mental disorders following the high psychological stress the natives encountered from losing jobs and homes, separation from families, death of loved ones, and devastating living conditions. There was also a fall in the quality of physical health following the increased disabilities and impairments, which mostly developed from the effects of the injuries incurred during the hurricane. The growing number of PTSD denoted a significant rise in mental illnesses as well (Cole et al., 2023).
Regarding accessibility to healthcare, there were major interruptions in care continuity. Even before the hurricane struck, the coastal areas already had a high rate of medically uninsured persons, and many depended on the Charity Hospital system for care. This state worsened after the disasters. The hurricanes totally changed the healthcare systems leaving many survivors with limited or no access to care. Therefore the availability of healthcare amenities was greatly reduced. Shortly after the storm, most hospitals in the affected neighborhoods remained shut, and the few that re-opened could only offer limited services.
Besides destroying the healthcare facilities, most patients lost routine drugs such as diabetic drugs and asthma machines, among others to flood waters. Most of the residents in the affected area no longer had their prescriptions. Their clinical records at the hospitals and home were ruined completely. Cole et al. (2021) report another aspect that disrupted the continuity of care in the affected being the displacement of nurses, doctors, and pharmacists, among other healthcare practitioners. Medicine stock at the hospitals was swept away, which made it impossible for clinics to give medicines to residents suffering from chronic conditions such as asthma, HBP, diabetes, or with mental illnesses. All these post-hurricane health-related aspects resulted in a significant decline in the residents’ health statuses.
Education Accessibility by the Native Dwellers Post Hurricane
According to Noguera and Alicea (2020), approximately 50% of those displaced by hurricanes have been established to come from high-poverty-ridden areas. Very few of the natives school-going children settled in better schools elsewhere. Most of the children were not lucky to have the chance to settle down and enroll in thriving schools. Their accessibility to quality education was reduced because many displaced persons spent years moving from one Place to another to seek jobs that could sustain them or moved in search of housing. This constant moving made it hard for most children to settle in school. It was established that over 20% of the displaced school-goers no longer enrolled in schools or failed to attend regularly, skipping school for about ten days every month (Miron & Laurie, 2022). This is the major reason why the displaced children could not keep up with their studies, making them lag by at least a year in school for their level. The natives’ children also suffered from low concentration in school and experienced high anxieties and behavioral challenges, largely affecting their education.
Post-Hurricane Poverty Levels
This study established a significant connection between catastrophic events such as hurricanes and poverty. The hurricanes largely impacted the economy of the affected areas. These impacts were experienced more by the disadvantaged since they lacked the power and resources to survive the disaster aftermaths because they suffered economically as they had lost their jobs and other sources of income (Tasri et al., 2022). The hurricanes damaged the areas’ productive infrastructure and capital, which lowered the income distribution level, consequently raising poverty. Unemployment rates among the natives in the disaster-struck areas increased since their economic capacity declined. The damage caused to the resources reduced resource productivity, leading to a decline in the resident’s income levels, consequently widening the income gap (De Koning & Filatova, 2020). We established that the hurricane exacerbated the natives’ poverty status since they lacked the financial resources to respond and recover swiftly from the devastating disaster, further worsening their poverty levels. Generally, there was a notable increase in poverty levels in the affected areas, including Florida, Puerto Rico, Louisiana, and New Jersey (Anguelovski et al., 2019).
Conclusion
In line with previous research and results from this capstone, property values are normally expected to fall, and mortgages become challenging to acquire after hurricanes, rendering significant parts of the affected areas almost intolerable to reside in (Thompson et al., 2022). Contrastingly, this study established the consequences of a hurricane being more ferocious since they result in adversities associated with access to education and quality healthcare and increased poverty levels among the natives. The overwhelming physical destruction drives the existing inhabitants out, making it easier for constructors to amass large parcels of land for reconstruction motives to better the home standards and accommodate the affluent groups, leading to mass gentrification (Florida, 2019). Generally, the post-hurricane Gentrification in Louisiana, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and Florida resulted in limited access to education and healthcare. The health status of the native dwellers in the hurricane-struck areas declined considerably, and there was a substantial rise in poverty levels.

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