Waugh, William L., and R. Brian Smith. “Economic Development and Reconstruction on the Gulf After Katrina.” Economic Development Quarterly 20, no. 3 (August 2006): 211–18.

In William L. Waugh and Brian R. Smith’s 2006 article, they address potential concerns for rebuilding and recovering from the social and economic impacts of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast. They analyze the potential impacts of various restructuring proposals and look at the limitations that come with abiding by federal policy proposals due to the large scale disaster that requires more than mere local government funding and redevelopment. They discuss the consequences of federal involvement such as restructuring maps that would force local planning to follow mapping and planning regulations that would further disenfranchise communities that were home to low-income, people of color, and elderly communities. Federal planning would restrict and (re)development in the floodplains, following FEMA policies that would not allow residents of the floodplains to be eligible for flood insurance if they did not follow the regulations of official federal map planning. Even so, with areas that did adhere to federal mapping regulations, residents would still be at risk from displacement even during the recovery process. Federal policy proposals would force residents of recovering neighborhoods that did not attract a certain quota of new residents after a period of twelve months to vacate their neighborhood. Furthermore, more policy proposals would see traditional coastal areas redeveloped and replaced by clusters of new residential areas with more amenities at skyrocketing prices as well as a law that was signed by the Louisianna governor that permitted the construction of new tourist catching casinos with fewer local land restrictions. This article gives me more insight into the organizational data that I should be looking out for and looking for government records and FEMA involvement, in both speculative proposals and the aid that they were actually able to provide. With this information, I will also see if I can compile permissible data from the offices of various governors and local governments in times of natural disaster.