Extreme weather is increasing in scale and severity as global warming worsens. While poorer communities are typically most vulnerable to the negative effects of disasters, even well-resourced communities will increasingly be affected as climate-related storms intensify and more people live in increasingly unsustainable places. Yet less is known about how middle-class communities are responding to these storms and the resulting damage. In their book Soaking the Middle Class, sociologists Anna Rhodes and Max Besbris followed 59 households in the middle-class suburb of Friendswood, Texas for over two years after Hurricane Harvey to understand their recovery process. The book highlights how disaster recovery fosters inequality, even in middle-class places. This webinar will focus on some key findings from the book, especially as they relate to the demand for equitable mitigation policies that stretch across social class boundaries.

This event is part of the Natural Hazards Center's Making Mitigation Work: A Webinar Series.