Assessing the quality of state disaster recovery plans: implications for policy and practice

Pre-event planning for postdisaster recovery helps to improve recovery outcomes following disasters by engaging the network of stakeholders involved in recovery and working to develop a degree of consensus around recovery priorities. States serve as a linchpin between local communities and federal agencies, and the development of comprehensive state recovery plans allows states to communicate recovery goals and decision-making processes. This article addresses the limitations of what we know about the role of the state in disaster recovery by describing the application of a plan quality evaluation tool to a sample of state recovery plans. The plans evaluated in this study tended to be heavily focused on federal and state programs and grants available following disasters. To effectively guide recovery decision-making and encourage community resilience, state recovery plans should help to set a direction for recovery and develop corresponding policies that may be implemented by the broad network of stakeholders involved in recovery.