| Following Hurricane Katrina the consensus was that the U.S. government failed to adequately support the rehabilitation of low to moderate-income families in the post disaster recovery process. This research sought to compare a similarly destructive storm in Hurricane Sandy seven years later through a structured, focused comparison case study. The methodology consisted of comparing how both state and local governments following each disaster employed recovery programs through the implementation of Community Developmental Block Grants. The findings show that the government officials of Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina failed on multiple levels to ensure appropriate assistance reached the low-income population. By comparing those failures to the processes implemented by New Jersey and New York, it is concluded that the local governments attempted to implement marginally better programs and oversight. Though up to this point, the programs have not sufficiently addressed pre-existing social conditions or adequately cared for LMI families. |
