IDENTIFICACIÓN E HISTORIA DE LA ORGANIZACIÓN

Terri identified eight determinants of vulnerability: Age (1 code), culture (1 code), education and preparation (3 codes), financial (5 codes), health (1 code), transport disadvantaged (3 codes), political (2 codes), and social ties (2 codes). Terri asserts that age was the most significant determinant of vulnerability and that the elderly are particularly vulnerable because they are less able to cope both physically and mentally. She also suggests that they are less likely to move out of their community following an event. She says that strong cultural and family ties to tribal land and an unwillingness to relocate to less exposed places in other areas may make iwi more vulnerable. She identifies a lack of education or health as a root cause of vulnerability as well as financial circumstances. On a lack of transport as a determinant of vulnerability, Terri says: “I think that anybody that is not transportable; I mean young people just get up and go… but during an event the elderly and lower socio-economic groups don’t have anywhere to go; they just sit there and take it.”

Terri recounts how those with access to power fared better following the 1987 earthquake.

There are groups of people who for various reasons and are usually the lower-socio economic, less educated people who when a natural disaster occurs, don’t have the ability to ensure that they get the best of whatever support is out there. Now when I look at what happened in the Edgecumbe earthquake, there were are number of wealthy farmers who got large subsidies from the Mayoral fund and bought themselves new cowsheds. There were lots of other people who were more deserving who could have got that but [others] were ‘in the know’ and knew how to get these things… Whereas ‘Joe Bloggs’ on the street living in Edgecumbe didn’t get anything; certainly didn’t get $40,000

to spend on a cow shed, which was spent on home improvements anyway!.. It has to be because that group of people who are already vulnerable become vulnerable again because they don’t have the ability to tap into those networks.

Terri strongly asserts that a lack of knowledge about grant making or lack of access to the right people results in a two speed recovery process with the poor recovering slower than the well networked and resourced.

6.3.2.10 Terry Wynyard (Former disaster recovery manager,

TCC)

Terry identified six codes relating to vulnerability: age (3 codes), building and lifeline infrastructure (1 code), culture (1 code), health (2 codes), transport disadvantaged (1 code) and according to time of day (1 code). He identifies that age is a determinant of vulnerability for seniors who are not in professional care but still living in the community “because rest homes would have the ability to make a plan for evacuation and what they’d do.” Terry cites the danger in relying on structural measures to protect against natural hazards. “Structural measures are kidding yourself. In Japan they had sea walls in the 2011 event that were overtopped.” With regard to culture he suggests that language could be a problem when communicating information to speakers of other languages but asserts that culture in and of itself is no determinate of vulnerability. He also asserts that financial circumstances are not the most important determinant of vulnerability so long as people are healthy and have access to transport. “As long as you are mobile, as long as you can walk. I don’t think that economic vulnerability is an issue.” He cautions that trying to assign people as vulnerable because of their socio-economic status is too simplistic and hierarchical “you have to be very careful because if you create this social hierarchical system somehow that we’re going to put people into these categories then we’re creating a monster for ourselves.”

Terry argues that vulnerability changes during the day particularly as people are at school or work:

What’s the plan at 3:10pm when the kids are walking home from school and you don’t know where they are? So there is a

vulnerability there so when they’re at school they could have a plan and mum and dad could be comfortable about that and when they’re at home they can have a plan and be comfortable with that so the vulnerability diminishes but when they are in limbo and you don’t know where they are, they’re vulnerable… different sectors of the community can be more vulnerable at certain times of the day [such as] the young.

6.3.2.11 Findings

In line with the literature review, finances were coded more often than any other determinant of vulnerability. However the interviews gave rise to some

interesting findings. Rural and poor communities can be less vulnerable than their urban and wealthier counterparts. Likewise Maori are not necessarily more vulnerable than those of the majority European ethnicity. In fact their culture greatly mitigates vulnerability through strong social ties and access to communal facilities in an emergency. Elderly people can be less vulnerable than the young and fit if they have good facilities, care and financial resources.

The attraction to exposed places affordable only to those of higher financial means increases their vulnerability. A lack of access to transport coupled with a lack of financial resources reduces the ability to evacuate pre- event and recover quicker post-event. Interestingly, exposure and vulnerability changes according to the time of day. Treaty settlement processes have siloed and fractured relationships between Maori, hurting the social ties that make them strong. A disturbing finding from the interview with Rosalie Crawford was the exploitation of already vulnerable people by unscrupulous members of society.

Planners need to be careful not to over categorise people according to individual determinants of vulnerability. The combination and interplay between determinants of vulnerability and factors of resilience are complex and not easily measured. Indeed the higher the magnitude of an event the less relevant individual determinants of vulnerability are.