ABSTRACT
While recent disasters, catastrophes, episodes of repeat losses and climate change have intensified attention on hazard management techniques in coastal and floodplain settings, the disaster literature in this area is meagre. At best, we have a collection of “best practice” recommendations spread across a plethora of bodies of literature with little consistency regarding methods or scopes of analysis. Our lack of understanding, however, has not limited our use of relocation as a societal adjustment to hazards. We present this case study as the culmination of two distinct studies that explored relocation decision-making processes in Oakwood Beach, New York, that suffered extensive losses from Hurricane Sandy in 2012. We found that while Oakwood Beach is unique in some ways, the lessons learned provide valuable insights for future relocation efforts. Specifically, we found that the community ties established following previous disasters served as the foundation for their ultimately successful relocation effort. We recommend that future studies take up both the intermediate- and long-term social and economic effects of a relocation on households and explore the experiences of displaced renters in relocations.
