Building Back: Stratified Recovery After an EF–4 Tornado in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Abstract

On April 27, 2011, an EF–4 tornado struck Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Historic damage from the storm coincided with a recessionary economy, a double blow from which the city has yet to recover. This study applied disaster vulnerability theory to a mixed–methods analysis involving qualitative research, photography, and geographic information systems (GIS) analysis in order to document the recovery of three neighborhoods in the tornado zone. One measure of progress is easy to see. Two neighborhoods, both financially stable, have been rebuilt. The third neighborhood has lagged behind the other two, although residents, community leaders, and city planners seek to revitalize this blighted community. Tuscaloosa's experience suggests that prestorm vulnerabilities lead to uneven recovery and proposals for the gentrification of poor neighborhoods that reproduce preexisting patterns of residential segregation.