Cascading system impacts of the 2018 Camp Fire in California: The interdependent provision of infrastructure services to displaced populations

Abstract

An often overlooked, cascading impact of disasters is displaced populations suddenly arriving in neighboring communities. Due to a lack of front end planning, the infrastructure systems in hosting communities may consequently be challenged as the communities try to accommodate the sudden influx of people. Disaster-induced displacement is not a new trend, yet we know little about how hosting communities respond or how future responses might be improved. The current study aims to address this gap by utilizing the context of the 2018 California Camp Fire, which displaced over 50,000 people. We conducted 13 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in the provision of infrastructure services and qualitatively analyzed the data. This was done to (1) examine the challenges hosting communities faced as they tried to provide infrastructure services—specifically housing, water sector, and transportation—to displaced and existing residents and (2) document the efforts to accommodate displaced persons, taking infrastructure interdependencies into account. Findings show that displacement compounded prior infrastructure issues (e.g., traffic, housing shortage), suggesting that communities can prepare for displacements by assessing their existing capabilities, and as such, anticipate vulnerabilities in their systems when responding to displacement. We also found that practitioners involved in all systems were challenged by communication and organizational issues (e.g., incorporating stakeholders from various institutions).