Orestimba Creek Feasibility Study - Stanislaus County

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Economics Appendix – Draft Report - Orestimba Creek Feasibility Study, Stanislaus County, California – September 2012 The characteristics that are recognized as having an influence on social vulnerability generally include age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Other characteristics include population segments with special needs or those that lack the normal social safety nets necessary in disaster recovery, such as the physically or mentally challenged, non-English speaking immigrants, transients, and seasonal tourists. The quality of human settlements (housing type and construction, infrastructure, and lifelines) and the built environment are also important in understanding social vulnerability, especially as these characteristics influence potential economic losses, injuries, and fatalities from natural hazards. The discussion below focuses on the measures of social vulnerability that will be evaluated considering both the affect of construction and the affect of a flood event. Income, political power, prestige: This measure focuses on ability to absorb losses and enhance resilience to hazard impacts. Wealth enables communities to absorb and recover from losses more quickly due to insurance, social safety nets, and entitlement programs. As a measure, median household income of Newman is very close to that of Stanislaus County, $49,359 and $50,359 in 2008 respectively and is not at a proportional disadvantage to the general surrounding area. Gender: Women can have a more difficult time during recovery than men, often due to sectorspecific employment, lower wages, and family care responsibilities. Although data is not specifically available concerning the wage rate of male verse female for the Newman area, it is recognized that a smaller percent of women are employed in the labor force in Newman than in the larger two metropolitan cities of Turlock and Modesto. The percentage of variation of this factor however is quite small. Race and Ethnicity: Race and Ethnicity imposes language and cultural barriers that affect access to post-disaster funding and residential locations in high hazard areas. It is recognized that Newman has a significant hispanic population (60.0%) which is recognized in the literature as being one of the highest in the State of California. Age: Extremes of the age spectrum affect the movement out of harm’s way. Parents lose time and money caring for children when daycare facilities are affected; elderly may have mobility constraints or mobility concerns increasing the burden of care and lack of resilience. Those over 65 years of age are estimated at 9.7% in the year 2000. This is slightly less than the State average. Employment loss: The potential loss of employment following a disaster exacerbates the number of unemployed workers in a community, contributing to a slower recovery from the disaster. Rural/urban: Rural residents may be more vulnerable due to lower incomes, and more dependent on locally based resource extraction economies (e.g., farming, fishing). High-density areas (urban) complicate evacuation out of harm’s way. 98
Economics Appendix – Draft Report - Orestimba Creek Feasibility Study, Stanislaus County, California – September 2012 Residential property: Rural/urban Rural residents may be more vulnerable due to lower incomes and more dependent on locally based resource extraction economies (e.g., farming, fishing). High-density areas (urban) complicate evacuation out of harm’s way. Residential property: The value, quality, and density of residential construction affects potential losses and recovery. Expensive homes on the coast are costly to replace; mobile homes are easily destroyed and less resilient to hazards. Infrastructure and lifelines: Loss of sewers, bridges, water, communications, and transportation infrastructure compounds potential disaster losses. The loss of infrastructure may place an insurmountable financial burden on smaller communities that lack the financial resources to rebuild. Renters: People that rent do so because they are either transient or do not have the financial resources for home ownership. They often lack access to information about financial aid during recovery. In the most extreme cases, renters lack sufficient shelter options when lodging becomes uninhabitable or too costly to afford. Occupation: Some occupations, especially those involving resource extraction, may be severely impacted by a hazard event. Self-employed fisherman suffer when their means of production is lost and may not have the requisite capital to resume work in a timely fashion and thus will seek alternative employment. Those migrant workers engaged in agriculture and low skilled service jobs (housekeeping, childcare, and gardening) may similarly suffer, as disposable income fades and the need for services declines. Immigration status also affects occupational recovery. Family structure: Families with large numbers of dependents or single-parent households often have limited finances to outsource care for dependents, and thus must juggle work responsibilities and care for family members. All affect the resilience to and recovery from hazards. Education: Education is linked to socioeconomic status, with higher educational attainment resulting in greater lifetime earnings. Lower education constrains the ability to understand warning information and access to recovery information. Population growth: Counties experiencing rapid growth lack available quality housing, and the social services network may not have had time to adjust to increased populations. New migrants may not speak the language and not be familiar with bureaucracies for obtaining relief or recovery information, all of which increase vulnerability. Medical services: Health care providers, including physicians, nursing homes, and hospitals, are important post-event sources of relief. The lack of proximate medical services will lengthen immediate relief and result in longer recovery from disasters. Census data for 2010 indicate that there are 66 residents in nursing homes in Newman. 99
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Orestimba Creek Feasibility Study - Stanislaus County

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