In the wake of Hurricanes Laura and Delta, Lowlander team members and disaster recovery professionals Kristina Peterson and Julie Maldonado formed the Disaster Justice Network (DJN). DJN is a volunteer network lending support to share critical information that is not easily accessed for the hurricane recovery processes. The network includes community leaders, faith leaders, advocates, activists, practitioners, researchers, and students weaving together environmental justice and disaster expertise to develop strategies that address the inequitable access to disaster response and recovery efforts and to advocate for a justice-driven recovery process.
“People are suffering. They have not been rebuilt from Hurricane Ida. We need safe and healthy homes. We need solar so people can afford their energy. We need to take care of our people.”
Tim Reinhold, Lowlander Team Member, repairs a roof.
The resiliently built Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe Greenhouse withstood Hurricane Ida.
Climate change has threatened the home insurance industry such that insurance companies are dropping weather event coverage as never before: the weather risks they cover are causing them to exclude protections from various weather events and raise monthly premiums and deductibles.
"Major insurers say they will cut out damage caused by hurricanes, wind and hail from policies underwriting property along coastlines and in wildfire country" —Washington Post
No time in the history of the United States and particularly of Louisiana has there been such a need to acknowledge and practice resilient home construction. There is no alternative to maintaining a housing industry and homes for the American population.
The co-leaders of Lowlander, Kristina Peterson and Shirley Laska, have been advocating and supporting the culture's change to resilient construction since the 1980s through university and faith disaster response organizations. Their commitment today is reflected in the coastal construction following Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustaf, Ike, Issacs, Laura, Delta and Ida. A coast-wide campaign to encourage resilient rebuilding has been instituted since Ida: Rebuilding the Boot.
“Rebuilding the Boot” is a hands on public education campaign through which the DJN seeks to share information that can help our communities learn how to use proven resilient techniques to build and re-build. Building a more resilient community that can better withstand storms and other climate changes saves our homes, our culture, and our Louisiana. Lending libraries for tools and hands on demonstration sites are available for community members to encourage mutual aid and assist with sustainable reconstruction.
“How many more communities must suffer before public policymakers and others with the ability to DO something actually provide incentives to help people (re)build better, stronger and safer? We need to aim MUCH higher. The goal should be for everyone who lives in vulnerable areas to become more resistant and resilient. ”