Partnership behavior in disaster relief operations: a case study comparison of the responses to the tornado in Joplin, Missouri and Hurricane Sandy along the Jersey Coast

Information about how agencies behaved in previous disasters could allow us to predict agency behavior and network structure in response to future events. In this paper, we review studies of two different disasters that occurred in the USA to provide insight into some of the common characteristics of disaster relief efforts. Specifically, the studies discussed explore how agencies involved in disaster relief operations formed and maintained partnerships by comparing survey results from Joplin, Missouri (EF-5 Tornado in 2011) and the New Jersey Coast (Hurricane Sandy in 2012). The objective of this paper is to analyze partnership creation, length, and conclusion in networks of agencies responding to disasters. 80 agencies were interviewed and over 500 partnerships were analyzed. The analysis of the data provides a building block to guide the development of inputs for future models of agency behavior and interaction. One key result was that the survey data indicated only a third of the strategic and tactical partnerships that were leveraged to support the relief effort were formalized prior to the disaster event. Additionally, it was found that partnerships between Non-Governmental Organizations were the most stable relationship. This paper provides insight into how agencies involved in disaster relief could manage their partnerships to achieve their goals.