Sep 30, 2026 · 47 min · 9 segments
What does it actually mean to recover after a disaster? In this episode Vithyaa speaks with disaster recovery expert Dr Kate Brady about what happens long after the immediate crisis has passed…
Vithyaa ThavapalanHostI'm just like, it's, I'm learning a lot just by listening to you and I'm sure our listeners will too.
But now I want to come into, obviously you go and, you know, you go in post disaster and obviously a lot of these situations, especially fires, for example, people are warned going, look, get bushfire ready and so forth.
Yeah, I'm going to start with like picking up on a word that I'm struggling with at the moment, but I think will help set up my answer to this.
So if we think about traditionally disasters have been thought of as the hazard, right? So the fire is the disaster.
It's when a disaster intersects with a population or an area or country and it disrupts things, right? And so it has negative consequences.
And the reason I'm picking up on this is because for some people, the hazard is fine.
And it means that what was a 20 minute commute to work or school is now a two and a half hour commute to work or school, which means one person has to give up their job in a household or a single parent can't make it work anymore and needs to leave an area.
It is something like, maybe you have an ongoing or chronic health disease, maybe you need dialysis.
The fire or the flood isn't the disaster, it's that all the nurses moved out of the area and they're short-staffed and the dialysis unit can't run anymore, so you can't live there.
Or it's that housing prices in your area or rent in your area doubles and you can't afford that anymore.
I'm just like, it's, I'm learning a lot just by listening to you and I'm sure our listeners will too.
But now I want to come into, obviously you go and, you know, you go in post disaster and obviously a lot of these situations, especially fires, for example, people are warned going, look, get bushfire ready and so forth.
Yeah, I'm going to start with like picking up on a word that I'm struggling with at the moment, but I think will help set up my answer to this.
So if we think about traditionally disasters have been thought of as the hazard, right? So the fire is the disaster.
It's when a disaster intersects with a population or an area or country and it disrupts things, right? And so it has negative consequences.
And the reason I'm picking up on this is because for some people, the hazard is fine.
And it means that what was a 20 minute commute to work or school is now a two and a half hour commute to work or school, which means one person has to give up their job in a household or a single parent can't make it work anymore and needs to leave an area.
It is something like, maybe you have an ongoing or chronic health disease, maybe you need dialysis.
The fire or the flood isn't the disaster, it's that all the nurses moved out of the area and they're short-staffed and the dialysis unit can't run anymore, so you can't live there.
Or it's that housing prices in your area or rent in your area doubles and you can't afford that anymore.
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