Maria Watson
Assistant Professor | University of Florida
Gainesville, FL, UNITED STATES
Maria Watson is an urban planner with expertise in disaster recovery.
Biography
Maria Watson’s research focuses on housing and small business recovery after disaster events. Maria is interested in the effectiveness of disaster recovery programs, particularly the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Disaster Loan Program and Community Development Block Grant for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Program. Maria has been a part of multiple interdisciplinary disaster recovery research efforts in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and North Carolina after Hurricanes Ian, Ike, Harvey, Matthew, Florence, Laura, and Delta.
Areas of Expertise (3)
Disaster Assistance
Disaster Recovery
Small Business Recovery
Media Appearances (3)
Farmers advised to inspect grain bins after severe weather
AgriLife Today online
2023-09-07
With severe weather systems becoming more constant across the country, a team of multistate agricultural researchers found in a new study that grain bins need to be carefully scrutinized for structural safety, soundness, and engineering integrity. The study was prompted by a string of severe weather outbreaks in the Midwest that began in 2020, as well as severe weather that has occurred throughout Texas.
Federal disaster assistance loans often fall short for eastern Kentuckians
Louisville Public Media online
2023-06-16
Federal disaster assistance can be offered to individuals through the Small Business Administration, but many eastern Kentuckians recovering from the July 2022 floods don’t qualify. And many who do are hesitant to take on the loan. Reggie Ritchie sat parked in a neighbor’s driveway in the early morning of July 28, 2022, and watched as floodwater knocked his neighbor’s double wide into his home, off its foundation and into the street before him.
Natural Disasters Displace Workers and Businesses
SHRM online
2023-04-24
Extreme flooding in South Florida, tornado outbreaks in the South and Midwest, and storms in California in recent weeks have forced residents from their homes and shut down or damaged businesses from coast to coast. It follows on the heels of almost 3.4 million Americans being uprooted from their homes because of natural disasters in 2022, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures.
Articles (3)
Assessing changes in food pantry access after extreme events
Agriculture and Human ValuesJohn P. Casellas Connors, et. al
2022-10-28
Food pantries play a growing role in supporting households facing or at risk of food insecurity in the United States. They also support emergency response and recovery following disasters and extreme weather events. Although food pantries are often placed in close proximity to communities with the highest rates of poverty and risk of food insecurity, access to these facilities can be disrupted during and after extreme events.
Business recovery from disasters: Lessons from natural hazards and the COVID-19 pandemic
International Journal of Disaster Risk ReductionStephanie E.Chang, et. al
2022-08-05
This paper compares economic recovery in the COVID-19 pandemic with other types of disasters, at the scale of businesses. As countries around the world struggle to emerge from the pandemic, studies of business impact and recovery have proliferated; however, pandemic research is often undertaken without the benefit of insights from long-standing research on past large-scale disruptive events, such as floods, storms and earthquakes.
Disaster assistance winners and losers
Journal of the American Planning AssociationMaria Watson
2021-12-13
Disaster assistance in the United States has faced criticism for widening the unequal impacts of disasters, but little is known about whether and how this phenomenon applies to businesses. Small businesses make up most businesses in the United States, but they are particularly vulnerable to hazards given their relative lack of capital. Because recovery assistance to businesses is primarily loan based, this lack of capital can create conflicts in how aid is perceived and allocated.
