when natural disasters strike onlookers often see the immediate impacts as the extent of the catastrophe; however the aftermath can be just as pertinent if not more for florida-native ian seavey the lasting impacts of hurricanes have not only been a lived experience but are also a key component of his doctoral research after graduating from the university of tampa seavey left his coastal hometown to pursue a phd in history at texas a&m university seaveys research focuses on us disaster relief in puerto rico while politics and economics play a key role in this field seavey finds the cultural implications of disasters crucial as well in communities where theres frequent disasters theres often a before- and after-effect you know people remember where they were people create art from the destruction it becomes a part of the culture and folklore of the area seavey noted relief efforts both locally and federally play instrumental roles in shaping these oftentimes catastrophic shared experiences the first chapter of seaveys dissertation a tale of two storms: us army disaster relief in puerto rico and texas was recently published as an article it focuses on federal responses to the 1899 san ciriaco hurricane in puerto rico and the 1900 great storm of galveston if youre studying hurricanes or disasters in general you kind of have to deal with the galveston story in some way or another but i found it interesting that these two storms are only a year apart and no one was talking about them in the same context even though the us army was involved in both efforts seavey shared both areas experienced similar impacts as a result of federal responses overlooking local perspectives in puerto rico [the us army] really excluded puerto rican voices and in galveston was steamrolling african american voices it was the american military from the top down doing relief efforts with no cultural understanding of the local lay of the land seavey explained since these two particular storms adjustments to federal disaster relief have been put into policy seavey is currently working on an article that traces us disaster relief over the years surveys the current state of the field and provides insight for where the field should go in the future how has federal disaster relief changed over the yearsprior to 1950 seavey noted that disaster relief relied heavily on donations and fell mostly onto the shoulders of local and state governments the federal government didnt really get involved because [they] had to go through congress and thats an arduous process by that point people have already died homes are completely ruined and things like that however president trumans federal disaster relief act of 1950 gave the federal government a beeline to provide relief as seavey described it the act allowed states and territories to request aid from the federal government which the us president has the power to approve or override in 1979 the federal emergency management agency became the entity responsible for deploying this aid to areas declared a disaster seavey added that after the widespread criticisms of federal relief efforts for hurricane katrina the us government and fema created the national disaster recovery framework which serves as a guiding document for femas responses to catastrophic disasters the framework includes locally-responsive procedures that recognize underserved communities and communities that are historically black or hispanic at least on paper things have gotten better but theres still a lot to be desired with fema we still see in 2017 with harvey and hurricane maria in puerto rico as well fema was not responding to the underserved communities well specifically we found in our research over at the bush school the vietnamese fishing communities on the coast of texas received hardly any relief at all we see the same thing with puerto rico in general seavey shared what is the ideal disaster reliefaccording to seavey the general perspective toward disasters is what calls for adjustment the lack of planning the lack of relief efforts those are what actually make the disaster a disaster seavey said rather than viewing hurricanes as one-off disruptions seavey sees them as inevitable occurrences that require long term and locally specific planning especially in coastal areas where hurricanes are a part of the geographic culture its difficult because fema is kind of like arainy day organization but structural changes are key investing in sustainable energy sustainable infrastructure things like that seavey said seavey also pointed to addressing poverty and the infrastructure in underserved communities as a form of long term disaster relief planning given that these areas and communities tend to experience more exacerbated impacts more on ian seaveywhen seavey isnt digging in the archives in puerto rico or analyzing disaster relief efforts he spends time in music and sports as a self proclaimed metal-head he not only listens to the genre but plays and writes it with his local band man is myth hes also co-founded the history departments local softball team as a way to get people out of the office and enjoy some time outside seavey is currently halfway through his phd and plans to graduate in the spring of 2024 coming to [texas a&m] was a no-brainer seavey said ive really enjoyed it ever since