The damage caused during Superstorm Sandy in 2012 was immediate, but the aftershocks for New Jersey residents continue in the form of enduring health, economic, environmental and social impacts. To better understand these effects, the New Jersey Department of Health has supported a joint research team from PiR2, the Institute for Families at Rutgers University School of Social Work, the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, and Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis at Colorado State University to conduct the Sandy Child and Family Health(S-CAFH) Study, one of the largest disaster recovery projects and assessments in the region. The data were collected by a team of two dozen community-based interviewers who conducted one-hour face-to-face surveys with sampled respondents throughout the nine-county study area in New Jersey.

The research team will deliver four briefing reports that cover the following topics:  (1) The Place Report – the decisions and actions related to evacuation, housing, community, and restoration and repair; (2) The Person Report – the physical and mental health status and well-being of residents who lived in areas exposed to Hurricane Sandy, with an additional focus on children’s health; (3) The Problems Report – residents’ current unmet needs and their experience with systems of formal help; and (4) The Progress Report – the factors associated with stalled or facilitated recovery among affected residents.

The participants in the Sandy Child and Family Health Study are representative of the 1,047,000 New Jersey residents living in the Disaster Footprint.    We have assembled the cohort – principally through the sampling and weighting described above – so that the experiences, attitudes, and characteristics of the 1,000-member cohort reflect those of the actual population in this hurricane-affected area of New Jersey.

Key Findings: COMING SOON