Paper short abstract:

I examine disaster response as a process of shifting of selective attention through time in the post- Hurricane Maria (2017) context of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. I argue that attending to these shifts over the long term reveals how disaster recovery projects reproduce inequality.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I examine disaster response as a process of shifting of selective attention through time. Set in the post- Hurricane Maria (2017) context of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, my analysis considers the moment in disaster response when urgent, emergency action shifts to long-term projects of recovery and future risk reduction. Examining both federal and local level recovery agencies, I show how tracing shifts of attention and disregard over the years -- in regards to particular populations, projects, and priorities -- can reveal underlying logics shaping recovery work in this unincorporated territory. In turn, I argue, these logics help explain

the differentially distributed benefits of recovery programs -- programs which are, supposedly, fair, equal, and open to everyone. I suggest also that it is after public attention has turned away from sites of disaster -- the long years that follow the immediate outpouring of disaster response -- that the inequality of disaster response is revealed. I thus advocate for a sustained attention to the long-term, both of disasters and of disaster response, as a means of interrogating and destabilizing the pernicious logics that flourish when senses of emergency and urgency have faded.