The dynamic process of social capital during recovery from Tropical Storm Irene in Vermont

In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene, recovery groups emerged throughout Vermont to assist victims with needs remaining after personal savings, insurance payments, and government assistance were depleted. This research links the concepts of ‘the strange attractor’ and ‘butterfly effect’ from chaos theory with theories of social capital to examine how initial conditions influence the emergence of recovery groups and subsequent recovery processes. In many communities, recovery group formation was driven by informal community efforts via bonding and bridging social capital. In areas with less social capital, governmental actors from within the state and federal disaster framework facilitated the formation of recovery groups via linking social capital. Formation pathways had cascading impacts on recovery group ability to acquire resources for group administration and victim recovery. Recovery groups driven by informal community actors experienced proliferating social capital and access to high-value resources. However, linking social capital with the state and federal disaster framework ensured all recovery groups had adequate resources for victim recovery and equalized growing inequalities across them. All recovery groups were closing their remaining victim cases within 2 years after the disaster. Vermont’s success points to how the state and federal disaster framework can coordinate with informal community efforts to create an adaptive recovery process that leverages their complementary strengths.