One Year After Sandy, a Survey

Introduction
Recovery
- Current Recovery
- Future Recovery
Satisfaction
The Helped and The Forgotten

Introduction

This blog post is an attempt to summarize as accessibly as possible Monmouth University Polling Institute's poll report, Displaced New Jerseyans Negative on Sandy Recovery Efforts—Many still need help making ends meet (.pdf).

Highlights and annotations^ABC have been added by me. The annotations makes it easier to match the percentages with their corresponding data cells.

Why does this report deserved an audience? This is why:

“Among impacted residents in the panel survey, the vast majority (75%) say that people like them have largely been forgotten in the recovery effort—including (85%) of those still displaced and (64%) of those who have returned to their homes. Only (25%) of those surveyed feel that the state's recovery effort has focused on helping them.”

The sample size was 683 “New Jersey residents who were displaced by Superstorm Sandy for at least one month”; 90% of respondents’ counties were Monmouth (51%) and Ocean (39%). More information on methodology and panel demographics is available in the original report.

If you want to calculate the confidence interval for the percentages, you can do so here.

Recovery

(Table 3.) How long do you think it will take your family to recover from the storm?
Guesstimate	Total	Still displaced	Back in home	<$50k	$50–74k	$75–99k	$100–149k	>$150k
Already fully recovered	^A10%	^C3%	^B18%	3%	10%	9%	16%	16%
Next few months	15%	^C11%	21%	17%	16%	14%	20%	16%
One year	28%	^C29%	26%	32%	28%	24%	25%	25%
2—3 years	^D18%	22%	13%	14%	24%	20%	15%	19%
Over 3 years	^D13%	14%	11%	11%	8%	15%	14%	11%
Never	^E16%	22%	10%	23%	13%	19%	11%	14%

Current Recovery

“Few of those who were hit hardest by Sandy feel they have returned to their pre-storm living conditions; Only 10%^A of those surveyed say they have fully recovered—including just 18%^B who are back in their homes and 3% who remain displaced from their pre-Sandy home. [Note: some of those who are still "displaced" have decided to permanently relocate.]

By contrast, a statewide poll conducted by Monmouth University in September found that the vast majority of all New Jersey residents, 76%, said their families have fully recovered from the storm.”

Future Recovery

“Among those who participated in the panel survey of the most-impacted residents, 43%^C hope to be recovered before Sandy's second anniversay next year, 31%^D say it will take longer than that, and 16%^E say they will never fully recover.”

Satisfaction

(Table 4.) Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the New Jersey's [sic] Sandy recovery effort so far?
Satisfaction	Total	Still displaced	Back in home	<$50k	$50–74k	$75–99k	$100–149k	>$150k
Very sat.	^B7%	3%	12%	4%	7%	9%	10%	10%
Somewhat sat.	^B31%	22%	41%	34%	31%	27%	34%	33%
Somewhat dissat.	^A30%	^C35%	^D25%	33%	25%	32%	28%	28%
Very dissat.	^A31%	^C41%	^D22%	29%	38%	33%	28%	28%

“On the whole, current and former displaced residents surveyed by Monmouth University tend to be more dissatisfied (61%)^A than satisfied (38%)^B with New Jersey's recovery efforts so far.

Residents who continue to be displaced (76%)^C are much more negative about these efforts than those who are now back in their homes (47%)^D.

By contrast, fully 76% of all New Jerseyans said they were satisfied with the state's recovery efforts according to a September Monmouth University Poll [sic].”

The Helped and The Forgotten

(Table 5.) Which of the following best describes your feelings about New Jersey's recovery effort? "The recovery effort is focused on helping people like me" OR "people like me have largely been forgotten in the recovery effort"?
Feeling	Total	Still displaced	Back in home	<$50k	$50–74k	$75–99k	$100–149k	>$150k
Helped	^D25%	15%	36%	26%	24%	24%	29%	21%
Forgotten	^A75%	^B85%	^C64%	74%	76%	76%	71%	79%

“Among impacted residents in the panel survey, the vast majority (75%)^A say that people like them have largely been forgotten in the recovery effort---including (85%)^B of those still displaced and (64%)^C of those who have returned to their homes. Only (25%)^D of those surveyed feel that the state's recovery effort has focused on helping them.

‘The Sandy recovery effort is certainly a tale of two states. New Jerseyans who were displaced by the storm, even if they are now back in their homes, are significantly more negative than other Garden State residents about the pace and focus of recovery,’ said Patrick Murray, director for the Monmouth University Polling Institute, which is conducting the ongoing study under a grant from the New Jersey Recovery Fund.”

Read the full report, which contains even more information and findings.

I have made more readabale—but more important exportable—version of some of the tables in the survey are available here. I haven’t double-checked the values, so make sure to do so before using the tables yourself. You are free to use my redesign of the spreadsheets from Google Docs as you see fit; you’ll have to ask the Monmouth University Polling Institute about what you can do with their data, though.

You can follow the changes made to this post on GitHub.

ndarville