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Findings from this research indicate that the regional disaster response could be strength-
ened by the collective definition of disaster relief, recovery, and resilience outcomes. There
are rational reasons why evaluation is not always prioritized in disaster response. Tracking
process measures or outputs can seem insensitive or impossible in emergency situations due
to the chaotic, high-emotion, and all-hands on deck context of disaster relief. Identifying and
measuring outcomes can be even more difficult, as those are often only measurable after the
delivery of services through surveys and research. However, as this research also indicated,
tracking outputs is key to receiving certain forms of state and federal reimbursement. More-
over, tracking outputs and outcomes helps organizations to know when they are having their
desired impact and when they need to shift gears. Since disaster response is truly a collective
endeavor, the creation of a consensus driven evaluation framework and shared measure-
ment system that could be utilized by the region or county-level communities would make
that response more efficient and effective.
