In post-earthquake Haiti, members of the Bohoc community rehabilitate and widen a road. Photo: Lisa Hoashi/Mercy Corps.

In minutes, everything was gone.

The funnel clouds from one of the United States’ worst tornado seasons in years destroyed homes, bridges, schools, and anything else in their path. While the loss is catastrophic, the reconstruction period that follows a natural disaster can create interesting economic niches and opportunities for those seeking to put the pieces back together.

This kind of destruction is not unique to the U.S. Catastrophes around the globe cause economic shifts. Sometimes this means a transformation in a country’s economic structure, but on occasion, disaster can spark positive changes.

In an example of structural transformation, massive winter flooding in Colombia recently put millions of acres of land underwater — having disastrous effects on the country’s dairy, agricultural, and cut flower industries. Colombia had planned to transform its eastern plains into the country’s primary agricultural sector, doubling the amount of land under cultivation, but the flooding presented a major roadblock. “...[I]n just a few hours we are losing what has been 35 years in the making,” one dairy farmer told Reuters.

Last year’s floods in Pakistan, the earthquake in Haiti, and Hurricane Katrina (to name a few) disrupted millions of lives and wiped out or severely destroyed local and national economies. Recovery may take decades.

But disasters have also spurred interesting new economic developments. The floods in Pakistan washed away thousands of miles of roads and railway lines, many bridges, almost 10,000 schools, and 1.7 million houses. Rebuilding them represents an enormous business opportunity. It is also a chance to introduce more resource-efficient practices in industries like agriculture, livestock, and dairy farming that were wiped out by the floods, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK, Wajid Shamsul Haman, told Reuters.

Indeed, the destruction of infrastructure and existing institutions sometimes represents an opportunity to rebuild in new and improved ways. In March 2010, the Haitian government unveiled a plan to rebuild the nation that seeks to redistribute a large portion of the population to smaller, less disaster-prone cities, according to the New York Times. Building up the infrastructure in these smaller communities should create an economic incentive for people to stay. Planners hope that a decrease in Port-au-Prince’s population will help to alleviate many of the social problems related to overcrowding that it faced before the earthquake.

New Orleans experienced massive job loss following Hurricane Katrina, but by 2008 it had regained 99 percent of its pre-storm total thanks to thousands of new jobs in construction and government, says the New York Times. Some companies and nonprofits incorporated green building practices as part of the rebuilding process, according to the Christian Science Monitor. In fact, the New Orleans school system, which was in many ways failing before the hurricane, is ranked as the most reform friendly city for education by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, says the Christian Science Monitor. Test scores and graduation rates are both up. In some ways, the city is experiencing a rebirth.

A natural disaster is, of course, still a disaster. Even the best-laid reconstruction plans may never materialize. This is especially true in the developing world, where the wounds left by a disaster are more severe and take longer to heal. Scientists predict the world will experience more severe natural disasters in greater numbers in the coming century, says The Guardian. That means more floods, more hurricanes, and more tornadoes like the one that recently ripped through Joplin, Missouri. It also means that now, more than ever, we need to understand how to create positive economic change in a disaster's aftermath.

Although Pakistani women have generally been excluded from land ownership, flood recovery is prompting the government to take action. Photo: Miguel Samper for Mercy Corps

Severe weather has proven to be a catalyst for women’s rights in rural Pakistan.

In July 2010, floods submerged nearly one-fifth of Pakistan, washing away cattle, infrastructure, and over 2 million hectares of crops. In a feudal country where landlords have strong influence, landless farmers face great difficulty in recovering their livelihoods. Because landlords have so much power, farmers have been forced to pay high interest rates while receiving small returns from crops. This system places many into a constant cycle of debt.

To help rural families overcome this debt, the provincial government of Sindh has recovered 95,000 acres of its own land from the flood, distributing it to roughly 5,800 peasants. In an effort to target gender inequality, the government will allot another 92,000 acres solely to women.

While women are legally allowed to own land, Pakistan’s social obstacles have discouraged women from realizing these rights. In 2008, the Sindh government launched an initiative to advance the legal rights of women through land distribution. It would have been an important step in addressing gender inequality — but male opposition largely prevented the project from moving forward.

Now, Pakistan is trying again. Although women have generally been excluded from land ownership, flood recovery is prompting the government to take action. Equitable land distribution, the government and farmers hope, will allow more families to pay off their debts.

Despite Pakistan’s unsuccessful 2008 initiative, this new effort is showing hints of success.

“People realize they are receiving this because of the women,” Amil Khan, a spokesman from the charity Oxfam, explained to the Christian Science Monitor. As families receive the opportunity to achieve economic independence and a real prospect of debt relief, goals of shifting attitudes towards women don’t seem far off.

Although women’s rights remain controversial within a male-dominated society, the government may be learning from its disappointing 2008 failure to empower women. Hopefully this time around, Pakistan will successfully deliver greater economic opportunity to the country’s women, particularly during this vital time of recovery.