Disaster Prep, at the Nail Salon

On an afternoon in fall 2016, Meghan McPherson sat in a plush maroon swivel chair in a Long Island nail salon, where the TV blared about Hurricane Matthew’s impending arrival. Working on McPherson’s cuticles, the Mandarin-speaking owner, Katrina Zhan, mentioned she was having trouble understanding everything the newscasters were saying about the storm, which was churning up the Atlantic seaboard. Would the impact be as bad in New York as in North Carolina?

“We want to stay safe, too,” Zhan told McPherson, who works nearby as the assistant director of Adelphi University’s Center for Health Innovation. Those words, McPherson says now, brought to mind the gap between existing resiliency efforts in North Hempstead—the town where the salon is located—and a population that needs them most.