One of the first steps people take toward rebuilding their communities after a flood, wildfire or other disaster may not be the right step, according to the director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. “When a disaster happens, people feel pressure to rebuild things just as they were before, when in fact a disaster should be a time when there is a pause, when we ask ‘How can we build it back better than it was before?’ ” said center Director Kathleen Tierney, also a professor of sociology.