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Objectives. To shed light on how the public health community can promote the recovery of Hurricane Katrina victims and protect people in future disasters, we examined the experiences of evacuees housed in Houston area shelters 2 weeks after the hurricane.
Methods. A survey was conducted September 10 through 12, 2005, with 680 randomly selected respondents who were evacuated to Houston from the Gulf Coast as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Interviews were conducted in Red Cross shelters in the greater Houston area.
Results. Many evacuees suffered physical and emotional stress during the storm and its aftermath, including going without adequate food and water. In comparison with New Orleans and Louisiana residents overall, disproportionate numbers of this group were African American, had low incomes, and had no health insurance coverage. Many had chronic health conditions and relied heavily on the New Orleans public hospital system, which was destroyed in the storm.
Conclusions. Our results highlight the need for better plans for emergency communication and evacuation of low-income and disabled citizens in future disasters and shed light on choices facing policymakers in planning for the long-term health care needs of vulnerable populations. (Am J Public Health. 2006;96:1402-1408. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2005.084475)
Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005, as a category 4 hurricane, causing widespread damage throughout the Gulf Coast region and virtually destroying the city of New Orleans, La. As thousands fled the region, the nation watched painful images of fellow Americans suffering in conditions that more resembled our expectations of disasters in developing countries than what we would expect to see in our own wealthy nation. According to one survey, more than 9 in 10 Americans said they were closely following these media stories during and after the catastrophe.1
Across the nation, Americans asked ourselves how this could happen and what we could do to help. The public health community also asked what it could do to protect victims' health and promote their recovery and what lessons it could learn to better plan for a future storm or other disaster. We sought to shed light on these issues by describing the results of a survey of evacuees conducted in Houston area shelters 2 weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck, providing a unique view of the experiences of...