The devastation of New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina presents an opportunity and an obligation to examine the human and social factors that influenced the nation’s response to this disaster. Lessons from Katrina suggest that a social marketing approach to disaster management could increase the likelihood of positive outcomes for individuals and communities when a disaster strikes. Th...

In this paper, we situate New Orleans’ post-Katrina “restaurant renaissance” within a context of historical and contemporary racial gender inequities. This provides space for critical consideration the celebratory narratives popularly attached to city’s most prominent chefs their roles in “rebuilding” Orleans wake Hurricane Katrina 2005. Our critique focuses on practice chef “celanthropy” (cele...

This article introduces us to the complexities of conducting social scientific research in a major urban disaster zone and reports on results from the most systematic survey at the time aimed at tracking the whereabouts of pre-Katrina residents during the first year of recovery, the Displaced New Orleans Residents Pilot Survey. This survey drew an area-probability sample of pre-Katrina resident...

Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm on August 29, 2005. Many residents were evacuated to neighboring cities owing to massive destruction. Working with the City of Houston Health Department, researchers conducted a medical and psychological needs assessment of 124 Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Houston shelters from September 4-12, 2005. Among those willing ...

This experiment drew upon theoretical perspectives on group and system justification to examine whether exposure to media coverage arguing that racism was responsible for the ineffective Hurricane Katrina disaster response affected White and Black Americans’ intergroup attitudes. Consistent with a system justification perspective, Whites exposed to video clips arguing that the hurricane Katrina...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the prevalence of serious emotional disturbance (SED) among children and adolescents exposed to Hurricane Katrina along with the associations of SED with hurricane-related stressors, sociodemographics, and family factors 18 to 27 months after the hurricane. METHOD A probability sample of prehurricane residents of areas affected by Hurricane Katrina was administered a tel...

INTRODUCTION Identifying at-risk groups is a challenge in post-disaster psychosocial response. Geospatial techniques can support the design and deployment of targeted and tailored interventions. This study compared spatial patterns in the distribution of hospitalizations for substance abuse disorders and associated area-level predictors before and after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisia...

Children constitute a vulnerable population and special considerations are necessary in order to provide proper care for them during disasters. After disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, the rapid identification and protection of separated children and their reunification with legal guardians is necessary in order to minimise secondary injuries (i.e. physical and sexual abuse, neglect and abduc...