In this study, we explored predictors of community college re-enrollment after Hurricane Katrina among a sample of low-income women (N = 221). It was predicted that participants' pre-hurricane educational optimism would predict community college re-enrollment a year after the hurricane. The influence of various demographic and additional resources (e.g., social support, childcare, hours of empl...

Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast of the United States in August 2005, exposed area residents to trauma and extensive property loss. However, little is known about the long-run effects of the hurricane on the mental health of those who were exposed. This study documents long-run changes in mental health among a particularly vulnerable group-low income mothers-from before to after t...

This study assesses the public health functions played by news information and social capital in the context of Hurricane Katrina. In-depth interviews were conducted with 57 hurricane shelter residents between 4 and 6 weeks after the hurricane. Depression was more common for participants who relied more on news information than for other participants after the hurricane (adjusted odds ratio [AO...

Hurricane winds can have large impacts on forest structure and dynamics. To date, most evaluations of hurricane impacts have focused on short-term responses after a hurricane, often lacked pre-hurricane measurements, and missed responses occurring over longer time scales. Here, we use a long-term data set (1974–2009, 35 years) of tree stems (.3 cm in diameter at 1.3 m aboveground) in four sites...

BACKGROUND Hurricane Ike struck the Galveston Bay area of Texas on September 13, 2008, leaving substantial destruction and a number of deaths in its wake. We assessed differences in the determinants of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression after this event, including the particular hurricane experiences, including postevent nontraumatic stressors, that were associated with these p...

Storm surges require that coastal residents make necessary preparations and evacuate the coast prior to hurricane landfall. An important individual characteristic in preparing for tropical cyclones is hurricane personal self-efficacy. Coastal residents who believe that it is possible to prepare for and evacuate ahead of a hurricane (hurricane response possibilities) and, further, believe that t...

This paper presents a methodology for using hydrodynamic modeling to estimate inundation areas and water depths during a hurricane event. The Environmental Fluid Dynamic Code (EFDC) is used in this research. EFDC is one of the most commonly applied models to Gulf of Mexico estuaries. The event with which the hydrodynamic model was tested was hurricane Ivan. This hurricane made landfall at the A...

This study evaluated how individuals living on the Gulf Coast perceived hurricane risk after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It was hypothesized that hurricane outlook and optimistic bias for hurricane risk would be associated positively with distance from the Katrina-Rita landfall (more optimism at greater distance), controlling for historically based hurricane risk and county population density,...

Little is known about the effects of surface water over land on the decay of landfalling hurricanes. This study, using the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory hurricane model, examines the surface temperature changes due to hurricane–land surface water interactions, and their effects on the surface heat fluxes, hurricane structure, and intensity...

BACKGROUND We examined patterns and correlates of speed of recovery of estimated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among people who developed PTSD in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. METHOD A probability sample of prehurricane residents of areas affected by Hurricane Katrina was administered a telephone survey 7-19 months following the hurricane and again 24-27 months posthurricane. The base...