Before, Now, and After: Assessing Hurricane Katrina Relief

Abstract

We assess governmental and non-governmental responses to disasters using primary data of Hurricane Katrina survivors along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Non-governmental sources include nonprofit relief groups, faith-based organizations, and survivors' self-identified social networks. We assess the impact of these governmental and non-governmental relief efforts on survivors' economic, psychological, physical, and social effects from the disaster. Our results show that social isolation significantly increases perceptions of disaster disturbance and decreases perceived rates of disaster relief. Additionally, survivors perceive that social networks provide greater sources of psychological, financial and social disaster relief than government sources. However, survivors' social networks decay sharply in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, and they do not appear to fully recover a year from the disaster. These social networks themselves are not fully resilient to a disaster.

Of timelines and timeliness: lessons from Typhoon Haiyan in early disaster response

“…As observed in previous studies (Athukorala, 2012;Forgette et al, 2009;Paul, 2006), and reaffirmed by events during Typhoon Haiyan's onslaught, other sectors, including NGOs, play a significant role in relief operations, with NGOs being the preferred conduits of aid for private donors. Thus, policymakers should consider more significantly the participation and input of NGOs in the crafting of a revised disaster management plan.…”

Building Louisiana’s Water Cluster

“…When parsing the economy of the state's water-related industries-and their vulnerability-hundreds of billions of dollars in damages, repairs, restoration and fortification represent only the most recent impacts of a small number of storms (2013a, Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority 2014, Blake and Gibney 2011, Forgette et al 2009, Knabb, Brown, and Rhome 2006. The upside, in the wake of these events and the billions of dollars that continue to be spent in response, is that the storm-related experiences of individuals, companies, organizations and institutions created a pool of knowledge upon which old and new ventures grew in academia, government and the private sector, capitalizing on myriad aspects of recovery, disaster management and mitigation.…”

Displaced Older Adults’ Reactions to and Coping With the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

“…Forgette and his colleagues (Forgette et al, 2009) defined the size of "social networks" as the number of friends, immediate family, and extended family members the survivors interacted with. They showed that these social networks endured throughout the recovery stages and helped individuals' physical and psychological well-being, though their sizes typically became small.…”