Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina Discussed by Panel

A distinguished panel gathered at HSPH on October 3, 2008, to share perspectives three years after the deadly Hurricane Katrina tore across the Gulf Coast from central Florida to Texas, and swamped New Orleans, Louisiana, killing thousands. The six panelists included HSPH faculty as well as experts who work and live with those hit hardest by Katrina.

Watch a webcast of the panel on the HSPH website.

Learning from Catastrophe: The Public Health Consequences of Katrina for New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast also was webcast live to audiences in Biloxi, Gulfport, Bay St. Louis, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge.

Ichiro Kawachi, chair of the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health and co-director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at HSPH, sounded a central theme as he opened the event. Katrina “opened a window to racial and socioeconomic disparities in the U.S.,” he said.

Kawachi pointed out that, hurricanes notwithstanding, the average life expectancy for black males in New Orleans is just 61 years — lower than in Guatemala and Vietnam, among other countries. “Racial disparities in health predominantly reflect socioeconomic disparities,” said Kawachi.

As part of an effort to improve high-risk hurricane communities’ preparedness for another major Katrina-like storm, HSPH Professor Robert Blendon reported on the implications of a survey conducted during the 2008 hurricane season. The survey was conducted as part of a cooperative agreement with the CDC.

Three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of the Gulf Coast, the survey showed that one-third (34%) of those affected by the storm report they are very prepared if a major hurricane were to strike their communities in the next six months. The top worries of respondents threatened or hit by Hurricane Katrina are that they would not have enough fresh water to drink (42% very worried) and that they would not be able to get needed medical care (41% very worried).

Katrina-affected respondents have a heightened degree of concern across a number of issues compared to those not affected by the storm. These concerns include caring for a chronically ill or elderly household member, having enough cash on hand during the storm’s aftermath, dealing with the conditions at an evacuation shelter if they should need to go to one, and being threatened by violence. Approximately one in three Katrina-affected respondents are very worried about each of these problems while those who were not affected by Katrina are less worried.

Despite the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, a sizeable number of people living in high-risk hurricane areas say they would not evacuate due to a major storm if government officials said they had to leave.

In Katrina’s wake, “There are 18,000 families whose housing needs are still unmet,” reported Roberta Avila, executive director of the Mississippi Coast Interfaith Disaster Task Force, an umbrella agency for faith-based groups involved in the recovery effort. Avila is also a founding member of the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center and serves on the board of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance and the Steps Coalition, which is comprised of fifty nonprofit organizations that advocate for equitable recovery of the Mississippi Gulf Coast post-Katrina.

Jed Horne, former city editor of The Times-Picayune, asserted that “What can be done [in New Orleans today], isn’t being done. This sends a coded message that is very damaging.” Horne authored Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City, which was a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for book-length journalism.

Jacques Morial, co-director of the Louisiana Justice Institute, described the health care system in Louisiana as “broken for the indigent and the uninsured.” He added, “We were ashamed” of the nation’s and the state’s dismal response to the disaster. “Returning evacuees found a wrecked health care system. The uninsured cannot access health care,” especially as three of New Orleans’ major hospitals remain closed even now.

William (Scott) Griffies, associate professor of clinical psychiatry in the department of psychiatry at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and director of LSU’s psychiatric emergency service at University Hospital, advocated for allowing federal disaster relief funds to follow patients, rather than remain tied to flooded hospital buildings, as happened in Katrina.

Said Morial, “As the old adage goes, access to health care delayed is health care denied.”

-Eileen McCluskey.  Photos © iStockphoto.com/Chad Purser and © iStockphoto.com/Daniella Zalcman.