A Summary Of Hurricane Katrina

In the immediate aftermath of hurricane Katrina, more than one third of the evacuees in Houston shelters reported that they had spent time in the Superdome in New Orleans. About forty percent of the evacuees said that they had spent at least one day on the street or overpass waiting to be rescued. Moreover, 34% had reported that they were trapped in their homes, and some of them were trapped and waited for 3 days to be rescued. The National Guard as reported by evacuees rescued most of the people. However, individuals are more vulnerable during a disaster, individuals at low income will not be able to evacuate easily. Evacuation procedures are difficult for people in low income or people with special needs.
A survey was conducted in 2005 with
680 people randomly selected, the respondents were 18 years and older who evacuated to Houston from the gulf coast after hurricane Katrina. A lot of evacuees in Houston shelters said that they came by the government’s effort, and the majority said that they had been in Houston for 10 days or less. Many of the people in Houston shelters are missing important resources that could help them recover after the disaster, 20% of the residents said that they had relatives or friends who they could live with temporarily. Also approximately 3 in 10 said that they had a bank account which they could rely on and withdraw money. And these could help people to recover and be prepared for the future’s disasters. Thus, people with special needs, elderly, children, and people with low income are going to be the dependent variable in this research. Especially in coastal cities, and the independent variable is a hurricane. Hurricane Katrina will be the example and what actions people took when they knew about the storm was coming. The survey that was done after hurricane Katrina is a good method because it shows different reactions of the people who were affected.

Table - Houston Shelter Residents’ Reports of Evacuation Orders and Their Own Evacuation Experiences All Residents (n = 680), % Evacuated Before the Storm (n = 255), % Evacuated After the Storm (n = 408), %
Evacuated
Yes 38 100 No 61 100
Awareness of evacuation order
Heard order and said it gave clear instructions 49 71 36***
Heard order and said it did not give clear instructions 24 17 28*** Did not hear evacuation order 26 11 35***
Primary reason for not evacuating
Did not have a car or a way to leave 34
Thought the storm and aftermath would not be as bad as they were 28
Had to care for someone who was physically unable to leave 7
Physically unable to leave 5
Waited too long 7
Worried that possessions would be stolen/damaged 4
Did not want to leave pet 1
Just did not want to leave 10
None of the above 3
Could have found a way to leave before the storm hit Yes 56 No 42
Primary source of news about the evacuation order a
Television 79 84 77*
Radio 13 10 14
Friend/family member 4 3 5
Police 1 2 1
Time lived in New Orleans, yb ≤ 10 8 9 6 11–20 7 8 6 > 20 12 15 10 Entire life 73 67 77**
Note. In cells with missing values, comparison data were not available. Sample sizes for individual questions vary slightly owing to missing data. a Among those who heard an evacuation order b Among residents of greater New Orleans.
* P < .05; **P < .01; ***P < .001 (vs. those who evacuated before the storm).

The interviewers collected the date above from the residents at Houston shelters after hurricane Katrina, and it shows how people acted regarding the evacuation orders. What they had left behind and what they had taken. Most of the evacuees said that they do not have homes to return to, majority said that their homes had been damaged or totally destroyed. As a result, having such information would help to respond to the future disasters, hospitals will be ready and prepared for people especially uninsured or people who lives in poverty. Furthermore, reconsider the requirements for the people who were involved in the disaster, despite their race, gender, or wealth status. However, the methodology that used to collect the data after Katrina was various; data was coming from news reporters, press release, television, and interview transcripts. Different resources can show a different vision of the disaster, or looking at it from a different perspective. Each source of the above has a limit of accessibility to information. The table below shows the number of sources that have documents analyzed, and information about the delayed response to hurricane Katrina.