Essay On Hurricane Ike

The disaster I chose is Hurricane Ike. September 13th near Galveston, Texas. Ike was a category 2 hurricane at landfall with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. Hurricane Ike produced a damaging, destructive and deadly storm surge across the upper Texas and southwest Louisiana coasts, and ended up being the third costliest natural disaster in the United States behind Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Andrew. They had structured telephone interviews assessing immediate effects of Hurricane Ike (damage, loss, displacement) and mental health diagnoses were administered via random digit-dial methods to a household probability sample of 255 Hurricane Ike-affected adults in Galveston and Chambers counties. There were three-fourths of respondents that evacuated the area because of Hurricane Ike and nearly 40% were displaced for at least one week. Post disaster mental health prevalence estimates were 5.9% for posttraumatic stress disorder, 4.5% for major depressive episode,
and 9.3% for generalized anxiety disorder. Bivariate analysis suggested that peritraumatic indicators of hurricane exposure severity-such as lack of adequate clean clothing, electricity, food, money, transportation, or water for at least one week-were most consistently associated with mental health problems.After the disaster, FEMA assisted by giving two grants totaling nearly $6.5 million obligated to the Texas Governor's Division of Emergency Management for the costs to deliver fuel to fueling stations used by state agencies and emergency personnel along the Gulf Coast during the state of emergency. There was also a $2.8 million grant issued to GDEM for the cost of operating five evacuee shelters in Austin, Texas, from Sept.
11 to Sept. 25, 2008, along with a nearly $1.4 million grant to the city of Houston to cover costs incurred by the city for providing generators on an emergency basis to health departments, police and fire stations following the storm, a $15.7 million grant obligated for Galveston County for the removal and disposal of debris from rights of way on Bolivar Peninsula, and a $1 million grant to Hardin County for the cleanup of debris throughout the county. These resources and services were imperative to the recovery of the victims' psychological health because these people have lost everything due to this disaster, they have nowhere to go and have probably lost loved ones due to the hurricane which can have a significant impact on a person. Victims tend to feel abandoned, scared, and without those resources, it may lead them over the edge which may lead to the loss of their own
lives. These resources were put into place to help victims gain normalcy.