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From: Wesley Shrum <shrum@lsu.edu> Date: September 6, 2005 12:52:05 PM EDT To: 'jeremy hunsinger' <jhuns@vt.edu> Subject: Katrina -- one week after . ****
On Sept 5, one week after Katrina, a team of ten people conducted qualitative interviews in the parking lot with approximately 50 displaced persons at a central Baton Rouge location. Afterwards, we met for a couple of hours, to abstract a consensus view of what we had learned. It is important to keep in mind that we spoke with individuals with some mobility (own car, other’s car, bus) that had been displaced by Hurricane Katrina and we have not yet interviewed those living in collective shelters.
--The vast majority are from the New Orleans metropolitan area (including Kenner, Metairie, Chalmette, but not the New Orleans North Shore or Plaquemines). The vast majority of displaced persons are staying in private homes.
--The further one goes away from hurricane areas, the more, the better, and the quicker is the assistance (people came back to Baton Rouge because they want to be closer to home, even in spite of reduced assistance).
--Crime and fear of crime was universally unobserved or insignificant, both for early and late evacuees.
--Blacks are more committed to returning home to New Orleans than whites, who express more reservations about returning (note, this does not take into account social class).
--Displaced people have received assistance from (in order of importance), family, friends, and strangers. Churches have helped. Public (government) assistance was not just negligible—no member of the team recalled any instance of government assistance reported by this group of individuals (in the rare cases where help was requested, it was not provided).
--Most people consider themselves to be very lucky, doing well, or doing reasonably well given the circumstances. They are not requesting assistance (beyond that they are receiving, and some of the most fortunate have their own means). But the minority of persons who are not doing well DESPERATELY NEED HELP.
--The main concerns are financial, for a place to stay, and education for their children.
Put simply, depending on how long before they move back (if they do), people are worried that they will wear out their residential welcome.
Summarized by W. Shrum, 5 September 2005 http://worldsci.net World Summit event in Tunisia http://worldsci.net/global Science & Development Project site http://4sonline.net Society for Social Studies of Science http://www.lsu.edu/sociology
Jeremy Hunsinger Center for Digital Discourse and Culture () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments http://www.aoir.org The Association of Internet Researchers