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Public Shelters After Katrina [ note taken in a central Baton Rouge location 1 week after djf]
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 11:38:25 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Jeremy Hunsinger <jhuns () vt edu> Date: September 12, 2005 8:44:02 AM EDT To: David Farber <dave () farber net> Subject: For IP: Public Shelters After Katrina Dave,Here is Professor Shrum's next write-up of their preliminary research on Katrina's effects. It follows the previous posting on IP.
Begin forwarded message:
From: Wesley Shrum <shrum () lsu edu> Date: September 12, 2005 7:48:01 AM EDT To: 'Jeremy Hunsinger' <jhuns () vt edu> Subject: Public Shelters After KatrinaOn Friday, Sept 9, a team of ten people from the Department of Sociology at LSU videotaped thirty qualitative interviews with displaced persons living in a Baton Rouge public shelter. (The shelter was the first and largest collective facility in the city.) The individuals were interviewed from 11am to 4pm. Residents are permitted to leave the space from 7am to 7pm.Again, we present our preliminary observations, before the tapes have been systematically examined. Our best estimate at the present time is that fewer than 10% and probably closer to 5% of displaced persons are living in shelters. We do recognize that our last couple of points go beyond ourdata, but seem critical for future evacuation planning. --The shelter, though large, is well organized, peaceful, secure--and relatively empty during daylight hours. It is well stocked with food,blankets, medical supplies, and other basic needs items. Families stay together in "residences" and "communities" marked by symbolic indicators. Residents and staff have settled into a routine that is disrupted primarily by the media. Since it was opened, the 5000 residents have been interviewed by approximately 1000 members of the media, (est. by press office). (Note: we conducted interviews within a section of the facility that was relativelyunavailable to the media.)--Shelter residents are predominantly poor and African American. They are almost exclusively from New Orleans, and are predominantly late evacuees.(This could be due to the time of day the interviews were conducted.)Transportation out of New Orleans remains a problem of unknown significance, since many of these individuals, while poor, view their lack of evacuationas a choice (part of a hurricane culture).--Shelter residents were appreciative of the aid provided. We considereddescribing their general mood as "satisfied" with the assistance, but"resignation" is more accurate. It is impossible to overemphasize that no one wanted to be there and many had lost most or all of their possessions.--The most important reason these individuals now reside in this public facility is that they did not use remote family & friendship networks for evacuation support. We have not yet been able to determine whether this was because they did not possess such networks or did not activate ties that did, in fact, exist but were unused owing to issues involving reciprocation and information search. Another issue that will be important to resolve iswhether the lack of a place to stay and transportation encouragedrisk-taking (staying behind) or whether the decision to stay was primary,and it was simply their lack of networks that resulted in shelterresidence. It did seem to us that improved ability to send and receive personal information would have reduced the likelihood of shelter residence.--The data base now being created for public facilities should includeinformation on network ties to facilitate the transition from collective toprivate residences. Summarized by W. Shrum, 9 September 2005 -----Original Message----- From: Wesley Shrum [mailto:shrum () lsu edu] Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 9:50 AM To: 'Wesley Shrum' Subject: One Week After Katrina On Sept 5, one week after Katrina, a team of ten people conductedqualitative interviews in the parking lot with approximately 50 displaced persons at a central Baton Rouge location. Afterwards, we met for a coupleof hours, to abstract a consensus view of what we had learned. It isimportant 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 andwe have not yet interviewed those living in collective shelters.--The vast majority are from the New Orleans metropolitan area (includingKenner, Metairie, Chalmette, but not the New Orleans North Shore orPlaquemines). The vast majority of displaced persons are staying in privatehomes.--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 theywant to be closer to home, even in spite of reduced assistance).--Crime and fear of crime was universally unobserved or insignificant, bothfor 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 intoaccount 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 anyinstance of government assistance reported by this group of individuals (inthe 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 DESPERATELYNEED HELP.--The main concerns are financial, for a place to stay, and education fortheir children.Put simply, depending on how long before they move back (if they do), peopleare worried that they will wear out their residential welcome. Summarized by W. Shrum, 5 September 2005
jeremy hunsinger jhuns () vt edu www.cddc.vt.edu jeremy.tmttlt.com www.tmttlt.com () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments http://www.aoir.org The Associatiion of Internet Researchers ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- Public Shelters After Katrina [ note taken in a central Baton Rouge location 1 week after djf] David Farber (Sep 12)