Study Surveys Victims’ Plight

The Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) last Friday released the results of the only scientific survey so far on the evacuees of Hurricane Katrina, which found that nearly 4 out of 10 people surveyed in Houston shelters had been unable to evacuate.

For the survey, conducted in conjunction with the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and the Washington Post, 680 of approximately 8,000 evacuees in Houston shelters were randomly selected and interviewed.

According to the study, conducted just two weeks after Katrina struck, nearly 4 out of 10 people were either physically unable to evacuate, or needed to care for someone who was unable to leave. A quarter of the people interviewed said they did not hear the evacuation order. Even in retrospect, 42 percent reported that they still could not have found a way to evacuate before the storm hit.

“We were taken aback by their problems with getting out,” said Robert J. Blendon, a professor of health policy and management and director of the Harvard Program on Public Opinion and Health and Social Policy. “More than 10 percent of these people slept outside for a day. More than half were trapped for three days.”

“Many were without water, food, electricity­,” he added. “Others were ill and had no access to medical care—it’s just not what you’d expect in America.”

“These are the people that were hit the hardest from Katrina. We cannot say this survey is representative of all the evacuees from New Orleans. Everyone who had the means to do so [isn’t] living in Houston two weeks later, and anyone who’s very sick has been taken to medical facilities,” said Mollyann Brodie, vice president of public opinion and media research at KFF. “This does, however, paint a very good picture about this population in the aftermath of Katrina, and the tenuousness of their lives preceding Katrina.”

According to the study, over two-thirds of the people interviewed have neither credit cards nor a usable bank account. More than half had a household income under $20,000 per year. Less than half have health insurance, and of those, 40 percent were enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid.

The study did not cover all the shelters in Houston due to logistical issues and did not visit shelters in Baton Rouge, La. or Dallas.

“The study was certainly an accurate representation of the evacuees in Houston,” said Erin Weltzien, a research associate at KFF, noting that she does not think results would have differed significantly if more of the victims had been interviewed.

“I found it most surprising that there was so little help in the evacuation effort from the state and local government,” Blendon said. “Most people replied that they received their help from the National Guard or the Coast Guard. If you were writing about 9/11, you’d be writing about the local fire and police departments, but they fell apart in New Orleans.”

The evacuees interviewed also expressed severe disappointment in the federal government.

“There’s incredible anger against the President [Bush]. Just after Katrina hit, the national polls showed that his approval ratings dropped below 50 percent, but among these people, it’s at 15 percent,” said Blendon. “They really felt that the President had let them down.”

Forty-four percent reported that they now want to permanently relocate, with most opting to stay in Houston.

The collaboration between HSPH, KFF, and the Washington Post has existed for a decade to study major policy questions such as social security, military families, and other public health issues.

“This particular survey was conducted in person, and on very short emergency notice,” said Blendon.

“Our underlying goal in this study was to make sure we were giving voice to people in a scientific way,” Brodie said. “We’ve never done any comparable studies—in terms of concentrated catastrophes such as a hurricane, this is the first project we’ve done.”