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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Sudha Xirasagar, MBBS, PhD¹, Keith Elder, PhD, MPH, MPA², Shelly-Ann Bowen, PhD (c), MPH³, Debeshi Maitra, MHA², and Dayna Campbell, MS¹. (1) Dept of Health Services Policy and Management, University of South Carolina, Arnold School of Public Health, 800 Sumter Street, Room 116, Columbia, SC 29208, 803 576 6093, sxirasagar@sc.edu, (2) Dept of Health Services Policy and Management, University of South Carolina, Arnold School of Public Health, 800 Sumter Street, Room 116, Columbia, SC 29208, (3) Dept of Health Promotion Education and Behavior, Health Services Policy and Management, 800 Sumter Street Room 116, Columbia, SC 29208

Public health's success critically depends on the public's willingness to cooperate and comply with mandates during emergencies. "If a sizable group refuses to cooperate, that group could suffer greater mortality... and could jeopardize the success of the containment effort”. We conducted six focus groups (50 New Orleans evacuees) to identify the psychosocial, financial, community network, civic, and communication factors in African Americans' decision not to evacuate in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Results: Psychosocial functioning (riding out previous hurricanes, optimism about outcome, self efficacy, religious beliefs, and hurricane impact perceptions) were the most common themes among reasons for not evacuating. Financial factors (liquid resources/ready cash for travel), community network factors (racism in access to publicly provided transport for evacuation, neighborhood crime/looting concerns) were also recurrent themes in the reasons for not evacuating. Extended families (disabled and chronically ill older persons inhibiting evacuation, opinion of older adults) and historic government-citizen relationships (perceived racism, race concordance issues with government officials, and communication skills) were also significant factors. Delayed communication about mandatory evacuation, combined with highway gridlock due to poor evacuation planning was also cited. Implications for public health policy and practice: In order to facilitate evacuation of minority, low income and underserved communities, Governments should incorporate culturally sensitive communication, resource allocation, and logistic planning. Each state and local disaster plan should be driven by perspectives gathered from locally relevant, participatory research involving these groups. This is critical to prevent disproportionate mortality and impact among minority and disadvantaged Americans in future.

Learning Objectives:

• To understand the policy-relevant factors underlying African Americans’ evacuation response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina

Keywords: Disasters, Minorities

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation