Residual effects of Hurricane Katrina: Access to food, health care and physical activity

The initial response to Hurricane Katrina included a massive outpouring of resources, and the need for resources to provide long term services persists. According to a White House report, “[recovery] will require a sustained commitment over time..." In an attempt to identify long term recovery needs and to inform those who allocate resources and provide services about these needs of specific populations in the Gulf Coast region, three academic institutions, the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Delta State University and Southeastern Louisiana University, have teamed up to conduct community driven research on the Gulf Coast.

This presentation will highlight a qualitative study, which is part of this collaborative effort, conducted one year after Hurricane Katrina. The authors examined the impact of disaster on access to food, health care and recreational activities among residents of East Biloxi, MS. Key findings include many barriers to living a healthy lifestyle: reduced access to health care, longer distances traveled to obtain food, and reduced availability of recreational activities. Participants identified barriers to good nutrition including FEMA trailers with small refrigerators requiring more frequent trips to the store to buy food, difficulty in preparing food in the trailer kitchens, and food not being as fresh as before the storm. They also described obstacles to receiving health care, including fewer doctors and longer distances to travel to see the doctors. The residual effects of Hurricane Katrina are ever present in the Gulf Coast and many resources are still needed.