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Keith Elder, PhD, MPH, MPA, Sudha Xirasagar, PhD, MBBS, Nancy Miller, PhD, MA, Shelly Ann Bowen, MS, Saundra Glover, PhD and Crystal Piper, MPH, MHA

Keith Elder, Sudha Xirsagar, Saundra Glover, and Crystal Piper are with the Department of Health Services Policy and Management, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia. Nancy Miller is with the Department of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Catonsville. Shelly Ann Bowen is with the Department of Health Promotion Education and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Keith Elder, Department of Health Services Policy and Management, University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health, 800 Sumter St, Room 116, Columbia, SC 29208 (e-mail: kelder{at}gwm.sc.edu).

Objectives. We examined the psychosocial and personal factors that influenced African Americans’ decision not to evacuate New Orleans, La, before Hurricane Katrina’s landfall.

Methods. We conducted 6 focus groups with 53 African Americans from New Orleans who were evacuated to Columbia, SC, within 2 months of Hurricane Katrina.

Results. The major themes identified related to participants’ decision to not evacuate were as follows: (1) perceived susceptability, including optimism about the outcome because of riding out past hurricanes at home and religious faith; (2) perceived severity of the hurricane because of inconsistent evacuation orders; (3) barriers because of financial constraints and neighborhood crime; and (4) perceived racism and inequities.

Conclusions. Federal, state, and local government disaster preparedness plans should specify criteria for timely evacuation orders, needed resources, and their allocation (including a decentralized distribution system for cash or vouchers for gas and incidentals during evacuation) and culturally sensitive logistic planning for the evacuation of minority, low-income, and underserved communities. Perceptions of racism and inequities warrant further investigation.

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