Keith Elder ^1*, Sudha Xirasagar ¹, Nancy Miller ², Shelly Ann Bowen ¹, Saundra Glover ³, Crystal Piper ³

¹ University of South Carolina
² University of Maryland Baltimore County
³ university of South Carolina

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kelder{at}gwm.sc.edu.

	Abstract

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.

Key Words: Environment, Health Policy, Public Health Practice, African Americans/Blacks, Socioeconomic Factors, Qualitative Research

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