Minority Health and Health Equity Archive
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Item Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in a New Orleans Workforce Following Hurricane Katrina(2007) DeSalvo, Karen B.; Hyre, Amanda D.; Ompad, Danielle C.; Menke, Andy; Tynes, L. Lee; Muntner, PaulOn August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall resulting in catastrophic damage and flooding to New Orleans, LA, and the Gulf Coast, which may have had significant mental health effects on the population. To determine rates and predictors of symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in New Orleans residents following Hurricane Katrina, we conducted a web-based survey 6 months after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. Participants included 1,542 employees from the largest employer in New Orleans. The prevalence of PTSD symptoms was 19.2%. Predictors of PTSD symptoms in a multivariateadjusted regression model included female sex, non-black race, knowing someone who died in the storm, not having property insurance, having had a longer evacuation, a much longer work commute compared to before Hurricane Katrina, and currently living in a newly purchased or rented house or in a temporary trailer. Despite universal health coverage and the benefits of an employee assistance program for all employees, only 28.5% of those with PTSD symptoms had talked to a health professional about the events of Hurricane Katrina or issues encountered since the storm. A significant burden of PTSD symptoms was present 6 months following Hurricane Katrina among a large group of adults who had returned to work in New Orleans. Given their key role in the economic redevelopment of the region, there is a tremendous need to identify those in the workforce with symptoms consistent with PTSD and to enhance treatment options. The strong relationship between displacement from ones_ pre- Katrina residence and symptoms of PTSD suggests a need to focus resource utilization and interventions on individuals living in temporary housing.Item Gulf Coast Rising(2007) Beamon, KellyIt's tough enough to build disaster-relief housing, let alone housing that anyone would want to live in when the crisis has passed.Item When Sweat Equity is the Only Way Home(2007) Hughes, Amy R.Johnny Moore is on the roof of his flood-wrecked home in New Orleans. But he's not waiting to be rescued. The three-and-a-half feet of water that swamped the modest brick-faced ranch he shared with his wife, Venus, has long since receded. Now, two years after Hurricane Katrina struck and the levees failed, Johnny is saving himself by rebuilding his house the only way he can: with his own hands.Item New Orleans: Where's the money?(2007) Lashinsky, AdamFortune Magazine -- Ask New Orleanians how their city is faring these days, and their responses follow an eerily consistent arc. They begin with gratitude that you bothered asking and then move on to recitations of all the good that's going on. Hurricane Katrina, and the flood that followed, struck two years ago this month, and since then the tourists have returned, basic services are operating, and the city has crafted a comprehensive recovery plan. Linger a bit on the subject, however, and optimism quickly turns to exasperation. Lack of government leadership, the glacial pace of rebuilding, and outright rage at absent neighbors who've yet to demolish blighted homes top the list of gripes.Item You can't go home again(2007) Harris, MarlysTwo years have passed since Hurricane Katrina smashed into New Orleans. And if you hang out downtown and don't look too closely, you might think that everything is back to normal. The French Quarter, home to the city's famous jazz clubs and eateries, is thick with tourists, and the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, the shelter of last resort for thousands of hot, hungry and hopeless hurricane survivors, again plays host to groups like the American Association of Law Libraries and the International Council of Shopping Centers. But to the east, off Interstate 90, in the city's hardest-hit neighborhoods, the landscape is still post-apocalyptic. On major arteries, practically everything is boarded up: shopping centers, supermarkets, Walgreens, Wendy's, even gas stations.Item New Orleans: Risky business for insurance(2007) Simons, JohnSilver-haired and 62, Jim Donelon has never worked so hard. The New Orleans-born lawyer and politician has suddenly become a traveling salesman of sorts. His pitch: "Come sell insurance in New Orleans." In recent weeks, the Louisiana state insurance commissioner has traveled to Columbia, S.C., to meet the chief executive of Companion Property & Casualty Group, to Seattle to call on the board of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, and to London, where he spoke to insurers at Lloyd's. "When I talk to executives, I share some positives about the business environment. The levees are being rebuilt," Donelon says. "And more importantly, with our Napoleonic Code [which does not impose punitive damages], we are a much less intimidating litigation environment than our neighboring states.Item Kendell Goes Back To School(2007) Dennis, Alicia; Schindehette, SusanTen-year-old Kendell Lewis hops down from the steps of his trailer to take a visitor on a child's-eye tour of what remains, and what is gone, from the streets of his old neighborhood. "I had friends there, lots of them," he says outside an abandoned house with boarded-up windows in the Lower Ninth Ward. "Kadija, Vernon, Tyris and Ariane. But I don't get to play with them now." Farther up the block, collapsed shells of houses lie in multicolored heaps. The park where, Kendell says, "I used to hit a ball with my bat" is now deserted, grown over with weeds taller than a little boy. On the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, everywhere in this neighborhood near where the levee broke it's the sameItem New Orleans: Back From the Brink(2007) Collis, Clark; Juarez, VanessaThe city fell silent after Hurricane Katrina, its legendary music scene devastated. But two years later, the town's arts community is coming together to get the Big Easy swinging again. A look at their extraordinary storiesItem Turning around a shrimp company for a fifth generation(2007) Chauvin, David; Chauvin, KimWhen FSB first discovered The Mariah Jade Shrimp Company (mariahjadeshrimp.com) shortly before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck, ("Blue Bayou" September 2005) the big problem for this fourth-generation family business was foreign competition. When Rita's floods swept through Chauvin, La. the Mariah Jade, the company's shrimper, became the temporary home for David and Kim Chauvin, and their three kidsItem Hurricane Katrina - Two Years Later: In Their Own Words (part 6)(2007) DeBerry, JarvisSince Hurricane Katrina, three real villains have emerged in New Orleans: the Army Corps of Engineers for its poorly built floodwalls, FEMA for its "heckuva job" and the insurance industry for its stingy payouts and its deliberate and heartless attempts to rid its books of South Louisianians.