Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Louisiana, on the morning of August 29, 2005. The magnitude of the displacement that resulted was immense: the city's entire population of 455,000 was forced to leave the city and resettle, which some did temporarily and others permanently. The toll from the hurricane was enormous and continues to unfold. Even though this event occurred two years ago, research on many major topics of scientific and policy interest is only just beginning but is hampered by a lack of appropriate data. A critical need in assessing the impact of the hurricane and in planning a recovery is to obtain representative data on the whereabouts, status, health, and well-being of displaced New Orleans residents. The dispersion of residents makes this an extremely challenging undertaking. However, the value of these data for researchers, policymakers, and the public is extraordinarily high. In this project, which responds to PA-06-454 """"""""Behavioral and Social Research on Disasters and Health,"""""""" we will conduct a survey of New Orleans residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina, analyze the results, and disseminate the data.
The specific aims of the project are to field the Displaced New Orleans Residents Study (DNORS);to analyze the results, focusing on the levels, sources, and patterns of non-response and on the displacement and return or resettlement of pre-Katrina residents of New Orleans;and to clean, document, enhance, and disseminate the DNORS data and encourage and support users of the data.
This study will field the Displaced New Orleans Residents Study (DNORS), which is based on a representative sample of pre-Katrina residents of the city with an oversample of poor families with children and will track and interview respondents wherever they currently reside. Study results will provide valuable information on the whereabouts, health, and well-being of children and families who lived in New Orleans at the time of Hurricane Katrina, including information on short- and medium-term outcomes over a period of up four years following the hurricane.
