This research examines how emergency and temporary shelters were established and operated after Hurricane Katrina. The project focuses on shelters serving socially vulnerable populations, particularly those requiring special needs support. Although the publicly recognizable, formal Red Cross shelters serve many in need, the staggering numbers of displaced persons required that many informal shelters open as well. Accordingly, this study tries to understand the range of shelter types that opened to serve the hundreds of thousands of displaced persons, many of whom were low-income, the elderly, women and children, racial and ethnic minorities and persons with disabilities.
The research aims to: (1) add to the limited body of knowledge on shelter operations as well as socially and economically vulnerable populations; (2) focus on shelters that serve persons with special needs; (3) identify recommendations for policy and practice; (4) involve a diverse set of undergraduate and graduate students in scientific inquiry, including students in emergency management, disaster planning, sociology, family studies and geography; (5) develop a set of videos for use in emergency management classrooms at participating institutions.
To reach these goals, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Oklahoma State University, Mississippi State University, and Texas A&M University will study the establishment and operations of shelters across Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma. The team will use geographic information sciences to understand how shelters were located and to document the spread of evacuees across four states. Researchers will also interview shelter managers for their perspectives and will conduct surveys with shelter residents. A unique feature of the study will ask shelter residents to photograph "a day in their life."
Focusing on problems and resolutions for vulnerable populations should result in more effective shelter operations. Consequently, the main societal benefit of this research is the reduction of human suffering in future events.
