This mixed-method study focuses on victims of Hurricane Katrina who lived in the New Orleans area prior to the storm but were displaced to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We will conduct telephone interviews with a random sample of 500 displaced persons and video ethnographies with 200 displaced informants. These interviews will focus on the role that social networks played in their immediate response to the storm (including evacuation and sheltering decisions), their ability to activate network ties to garner both social support and instrumental resources in response and recovery, and their decision of whether to return to New Orleans. The intellectual merit of the study lies in advancing our understanding of (1) the allocation of social resources through networks and their impacts on economic and non-economic outcomes (health, finding jobs, housing, and schools) and (2) the understudied topic of network disruption and transformation. The broader impacts of the study include (1) producing an early assessment of how displaced persons have been affected by Hurricane Katrina and how social resources affect their ability to recover, which will provide a foundation for (2) improving planning, policy, and relief efforts aimed at disaster preparation, evacuation, sheltering, and recovery.
