Evacuation and Return: Increasing Safety and Reducing Risk

The City of New Orleans enlisted UNO-CHART to improve the evacuation of the vulnerable populations in the city, defined broadly to include those who are not able to access or use the standard resources offered in disaster preparedness and planning, response, and recovery. To do this, UNO-CHART analyzed the Regional Transit Authority (RTA), the City Assisted Evacuation Plan (CAEP) and Special Needs Registry databases, conducted a literature review of risk communication best practices, reviewed ready.nola.gov for content and readability, conducted a social vulnerability analysis of the Evacuspots, conducted interviews and focus groups with vulnerable populations in the City of New Orleans, and evaluated the CAEP full scale exercise. UNO-CHART conducted these analyses in order to examine the transportation needs of vulnerable populations on an everyday basis and during a disaster event, and how the city’s services currently meets those needs. The project team discovered that while many members of vulnerable populations use public transportation on a daily basis, there are issues with obtaining transportation during a disaster. The issues stem from a lack of resident knowledge about the City Assisted Evacuation (CAE) process, locations of Evacuspots, accessibility and cultural competence of the CAE, and trust in the city to effectively bring vulnerable populations to safety. Residents detailed many different ways the city can build on the past to create community solutions. The following report details recommendations for how to make residents more aware of the CAEP, make Evacuspots more accessible, better plan for the city’s most vulnerable, integrate cultural competence into the CAEP, and build trust in self-reliant populations

LA SAFE – Louisiana’s Strategic Adaptations for Future Environments: The Collective Search for Common Ground

In coastal Louisiana, subsidence and sea level rise, plus the threat of hurricanes and flooding, combine to create one of the highest rates of relative sea level rise in the world (Penland & Ramsey, 1990). To help address these issues, the National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Rockefeller Foundation, awarded funding for LA SAFE – Louisiana’s Strategic Adaptations for Future Environments. The LA SAFE program, a partnership between the Office of Community Development (OCD) and the Foundation for Louisiana (FFL), supported an inclusive public process to identify adaptation strategies to enhance the resilience of coastal Louisiana. This public process involved the six parishes most impacted by Hurricane Isaac in 2012: Jefferson, Lafourche, Plaquemines, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, and Terrebonne. Throughout the planning and implementation process, UNO-CHART conducted an evaluation in an iterative manner that allowed for continual feedback. The evaluation was a mixed methods process that included both qualitative and quantitative measures, involving both process and outcome measures

LA SAFE – Louisiana’s Strategic Adaptations for Future Environments: The Collective Search for Common Ground

In coastal Louisiana, subsidence and sea level rise, plus the threat of hurricanes and flooding, combine to create one of the highest rates of relative sea level rise in the world (Penland & Ramsey, 1990). To help address these issues, the National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Rockefeller Foundation, awarded funding for LA SAFE – Louisiana’s Strategic Adaptations for Future Environments. The LA SAFE program, a partnership between the Office of Community Development (OCD) and the Foundation for Louisiana (FFL), supported an inclusive public process to identify adaptation strategies to enhance the resilience of coastal Louisiana. This public process involved the six parishes most impacted by Hurricane Isaac in 2012: Jefferson, Lafourche, Plaquemines, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, and Terrebonne. Throughout the planning and implementation process, UNO-CHART conducted an evaluation in an iterative manner that allowed for continual feedback. The evaluation was a mixed methods process that included both qualitative and quantitative measures, involving both process and outcome measures

Use of Science in Gulf of Mexico Decision Making Involving Climate Change

This material is based upon research supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Center for Environmental Assessment/Global Change Research Program under Cooperative Agreement No. R-83023601-0. It is a joint project of Texas A&M University's Institute for Science, Technology and Public Policy in The Bush School of Government and Public Service, the Center for Hazards Assessment, Response and Technology at the University of New Orleans, the Center for Socioeconomic Research at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and the Environmental Sciences Institute at Florida A&M University. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.project final reportsurveyU.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Cooperative Agreement No. R-83023601-0

In the Wake of the Storm: Environment, Disaster, and Race After Katrina

Studies evidence of environmental disparities by which poor and minority communities are disproportionately exposed to disasters, are less prepared, and have less access to relief agencies. Makes recommendations for preparedness and environmental justice

Race and Income Disparities in Disaster Preparedness in Old Age

Objective: Older adults are one of the most vulnerable populations impacted by disasters and communities continue to struggle addressing preparedness. This study investigated to what extent income status and race/ethnicity in old age interplayed with disaster preparedness. Methods: Data came from the 2010 Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative panel survey of older Americans over 51 years old. Our sample was restricted to respondents who participated in a special survey about disaster preparedness (N=1,705). Disaster preparedness was measured as a score, which includes 13 variables related to personal, household, program, and medical preparedness. Race/ethnicity was categorized by White, Black, and Hispanic. Low income was defined as below 300% of the federal poverty line. OLS regression was used to examine the main and interaction effects of race/ethnicity and lower income status on disaster preparedness scores. Results: We found that older adults in lower income status had lower preparedness level than those in higher income (Coef.=-0.318, p\u3c.01). Hispanics tend to be less prepared compared to White and African Americans (Coef.=--0.548, p\u3c.001). Preparedness of Black elders was not significantly different from that of Whites. However, interestingly, Black elders in lower income status were significantly less prepared for disaster than other groups (Coef.=-0.520, p\u3c.05). We did not find significant interaction effects between Hispanic and lower income status on disaster preparedness. Discussion. This study identified vulnerable subgroups of older adults for disaster preparedness and suggests that preparedness programs should target minority and low income elders, particularly Hispanics and low income Black elders

Did NEPA Drown New Orleans? The Levees, the Blame Game, and the Hazards of Hindsight

This Article highlights the. hazards of hindsight analysis of the causes of catastrophic events, focusing on theories of why the New Orleans levees failed during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and particularly on the theory that the levee failures were caused by a 1977 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) lawsuit that resulted in a temporary injunction against the Army Corps of Engineers\u27 hurricane protection project for New Orleans. The Article provides a detailed historical reconstruction of the decision process that eventuated in the New Orleans storm surge protection system, focusing both on the political and legal factors involved and on the standard project hurricane risk assessment model that lay at the heart of the Army Corps of Engineers\u27 decisionmaking process. The Article then offers a detailed analysis. of how and why Hurricane Katrina overcame the New Orleans levee system. As this analysis demonstrates, the argument that the NEPA lawsuit played a meaningful causal role in the Katrina disaster is not persuasive. Parallel lessons are then drawn for forward-looking disaster policy. The same problems of uncertainty and complexity that confound the attempt through hindsight to attribute causal responsibility for a disaster also confound the attempt to predict using foresight the variety of outcomes, including potentially disastrous ones, that may flow from policy choices. Focusing narrowly on any single parameter of complex natural and human systems is likely to dramatically distort environmental, health, and safety decisionmaking, whether the parameter is a standard project hurricane when planning a hurricane protection plan, or the equally mythical lawsuit that sunk New Orleans when attempting to allocate responsibility for the plan\u27s failure some forty years later

Preparing for Storms in Louisiana English/Spanish Flashcards

Louisiana is at risk from natural and man-made disasters. Flooding, tropical storms, and hurricanes happen. To stay safe, sometimes you and your family will need to leave home before a storm comes. People in Louisiana need to be ready for emergencies. These flashcards will help you get prepared