This thesis focuses on the potential for comprehensive, scientific, public health evaluations to affect policy development by conducting a retrospective literature investigation of studies and evaluations published in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Using Ricci et al.’s Disaster Evaluation Research: A field guide as a model of comprehensive evaluation, 161 articles were winnowed down to 73 that were then reviewed in three ways. The articles were categorized based on time-frame of focus (more or less than two weeks after Hurricane Katrina’s landfall); and their topic within Ricci et al.’s “List of Emergency Public Health Activities.” To identify the comprehensiveness of the articles, four core components of the “Eight-Step Approach” were highlighted and used as a comparison measure. Ultimately, eight articles met the criteria for comprehensiveness. This exercise demonstrates the lack of comprehensive evaluations following one of the most significant disasters in US history and discusses its effects on policy development and the disaster cycle
