Natural Hazards Observer
| January 2006 | Volume XXX | Number 3 |
Below are descriptions of recently awarded contracts and grants related to hazards and disasters. An inventory of awards from 1995 to the present is available at www.colorado.edu/hazards/resources/grants/.
Who’s to Blame? Public Perceptions of the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Funding Institution: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigator(s): Lonna Rae Atkeson, University of New Mexico, Department of Political Science, MSC05-3070, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001; (505) 277-7592; e-mail: atkeson@unm.edu and Cherie Maestas, Florida State University, Department of Political Science, 531 Bellamy Building, Tallahassee, FL 32306; (850) 644-7324; e-mail: cherie.maestas@fsu.edu. This project will investigate how citizens use media interpretations of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to help them develop a framework with which to attribute blame and interpret policy relevant information. The researchers will gather fundamental data on how different frameworks impact citizens’ interpretations of natural disasters and governmental response, addressing the larger question of citizens’ views of the capacity and effectiveness of government to deal with crisis.
The Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Charitable Giving: An Experimental Study. Funding Institution: National Science Foundation, two years. Principal Investigator(s): Philip Grossman (Catherine Eckel), Saint Cloud State University, Department of Economics, Stewart Hall 386, 720 Fourth Avenue South, Saint Cloud, MN 56301; (320) 308-4232; e-mail: pgrossman@stcloudstate.edu. The devastation resulting from Hurricane Katrina has elicited unprecedented levels of charitable giving on the part of the general public. These researchers hypothesize that perceptions of the probability of disasters and their potential cost are critical to donation decisions. In this study, they will use an established task-based measure of charitable giving along with survey measures of sympathy, risk perception, and additional factors (e.g., experience) that might affect perceptions and/or charitable giving to examine the impact of natural disasters on the magnitude and distribution (across charitable causes) of donations and the mechanisms that affect them.
Proximity to Extreme Events: The Effect of Katrina-Rita on Optimistic Bias in Gulf Coast Counties. Funding Institution: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigator: Craig Trumbo, University of Vermont, Office of Health Promotion Research, 1 South Prospect Street, Room 4426, Burlington, VT 05401; (802) 656-4109; e-mail: craig.trumbo@uvm.edu. One enduring problem with respect to human settlement and natural hazards in general is the tendency of individuals to underestimate the risk associated with where they live. One way to understand this is optimistic bias, which occurs when individuals see themselves as being less likely than others to be harmed by events in the future. This study will look at how individuals in Gulf Coast counties perceive hurricane risk in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, examining optimistic bias for hurricane risk as a function of distance from the landfall zone. Ultimately, it will provide insight into individuals’ orientation toward hurricane risk and will inform the development and implementation of risk communications designed to best inform individuals about impending and long-term hurricane risks.
Cooperation among Evacuees in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Funding Institution: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigator: Rick Wilson, Rice University, Department of Political Science, MS 24, PO Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251-1892; (713) 348-3352; e-mail: rkw@rice.edu. This project will investigate the levels of cooperation and conflict among strangers who were dislocated due to Hurricane Katrina. Additionally, it will examine evacuees’ risk orientation and the levels of trust they have for others within their group and for agencies working with them and assess the effect of evacuation centers of different sizes on levels of in-group cooperation and trust and the way in which attitudes and behaviors change over time.
Americans Respond to Hurricane Katrina. Funding Institution: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigator(s): Leonie Huddy (Stanley Feldman), State University of New York at Stony Brook, Department of Political Science, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4392; (631) 632-7639; e-mail: Leonie.Huddy@sunysb.edu. Ultimately, Katrina’s long-term political consequences will depend to a large degree on the underpinnings of public reactions to the disaster and its victims, views which are currently far from uniform. It is these political consequences that are the subject of this study. The investigators will focus specifically on Americans’ beliefs about race as a possible defining factor in understanding public reactions to the government’s obligation to disaster victims and its performance in handling relief efforts. To more fully assess the possibly divisive role of racial attitudes in conditioning responses to government relief efforts in response to Katrina, the researchers will extend an ongoing National Science Foundation-funded research project into Americans’ racial attitudes.
Dynamic Use of Social Network and Leadership Theories in Disaster Recovery. Funding Institution: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigator(s): Marya L. Doerfel (Ivan Marsic and John R. Aiello), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Department of Communication, 4 Huntington Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901; (732) 932-7500, x8112; e-mail: mdoerfel@scils.rutgers.edu. The information sources and accounts of the first people and organizations to return to the Gulf Coast region can play an integral role in how subsequent returnees make their own plans. Information, processes, and the how-tos of returning, rebuilding, and reconnecting should come from sources like the American Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but can also come from local leaders, organizations, and new network associations. This project is designed to track, distribute, and strategically manage such information and immediate resource needs to support the rebuilding of social networks and the overall infrastructure of the Gulf Coast region.
Decision-Making among Businesses in Post-Catastrophe Uncertainty: How Economic Geographies Re-Form in New Orleans. Funding Institution: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigator(s): Nina S. Lam (Kelley Pace and Richard Campanella), Louisiana State University, Department of Geography and Anthropology, E222 Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex, Baton Rouge, LA 70803; (225) 578-6197; e-mail: nlam@lsu.edu. This project seeks to understand the commercial side of resettlement of residents in urban environments after a catastrophe. The overarching research question centers on how businesses make spatial decisions regarding whether to return or relocate and how these decisions in turn impact the landscape and its economy. Specifically, the project will collect and analyze data on what, where, how, why, and when businesses return to New Orleans following the repopulation of the city after Hurricane Katrina.
Establishment and Operation of Shelters Serving Socially Vulnerable Populations: A Socio-Spatial Analysis. Funding Institution: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigator(s): Brenda D. Phillips (Lynn B. Pike, Betty H. Morrow, and Thomas A. Wikle), Oklahoma State University, Department of Political Science, 536 Math Science Building, Stillwater, OK 74078; (405) 744-5298; e-mail: brenda.phillips@okstate.edu. This research will examine how emergency and temporary shelters were established and operated after Hurricane Katrina, focusing on shelters serving socially vulnerable populations, particularly those that had special needs. The researchers aim to understand the range of shelter types that opened to serve the hundreds of thousands of displaced persons, many of whom were low income, elderly, women and children, racial and ethnic minorities, or persons with disabilities with the ultimate intent of improving shelter operations and reducing human suffering in the future.
Katrina Environmental Research and Restoration Network (KERNN). Funding Institution: National Science Foundation, two years. Principal Investigator: John A. McLachlan, Tulane University, 6823 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70118; e-mail: john.mclachlan@tulane.edu. The impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast environment and on processes for environmental change and recovery are being actively studied by researchers from across the country supported by a wide variety of governmental (federal, state, and local) and private entities. KERRN will serve as a central source of information about the wide range of environmental research efforts focused on understanding and responding to Hurricane Katrina. It will make scientists and other interested parties aware of the full range of related research activities to facilitate collaboration and coordination of efforts.
Loss and Survival: Culture, Community, and Family following Hurricane Katrina. Funding Institution: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigator(s): Katherine E. Browne (Lori Peek), Colorado State University, Department of Anthropology, C211 Andrew G. Clark Building, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1787; (970) 491-5813; e-mail: kbrowne@lamar.colostate.edu. How human beings respond to abrupt and profound loss varies. This project will investigate that variation among the 400-500 former residents of New Orleans’ predominantly African American Ninth Ward who were temporarily housed at the Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado. The researchers will compare the coping strategies of middle class African American families to those of less affluent African American families with the aim of contributing to the development of better social policies for helping displaced populations.
Evacuees Perceptions of Disaster Relief and Recovery: Analyzing the Importance of Social and Kinship Networks among Hurricane Evacuees on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Funding Institution: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigator(s): David A. Swanson (Mark V. Van Boening and Richard Forgette), University of Mississippi, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, 101 Leavell Hall, University, MS 38677; (662) 915-7430; e-mail: dswanson@olemiss.edu. The central question of this study is about the role that social (and kinship) networks play in determining an individual’s success in the aftermath of a natural disaster such as Hurricane Katrina. “Success” refers to an individual’s capacity to obtain physical and emotional relief as well as to maintain a strong perception of eventual community recovery in the immediate disaster aftermath. Social networks may protect individuals from disasters like Hurricane Katrina and they may act as an emergency response system to aid recovery after such disasters.
Surviving Katrina and its Aftermath: A Comparative Analysis of Community Mobilization and Access to Emergency Relief by Vietnamese and African Americans. Funding Institution: National Science Foundation, 20 months. Principal Investigator(s): Wei Li (Karen Adams, Karen J. Leong, Verna Keith, and Angela Chia-Chen Chen), Arizona State University, Asian Pacific American Studies Program, PO Box 874401, Tempe, AZ 85287-4401; (480) 727-6556; e-mail: wei.li@asu.edu and Chris Airriess, Ball State University, Department of Geography, Cooper Life Science Building, Room CL 426J, Ball State University, Muncie, IN 47306; (765) 285-1614; e-mail: cairries@bsu.edu. This study will evaluate the mental and organizational decision-making processes used by Vietnamese American and African American communities in the face of uncertainty and produce policy recommendations to better serve the needs of such communities during the recovery period and prepare for similar disasters in the future.
Governmental and Voluntary Association Coordination and Evacuees’ Experience of Assistance in Colorado. Funding Organization: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigator(s): Susan Sterett (Jennifer Reich and Martha Wadsworth), University of Denver, Department of Political Science, 2199 South University Boulevard, Denver, CO 80208; (303) 871-2136; e-mail: ssterett@du.edu. Hurricane Katrina required an extraordinary response from government and voluntary organizations. While the most devastating impact was in Gulf Coast and neighboring states, states throughout the country accepted evacuees and their needs for housing, medical care, cash assistance, and schooling. A significant portion of the efforts to address these needs came from private agencies. This research will examine how the delivery of services to evacuees was coordinated in Colorado as well as how evacuees experienced the trauma of fleeing their homes. In addition, it will look at the type, range, and depth of the information presented by the print and televised news media about the evacuees.
Confronting Katrina: Socioculturally Divergent Models of Agency Shape Responses to Disaster. Funding Institution: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigator: Hazel R. Markus, Stanford University, Department of Psychology, Jordan Hall, Building 420, 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305; (650) 723-4404; e-mail: hmarkus@psych.stanford.edu. Coping with a disaster like Hurricane Katrina requires a framework of meaning, a set of shared understandings of what happened and why. The prevailing assumption of journalists, responders, and observers, was that any sensible person—taking appropriate personal responsibility, making choices based on official warnings, and acting to control the situation—would evacuate. The failure to understand that people in different sociocultural contexts may have had different understandings of what they should have done and why, and that they may have needed different types of relief, is likely to have been a critical element in the system failure that accompanied Katrina. This project will contrast the perspectives of those who stayed with those who fled prior to the disaster to demonstrate that differences in how people understand actions and events can affect their experiences as well as the policies and institutions that manage response and recovery efforts.
Inferred and Experienced Intergroup Emotions as Predictors of Helping of Victim Groups: Helping When We—Not They—Need It Most. Funding Organization: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigator: Amy Cuddy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Psychology Department, 53 Avenue E, Piscataway, NJ 08854; (609) 433-8078; e-mail: acuddy@rci.rutgers.edu. This research will explore how perceptions of the emotional suffering of Hurricane Katrina victims—many of whom are members of stigmatized groups—influence intentions to help or not to help. A growing body of evidence suggests that intergroup biases strongly influence people’s inferences about the emotional states of others. This study will examine the hypothesis that “dehumanization” of Hurricane Katrina victims will decrease intentions to help them, in general.
Katrina and the Built Environment: Spatial and Social Impacts. Funding Institution: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigator(s): John R. Logan (Phil Brown, John F. Mustard, Steven P. Hamburg, and Rachel Morello-Frosch), Brown University, Department of Sociology, Box 1916, Providence, RI 02912-1916; (401) 863-2267; e-mail: john_logan@brown.edu. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are likely to have long-term effects on the cities and towns of the Gulf Coast. This project will identify which communities were most affected, which will be rebuilt, and how they will be different from before. It will integrate remotely sensed ecological data with environmental hazard information and demographic and socioeconomic data to understand the social and ecological vulnerabilities of impacted communities and how the posthurricane environment will affect redevelopment.