What can hurricanes teach us about socioeconomic mobility?
BY ASAD L. ASAD Hurricane Katrina wrought havoc on New Orleans but, nine years later, is there a silver lining to be found? continue reading →
Weathering the Storm: Our genes may help determine how we respond to disaster.
By LORI SHRIDHARE
December 6, 2013
When natural disasters unleash horrific damage and generate mass casualties, the psychological impact on survivors typically includes posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with symptoms that can range from mild and transitory to long-term duress.
Read the article here.
Lesson from Louisiana: Don’t Forget the Renters
On May 20, 2013, a tornado with peak winds of 210 miles per hour struck Moore, Oklahoma, killing 24 people, injuring 377 more, destroying 1,150 homes and causing an estimated two billion dollars in damage. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated parts of Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005, state officials chose to prioritize the repair of owner-occupied homes over rented ones. The lessons learned from the 2005 hurricane season apply to Moore.
Read more of Elizabeth Fussell’s Guest Post on the Oklahoma Policy Institute Blog here.
Gene X Environment
We have launched an interdisciplinary collaboration with Jordan Smoller, a psychiatric geneticist at MGH, Post-doctoral Fellows Erin Dunn and Nadia Solovieff, and Karestan Koenen, an epidemiologist in Public Health, with expertise in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and genotype-environment interaction.
7 years after Katrina, New Orleans homeless twice pre-storm level
NEW ORLEANS — There’s a gigantic hole in the roof of the abandoned building where Ralph Paze lives in the Seventh Ward of New Orleans. The dilapidated couch where he sleeps is shoved off to the side to be more or less clear from the rain that pours in.
It could be worse, said Paze, who survives by collecting cans for recycling. He used to stay in a different abandoned building not far away, a place where he kept a few belongings.
“I left in the morning to go pick cans, and when I came home that night, the house had been demolished,” he said.
Paze is among the estimated 4,900 homeless in the New Orleans area, a population that’s nearly two and a half times bigger than it was seven years ago before the region’s mismanaged levees failed, flooding the city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.