Hurricane Season 2010

June 1st signals the official start of Atlantic hurricane season. This year’s hurricane season marks the five year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina—the tragic storm which graphically highlighted the urgent need to address racial/ethnic disparities in preparedness and disaster outcomes. While federal, state, and local efforts to address these issues have gained momentum in recent years, disparities continue to persist. Below is a select list of resources to strengthen hurricane preparedness in diverse communities and inform planning across all phases of an emergency

CLICK HERE for a comprehensive list of annotated resources from various fields which focus on the needs of culturally diverse populations across all phases of a hurricane.
 

Translated Materials

• Disaster Supply Kit: This fact sheet provides general information on disaster supply kits and is available in English, Croatian, Haitian Creole, Kurdish, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
• Hurricane Super Course: This presentation provides information on the natural causes and health-related issues associated with hurricanes and basic emergency preparedness. The presentation is available in English, Chinese, and Spanish.  
• Emergency Wound Care After A Natural Disaster: This handout provides tips on how to treat small wounds to prevent infection and defines injuries for which immediate medical attention is necessary.  The resource is available in English and Vietnamese.
• Reentering Your Flooded Home: This brochure provides information on reentering your home after a flood and tips on how to begin the drying process. The resource is available in English and Vietnamese.
• Prevent Poisoning from Carbon Monoxide- Printable Flyers: This simplistic flyer uses pictures to convey  information about the risks of carbon monoxide poisoning. The flyers are available in English, Amharic, Arabic, Bosnian, Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Farsi, French, Hmong, Korean, Laotian, Nepali, Oromo, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Tigrigna, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Hurricane Resources: The CDC has centralized hurricane preparedness materials in English, Spanish, French, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, German, and Portuguese.
• American Public Health Association Get Ready Fact Sheets:  The APHA provides preparedness fact sheets in English and Spanish on a range of topics, such as how to create low-cost preparedness kits.  These fact sheets can be customized through the APHA website to allow for organizations to display their logo.   
   

Recovery Assistance

• Fact Sheet- Immigrant Eligibility for Disaster Assistance: This fact sheet provides a concise overview of the services immigrants, with and without documentation, are eligible for in the wake of a disaster.
• Immigrants and Disaster Assistance: This Immigration Law Center webpage provides links to a variety of resources on issues surrounding immigration, current legislation, and disasters. 

Research Articles

• Experiences of Hurricane Katrina Evacuees in Houston Shelters: Implications for Future Planning: This research article presents findings from surveys and interviews that were conducted in Houston shelters following Hurricane Katrina to develop a socioeconomic and demographic profile of evacuees and their experiences.
• Katrina-Related Health Concerns of Latino Survivors and Evacuees: This research article examines health concerns identified by Latinos who resided in the path of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Mississippi.
• African Americans’ Decisions Not to Evacuate New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina- A Qualitative Study:  This article presents the findings from focus groups that were conducted to identify themes in African Americans’ decisions not to evacuate New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina.
• Rapid Needs Assessment Among Hurricane Katrina Evacuees In Metro-Denver: This article explores the benefits of conducting rapid needs assessments among displaced populations to identify unique regional and cultural needs of specific sub-populations.
• A Mobile Medical Care Approach Targeting Underserved Populations in Post-Hurricane Katrina Mississippi: This article discusses the importance of staffing clinicians who are familiar with social and cultural needs of diverse populations in post-disaster mobile medical care.
• Displacement of the Underserved- Medical Needs of Hurricane Katrina Evacuees in West Virginia: This article provides a quantitative analysis of the health care needs of Hurricane Katrina evacuees. 
• Latino Disaster Vulnerability: The Dissemination of Hurricane Mitigation Information among Florida’s Homeowners: This study explores preferred channels for communicating disaster information to Latino communities.
• Crisis Preparation, Media Use, and Information Seeking- Patterns across Katrina Evacuees and Lessons Learned for Crisis Communication: This qualitative study examines crisis preparation, information seeking patterns, and media use in 964 Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
• Voices of The Storm- Health Experiences of Low-Income Katrina Survivors: This qualitative study explores the experiences of over forty survivors of Hurricane Katrina and their health care needs.