How is New Orleans Faring?

August 18, 2009

Times Picayune slide show Video essays exploring the regrowth of Neighborhoods in New Orleans

In post-Katrina New Orleans, the question is asked “How did you fare?” This past Sunday a colleague asked me about New Orleans on my Facebook page:

How much longer until everything is completely normal around there, or has the definition of normal changed for them?

As an outsider to the Katrina disaster environment, having moved here 14 months ago, I wrote my response the next day:

New Orleans is where you'd expect it to be four years after total devastation. Improvements are visible everywhere, as are neglected and stalled projects. According to the post office 76% of area addresses are receiving mail, which means 25% of addresses are still to be inhabited. Some of the uninhabited addresses are empty lots which once housed families.

Has the definition of normal changed? Absolutely. Normal is

• people who still miss their neighbors who have not returned as well as those who have adapted,
• businesses once favored by the locals which are gone as well as new businesses which have taken their place,
• neighborhoods which have not fully returned to pre-Katrina status as well as neighborhoods that appear intact; and
• long-time residents who enjoy the company of people who have moved here post-Katrina.

In my opinion, New Orleans is exciting, vibrant, and sometimes sad and tired. Just wait til the next festival, though, when the fun infects everyone! The jubilant spirit is what New Orleans is all about.

My positive outlook is balanced by recent involvement with the Greater New Orleans Disaster Recovery Partnership (GNODRP) and GNODRP Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (GNODRP VOAD). The GNODRP mission is “to regionally support long term recovery and preparedness”. Long term recovery for some New Orleans’ residents is mired in bureaucracy and financial woe. GNODRP member agencies are addressing these woes.

Through GNODRP and GNODRP VOAD, I have learned of several programs which are on the cutting edge of emergency management policy and practice. These include:

Business Emergency Operating Center (BEOC): The Louisiana BEOC follows New Jersey in the development of a business operations center. (New Jersey published its BEOC Concept Overview in February 2008.) This cutting edge collaboration provides multiple benefits:

• information exchange
• large scale donations management: e.g., tarps, food, water, ice, sandbags,
• fulfillment of mission requests
  
  

Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI): (quoted from their website) CARRI is developing a common framework including processes and tools that communities and regions can use to assess their resilience, determine a resilience vision and take concrete actions that will have positive economic and social results. The framework will be a national framework usable across the country but flexible enough to recognize the great diversity of the United States, its citizens, institutions, governments and organizations.

Case Management: Since my early days in emergency management, I have believed that case management is critical for those who must negotiate the plethora of programs to find their way back to some sense of a normal family life. Three pilot programs are currently underway. I will learn more about each one and share information with you at a later date.

As I learn more, future blogs will go into more detail about GNODRP, GNODRP VOAD, BEOC ,CARRI and case management . If you have knowledge of any of these programs, please share with me through this blog or through Facebook so that we all may learn.

Figley Institute Training Needs Assessment

August 14, 2009

Figley Institute Senior Faculty want to ensure that your most urgent training needs are met. To this end, we are seeking input from people like you who have an interest in disasters - human caused and natural - and trauma. Your participation in the needs assessment is anonymous. Please share your thoughts with us.

Thank you for taking a few minutes of your time to help us continue to provide cutting edge trauma training.

Best regards,

Dr. Kathleen Regan Figley, President

Figley Institute

Direct link to Training Needs Assessment

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=JWzkphqlNHahnhKdnqqO9Q_3d_3d

Disaster Perspective from New Orleans

Unbelievble as it is, this weekend marks the one year anniversary of our move to New Orleans. My disaster involvement over the past year has been minimal, restricted to my first mandatory evacuation when Hurricane Gustav posed a threat. All of that is about to change. I've re-entered the disaster world through the Greater New Orleans Disaster Recovery Partnership (GNODRP).

I'm delighted to be among my disaster human services peers. I've missed close involvement with emergency management, having left State of Florida Division of Emergency Management in 2001. Green Cross Academy of Traumatology (GCAT) was my link to disaster mental health, leading to two major deployments: New York City after the September 11 attack, and Sri Lanka after the 2004 Asian tsunami. The latter was my last deployment to the field. Green Cross Incident Command handled GCAT's Hurricane Katrina deployment, and I provided oversight. Over the past several years my greatest desire was to minimize travel while making a contribution to the field. That desire is now realized.

My involvement with GNODRP will afford me the opportunity to learn emergency management from new perspectives. My federal and state service will serve as the backdrop for local service. My short-term recovery involvement (no more than six months) will serve as the backdrop for long-term recovery issues. I hope to give as much as I learn from this volunteer experience.

In this blog I will share what I've learned, in the hope that the lessons from Katrina long-term recovery will benefit others. Stay tuned!

DISASTER RECOVERY: "Second Disaster" Stress

DISASTER DIALOGUE addresses the stress and suffering caused by disaster. You may experience additional stress from the disaster application process. That is called THE SECOND DISASTER. Here you will find ways to take the power out of the stress and pain of your disaster experiences, and replace them with ones that speak to calmness and peace of mind. Moving beyond the stressors may take a bit of time, so remember to be patient with yourself and your loved ones. Let's start with the basics.

Over the past 16 years I have worked with people who survived disasters throughout the US and internationally. In my experience, people who have disaster stress reactions are relieved to know that what they are experiencing is to be expected under their circumstances. That knowledge alone reduces stress. Below are a some resources and a few quick tips.

WEB RESOURCES: There are lots of great websites that address disasters and ways to cope with disaster stress. I have listed several at www.figleyinstitute.com/resource.html My favorite site is David Baldwin's Trauma Pages, Disaster Handouts and Links. There you will find a wealth of information for individuals, families, children, and disaster workers. Understanding the disaster application process will help reduce SECOND DISASTER stress. I've listed several sites which are helpful if you must apply for flood insurance or FEMA assistance.

PREPARE FOR THE SECOND DISASTER! Mother Nature imposed the first disaster on your life. The disaster recovery process will impose the second. Documentation and the bureaucracy around disaster assistance, even under the best of circumstances, can be frustrating and seem like it is never ending. Ask questions!!! Before you end your phone call with an insurance agent, FEMA worker or any other disaster worker ask this: What is the next step after this one? Also ask: Is there anyone else I should be contacting other than you/your agency? Is there anything else you need from me that you do not have yet? The most difficult part of the disaster application process is not knowing that there is something else that may be needed.

STRESS REACTIONS: If you are having stress reactions you are normal. If you feel confused and overwhelmed at times, that is to be expected due to the additional stressors of the disaster impact. If you are more irritable than usual, you are expressing the stress. If you are fussy with your spouse about things that normally do not bother you, you are turning to your trusted other for relief. There is something wrong, and your body and emotions are signaling that message. The part that must be addressed is the behavior that may be hurtful to others. Be aware of what you are doing and why. Make sure you do not take out your stress on those who are closest to you. Take caution when making big decisions. It may be better to delay until after things are closer to your life before the disaster.

SIGNS OF STRESS: The ways that people experience stress in day-to-day life are the ways that they likely will experience disaster stress, only more so. For example, if you get a headache after a bad day at work, you will likely have headaches in the next few weeks. If you rarely get headaches, you may get them more frequently. If the stresses are severe, you may start getting headaches when you never have had them before. Under that circumstance it is best to see your doctor to be certain that there are no underlying medical reasons for the headache. You may have more trouble concentrating at work. That makes sense. Your mind is processing alot of information. Just like a computer that has too much data for its storage system, your mind has more input that it can readily process. It's okay to slow down some in the short term.

CHILDREN AND PETS: If you have children and pets, you will find that their stress reactions mirror yours. If you are calm and in good spirits, they will be as well. If you are irritable, they will be fussy and irritable too. If your children are acting up, let that be a signal that you may need to take a few minutes to calm yourself before you address their behavior. Make sure that your children understand that it is not their fault that you are upset or angry, and be sure to apologize if you have said or done something that was hurtful to them, just like you would with your spouse. Children bounce back fast under the guidance of your love and attention.

HOW TO COPE: The advice given to you by your mother and your doctor is particularly relevant now: eat healthy foods, exercise regularly, and get good sleep. There are other things you can do that will provide relief: talk to people you trust, write down your thoughts (in a journal or on a piece of paper to be thrown away later), take a break from disaster related tasks and have some fun. As an example, really listen to music you love that makes you feel good. As an added benefit, dance to the music and you get in a bit of aerobic exercise! Fun is a great antidote to stress. Make sure the children you love have a chance to have some fun too.

This educational tool is provided as a service to the general public courtesy of Figley Institute.