On Labor Day weekend of 2005, Colorado relief workers and volunteers were preparing to welcome evacuees from the Gulf Cost to a dorm on the former Lowry Air Force Base. The 400 survivors of Hurricane Katrina who were flown in by the federal government were joined by many others drawn to Colorado by family and friends and the promise of a warm welcome.
A year later, about 14,000 evacuees remain in Colorado. Many challenges still confront those whose lives were forever altered by the storm. The national conversations in the aftermath of Katrina focus on the challenges of rebuilding New Orleans or wasteful spending by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The successes and challenges in Colorado are different.
Not directly affected by the storm and having accepted far fewer evacuees than, say, Houston, Colorado is a good place to study the possibilities and limits of assistance. We have spent much of the last year following the experiences of the evacuees who have come to Colorado and the service providers who have worked to help them integrate into Colorado life. What have we learned?
Almost immediately, charities in the metro area discovered the depth within our community. Agencies accustomed to working alone sat down together to coordinate services. Churches joined together to form the Colorado Coalition of Faith. Hundreds of volunteers scrubbed dorm rooms at Lowry, provided donations and helped evacuees. Community mental health agencies offered counseling.
For some, life has worked relatively well here. They have found jobs and housing through Fannie Mae, federal voucher programs, local housing assistance or charities. Getting access to these programs is challenging, but hard work by people at Denver charities has helped; they have been working under a national grant to help those affected by Katrina.
Some evacuees have found housing in safer neighborhoods than they had in New Orleans, though almost uniformly housing has cost them more than their old homes. Evacuees are relieved to leave behind the inadequate schools and neighborhoods in which parents were reluctant to let their children out to play. At the same time, many desperately miss having extended family and friends nearby. People miss friends, family, music and food. For others, though, the move out of very poor neighborhoods offers some long-term promise.
However, it takes more than a generous heart and hard work to ensure people get settled. Settling in Colorado has meant facing the same problems as those facing Colorado’s poor. Life in Colorado requires a car. Without one, jobs are difficult to get to, requiring bus transfers and long travel. There is not enough available low-income or subsidized housing for all who need it. Housing is expensive and security deposits are hard to come by, often beyond the reach of those with low-income jobs. Poor Coloradans faced these challenges long before hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but evacuees face additional hurdles.
For those who had lived with family or friends, documenting where they lived is difficult. It also makes ongoing FEMA assistance a necessity. Often, people come by jobs through friends or acquaintances. For those new to town, finding work is difficult without personal connections in the community. Former employers cannot be found for references, as their phones or businesses were literally washed away. Getting proper identification for a job has proven insurmountable for some people, as government offices in the Gulf Coast fail to find or send copies of birth certificates. Though there may be legitimate difficulties in Louisiana’s ability to access those records, the reality is that lack of documents is hurting evacuees’ efforts to rebuild their lives quickly.
Complicating all of this are the stress and trauma many still face. Although one might think that survivors should be able to move on from the experience, in fact, high levels of stress and symptoms continue.
Symptoms of post-traumatic stress are widespread among evacuees and remain high for many individuals a year later. Anniversaries of a trauma can bring troubling reminders of the horrific events.
In addition, the remaining financial, employment and housing problems keep stress levels persistently high. One evacuee, a 55-year-old African-American woman from New Orleans, told us “It has been a year of fear. First I was terrified of the water rising in my house. Then I was scared of being robbed or raped in the Super Dome. Now I’m completely broke, and I’m scared I’ll be caught staying in my friend’s apartment and we’ll both be evicted.”
Despite being steadily employed and self sufficient for 30 years in New Orleans, she has been unable to find work in Denver, and her petitions for housing assistance have been denied. She relies on her faith to get her through tough times, but even so she feels pretty hopeless about the future. She would like to return to New Orleans but is afraid of crime and isn’t confident she would be able to find work there. Like many evacuees here, she’s felt welcomed and cared for in Denver and blames her current troubles on a government that “just messed it all up for us.”
Hurricane Katrina directly affected more than a million people. As is usual, those with the fewest resources were hit hardest. Disaster relief specialists talk about the importance of preparedness and mitigation – building safer houses and controlling development in flood zones.
Such discussions rarely focus on the factors that contributed to the stress, trauma and slow recovery – persistent poverty, underemployment and disability. We need to think about both disaster preparedness and mitigation for social problems – affordable housing, decent education, liveable wages, better transportation and benefits that transfer between states. It’s an effort that requires the same kind of care shown by the Colorado aid workers and volunteers who welcomed Katrina evacuees a year ago.
Susan Sterett is chair of the department of political science at the University of Denver. Jennifer Reich is assistant professor, department of sociology and criminology, and Martha Wadsworth is assistant professor, department of psychology.
