Demographic and Health Disparities in Recovery From Hurricane Katrina: Katrina@10

This is an NIH-funded center grant which capitalizes on joining together three longitudinal cohorts from researchers at Tulane University, Harvard University, and NYU to explore population recovery a decade after Hurricane Katrina.

The overall objective of our Program Award Application is to advance disaster science by including both breadth and depth in a set of studies that includes three especially-affected populations and two representative analyses of the enduring effects of Hurricane Katrina; by providing a temporal perspective with longitudinal data that highlight differentials in Recovery across diverse populations over a decade; by capitalizing upon the trust and collaboration that has been established and nurtured between our research teams and our communities of interest over many years; and by employing a unifying theoretical framework developed by one of our team's leaders. To achieve this objective, we will: Form and support an extensive team of Researchers, scientific advisors, and community stakeholders that will push forward the frontiers of disaster science; Assess specific long term (10 years) trajectories of Recovery within and among three special populations that were severely and differentially-affected by Hurricane Katrina: a cohort of first- generation female African American community college students (RISK); a cohort of economically and socially vulnerable families and households who were displaced by Katrina into government- subsidized Housing (GCAFH); and a cohort of first-generation Vietnamese American immigrants who were living in the greater New Orleans area when Katrina struck in August 2005 (KATIVA NOLA); Assess the more general Recovery of New Orleans at the 10 year mark post-Katrina using several sources of existing, representative, high-quality data; Test and validate a predictive Socio-ecological Model of post-Disaster Recovery using original data collected by our KATRINA@10 Program; Disseminate data and research findings on the long-term impacts of Katrina on a wide range of affected populations to local, national, and International audiences. Key mechanisms for doing so will be our Data Sharing arrangements and our two major conferences, the first to take place at the 10th anniversary of Katrina in August 2015. The Leadership Team for KATRINA@10 consists of the Program's Multiple PIs, Mark VanLandingham, Mary Waters, and David Abramson; and an Advisory Board consisting of a broad range of scientific experts and local community leaders.