Major US Hurricanes: A Comparative Analysis of Victim Experiences Utilizing Transcultural and Behavioral Models

Introduction: Vulnerable populations risk poor health outcomes during disasters. Demographic characteristics often associated with vulnerability in disasters include female gender; marital status of single, widowed, or divorced; work status of under or unemployed; immigrant status, dependence on public assistance; lack of homeownership and/or health insurance; and one or more chronic illnesses. Hurricane Katrina was a category 5 storm that impacted the Gulf Coast from August 25-29, 2005 (Plyer, 2016). Hurricane Matthew was a category 5 storm that affected four states on October 7-8, 2016 (TWC, 2016). In 2018, two major hurricanes hit the United States, Hurricane Florence (Dodd, Aradillas, & Keating, 2018; Guterl, Godlewski, & Nestel, 2018; National Hurricane Center, n.d., Rhodan, 2018) and Hurricane Michael (Hurricane Michael, 2018). In the years between Katrina and these more recent events, United States (U.S.) government level changes related to preparedness and response have occurred (Greenberg et al., 2014; Public law 109-295, 2006); however, there is little information about differences in outcomes from the victim perspective. The aim of this qualitative study was to describe and compare experiences of individuals, especially those considered vulnerable, during the major disasters of Hurricanes Katrina, Matthew, Florence, and Michael. Our previous research considered only Hurricanes Katrina and Matthew, asking the research question: What similarities and differences are noted in U.S. victim descriptions of their experiences during Hurricanes Katrina or Matthew? Results indicated that many changes related to preparedness and response have occurred at the government level in the timespan between these events. Similar challenges for victims have been noted. Evacuation remains an underused option. With the large scale damage from the two hurricanes in 2018, our study continues to provide additional insight and lend depth to our initial data analysis.

Methods: A comparative content analysis (Weber, 1990) from the original study comparing Katrina and Matthew considered four data sources: a secondary analysis of interviews conducted with Katrina victims in 2009 (n = 14); and scholarly journal articles (n= 20), lay media reports (n = 52), and selected government reports (n = 9) about either hurricane. Media reports added contextual description of disaster circumstances and rich participant descriptions. IRB approval was obtained to utilize previously collected data about Hurricane Katrina for secondary analysis. A study specific codebook was created to identify, categorize, and describe, experiences by word, word sense, sentence, and theme. A transcultural model, the Giger and Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment Model, (Newman-Giger, 2014) and a disaster specific behavioral framework, the Backburnering Model (Owens & Martsolf, 2014), further guided data comparison. The six concepts of the transcultural model (communication, social organization, time, space, biophysical variations, and environmental control) were selected to compare and evaluate perspectives of victim experiences specifically from a cultural viewpoint. The Backburnering Model considered four ways, or behaviors (prudent backburnering, impromptu backburnering, deliberate backburnering, and unforeseen backburnering), that victims frequently use to manage disaster experiences. The four ways encompassed five factors: media impact, evaluation, preparation, attention, and recovery. Descriptive statistics were calculated to provide demographic information about the sample and analysis criteria. The current study is adding to the same data sources: secondary analysis of interviews conducted with Katrina victims in 2009 (n = 14); and scholarly journal articles (in progress), lay media reports (in progress), and selected government reports (in progress) about hurricanes Florence and Michael.

Results and Discussion: Data analysis is in progress and is expected to be completed by August 2019. Early findings confirm the challenges and benefits of evacuation (Wu, Lindell, Prater, & Samuelson, 2014) and, in particular, the benefit of availability for pet care at designated shelters. In addition, continued evolution of technology has improved the ability for victims to communicate with family and friends, an area of great concern for many, and maintain access to prescription medicines (Traynor, 2018).

Conclusion: Continued study is needed to address the multiple and complex concerns of vulnerable persons in large scale disasters. This poster presentation will describe the comparative content analysis method and consider thematic findings from consideration of victim experiences from these four major U.S. hurricanes from both a cultural and disaster behavior perspective.