title: African Americans' decisions not to evacuate New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina: a qualitative study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We examined the psychosocial and personal factors that influenced African Americans' decision not to evacuate New Orleans, La, before Hurricane Katrina's landfall.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted 6 focus groups with 53 African Americans from New Orleans who were evacuated to Columbia, SC, within 2 months of Hurricane Katrina.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The major themes identified related to participants' decision to not evacuate were as follows: (1) perceived susceptability, including optimism about the outcome because of riding out past hurricanes at home and religious faith; (2) perceived severity of the hurricane because of inconsistent evacuation orders; (3) barriers because of financial constraints and neighborhood crime; and (4) perceived racism and inequities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Federal, state, and local government disaster preparedness plans should specify criteria for timely evacuation orders, needed resources, and their allocation (including a decentralized distribution system for cash or vouchers for gas and incidentals during evacuation) and culturally sensitive logistic planning for the evacuation of minority, low-income, and underserved communities. Perceptions of racism and inequities warrant further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Services Policy and Management, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA. kelder@gwm.sc.edu
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Elder
authors.forename: Sudha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xirasagar
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Shelly Ann
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Bowen
authors.forename: Saundra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Glover
authors.forename: Crystal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Piper
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D003657:Decision Making; D004190:Disasters; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D008145:Louisiana; D008297:Male; D012036:Refugees / Q000523:psychology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013022:South Carolina; D014505:Urban Population