Hurricane Katrina Social Factors

Social determinants have become an influential component of innovation within traditional areas of research, from overall health of communities to disaster management. Starting in the 1980’s, researchers began to understand that social contexts, both micro and macro, have a significant impact on both individuals and the community as a whole when discussing response and resilience to disasters. After the chaos of Hurricane Katrina, after the sheer difference of separate populations ability to cope during the disaster area came to light, researchers began to elucidate the social factors which affect disaster response and ways to assess those for future disasters. The three largest areas of concerns that should be considered are social stratification and class, race and

Housing conditions are comprised of the actual physical infrastructure of the house (whether it is sub-par construction or manufactured housing), homeownership and location/overcrowding. The housing conditions directly reflect what Tierney describes as the “affluence” of the populations, which is the ability to have affordable, well-constructed, self-owned homes. Many people at the lower end of the social class strata are living in poorly made/maintain housing, which they rent, in areas that are prone to disaster. Many of these individuals are unable to afford better housing, transportation, or have the ability to evacuate or prepare for a disaster. Similarly, after a disaster, these populations have a much lower resilience due to their social factors. Their lack of adequate housing leads to larger damages or even complete losses of housing, leading them to rely on disaster funding and resources which a lot of the time is underfunded, sub-par and inadequate to provide them with long term resources to get them back on their