Reflections on Natural Disasters and Traumatic Events

This issue goes to press as New Orleans and the Gulf Coast states struggle to gain a sense of normalcy following the devastating effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on August 29 and September 24. The heartfelt testimonials and harrowing accounts of hundreds of thousands of displaced persons have moved the nation unlike any other natural disaster in recent memory. The failure of the initial emergency response to Katrina has also forged the beginning of a national debate about disaster preparedness in the United States. Federal, state, and local government responses in the initial hours and days following Katrina were characterized by disorder, chaos, and ineffective coordination. Reaction to inadequate emergency planning and to the poor coordination of disaster relief efforts reverberated across the country. As volunteer organizations worked diligently to cope with the plight of vulnerable and disadvantaged people in New Orleans and surrounding Gulf Coast states, the Federal Emergency Management Agency received sharp criticism for its failure to provide leadership across all levels of government. Analysis of the responses to Katrina and Rita awaits further examination and study. In the meantime, reflecting on the place of compassion, service, research, and culture in responding to natural disasters and traumatic events may be beneficial. COMPASSION AND SERVICE Compassion and service lie at the heart of social work. Indeed, the profession's core values and ethical codes denote the importance of understanding and ameliorating the adverse conditions that affect people's lives. These principles have no doubt been applied by thousands of social workers in an untold number of situations after the recent hurricanes. An open letter written by Ron Marks, dean of the Tulane University School of Social Work in New Orleans, illustrates the best of our profession's commitment to compassion and service. Posted on the NASW Web site eight days after Katrina, Dean Marks's statement describes the efforts of two Tulane social work students to help residents of New Orleans (http://www.socialworkers.org/pressroom/events/katrina05/default.asp): I know that you are all painfully aware of what has transpired in our city and neighborhoods from national news coverage. Although the coverage has been quite comprehensive and attempts to convey the personal impact, when the stories happen in your own backyard, the intensity and heartache is almost beyond comprehension. Millions of lives have been impacted. Millions of stories are yet to be told. Today, I learned of two of my students who stayed behind. After the winds calmed, after the levee breached, after the city filled with water, they found a boat and began to look for ways to help. They paddled around the fairgrounds, where Jazz Fest is held, to Esplanade Avenue, a grand boulevard near the French Quarter. They came upon a nursing home where none of the residents had been evacuated and none had had food or water for three days. For the next two days, they broke into homes to salvage water and food destined for spoilage and took it to the starving residents. Compassion and service are most often attributed to the intrinsic and humanist values evident in the actions taken by the two Tulane students. One is left to ponder, however, how such principles can best be taught and learned in the nation's public schools and universities. Perceived injustices in the evacuation and rescue efforts in New Orleans have sparked a broad social debate and fostered a sense of national compassion about the plight of poor people in America. Media accounts of the evacuation and rescue of New Orleans residents showed a significant percentage of those left behind when Katrina came to shore were African American and poor. A Pew Research Center poll taken approximately one week after the hurricane revealed that 66% of African Americans believed that the government would have responded to Katrina more quickly if its victims had been primarily white. …