Resilience of Professional Counselors Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana as a Category 3 hurricane, the costliest and the third deadliest hurricane to strike the United States (Knabb, Rhome, & Brown, 2006). Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent levy breach led to the flooding of 80% of the New Orleans metropolitan area (Kamps, 2008) and obliterated coastal towns in Mississippi. "The scope of human suffering inflicted by Hurricane Katrina in the United States has been greater than that of any hurricane to strike this country in several generations" (Knabb, Rhome, & Brown, 2006, pp. 10-11). On the heels of Katrina, Hurricane Rita came ashore on September 24, 2005, and brought more devastation to already affected areas of western Louisiana and eastern Texas (Matthews, 2007). Hurricane Rita prompted the largest evacuation in U.S. history, with nearly 2 million people evacuated in advance of the storm (Knabb, Brown, & Rhome, 2006). It is estimated that these hurricanes caused approximately $85 billion in damages and claimed over 1,200 lives (Knabb, Brown, & Rhome, 2006; Knabb, Rhome, & Brown, 2006). Unlike other disasters, hurricane recovery is a slow process, and these storms caused physical, mental, and emotional strain well beyond monetary damages (Matthews, 2007). Professional counselors responded to the needs of those affected by these disastrous hurricanes by serving clients either (a) as a continuation of their own employment/volunteer work as residents of the affected areas or (b) as external volunteers. External volunteer counselors either served briefly in a region that was directly hit by the hurricane or served hurricane evacuees who sought refuge in their own city. Many professional counselors came to hurricane-affected areas from all over the country. The American Counseling Association (ACA) collaborated with the American Red Cross (ARC) to enlist counselors to work in the disaster areas. The ARC Disaster Mental Health (DMH) workers were called on when (a) children were involved, (b) a death or serious injury had occurred, (c) pets had been lost, (d) homes had been damaged, or (e) people seemed confused or depressed. Nearly everyone in the Gulf Coast region met at least one of those criteria. (Haskett, Scott, Nears, & Grimmett, 2008, p. 94) For 10 to 12 hours each day, DMH volunteers helped clients to process feeling overwhelmed and problem solve for pressing needs; then, they often spent additional time each day with ARC volunteers who needed to process their experience as a relief volunteer as well. Haskett et al. (2008) stated, "Physical and emotional fatigue were unavoidable" (p. 97). Those DMH workers who counseled in shelters for nearly 3 months in host states had prolonged exposure to secondary trauma, while often balancing their relief work with maintaining their full-time employment (Marshall, 2007). Marshall (2007) reported that counselors in the host cities were doubly taxed emotionally and physically by addressing the mental health needs of their own community and the influx of evacuees, many of whom had preexisting mental health concerns or were developing trauma-related mental health issues. Professional counselors who were residents of the affected areas likely experienced personal trauma, in addition to vicarious trauma from serving those in their own community. For instance, mental health care providers who evacuated their homes experienced the same trauma of other evacuees, such as finding out their home was submerged underwater, having concerns about employment status, and being separated from family members and unsure of their well-being (Kamps, 2008). When providers were allowed to return to the New Orleans metropolitan area, they were disoriented; Osofsky (2008) stated that "everything in New Orleans was unlike anything we had experienced before" (p. 14). Kamps (2008) described her frequent return visits to New Orleans in the first few months after Katrina as an "attempt to retrieve any belongings from our house that were salvageable, dispose of any belongings that were destroyed, and gut our house to prevent additional mold growth" (p. …