On Belonging and Belongings: Older Adults, Katrina, and Lessons Learned

Abstract

Connection-to a family, a community, a social service system. While the nation watched in horror as the hurricanes of 2005 unfolded, professionals in the field of aging knew only too well the extraordinary toll that such an event would take on the older adults of the region. Over the intervening months since Hurricane Katrina rearranged the Gulf States, I have come to believe that all of us have-and continue to be-deeply changed by the events unfolding in the Gulf States. For who among us feels safer as a result of what has occurred? Who among us feels more confident that there is a safety net when something terrible happens to us, or to someone we love? Who among us feels secure that the smaller and larger communities in which we live and work will provide for us when we are rendered vulnerable? As director of the Hurricane Fund for the Elderly, an initiative of Grantmakers In Aging, I have been working with community leaders, state officials, and philanthropic organizations to rethink services to older adults in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The hurricanes ruptured the fragile alliance of family care and public services that supports the health and human services system. The damage is so extensive and the problems are so complex that simply rebuilding what existed before the storm is not an option. We must reconsider the entire older adult service system. But in order for this reenvisioning to occur, we must learn both from the past and from the best the aging field currently has to offer. As we look back, and forward, let us take stock of what has happened, what we have learned, and what we can do. WHAT HAPPENED TO OLDER ADULTS DURING THE HURRICANES More than five million people age 60 and older lived in the Gulf States prior to the hurricanes of 2005 (U.S. Census, 2000). These older adults are among our country's poorest and most vulnerable. The state of Mississippi ranks first in poverty in the country; Louisiana, second; Alabama, ninth (U.S. Census, 2000). By the time the 2005 hurricane season was over, this area had undergone one of the largest migrations of displaced people in this country's history. It was reported that in Louisiana alone, 48 percent of the state's older people were evacuated. More than 700,000 older adults left their homes or nursing facilities, either temporarily, or permanently, to live in shelters. The geographical area affected was roughly the size of Great Britain. Tragically for some, being poor and vulnerable became a terminal condition. Although older adults constitute only 15 percent of the population ofNew Orleans, they accounted for 70 percent of the dead from Hurricane Katrina, and nearly half of those who died were over the age of 75 (Simerman, Ott, and Mellnik, 2005). The most vulnerable older adults-those living in facilities and completely dependent on others for care-were put at greatest risk because 70 percent of the New Orleans area's fifty-three nursing homes were not evacuated before Katrina made landfall (Infoplease, 2006). Indeed, 20 percent of those killed in Katrina were found in hospitals and nursing homes (Simerman, Ott, and Mellnik, 2005). In the wake of Katrina and Hurricane Rita, more than 30,000 older and disabled people from 400 nursing homes were evacuated by buses, cargo planes, and helicopters to nineteen different states (Olsen and Khanna, 2005). WHAT HAPPENED TO OLDER ADULTS AFTER THE HURRICANES No one has a firm count of how many older adults have returned to the area [by December 2006]. We do know that more than 1,300 older adults in Louisiana living in the community prior to the storm are now living in nursing homes. For many who lived in Biloxi or Gulfport, all that is left is yard after yard of cement slabs where homes once stood. The institutions that served older adults-the senior center, the bank, the VA hospital-are either completely gone or in total ruin. People who have returned to the area are still living in tents or trailers or crowded into apartments with extended family. …