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- Half of Baton Rouge households housed evacuees, and 60% of Baton
Rougeans did volunteer relief work, most more than once, and most with
faith-based organizations.
- It is sobering to think what would have happened to evacuees if private
citizens hadn’t provided so much relief: could government and relief
agencies alone have coped? And
given South Louisiana’s close ties of kinship and community, it is
sobering to think what would happen in a disaster of similar magnitude
in a location without these close social networks.
- People in Baton Rouge mainly felt compassion toward evacuees, but there
were negative feelings of fear and irritation, too.
- (continues…)
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- Rumors of crime were initially widespread, but after initially spiking,
fear of crime subsided fairly quickly.
Fear of crime continued its years-long decline; and fear after
Katrina was not as high or as sustained as it was during the time of the
Baton Rouge serial killer.
- A majority of citizens are willing to pay higher taxes for
recovery. They would prefer some
other solution, but they are increasingly skeptical that a real
alternative exists.
- Crowding in Baton Rouge produced substantial problems and irritants,
though these have subsided somewhat over time. However, even as the situation
improved, blame of government rose, especially of federal and state government. Local government was better regarded.
- (continues…)
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- Baton Rougeans were understandably angry and depressed after the
disaster – but notably, their levels of optimism were even higher. However, they felt more hopeful about
improvement in the economy than about Baton Rouge as a place to live.
- People who were more involved in the community [had higher “Social Capital”] initially carried a
heavier load of stress and worry because they were most involved in
relief work. But as time went on,
they recovered more quickly than did socially isolated people. Their very involvement and social
support increasingly protected them from these negative feelings.
- We predict that in our future wave of the survey in Spring 2006, these
socially-involved people will have even more fully recovered than the
social isolates. This finding
has important implications both for community building and disaster
recovery – and for sociological theory.
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- Survey conducted by Frederick Weil, Edward Shihadeh, and Matthew Lee of
the Sociology Department at Louisiana State University. Interviews were done September 27 to
November 29, 2005. Data are based
on a random-digit-dialed telephone sample, representative of the general
population age 18 and over in East Baton Rouge Parish, LA, who already
lived there before the hurricanes.
Survey includes 1,349 completed interviews. The results are weighted to reflect
the combined age-gender-race/Hispanic distributions, according to U.S.
Census estimates for 2004. Data
collection was supported by a grant from the National Science
Foundation.
- www.lsu.edu/sociology
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