•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.