Age, Emotion Regulation, and Well-Being after the 2016 Flood

In 2016, catastrophic flooding in south Louisiana claimed 13 lives with billions of dollars in damage to homes and communities in the decade after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the US Gulf Coast. In this study, we tested the inoculation hypothesis which predicts that older adults will be less distressed than younger adults due to their prior experience with severe weather events. Participants were 218 predominately middle-aged and older adults who varied in current and prior flood experience: less than half (40%) did not flood in 2016, 31% had flood damage, and 29% had relocated permanently inland after catastrophic losses in the 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and they flooded again in 2016. Depression symptoms were assessed with the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Emotion regulation strategies were measured using the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire-Short Form. Results indicated that the older adults had fewer symptoms of depression and were less likely to report self blame for flood-related adversities compared to younger adults. The two age groups did not differ significantly on the emotion regulation strategies of acceptance, reappraisal, positive refocusing, other blame, and perseveration. Age was inversely associated with symptoms of depression and the maladaptive strategies of self blame for flood-related misfortune and perseveration over losses. These data support the inoculation hypothesis and suggest that prior severe weather experiences, which are likely for older adults living in hurricane prone areas, are important for post-flood resilience. Implications of these findings for disaster planning and age-sensitive interventions to mitigate adversity are considered.

Adult Age Differences in Coping Strategies After the 2016 Flood

The 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita had a devastating impact on south Louisiana, as did the more recent flooding in 2016. Multiple disaster exposures are associated with distress which may be lessened through adaptive coping behaviors, although prior disaster losses may affect current coping responses. In this study, we assessed self-reported coping strategies, resilience, and mental health outcomes after the 2016 flood. The sample was comprised of mostly middle-aged and older adults (N = 223, age range: 18-89 years). Three groups were compared: (1) non-flooded adults as controls, (2) once-flooded adults with structural damage to homes and property in 2016, and (3) twice-flooded adults who had relocated to Baton Rouge because of catastrophic losses in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and they experienced damage in the 2016 flood. Analyses of variance confirmed that the three groups differed in coping responses, with non-flooded controls using significantly fewer strategies than their once and twice flooded counterparts. Correlation analyses demonstrated that age was positively associated with adaptive forms of coping (acceptance, religiosity) and negatively correlated with maladaptive coping (self-blame). These data suggest that awareness of prior severe weather experiences and catastrophic losses, which are likely for older adults living in hurricane prone areas, are an important consideration for disaster planning and the development of age-sensitive interventions to mitigate adversity.

Disaster Stressors and Psychological Well-Being After a Flood

Hurricanes and floods have mental health consequences for younger and older adults alike. In August of 2016, historic flooding in Baton Rouge, Louisiana resulted in billions of dollars in damages. In this study, we compared 223 mostly middle-aged and older adults on mental health indicators. The majority of the sample (n = 137) were non-coastal residents and the remainder (n = 86) were former coastal residents who had permanently relocated inland after catastrophic losses in the 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Multiple regressions confirmed elevations in symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress for both adults with flood damage in 2016 and also those who doubly flooded in 2016 and 2005. Age had a protective effect for symptoms of depression and worry. Prior lifetime trauma was a risk factor for depression. Implications of these data for understanding age-related vulnerabilities after multiple disasters are discussed with suggestions to strengthen post-disaster resilience.

Disaster Research “Methics”: Ethical and Methodological Considerations of Researching Disaster-Affected Populations

How we do research directly affects what we know about the subject matter under study. While the study of disaster events continues to grow, rigorous inquiry on disaster research methodology is limited because it is confounded by the disruption a disaster presents. Yet it is precisely at that point that special methodological problems emerge. The methodological—and inherently ethical—challenges disaster researchers face became apparent to me during my own fieldwork on domestic violence organizations and their recovery trajectory following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. In this article, I explore methodological and ethical issues that lay beneath “studying” people in the wake of disaster events and argue that ethical concerns should have the same, if not greater, primacy as methods; a dual consideration I refer to as “methics.” My findings support this argument and add to the growing chorus advocating for a paradigm shift in disaster research methods.

MEMORY FOR PICTURES AND WORDS AFTER A NATURAL DISASTER

The pictorial superiority effect (PSE) is the finding that memory for pictures exceeds that of memory for matching words for people of all ages (Cherry et al., 2012). We examined free recall of line drawings and matching words in adults enrolled in the LSU Flood Study, an interdisciplinary study of disaster stress and cognition. We tested the hypothesis that disaster stress would be associated with deficits in memory for pictures and words. Participants were sampled from a three-parish (county) region of Baton Rouge, LA that was severely devastated by the 2016 flood (N = 202, age range: 18-88 years). They received multiple tests, including the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA; Nasreddine et al., 2005), and self-report measures of executive function and functional impairment (Barkley, 2011). Three groups were compared: (1) non-flooded adults as controls, (2) once-flooded adults with structural damage to homes and property in 2016, and (3) twice-flooded adults who had relocated to Baton Rouge because of catastrophic losses in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and flooded again in 2016. Results yielded a PSE in free recall for all disaster exposure groups (p < 0.001). Follow-up analyses by age group revealed that older adults showed the same memorial advantage of pictures relative to words as did their younger counterparts across all disaster exposure groups. These results imply that single and multiple disaster exposures do not appear to disrupt cognition assessed with traditional, laboratory-based measures. This research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Award Number 1708090).

Investigation of the capacity of train stations in case of a large-scale emergency evacuation

Nature and human-made hazards, like hurricanes, inundations, terroristic attacks or in- cidents in nuclear power plants, make it necessary to evacuate large urban areas in a short time. So far, the consideration of railway transportation is rarely part of the evacuation strategies. One of the reasons is the unknown capacity of this infrastructure.In the case of hurricanes Katrina and Rita (USA) the evacuation was accomplished with pri- vate vehicles and buses. In Germany, especially in the conurbation of Nordrhein-Westfalen, where many roads are overloaded during the daily rush hours, it will not be possible to use only road dependent vehicles like private cars or busses to evacuate a large number of people into save areas.After the nuclear power plant disaster of Fukushima, the working group ‘AG Fukushima’ was founded, which recommends the use of trains for large-scale emergency evacuations. However, it is not clear if the capacity of train stations is enough to handle these large evacuations in time. Hence, this work deals with the question of how the capacity of train stations can be quantified and optimised for this application. In order to estimate the capacity of train stations we use and further develop the Ju ̈lich Pedestrian Simula- tor (JuPedSim), a software for pedestrian dynamics simulations. Therefore, a model of a train station is built in JuPedSim and several parameters like the inflow and outflow of the pedestrians are examined, to find the best routing strategy and organisational ac- tions inside the station. The focus of this contribution lies in the identification of critical bottlenecks. An estimation of which parameters are influencing congestion at these bottle- necks is presented. Additionally, organisational strategies are outlined, which can prevent congestion and increase the capacity of a train station.

Curtailing Lead Aerosols: Effects of Primary Prevention on Declining Soil Lead and Children’s Blood Lead in Metropolitan New Orleans

After decades of accumulation of lead aerosols in cities from additives in gasoline, in 1975 catalytic converters (which are ruined by lead) became mandatory on all new cars. By 1 January 1986 the rapid phase-down banned most lead additives. The study objective is to review temporal changes of environmental lead and children’s blood lead in communities of metropolitan New Orleans. In 2001, a soil lead survey of 287 census tracts of metropolitan New Orleans was completed. In August–September 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita storm surges flooded parts of the city with sediment-loaded water. In April–June 2006, 46/287 (16%) of the original census tracts were selected for resurvey. A third survey of 44/46 (15%) census tracts was completed in 2017. The census tract median soil lead and children’s median blood lead decreased across surveys in both flooded and unflooded areas. By curtailing a major urban source of lead aerosols, children’s lead exposure diminished, lead loading of soil decreased, and topsoil lead declined. Curtailing lead aerosols is essential for primary prevention. For the sake of children’s and ultimately societal health and welfare, the long-term habitability of cities requires terminating all remaining lead aerosols and cleanup of legacy-lead that persists in older inner-city communities.