Abstract
AbstractThis paper will add to the health and disasters literature by considering the spatial patterns of a factor not commonly associated with evacuation decisions, the existing chronic health burden of the population. 911 calls for the period from August 29 to September 8, 2005, were mapped using a Geographic Information System for 15 neighborhoods of New Orleans. For each neighborhood the total number of calls was reduced to unique residences, and any mention of a health‐related problem was recorded. By using single locations and then reinterpreting medical attributes as a percentage of all such locations, or as a percentage of those mentioning medical information, an approach is presented to spatially standardize knowledge from these data. The results show that a sizable portion of those who did not evacuate from Katrina before landfall were suffering from some ailment, especially chronic diseases commonly associated with the urban poor. Of particular note is the diabetes rate, with six different neighborhoods having approximately 10% of their 911 calls mentioning the disease. The paper concludes with suggestions as to how this research should progress, with fine spatial scale geographic analysis of health data becoming more common in understanding evacuation impediments and the post‐disaster landscape in general.
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