RAPID: A Double Dunk: How the Oil Spill is Affecting Katrina-Impacted Residents

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Dr. Katherine E. Browne (Colorado State University) will undertake research on how the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is impacting populations who are still recovering from the effects of the 2005 hurricane, Katrina. The epicenters of both these disasters have also occurred in the same New Orleans area of the Gulf Coast, affecting large numbers of the same people. Some of the impacts are indirect and unexpected. For example, contaminated fishing waters are affecting seafood supply which is linked to the maintenance of family networks and the resilience of the very family support systems that proved critical for dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. With this award, Browne will follow-up on field research she conducted on the post-Katrina recovery process of a large kin network of 150 African Americans. Browne's research will advance science in three ways: 1) methodologically, by demonstrating the value of systematic, qualitative interviews with disaster-affected residents to collect data that is otherwise unobtainable; 2) theoretically, by modeling long-term disaster recovery as a volatile, non-linear process, rather than a defined episode or event; and 3) by demonstrating the value of communicating science findings to the public as well as to the scientific community. In addition to scholarly publications, Browne's Katrina research produced a documentary film, Still Waiting: Life After Katrina, which was aired by the Public Broadcasting System across the country.