Forty-three percent of hurricane evacuees in Acadiana who responded to a survey planned to relocate rather than return to storm-damaged homes, according to survey results released this month by the United Way of Acadiana.

The survey also found that in the Acadiana area, Lafayette Parish received the largest number of hurricane evacuees with 38 percent followed by St. Landry Parish with 16 percent.

Translating those percentages into firm population numbers is difficult, because there have been conflicting estimates of how many evacuees came to Acadiana after hurricanes Katrina and Rita — varying from 2,500 to more than 20,000.

The survey was conducted over several weeks in the spring, and 594 evacuees responded after being located through postal change of address information in Lafayette, Iberia, St. Landry, Acadia, St. Martin and Vermilion parishes.

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette Department of Sociology conducted the survey. The results have been made available to social service and government agencies in the region.  “The main focus of this is to help agencies focus their efforts,” said Nicole Lachance, an information analyst and grant writer for United Way of Acadiana. She said survey results could also help win grant money to better serve hurricane evacuees.

Lachance and others were most surprised by the number of evacuees who reported stress, anxiety and depression as problems at a rate 30 to 40 percent above other issues, such as access to health care, lack of transportation, finding a job and securing housing.

“I knew they would be high, but I didn’t think they would be that high,” said ULL sociology professor Bob Gramling, who led the survey work. “And I thought transportation would be a bigger issue.”

The mental issues even edged out frustrations with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which 57 percent of the evacuees reported.
Lachance said another surprise was that of the 381 survey respondents who reported working full-time before the hurricanes, 368 reported full-time employment in the spring. “It seems like a person’s employment was stable before and after,” she said.  Other information on hurricane evacuees gleaned from the survey:

The top need reported was assistance for food and clothing (43 percent), followed by housing/utility assistance (38 percent). 65 percent of the hurricane evacuees in Acadiana had fled Hurricane Katrina. 82 percent of the evacuees who responded to the survey had at least a high school education, and 28.1 percent reported a college degree or higher. 37 percent of the evacuees who responded to the survey were renting a house, 20 percent had bought or were buying a home, 10 percent lived in a FEMA trailer and the remainder lived with friends or relatives, in an apartment, in a mobile home, or in a hotel.

Gramling said the survey questions, which also asked about access to health care, child care, substance abuse treatment and other services, were crafted with input from area social service and government agencies. Lachance said some of the results would most likely differ if the survey were done now, rather than six months after the storm. She said some of the individual needs listed on the survey have been met because evacuees offered contact information, allowing agencies to follow-up.

Surveys were mailed out to 10,000 people, but it was later learned that the change of address information — purchased from a private company — included people who had changed addresses long before the hurricanes.

Because of the error, the response rate of the survey is unknown.

Story originally published in The Advocate

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