The Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health have conducted a
survey of evacuees.... hopefully this doesn't count as a repeat:
this diary by chipware mentions the results of this survey on the topic of whether evacuees plan to return, but I thought people would be interested in seeing the whole thing.
A sample of key results below the fold - this summary comes from an email that was sent around my office. I don't know if it's going around elsewhere. I'm trying to find out where it comes from to credit it properly, which I will do in the comments when I can.
[UPDATE: The summary comes from the Kaiser Family Foundation, and is available through the link to the survey, above.]
More than 1 in 10 (14%) Hurricane Katrina evacuees report a family member, neighbor or friend was killed by the storm or subsequent flooding.
More than half report that their home was destroyed (55%) and that they are separated from or missing members of their immediate family (53%).
52% report having no health insurance coverage at the time of the hurricane. Of those with coverage, 34% say it is through Medicaid and 16% through Medicare. Before the hurricane 66% of the people evacuated to Houston shelters used hospitals or clinics as their main source of care and of those, a majority (54%) used Charity Hospital of New Orleans, substantially more than the second most common care site (University Hospital of New Orleans, at 8%).
33% report experiencing health problems or injuries as a result of the hurricane and 78% of them are currently receiving care for their ailments.
41% report chronic health conditions such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and asthma.
43% say they are supposed to be taking prescription medications, and of those, 29% percent report having problems getting the prescription drugs they need.
Of the 61% who did not evacuate before the storm, 38% said they were either physically unable to leave or had to care for someone who was physically unable to leave.
Among those surveyed, 98% are from the New Orleans area and about three-quarters of those (73%) have lived there their whole lives.
In surviving this tragedy, an overwhelming majority of the evacuees in Houston shelters (92%) say that religion played an important role in helping them get through the past two weeks.