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COVID-19 Rapid Student Interview Project

COVID-19 Rapid Student Interview Collection Form

This project aims to provide an engaging project for post-secondary students (undergraduate and graduate) to gain experience with qualitative research methodology  while contributing to public

Omar Pérez: Submarine Roots, Resisting (un)natural disasters

omarperez

I am interested in seeing how social ties and networks have been used to cope with (un)natural disasters. My research focus on places under disasters conditions such as Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria, in which social ties have made the difference between life and death. Furthermore, “natural” disaster has been used to approved austerity measures and unjust policies to impoverished communities like in New Orleans after Katrina. These policies were not new, as they are rooted in structures of power to preserve the status quo. Yet, people have resisted, “through a network of branches, cultures, and geographies” that has stimulated a reflective process of looking within for solutions rather than outside. As often this outside solutions are not only detached from community’s reality but can perpetuate social injustices and inequalities.

McKittrick, K., & Woods, C. A. (Eds.). (2007). Black geographies and the politics of place. South End Press.

Bullard, R. D., & Wright, B. (Eds.). (2009). Race, place, and environmental justice after Hurricane Katrina: Struggles to reclaim, rebuild, and revitalize New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Westview Press.

Annotated Bibliography (EIS)

This link complements the Essay Bibliography of the Project Environmental Justice framing implications in the EIS.

EPA Database on EISs

This (EIS) database provides information about EISs provided by federal agencies, and EPA's comments concerning the EIS process.

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Sara_Nesheiwat
Annotation of

This site runs like any run of the mill website. If there are any issues or questions about the website there is contact information provided to seek assistance with the site or ask questions regarding the information. 

By phone: 866-692-9827
By email: wtchr@health.nyc.gov
By fax: 347-396-2893
By mail: WTC Health Registry
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
42-09 28th Street, CN 6W
Queens, NY 11101-4132

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Sara_Nesheiwat
Annotation of

The way in which the research was done is what made this an interesting read and peaked my interest in this article. Primary sources of information are quoted and interviewed. The conditions and treatment of inmates were documented and revealed by residents both past and present of Rikers, who have first hand insight into what it was like being detained there. Inmate testimony, as well as facts and statistics about the deteriorating facilities, pollution and poor conditions there were also provided. This information was supplied by numerous different organizations as well as studies and articles and then complied into this article. 

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Sara_Nesheiwat

"Depression and anxiety disorders were pervasive. Many residents had regular nightmares of waking up in water. They talked about recurring “breakdowns” in which they became overcome with emotion and physically collapsed. A 2007 study showed that 20 percent of New Orleans residents were categorized as having a Katrina-related serious mental illness, and 19 percent showed signs of minimal to mild mental illness (Sastry and VanLandingham 2008; Thomas 2008).  "

"The stress-inducing factors that prevailed among New Orleans residents were multiple and layered, including physical, psychological, and social displacements around house and home, work, financial security, and family security. The loss of home and jobs and, in some cases, the cost of rebuilding produced huge financial worries for residents. "

"What I experienced was coming back to the devastation of the city. No grocery stores, no cell phone service, certainly no phone service, no regular phone service. We actually had to get other cell phones. You know, it was a ghost town. I think I, probably, maybe not now, but I was in shock, you know, because I couldn’t take in the enormity of it. I wondered knowing the politics of the city, and the state, and actually the federal government, how it was ever going to be fixed.  "

“Chronic disaster syndrome” thus refers in this analysis to the cluster of trauma-and posttrauma-related phenomena that are at once individual, social, and political and that are associated with disaster as simultaneously causative and experiential of a chronic condition of distress in relation to displacement.  "

"Not surprisingly, residents and those still trying to return to New Orleans are asking the question: Where did all the federal money go? Residents still living out of their trailers wonder why they could not get Road Home or FEMA funds and continue to wait to find out if their rental housing will be rebuilt.  "

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Sara_Nesheiwat

The article is supported through the recollection of the past decade of research on this topic of mental health effects due to disasters. First, the article delves into the PTSD and MDD mental illness association with disasters and the background of theses disorders. The authors then utilize numerous epidemiological studies that have been developed and discussed on the matter over that last 190 years. Experiences of those that are dealing with mental illnesses are also utilized as supporting evidence of the effect disasters have on mental health conditions on those effected.