The purpose of this research will be to understand how did the breaking of the levees affect the city of New Orleans. This research is important because there were thousands of victims who were displaced from their homes and forced to deal with a new reality. The main reason families were displaced from their homes was because the water levels had reached 10 feet in most areas. The reason the city collected so much water was because the levee walls came down due to protecting the richer side of the city.  The paper will present the many reasons as to why the city decided to let the levee walls fail and the impact this had on the residents of New Orleans. Even though this traumatic event occurred 12 years ago it is still affecting people in New Orleans in many ways till this day. One of the ways that Hurricane Katrina still impacts people in the city is that another storm is possible to come in the future. People saw their homes, businesses and neighborhoods completely destroyed and were forced in many situations to leave the city and start new lives in other places. Many people are still affected by the situation because many people have lost friends and family who were displaced from the city. It affected people emotionally, especially young children seeing all the dead bodies and painted Xs on houses to let others know how many people who were trapped inside their homes and died. This paper will help to expand what is understood about the impacts of the storm and how many people are still dealing with the trauma. All residents of New Orleans could use the research to better understand what happened to cause all the flooding during the storm. City officials could also use this information to educate themselves if this horror happens again. Also people that repaired and operated the levees could find useful information in the research to help improve the levees.

The breaking of the levees affected the city of New Orleans in many ways.  Not only did it mess up homes and destroy the city, but it caused many long term mental health issues among the citizens of New Orleans that still affect them today (Kelman 630).  The trauma began as soon as the city started flooding.  The anxiety associated with the stressful situation of not having a way out of the city and nowhere to go after the storm were the first steps to the mental health crisis.  The majority of those affected were poor African Americans, because those are the ones that the government did not protect the people and they were the most vulnerable (Jacobs and Harville 514).  People deal with stress and disasters in different ways and it is important to use research to understand how to help the individuals with long lasting effects of this disaster. The anxiety they had during the storm from not knowing if their family and friends were safe as well as losing all of their personal belongings played a huge factor in their mental health issues.  

Today, the storm is over and the city has been repaired, but the effects of this storm will forever play a part in their mental state.  The images that will always be are constant reminders to the victims and the traumatic experiences they suffered.  They also live with the fear for the rest of their lives that this type of natural disaster could happen again and this leads to more anxiety and a decline in their mental health. Taking into consideration the massive trauma that happened as a result of Hurricane Katrina, mental health has now become a more significant issue when dealing with disasters. Thus mental health should be seen as a necessary element to the recovery process and not be separate from the rebuilding process after a disaster as to insure that people receive proper treatment after a disaster. 

 Hurricane Katrina had many impacts on the city of New Orleans social, political and cultural impacts resulted, but one of the most forgotten impacts is that of mental health. The reason why mental health is not usually seen as a priority after a major disaster is because the focus is usually on recovery of possessions and the protection of life. People need food, water, and shelter, so mental health is a secondary consideration. According to Kip Thompson (2009), author of the book Socio-cultural differences in coping from stressful events as a result of Hurricane Katrina, he states facts about Hurricane Katrina before, during and after the storm. The book also mentions mental health or bad trauma from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The disaster left the city in a complete mess leaving some families spaced out and some did not make it back to their families due to death. “Stress impacts people in different ways, especially based on the culture of the individual” (Thompson 32). The overall message the author is trying to appeal to the audience is that traumatic events can cause mental disorders as well some PTSD, which is usually not considered an issue after a disaster.

 Most people are concerned with homes, food, and water, but mental health is just as important. Dass-Brailsford and Tomalley (2012) stated additional facts about mental health after a traumatic event as it pertains to victims of a disaster.  Most of the facts presented in the research are aimed at families after disasters and traumatic events, pointing out the mental conditions that people experience after a disaster. These researchers investigated secondary trauma affects among a group of mental health volunteers as well as those who experienced the disaster first hand. What the researchers found was that there was a mental breakdown in a victims being able to cope with the impact of the disaster. The volunteers came to help in a rebuilding process also experienced forms of trauma, mainly because the stress of dealing with all of the issues. The researchers showed that survival was a stressful event, but what most people do not see is that people lose not just their home or belongings, but also sense of who they are and their identity (Dass-Brailsford and Tomalley 41). This is what creates such a challenge for the survivors because they have to deal with so much at once. The researchers gained enough information on the aftermath of the storm to help with the research. The authors explain many facts and reasons on victims who went through this traumatic event as a way to understand a disaster’s impact on people. They found that the volunteers also experience trauma from being in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina but also compassion satisfaction which outweighed any trauma affects.

Trauma was not just felt in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, although it did have the highest levels. The images that was shown around the nation and around the world created a sense of trauma. Some of the most graphic images were taken by Photographers Oliver and Taylor (2015) and these images left a scar on people that show them. The image of an elderly woman wrapped in an American flag blanket, bodies that set upright covered with sheets outside of the superdome and the countless images of bloated, rotting corpses that were found on the streets and on top of cars as the waters went down, all caused people to feel trauma. People were mentally sickened by the deaths they saw constantly and for the people who lived through disaster, it was even more damaging to their mental state.

Hurricane Katrina brought upon huge a catastrophic event that left nearly half the city destroyed and with hundreds dead or lost, families were left stranded and separated from each other creating chaos. When Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug 29, 2005 and shocked the whole city due to the devastating power of the storm, most people were not prepared for the disaster and what was going to happen in the aftermath of the storm (Treaster 1). After a disaster, like Hurricane Katrina in 2007, there is always major clean-up and restoration of a city. However, it must be recognized that after the storm hit and the levees broke, those that were unable to get out of the city were left without help or government aid for several days. The New York Times, The Washington Post as well as CNN, ABC and NBC covered the disaster as the poorest residents of New Orleans were left without food, water or any governmental organization to handle the relief effort. Bloated bodies were seen floating in water that flooded the city and images of the devastation that not only the residents saw daily until help arrived, but as the nation watched on the news as the city of New Orleans went through one of the worst disasters ever, the people were overwhelmingly shocked and disturbed. 

What most people did not really recognize was the fact that people did not think about the mental tragedy created by the disaster. As much of the literature shows, mental health needs to be a part of the process of the disaster relief effort, but because it is so often overlooked as a part of the recovery process, people do not think about it and take mental damage can last for many years, only making the situation worse. Mental health impacts physical health and if any real changes are going to be made, it must be in putting mental health at the same level of importance as food, water and shelter because it is necessary for survival.

After the disaster took place the government begin to try to help rebuild the city the immediate focus is on that of housing, food, water and the replacements of items lost in the disaster. Most people do not think what the issue of mental health after a major disaster, because the focus is usually on replacing those items that were lost. However, when a person experiences a disaster, whether it is a flood, earthquake, plane crash or tornado, the mind of a person is severely impacted in several ways. The American Psychological Association defies trauma as a set of reactions to a specific event, like a major disaster, but it is better to look at the symptoms of a person rather than the responses to specific event. The most common response to a disaster is known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and while it is most often associated with people returning from time spent in the military, psychologists are finding that PTSD is not common for those that have experienced a major disaster, like Hurricane Katrina. 

The American Psychological Association argues that PTSD can be seen in many different ways. After a major disaster people often question how they got into this situation or why have they been signaled at for disaster, and these feelings of loss and despair can lead a person to become emotionally unstable, have dramatic flashbacks about the event itself, be unable to sleep and also be impacted in his or her ability to connect with others, reason or be social as they may have been before the disaster (Kranke 177). Additionally, such natural disasters also impact a wide range of people; in the case of Hurricane Katrina literally thousands of people had experienced trauma on a huge scale, creating different responses in each person. Given the amount of people impacted and the scale of the disaster, the government should make mental health a priority when it comes to recovery because of the huge impacts that it has on the people who survived the disaster both now and in the future.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder impacts a person in many different ways. But medical professionals and psychologists have seen the impact of PTSD impacting a few main areas such as mental health, physical health, work and relationships. Many studies show that a person who has PTSD is more likely to develop an additional mental disorder on top of the one he or she may be currently experience. Anxiety disorders, depression, as well as eating and substance disorders are all common responses to PTSD. Those with PTSD are five times likely to develop depression compared to a regular person and six times likely to develop anxiety as well, making PTSD only the beginning of the problems for those that have experienced trauma. Both depression and anxiety can lead to self-harm, even suicide in some cases, which is why those that experienced a major disaster should be able to access mental health treatment immediately after a traumatic event.

The research shows that after a major disaster, the focus is typically on food, water and shelter; those necessities that people need to survive in the immediate aftermath after a disaster. However, what is not really addressed is the issue of mental health. When a person goes through a major disaster, this is a traumatic event and therefore affects the way a person thinks, feels and also impacts their behavior. Mental health is often a part of the recovery process (Dass-Brailsford and Thomely 37) and needs to be seen as something that is just as important as food, water and shelter. As the American Psychological Association has pointed out, the experience that takes place after a disaster is one that needs to be addressed and needs to be seen as something that is just as important as food and water. A person’s mental state is not something that should not be taken lightly, as it can affect not only memory, but behavior as well. 

The reason that mental health is not a part of the recovery process in the immediate moments after a disaster is because it is not seen as a priority and because of the way that the American culture sees mental health. The immediate focus is on saving lives after a disaster and this involves getting people to safety and giving them the supplies they need in order to become stable, such as food, water and shelter. However, mental health is just as important because it can lead to problems such as PTSD, depression and other mental illnesses that start right after a disaster. This is why it needs to be addressed just like needing food and water; mental health impacts survival and the ability to recover, so this is why that it needs to be present when the disaster happens and continued later on after the disaster.

The second reason that mental health is not a part of the immediate recovery process is because there is a perspective that mental health only applies to a small part of the population, like those people that have mental problems that have been identified. This is the problem because people in the United States see mental health as not being a part of the everyday experience and a part of being healthy. People typically see the mental health as being for those with mental problems, people who are crazy, or those that are labeled as crazy, but this needs to change. This is because people are afraid of being labeled as those that need mental help or as a person that does not have all of their mental capabilities (Kranke 187). There is a stigma in society that needs to be changed because people see mental health that is not something for the average person and only used for those people that really need the help, which most people do not think they need. 

One of the most obvious solutions that needs to be taken when addressing mental health after a disaster is to make it a part of the immediate recovery process, just like when people are trying to get food and water, because mental health is a part of the overall health of a person. Ignoring mental health is just like not giving a person water, food or shelter. Mental health is important because in the immediate moments after a disaster, people can start to develop those problems that can lead to PTSD or depression and the only way to stop that from becoming worse is to treat it immediately as soon as then disaster happens. The access to mental health needs to be present after disasters and cannot be a secondary option.

However, the access to mental health needs to also be focused on the group that it means to serve. According to Thompson (2009) mental health is different for different racial group and the approach needs to be focused on the way certain cultures and ethnicities see mental health. This has been a problem and was a problem after Hurricane Katrina, as the mental health workers did not understand the culture of the area or the people, so the delivery of the services was not as great (Kranke 188). This is what needs to be changed; services need to reflect the region, culture and the people and cannot just be one type of service, but tailored to the needs of the people. These two changes, tailoring the services based on the group and making mental services immediately available after a disaster, this are issues that were challenges after Hurricane Katrina and these lessons can help those helping with future traumatic disasters.     
