ATLANTA
The portrayal of Hurricane Katrina evacuees who did not leave New Orleans before the storm as lazy and reliant on government aid is inaccurate, a study released Tuesday shows.
The study, authored by Georgia State University sociology professor Timothy Brezina, aims to punch holes in theory that many evacuees who were rescued from the rising flood waters stayed in New Orleans because they wanted the government to save them.
It is based on data from a poll conducted in Houston-area shelters by The Washington Post and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation just two weeks after the hurricane.
The majority of Hurricane Katrina evacuees were working poor who began looking for jobs just weeks after the storm displaced them in faraway cities, Brezina’s report shows.
“That’s my hope that it will challenge some of these damaging stereotypes that have plagued Hurricane Katrina evacuees,” Brezina said. “They have faced the stigma of being inaccurately perceived, of being uninterested in work and of waiting for others to act responsibly.”
Nearly 70 percent of those surveyed were employed before the storm, with half of respondents holding full-time jobs. And 60 percent of evacuees polled were looking for jobs at the time of the survey.
