It took Lolet Boutté four years to come home from Houston after Katrina. Like so many New Orleanians, she’d underwent serious trauma and lost her home. While the folks in Houston were kind, she wanted to make her way back.
“When I did come back to visit, nobody looked right,” recalled the eldest of 10 siblings, an artistic clan that includes singer John Boutté. “I’d look in their eyes and they just weren’t right. I knew what was behind those eyes, the horrible things they were going through. I still hugged them, but I didn’t want any more of that to come to me. I had enough of my own. I believe that I had PTSD but I thought I was handling it.”
With help from the community and her vocalist daughter Tricia, “Sister Teedy,” Boutté finally came home to one side of a double shotgun rental in Musicians Village, walking distance to the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music. “I thought I was all good,” recalled Boutté, a youthful 79. “We survived Betsy, thanks to my grandmother’s gas-powered refrigerator. I survived Katrina. I know what storms can do. I just went on with living my life.”
The Ida Effect
Until Ida. After what turned out to be an ill-fated evacuation, she came home and slept on her porch for seven days. “That broke my body and my head down both. I finally realized I needed to get help.” She started counseling and tended to some physical problems she’d been ignoring with help from the DePaul Community Health Center. “Our family goes back in New Orleans for generations. We have to take care of ourselves. The counseling really makes a difference.”
Hurricane anxiety is real. For those who haven’t been traumatized by a storm, the worry and anticipation are one thing. For folks who have ridden out storms and experienced trauma, the triggers can be debilitating, creating anxiety and fear, even full-blown PTSD. For some, the start of hurricane season brings flashbacks, nightmares, physical and emotional distress, insomnia, depression and lethargy.
For Marguerite Oestreicher, losing her home and livelihood in Katrina was too much to take in at the time. “I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep. I lost 20 pounds.” Fortunately for Oestreicher, who is now the executive director of Habitat for Humanity, her then 12-year-old son weighed in. “I remember breaking down in a Walmart parking lot in Shreveport. I had such a sense of hopelessness. My son looked at me and said, ‘Mom, we get the chance to start over. Most people never get that chance.’ That was my privilege wake up call. I had a vehicle, friends and family, places to go. So many people in New Orleans didn’t have that.”
A storm-triggered life change
That “aha” moment put her on the path that eventually brought her back to New Orleans. She got a degree in nonprofit management from Salem University in North Carolina, knowing she needed to make a difference. Oestreicher missed her family, her community and made it home after eight years. As she leads the charge to build affordable housing in New Orleans, that community has greatly expanded. “Now when there’s a storm, besides family, I worry about the 700 families in our homes. We secure our sites, move vehicles and get people out. During Ida, I had people in more than 20 states.”
Habitat houses are built to fortified gold standards, with additional hurricane straps and elevation, depending on the flood plain. She’s working on cottages for 50 seniors on the West Bank and providing back up power is in the works. “Older people died because of the heat after Ida. We need enough power to cool one room, power medical devices and keep medications cool.”
Because her 94-year-old mother is at the Poydras House, her current hurricane plan is to shelter in place. “She can’t ride 12 hours in a car,” she said. “I’m a planner. there’s always a plan, A, plan B and sometimes plan C,” she said. “That’s my way of coping with the things that I can control.”
The kids are ok
Ali Loftin came to New Orleans from her home in Kansas after Katrina to help with recovery. “I saw the loss and devastation through the lens of a young person who had resources,” she recalled. She moved to New Orleans in 2014 and now lives with her husband Kyle and their three children, Kale, 8, Hazel 6 and Leone, two months, in Metairie. The experience of evacuating before Ida with children was a whole different ballgame.
“The stress of packing, anticipating what my children needed, what to take in case we lost everything, I wasn’t prepared for that,” she recalled. Her husband grew up in Marrero and is used to hurricanes. “We look at the path of the storm, the temperature, how the water is in the Carolinas and Florida. We try to make an informed decision,” she said. Kyle works in the hotel business, which enabled the family to escape to Pascagoula with their four-month-old still untrained puppy in tow. They stayed two weeks.
“The kids were 3 and 5 and I learned a lot of lessons,” she said. “Kids and babies need a place to be calm. They need routine and space to rest. Next time, I’d try to stay in a house. When your child is having a meltdown because they can’t find their teddy and you can’t find their teddy, your anxiety just goes through the roof.”
Staying calm is her baseline. “They need to feel safe. We get them involved, to pick the special toy they want to bring with them. It’s better not to go into too much detail – to let them let you know what they need to know.”
Dr. Julia Kaplow agrees that talking about storms ahead of time in a calm and factual way is the move. Kaplow, who is executive director for the Trauma and Grief Center (TAG) in Houston at the Hackett Center and in New Orleans at Children’s Hospital, also advises supervising what the kids see on TV and social media. “It can be overwhelming. You might say, ‘I’m sure you’re seeing news about the potential hurricane. What worries do you have?’ This lets them guide the conversation.”
It’s also critical to differentiate between adult worries and child worries, she said. “It’s the adult’s job to keep the family safe, to be sure they have what they need. Take the burden of worry off the child’s shoulders,” she added. Another point is to realize that kids are sponges and will pick up on what their caregiver says and does. “It’s not their job to make the parent feel better. That’s for friends, adult family members and therapists. By voicing your own anxiety in front of them, it makes things worse.”
If a child has experienced storm trauma, the onset of hurricane season may come with triggers. “You might see excessive clinginess, crying, behavioral regression in toileting, sleeping and language issues.” For kids who are on the spectrum or more sensitive to their environment, she advises giving the child something to control. “Give them choices,” said Kaplow. “How about you choose which flashlights we are going to use, or which toy or stuffed animal to have with you in case the lights go out. That can make them feel safer.”
Mental health resources
Help isn’t just on the way. It’s here now. Here are some resources to tap before the next storm touches down.. There is even free mental tele-health counseling for residents of Louisiana.
- ADAA – the Anxiety and Depression Association of America offers hurricane specific coping and recovery programs and access to free mental health support groups. adaa.org
- The National Disaster Distress Hotline – This multilingual, crisis support service is available by phone 24/7 (1-800-985-5990) or text TalkWithUs to 66746. Get immediate crisis counseling for emotional distress related to any disaster.
- NCTSN – The National Child Traumatic Stress Network provides tip sheets for parents and adults in coping with the aftermath of natural disasters. nctsn.org
- Ready Nola – New Orleans specific info includes how to prepare for a storm, how to shelter in place and access to city-assisted evacuation. ready.nola.gov/plan/hurricane/
- The University of Holy Cross offers free mental telehealth counseling to all residents of Louisiana. Funded by the Marianites Order, virtual counseling is provided by licensed doctoral students and faculty supervised master’s students. 504-398-2168. Holy Cross also has a 24-hour Crisis line 855-418-7282
- Red Cross Hurricane preparedness provides tips on planning, including a downloadable safety checklist in nine languages, including Spanish, Arabic and traditional Chinese. redcross.org
- Fill The Needs. New Orleans chef Amy Sins founded this disaster relief network that has made a difference everywhere from the Ukraine and Afghanistan to Lake Charles, New Orleans and Chalmette. Channel that anxiety by volunteering to make a difference both on the ground and behind the scenes. filltheneeds.org
- The National Weather Service offers storm anxiety advice from meteorologists – good info for weather geeks too. weather.gov/oun/stormanxiety
- The Trauma and Grief (TAG) Center at Children’s Hospital has resources, from counseling to assessment to free virtual parenting workshops to help caregivers cope with their child’s trauma.
A plan
Decrease anxiety symptoms by having a plan, and controlling what you realistically can. Do it now, before the storm rush empties shelves and the vibe is high anxiety.
For sheltering at home
- Prepare your home by protecting doors and windows, securing outdoor objects, freezing bags of water. Clear gutters and trim back tree branches.
- Stay indoors during the hurricane and away from windows and glass doors.
- Close all interior doors and secure external doors.
- Keep curtains and blinds closed.
- Ready an emergency food and water supply for the family and pets.
- Same for an emergency medicine supply for all.
- Collect emergency power sources like flashlights and extra batteries.
- Gather important documents, including insurance info, deeds/titles and ID cards
For evacuating
- Be sure the car is gassed up in and in good working order.
- Have a planned destination, with alternate routes to get there.
- Bring an emergency backpack loaded with photocopies of important documents, a flashlight, a battery powered radio, medicines, cash, extra sets of keys for house and car.
- Assemble a car emergency kit: water, non-perishable snacks, blankets, garbage bags, car phone charger, TP, paper towels, a gas can, jumper cables and a towline.
- Each person needs a bag with necessities, including familiar comfort toys and clothing for the kids.
Look that hurricane in the eye
Remember, it’s normal to feel this way and you are not alone.
- Make a plan, which puts you control of your situation.
- Learn about storms to understand what the advisory terms mean.
- Be informed, but limit media exposure. Binging on weather reports makes anxiety worse.
- Discuss your feelings and plans with trusted advisors for emotional support.
- Talk about storms matter-of-factly with your kids before an event happens. Be calm and supportive and let them know you’ve got this.
- Stay healthy, including eating a proper diet, exercising and rest. All have a positive impact on thoughts and emotions and help you make better decisions.
- Seek the help of a mental health professional for yourself or family members if anxiety doesn’t diminish.
Helping underserved populations
Dr. Myo Thwin Myint is on a mission to help underserved populations. The Myanmar native, who moved to New Orleans in 2008, has long seen a stigma around mental health. A specialist in pediatrics and child and adolescent psychiatry with LCMH Health, he’s also associate professor of psychiatry at Tulane’s School of Medicine. Besides working with young people dealing with trauma, Myint is a trusted practitioner within the LGBTQ community.
“We know that marginalized communities have worse outcomes,” he said. “There’s a small but vocal group that ties disasters like hurricanes to the LGBTQ community, saying it’s punishment from God. Those kinds of narratives make it tough for a community that is already under stress and more vulnerable, from trans youth to the Black and Brown population to the undocumented.”
As a familiar figure in the Latinx community, Dr. Roy Salgado works closely with undocumented people in and around New Orleans. Born in New Orleans to Honduran parents, Salgado provides critical counseling services in English and Spanish. He’s been a faculty member of the University of Holy Cross since just after Hurricane Katrina.
“Many in this community have little resources. They may not have the funds to put gas in their car to get out of the city. Or a place to go. For an undocumented person, the idea of going to a government facility can be terrifying,” he said. “I advise getting as far away from the path of the storm as they can, even if they park in a 24-hour Walmart parking lot for a few days. It’s a better option than being stuck in a dark dangerous city at night without services.”
He remembers living through hurricanes from Andrew forward, and his parents and grandparents talking about Betsy and Camille. Because his office flooded after Katrina, he went to work out in Kenner and offered services through Archdiocese’ Hispanic Apostolic. “I tried to help individuals put the pieces back together on an emotional level. They were dealing with loss of life, family property, everything they had known. There was a dearth of services. I was displaced in Texas for six weeks, but that didn’t compare to those who stayed and the chaos that followed the storm.”
For many of his clients, whenever a significant storm is coming, the PTSD goes to work. “The triggers get them panicked both emotionally and physically,” he said. “I try to offer coping skills. Help them engage in self talk. This weather isn’t the same experience. They are currently safe. They are not in danger. This isn’t the same threat. They need to self soothe.”
The politics of states like Texas and Florida can also come into play when a family is planning to evacuate. Salgado is hopeful on one level. There are many more Spanish media and digital outlets then there were 20 years ago.
Turning anxiety into action
Amy Sins lost her Lakeview home to Katrina. It was a loss that sparked her to action when she experienced first-hand that strategic coordination is sorely lacking immediately after a disaster.
What began as coordination of a community of volunteers in 2008 to quickly mobilize to feed people in the wake of natural disasters like hurricanes, floods and fire evolved into Fill the Needs, the non-profit Sins founded in 2022.
Fill the Needs rapidly mobilizes its network of partners and volunteers to assess and coordinate resources required for efficient disaster response. Sins emphasizes that the first 14 days following a disaster is critical for resource deployment that makes immediate impact to the devastated families involved.
Volunteering in some capacity to help others facing loss and disaster is both empowering and healing, she said. “It’s one way to deal with the mass hysteria and tension around you,” she said.
When facing a storm, Sins craves facts. “For me, the more I know, the more back-up plans I have, the better. Katrina pulled the rug out from under us. We didn’t see that coming. That’s why I do disaster relief. My brain is constantly thinking, if this, then that.”
While volunteering can help stave anxiety, that doesn’t mean being in the heart of devastation. “There’s a lady who helps us at command central by bringing us Coke Zeros and donuts. She’s giving back without adding to her mental health burden. Just think about what your skills are and we can put them to use.”
