Loss of Identity in Disaster: How Do You Say Goodbye to Home?

TOPIC: Hurricane Katrina was a disaster that affected the lives of many people from the Gulf Coast area. The hurricane affected their emotional and physical health, and devastated their financial and material status. PURPOSE: This article relates the lived experience of a Hurricane Katrina New Orleans evacuee who relocated to Texas permanently. CONCLUSION: The people who resided in these communities lost not only their homes but their culture and day-to-day life. One's culture and identity are developed and learned over time and cannot be easily replaced. A person may adopt another culture or identity, but the original self (much like the city of New Orleans) has been shattered and torn.