Abstract:
The landfall of Hurricane Gustav in 2008 set in motion the New Orleans, Louisiana, City Assisted Evacuation Plan (CAEP), one of the largest publicly assisted evacuations in American history. The gendered response to the Hurricane Gustav evacuation is placed in the aftermath of the evacuations of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Findings from two sets of data, including interviews with Katrina evacuees, suggest that significant gender-based differences exist in evacuation experiences. Women have significantly less access to a reliable vehicle for self-evacuation, making them more dependent on a viable CAEP. Women are also significantly more likely to depend on nonfamily entities such as social service agencies for enrollment in CAEP. Overrepresentation of female heads of households in vulnerable communities makes lack of adequate finances a significant barrier to evacuation. While almost three-quarters of the CAEP participants for Gustav were satisfied with CAEP, women were significantly more likely to report dissatisfaction.
