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Exploring the psychological impact of media deprivation among disaster victims Dr. Ran Wei Kim Smith University of South Carolina College of Journalism and Mass Communication Columbia, SC

Copyright2005

Abstract Media dependency theory (Defluer & Ball-Rokeach, 1982) posits that the increasing dependence on mass media in the modern society to achieve their communications goals results in a broad range of cognitive, affective, and behavioral consequences. Such consequences would be heightened when individuals are deprived of access to the media. Thus, Hurricane Katrina provides a rare opportunity to explore what happens to people when the mass communication systems they depend on break down or their communication channels were severely constrained. Data for this study come from in-depth interviews with more than 100 Katrina evacuees in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and South Carolina. The interviews were conducted in the fall of 2005 using chronological narratives and a snowball sampling technique. This qualitative study revealed that during the height of the hurricane, as telecommunications systems began to fail, a growing sense of frustration and isolation began to emerge among lower socio-economic status (SES) residents stuck in New Orleans. Their primary means of communication with family and friends were cell phones that only allowed text messaging. And those did not work all of the time.

Lower SES residents also depended upon TV and radio as their primary sources of information prior to the hurricane hitting the city. College students and higher SES residents who were able to drive to safety as the hurricane neared landfall switched to radio as their main source of information. Once they arrived at their destinations, the Internet and e-mail became primary sources of information as they searched for loved

ones and friends still in New Orleans or other areas along the Gulf Coast. Despite a profound sense of loss and fear, residents adjusted and turned to whatever communications technology worked during the crisis. INTRODUCTION In December, 2005, the co-chairman of the Sept. 11 Commission, former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean, said the governments slow response to Hurricane Katrina and the 1,200 deaths it caused along the Gulf Coast can also be blamed largely on a failed telecommunications system (Warnick, 2005). The combination of winds and flooding that began on Aug. 29, 2005, felled trees and knocked out service to an estimated 3 million phone lines and 1,000 cell phone towers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. 911 services to surrounding parishes died when Bell Souths central offices in Louisiana went down. Wind and rain damage also knocked out the electricity needed to run many of the communication systems (Joch, 2005). Services also died for millions of New Orleans residents, most of whom lost the ability to communicate via cell phone, the Internet, radio, TV and landline phone. What happens to the psyche of ordinary people in an emergency situation who suddenly find themselves cut off from most sources of media? Such occasions are rare and give credibility to Windahls (1986, 48) assertion that, The best time to study normal behavior is to study it under abnormal conditions. Hurricane Katrina offered that rare opportunity.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Beyond the fact that Katrina evacuees offered researchers a unique opportunity to explore media deprivation before, during and after a natural disaster, there are other reasons why this study is important. Understanding how New Orleans residents coped without or with very limited landline phone or cell phone service, Internet, radio, or TV might shed light on how to improve the nations communications infrastructure during disasters. What communication devices worked? Which ones failed and why? What devices should citizens of future disasters have on hand when the next disaster strikes? What did they do to compensate for lack of media information? This paper answers some of those questions for citizens and policy makers planning for the next disaster. Through this study, Katrina evacuees shared some of the psychological upheaval they experienced that DeFluer & Ball-Rokeach (1982) would link to media dependency. The inability to get information from media sources that have become part of a daily habit, regardless of SES, added more stress to an already stressful situation brought on by the worst hurricane to hit the United States in 75 years. This study opens the door to the exploration of ways to reduce the stress, frustration, sense of loss and loneliness caused when disasters interfere with citizens ability to access information via the media.

LITERATURE REVIEW

What is media system dependency theory In their media system dependency theory, Defluer & Ball-Rokeach (1982) argued that individual audience members develop dependency relationships with a medium over time. It suggests that great social and psychological upheaval can occur if persons are deprived of media access, especially in emergencies. The theory suggests that the media become almost like a habit for many people and when the media are taken away, it is almost like people suffer from withdrawal (Bentley, 1998). There is an abundance of evidence supporting media system dependency theory in media deprivation studies. They show that persons who have been stripped away from the media they have come to depend upon, particularly in emergencies, become anxious, frustrated. Feelings of isolation also set in. Media deprivation studies Eko & Gula (1999) conducted one such study in Maine in 1998 after a major ice storm left 800,000 residents without access to mass media for up to two weeks. They surveyed 134 households in a study that revealed that people had formed a strong psychological bond with their favorite news anchors or characters in shows. When some people were deprived of that, they didn't know what to do with themselves, (Cook, 1999). All of the survey respondents reported some disorientation over the lack of access to information. Their disorientation would have been worse, researchers said, had it not

been for two radio stations that remained on the air and became a lifeline for residents. The stations spent hours relaying information to citizens about conditions and the whereabouts of loved ones and friends from the few people fortunate to have phone service, (Cook, 1999). Radio is not the medium that people think of when they need information, says Eko. During the storm, though, it stepped in and filled the social need people had and allowed those without power to feel part of a community again, (Cook, 1999). Yahoo! conducted an Internet Deprivation Study in 2005, examining consumers media habits and their emotional connection towards (sic) the Internet, (Anklesaria, 2005). In the Yahoo! study, 28 people gave up the Internet for 14 days. In addition to the diaries they kept and in-depth interviews and the video taping of their responses, another 1000 people were surveyed. The results indicated a strong emotional connection to the Internet, and that living without it was more difficult than expected. Regardless of age, household income or ethnic background, all participants in the ethnographic research study experienced withdrawal and feelings of loss, frustration and disconnectedness when cut off from the online world. Users described their time offline as 'feeling left out of the loop,' having to 'resist temptation' and missing their 'private escape time' during the day (Anklesaria, 2005). Two themes merged from the study that are worth noting. The Internet had become a security blanket that made users feel confident, secure and empowered. Being without it became source of frustration because respondents depended on it for routine information like maps and telephone numbers. Respondents had established a social network of friends on the Internet. Being unable to communicate with them was a major 6

source of frustration ("Study depicts life without the Internet, 2004). Windahl et al. (1986) sampled 215 adolescents in southern Sweden during a Swedish TV strike in 1980. Sixty-two percent of the respondents said they felt at least partially deprived by the TV strike; 38% reported no deprivation; 11% said they felt highly deprived. In terms of what they did to replace TV watching while the strike was going on, 25% of the respondents said they spent more time reading books, daily newspapers and spending time with family and friends. Berlsons famous study in (1949) looked at how people reacted to being without a daily newspaper during a New York newspaper strike. He focused on how the absence of the paper affected them psychologically. His interviews with 60 Manhattan residents revealed a sense of loss, like a fish out of water, as one respondent described the experience (Berlson, 1949, 125). The study showed that not having the paper to look at deprived residents of a ritualistic behavior that unsettled them (Bentley, 1998). Bentley would later conduct a variation of Berlsons study. He obtained the miss list from a rural Oregon paper. The list is made up of people who called to complain that they did not receive their paper. Bentley interviewed 35 of them about what it felt like not being able read the paper. The emotions they expressed were similar to the emotions expressed by Manhattan residents: a sense of disappointment and loss (see Kimball (1959); de Bock (1980); and Cohen (1981) for similar studies and conclusions. Media System Dependency is also a phenomenon overseas. Cell phone use is so common in Taiwan Wei and Lo (2006) that students cell phones supplemented landline phones as a means of strengthening users family bonds, expanding their psychological neighborhoods, and facilitating symbolic proximity to the people they call. The study

demonstrated a bonding that suggested that giving up cell phones would be unsettling. A University of Michigan study concerning cell phone use in America shows a relationship that is more than casual. Being deprived of it would also cause psychological upheaval. More than 80 percent of cell phone users say the device has made their lives easier; but 60 percent say that public use of cell phones has disturbed or irritated them, (Swanbrow, 2005). Mastrolia (1997, 203-204) had students in a class go a week with as little media as possible. Essays from students who participated in the exercise revealed lots of emotions. It was like going through withdrawal. Mass media are my sedatives and friends, said one student in Mastrolias class. Another said, I realized that I rely on it as if it were food or water, (Mastrolia, 1997, 205). Studying the psychological impact experienced by persons cut off from the media is one thing. Being cut off from media during a terrorist attack or natural disaster is another more potentially dangerous situation that can affect the lives of citizens and public safety officials. Disasters and failed media systems Charles Morris, in his book, The San Francisco Calamity Earthquake and Fire, blamed a failed telegraph and telephone system for hampering relief efforts after the earthquake struck and started a fire that killed thousands. It took firefighters three days to put it out (Morris, 2002, 64). Neiburg et al. (2005) found commonalities between foreign refugee/evacuee crises and what happened in New Orleans after Katrina. They concluded that the need to maintain an operating communications system for emergency workers and displaced citizens (to quell mass panic) is just as important as providing

medical attention, shelter and clothing. After Sept. 11, the Department of Homeland Security allocated more than $11 billion to improve telecommunications systems and to keep displaced populations informed and emergency services functioning (Joch, 2005). Five years later, Katrina showed that little had been done. In addition to no working landline phones and nearly no cell phone or 911 services so that stranded citizens could call for help, none of the emergency service departments in the city or from different parishes could communicate with each other (Joch, 2005). Thomas Kean, former governor of New Jersey and co-chairman of the commission that investigated Sept. 11, told The Washington Post, "On September 11, people died because police officers couldn't talk to firemen. And Katrina was a reenactment of the same problem. It is really hard to believe this has not been fixed" (Warnick, 2005). A vulnerable media infrastructure, however, is more than just a New Orleans

and Gulf Coast problem, according to a survey sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Mayors:
Sixty-percent of cities reported that their police and fire radios could not communicate with their state's emergency operation centers. Eighty percent of city emergency networks were incompatible with those of federal agencies such as the Justice and Homeland Security departments. Among cities with major chemical plants, 97 percent reported they could not communicate with the plant's security force (Warnick, 2005).

RESEARCH QUESTIONS Beyond the basic theory of media system dependency, other factors helped frame the researchers approach to exploring how media deprivation affected Katrina evacuees. Following a disaster, the media provide crucial information to the public and a source of psychological support (Graber, 1980), becoming a substitute (Perez-Lugo, 2004) for personal contact. Perceived threat, defined as a condition in which individuals perceive imminent vulnerability, (Loges, 2004) is also a factor related to media system dependency. Studies by Loges and Lowery (2003) showed that perceived threat is a strong predictor of intense media dependence. The more vulnerable one feels, the more intense the need for information from the media, especially in an emergency. Finally, Matsaganis & Payne (2005) noted in a study that, In times of unrest, crisis or postcrisis, such as 9/11 and other global terrorist attacks or natural disasters vividly portrayed in the media, publics experience more problematic environs and turn to their respective leadership and media experts for messages of calm and instruction. Over the course of the storm, when access to such information became unavailable, anxiety would increase. As researchers pondered these twists and turns related to media system dependency, they came up with the following research questions to explore with Katrina evacuees who were almost or completely deprived of media. RQ1. What media did evacuees turn to before, during and after the hurricane? RQ2 What was it like for evacuees when media systems went dark or nearly so during the worst of Katrina?

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RQ 3. Was there a link between media deprivation, anxiety and depression? METHODOLOGY Researchers collected interviews from four states, based on a protocol designed to elicit chronological narratives from interviews about their information and communication experiences. A snowball technique was employed and interviews were conducted within two months of the disaster. An initial subset of 11 interviews was conducted by a faculty member and two doctoral students working under the supervision of a second faculty member in South Carolina. These interviews served as a pilot test of the interview protocol and procedures. The interviews were recruited from a central processing center that had been set up as a one-stop shop in Columbia, S.C., for evacuees relocated there to apply for various forms of assistance for which they were eligible. This initial experience alerted us to a variety of practical challenges, including the desire of some families to remain together throughout the interview, a circumstance that we attempted to accommodate, and to the presence of post-traumatic stress symptoms among some of the interviewees. All of the interviews, including the South Carolina pilot interviews, were transcribed by a team of University of South Carolina graduate students. Parallel to evacuation patterns for those fleeing Katrina, the bulk of

the interviews (74%) were conducted in the Baton Rouge, L.A. area. This material was gathered during a three week period beginning four weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. (Most of these interviews were gathered during the first two weeks, that is within six weeks of evacuation). Twelve graduate students from Louisiana State University were recruited to perform the in-depth interviews. All of the graduate students had had prior research courses. Three were doctoral students. Information on the

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interviewing process including the protocol was distributed electronically for interviewers to study. A two-hour training session was then administered, which included interviewing techniques, a question-by-question review of the protocol and practice interviews in which the participants paired off and interviewed each other. The protocol was then discussed further. Louisiana interviewers were given cards for distribution to the interviewees with toll-free numbers for local counseling services that had been set up specifically for Katrina evacuees. Consent forms, protocol forms, demographic forms, cassette recorders, microcassette tapes and incentive discount store gift cards were also distributed at the same time. Some interviewers who seemed to have less confidence were initially paired with more experienced interviewers for moral support. Sensitivity to the interviewees was stressed. The Louisiana interviewees were recruited from a Salvation Army shelter, a church clothing distribution center next to a Red Cross shelter, and a church-affiliated food distribution facility in Baton Rouge. Each of these facilities had been set up specifically for Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Additionally, snowball samples were conducted in the community; that is students were asked to recruit additional interviewees based on word-of-mouth referrals. Because more than 200,000 evacuees descended on Baton Rouge after Hurricane Katrina, participants were fairly easy to find. As deemed necessary, field work was directly supervised by a faculty member. A week after the initial interviews were conducted, debriefings were conducted with the interviewers. Some expressed interviewer fatigue and a few had encountered interviewees who were still under stress.

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An additional nine interviews were conducted in Tuscaloosa, A.L., by two graduate students of the University of Alabama, under the general supervision of a faculty member from Tulane who was herself an evacuee with visiting professor status at UA. Approximately nine additional interviews were conducted in Texas by the same Tulane faculty member, primarily through the West Houston Association of Ministries, a non-denominational relief organization that assisted evacuees with housing, food, clothing, and other basic necessities. The remainder of the Texas interviews was conducted at the temporary offices set up in Houston by Tulane University, with the purpose of broadening the range of interviewee demographics. Criteria for being included in the interviews were being 18 years old and having lived (and evacuated from) a location within approximately a 50-mile radius of New Orleans. The 50-mile radius was used because many areas considered to be part of New Orleans area (such as the well-known and hard-hit Chalmette area where a series of helicopter rescues took place) are actually outside the city limits of New Orleans. Resident of the Louisiana city of Slidell, which was hit by Katrina but is outside the 50mile limit, and nearby locations including Lafayette, L.A., were excluded, as were residents of Biloxi, M.S. All of those interviewed were evacuees. No one who stayed in New Orleans continuously without evacuating was included because the interview recruitment sites were all at various distances from the city. The interviews ranged in length from 10 to 15 minutes (generally characterizing inexperienced interviewers initial experiences) to more than an hour. A half hour to 45 minutes was typical. A few of the interviews were lost due to failures of recording equipment or human error, but most were successfully captured on tape and transcribed

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for analysis. The results reported here depend primarily on the transcripts, but also comments and observations supplied by faculty supervisors. RESULTS Demographic information Out of the 114 evacuees, 59 of them (52%) were white; 41 (36%) were black. The 2004 census, however, estimated that New Orleans was 68% black. This portion of the samples racial distortion can reasonably attributed to student interviewees who tended to interview college students who were also evacuees. Sixty-seven (58%) were women and 47 (41%) were men. Fifty (43%) were between 18 and 34; thirty four (29%) were between 35 and 54; twenty six (23%) were 55 and older. Thirty four (30%) had completed high school or had earned a GED. Thirtyeight (33%) had taken college courses. Thirty-two (28%) had completed at least four years of college. Sixty-seven (59%) of the evacuees described themselves as longtime New Orleans residents, v. 43 (37%) who said they were not. In terms of income, 26 (23%) made less than $10,000. Twenty-seven (24%) made between $10,000 and $30,000. Twenty-five (24%) made between $30,000 and $60,000. Twenty-one (18%) made more than $60,000 a year. In terms of geography, 84 (74%) of the evacuee interviews were conducted in Louisiana; 11 (10%) were conducted in South Carolina; 10 (9%) Texas, and 8 (7%) were conducted in Alabama. While the sample was not fully representative of the pre-Katrina New Orleans population, there was a broad range of respondents.

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Overview of results Several things are clear from the interviews with residents who had the means to leave the Gulf Coast, were evacuated or decided to stay when Hurricane Katrina struck. Media, or the lack thereof, became more vital to them than perhaps at any other time in their lives. There was a strong dependence on mass media, as DeFluer and BallRokeach predicted in their Media System Dependency Theory (1982). The study shows that when Katrina began to take away their media, fear, frustration and a sense of loneliness set in. This inability to communicate with friends and family, as they would habitually would under normal circumstances, exacerbated an already frightening situation brought on by Katrina. At the same time, these residents showed lots of resiliency, adjusting their need for information to whatever communications technology working at the time. This resiliency can be seen in the changes in media usage patterns during the course of the hurricane. Once the hurricane knocked down lines that powered the TV and provided electricity, evacuees switched to the cell phone. When voice communication with the cell died, they would text message. Evacuees found the following devices most useful. Evacuees mentioned portable, battery-powered radios for stranded New Orleans residents and cars radios for people could leave on their own as important means of communications. The Internet played a major role in communications. Once out of harms way, evacuees who had access to the Internet and e-mail Googled for family and friends. Others posted contact information on blogs in the hopes that family members and friends could find each other.

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Cell phones were also important, even though communication was mostly limited to text messaging throughout most of the hurricane, persons with access to these types of phones used it to keep in contact with family and friends. The least useful devices were cordless and landline phones. Cordless phones were useless when the power went out or when the battery died. High winds from the hurricane knocked down telephone polls and saltwater carried by those winds did quickly corroded phone wires. RQ1 What media did evacuees turn to before, during and after the hurricane? The researchers noted class differences in what media Katrina evacuees used as the hurricane approached New Orleans. Information about the hurricanes intensity and where it was heading interested most evacuees at this time. Higher SES residents, particularly college students, initially used TV and the Internet as long as the power lasted to stay up to date on the storms location. Lower social economic status (SES) residents, however, turned to TV and radio as the main sources of information on Katrina. The assumption here is that few had access to the Internet at home. They specifically mentioned local TV and radio stations, CNN and the Weather Channel. One New Orleans 9th Ward resident, who was evacuated to Houston, explained how she kept up with Katrina. Yeah cause one time they (my friends) was talking about the hurricane and it was in Florida. And then you look againFriday evening I got off from work and they talk about Katrina coming (to New Orleans). And I said oh Lord, oh Lord. So you know, we just started watching the news and you get more information. One New Orleans woman and her sister (they were also evacuated to Houston)

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said they knew it was time to leave when they overheard a New Orleans TV anchor say residents would need a ladder, pick, a shovel and an axe if they had planned to stay. That was television. He was like if you people are gonna stay, yall need these things to make a hole in the roof Pack up yall were outta here. When not keeping track of the storm via TV or the Internet, New Orleans residents of all races and classes used cell phones and landline phones (to the extent that they lasted) to keep relatives and friends living elsewhere updated on their whereabouts and future plans for dealing with the hurricane. This male college student from New Orleans drove to Baton Rouge to stay with friends. We were making phone calls the whole time we were riding, trying to figure out when people were leaving and where they were going. Many made these calls before power went out. Some of these residents, with access to the Internet, also used it to gather information about where the hurricane was headed. This female college student from New Orleans was visiting a friend in Baton Rouge before Katrina hit. She and her friends used the Internet to keep track of the hurricane. Friday morning everyone woke up, and all of a sudden, it had turned. I just knew, oh, theres some hurricane. But we got up Saturday morning and we looked on the internet. We looked on the Weather Channel Website, and all the sudden we saw that red line, that straight, direct track coming into the city (of New Orleans). Thats kind of when we knew (how serious it was).

Media use when Katrina headed inland As Katrina moved closer to land and began knocking out electrical power, usage patterns began to change. Cell phones and battery-powered transistor radios replaced TV,

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the Internet and landline phones for lower SES residents unable to flee New Orleans. One evacuee interviewed in Columbia talked about how important radio became. Thats just kinda scary, if you think about it. Thankfully, we had a small transistor radio, we were able to keep, you know.they had one channel that was broadcasting, and keeping everybody updated on what was going on. And thats the only communication that we had. For college students from New Orleans and higher SES residents who able to leave on their own, car radios and cell phones became lifelines of information. A male evacuee, accustomed the images of TV, pointed out how he had to get use to listening to information about Katrina on the radio. I was fine with radio, it was a little aggravating to not be visually stimulated but to at least get information. I guess it was kind of like being used to having all those types of information and then going into just listening to someone talk about certain things. But once college students and others of higher SES reached safer destinations, Email and the Internet replaced the radio. Some college students, for example, used Google to search for information about friends and relatives. Others searched blogs that had been setup where friends and family might have posted messages. One student talked about how her sisters search of blogs turned up news about the rescue of people still trapped in their flooded homes in New Orleans. And I forgot to tell you this, throughout out the storm my sister in New York was checking the web site and some people had actually stayed in the neighborhood and went to all the houses. They found people in the houses, took them out by boat, got them to safety. Media use days after Katrina As evacuees settled in to relief centers set up across the country, the use of

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communications took a different turn. There was a concerted effort to use what communications technology there was available to find friends and family they had not been able to locate previously. One man fled New Orleans with his daughters, age 6 and 8, and came to Columbia so they all could stay with his 21 year-old daughter who was stationed at Fort Jackson. He credited his two younger daughters Internet expertise for helping to find his 87-year-old mother (who had initially refused to evacuate) and sister. It took about three weeks for the children to find their grandmother and aunt. They had been taken to a Baton Rouge hotel. Between my daughters going on the Internet and the Red Cross Internet services, we managed to locate them.My daughters are better at it (using the Internet). Especially my 8-year old. In addition to trying to track down friends and relatives still on the Gulf Coast, evacuees also started searching for news from home. What this New Orleans resident learned about his hometown from TV once he arrived in Houston as an evacuee added to his despair. In Houston I looked at the news and saw everything in turmoil. The winds, once the levy broke it was down hill from there.By the time I was in Houston how bad it actually was. I wanted first hand insight, not a TV view. I wanted to see for myself.

RQ 2 What was it like for evacuees when all media systems went dark or nearly so during the worst of Katrina? Eventually, as the hurricane moved inland, cell phone voice service and other telecommunication devices began to fail. A failing telecommunications system added to

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the fear already caused by the hurricane. Strange. Frustrating. It was like I was lost, were some of the ways New Orleans residents described being without technology they had depended for communication. This New Orleans evacuees experience typified the views of others who no longer had landline phone or cell phone voice communication.
Because you know something so simple that you normally dont take for granted you cant even do anymore. Pick up a phone dial a few numbers and your instantly connected, and you cant do that. So, it makes you feel frustrated, you get annoyed, you get angry, because you cant really call someone whos 10 minutes away, so it was very chaotic, very frustrating.

Another female evacuees cell phone stopped working during the height of the hurricane and remained inoperable for at least another three weeks. She fled New Orleans (it is unclear where she went), but her friends refused to leave. The evacuee described what it was like being cut off from friends who lived in some of the worst-hit areas of the city. That was really hard. That was a scarring (sp) experience. Because at the time, I assumed all my friends had left, But you never 100 percent sure.I felt like that those were some of the people that I wanted to, you want to share that experience with the most, I guess. You want someone to talk about it. Its my friends, so that was hard not to be able to talk to them.
Another male evacuee from New Orleans who came to Columbia commented on what it was like being unable to communicate with friends and loves ones for several days after arriving at the relief center in Columbia. Being in a new place did not make the situation any better.

You feel a great sense of loss because you cant contact people that youre familiar with. You knowand that deepens your feeling of the sense of loss, because youre totally out in limbo and theres nothing you can grasp and hold onto thats familiar to you. And because everything is fallen, everything is shut down, your normal way of life has been cut off completely. You are in a new place . I mean it overwhelms you.

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The isolation, however, diminished somewhat for those lower and higher SES residents with the ability to text message using cell phones. A woman and her children fled New Orleans by car to stay with her brother in Lafayette, while her husband stayed in New Orleans. With cell phone voice communication unreliable, the couple text-messaged each other as long as the cell phone continued to operate. For the first two days, I was able to contact my husband by cell phone. Then for two days, there was no phone contact and then after that we were able to contact each other by telephone, landline telephone.Text messaging was the main way everyone communicated because the cell phones werent working very well. The ability to text message via cell phone was especially valuable to lower SES evacuees who were rescued and sent to other cities on chartered busses and planes. That is how many of them communicated with friends and loved ones. Communications improved as they traveled away from the Gulf Coast. They could again use cell phones to talk with family and friends, mostly with those living outside the devastated area.

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Discussion

Several things are clear from the interviews with residents who had the means to leave the Gulf Coast, were evacuated or decided to stay when Hurricane Katrina struck. Telecommunications became more vital to them than perhaps at any other time in their lives. Their dependence on these devices, as articulated by De Fleur and Ball-Rokeachs Media System Dependency Theory (1982), shows that when they are taken away suddenly, fear, frustration and anger set in, particularly in an emergency situation. This inability to communicate with friends and family, as they would normally, exacerbated an already frightening situation brought on by Katrina. At the same time, these residents showed lots of resiliency, adjusting their need for information to whatever communications technology working at the time. This resiliency can be seen in the changes in communication usage patterns during the course of the hurricane. TV, radio and the Internet were primary sources of information as the hurricane made its way toward New Orleans, as people made up their minds as to whether to leave or stay ( see Priest, Banning, Campbell, Fussell & Taylor, 2006). As the hurricane edged closer to land and conditions deteriorated, residents and evacuees switched to cell phones and car radios and hand-held transistor radios as their primary news source. When the hurricane finally hit New Orleans and cell phone voice communication ended, people text messaged as long as they could. Those without cell phones clung to transistor radios for information. As evacuees made it to relief centers, voice communication with cell phones improved, as well as access to the Internet. They began to use the Internet and e-

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mail to search for friends and family still in New Orleans. As news of the damage caused by Katrina played in relief centers across the country, there was a need for a evacuees to learn about the condition of their city. In this case, TV was a double- edged sword. Evacuees wanted to learn about conditions in New Orleans. But what they saw many of them more distraught. The study has implications for the nations telecommunications industry. Recent studies have shown they were massive system failures and that little has improved since 911 (see Warner, 2005; Joch, 2005; Warnick, 2005). One of the most important improvements should be in cell phones, which played such a vital role in the lives of Katrina evacuees. Their efforts to get voice messages through to emergency officials, families and friends were unsuccessful for the most part. Katrina also showed cell phone companies that they need to debunk the myth that voice communication was possible even if there is no electricity or landline service (Belson, 2005). In addition to cell phones, transistor radios and the Internet (for those who had limited access before the storm and definitely afterward) played an important role in providing life-saving information and easing the fears of residents regardless of SES. They should be part of an improved telecommunications plan, as well as improvements in radio and TV broadcasting.

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