JULY 25, 2006

NATURAL DISASTERS
Katrina: the faith fallout

When Hurricane Katrina hit in late August 2005, faith groups had a profound effect on rescue and recovery efforts. A year later, people of faith say Hurricane Katrina permanently changed much more than the Gulf Coast: It changed the way religious groups help and heal in the wake of disaster. Interviews with religious leaders revealed that they have learned inspiring lessons about how to provide aid effectively. They've committed to long-term recovery efforts and preparing for future disasters. And they believe faith remains an untold story in the ways it has touched the lives of survivors, caregivers and congregations. ReligionLink offers topics for stories, linked to background articles and reports. National and regional sources can address one or more of these topics.

Jump to:
Partnerships
Race & Class
Congregations
Fraud
Faith
Connections
Psychological impact
Beyond Katrina
National Sources
Background

For other ideas and sources, see these past ReligionLink issues:
• Katrina: Story ideas from the front (Sept. 2, 2005)
• Volunteerism: Crises highlight need for volunteer management (Sept. 12, 2005)
• Hurricanes spawn talk of ties between religion, environment (Sept. 23, 2005)

PARTNERSHIPS (see background)
• Faith groups formed new alliances out of necessity and found that they could bury individual agendas in order to do work that served a larger purpose. Denominations and churches that are often at odds - or, at best, avoid working together - joined forces and now say they plan to do so more in the future.
• Faith groups worked in creative partnerships with the corporate and nonprofit worlds, with advocacy groups and community coalitions. Some of the questions that have dogged the Bush administration's faith-based initiatives were raised, including whether anyone was tracking how money given to faith-based groups was spent, or whether it was spent effectively. However, some groups found partnerships to be fruitful efforts that sped recovery.
• Religious leaders said they learned important lessons about effectiveness that will improve future efforts. Some were simple: Don't collect used clothes because the immense effort to wash, sort and distribute them is better spent elsewhere. Some emboldened groups: Step up and organize housing because some faith groups are better at it than the government. And some required a big-picture perspective: Each group should focus on what it's best at -- pastoral care, providing food, whatever - and together the best efforts fill more needs than if each group tries to tackle every challenge alone.

RACE & CLASS (see background)
One of the most important questions Katrina put before the nation was why so many of those who suffered in the storm were people of color, poor, elderly or infirm. A spotlight glared on a population that was much poorer than most of the country, with fewer means of escaping.
• African-American pastors are speaking out vigorously and angrily as advocates of the poor and African-Americans, who were disproportionately affected by the hurricane. Blacks formed the Katrina National Justice Commission to evaluate the successes and failures of local, state and federal governments' response. A third round of public hearings will take place in Houston July 27-28. Two more nationally prominent pastors - Bishop T.D. Jakes and the Rev. William H. Gray III -- recently quit as co-chairs of the religious advisory committee of the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund and complained about how money was being distributed.
• Religious leaders used Katrina to push the message that poverty needs to be addressed in more systematic ways and that the fortunes of all Americans are linked together. They pointed to evidence of racism and urged government leaders and the rest of the country to confront it.

CONGREGATIONS (see background)
• Across the country, congregations of many traditions have provided food, housing, meals, job help and more. They've sent work crews, volunteers, clergy and counselors. Some have given more than they've ever given before, while others gave generously as they always do. How do such actions change and transform the volunteers, those who receive help, and entire communities?
• Thousands of youth from across the country have participated in mission trips and relief work in the hurricane damaged areas. Youth, of course, have always done mission trips, and the popularity of spring break mission trips has been increasing for some time. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, however, have drawn youth trips in what many say are astounding numbers. Individual places of worship have sent youth, denominations have organized trips, and some larger nonprofits are offering mission trips to hurricane areas throughout the year (See the web sites of the Group Workcamps Foundation and Adventures in Missions.)
What impact are trips having on kids and their values? What do they say about what they've seen, poverty, and race?
• Congregations throughout the Gulf Coast were hit as hard as anyone - their sanctuaries filled with water and mold, their pews upended, their sacred relics destroyed. Their flocks were scattered, and some had no place to worship. For many faith communities, the financial impact has been devastating. Some will not survive. Despite that, some relics have been recovered and restored, people gathered for worship on soggy street corners, and religious leaders tracked down their flocks or offered solace to the needy. Denominations and other faith groups are active in appointing pastors to the region and providing pastoral care.

FRAUD (see background)
• Generosity abounded in the storm's wake, with record donations to disaster relief. But so did fraud, with estimates of $2 billion misused. Katrina taught the nation's nonprofits - including faith groups - another profound lesson about the fact that there is a long leap between people's desire to help and the ability to deliver that help to those who need it in ways that they can use it. What will change in the future?

FAITH (see background)
Katrina showed that faith - in the divine, in a better day to come and in the goodness of people - is a building block of recovery. Survivors, volunteers and religious workers told compelling stories of how faith provided hope to the hopeless.

Some questioned how God could allow a disaster as destructive as Hurricane Katrina or a tsunami. What is it like to lose faith? How is it regained?

Spiritual life after Katrina shows the importance of ritual and how it is maintained and adapted to offer comfort in difficult circumstances. Look for ways individuals or congregations maintained rituals and their meaning despite loss of sanctuary, sacred objects, or proximity.

CONNECTIONS (see background)
Like others involved with relief, faith groups are trying to go high-tech. Katrina taught what works and what doesn't when basic phone and communications networks go down. When phone calls didn't go through, for example, text messages sometimes did. Faith groups learned that they need the right kind of databases to track donations, volunteers and people who need help. Web sites popped up to search for missing people and to link up those who had fled the storm with friends and family. Some dispersed congregations met virtually through message boards, blogs and conference calls. Congregations in other cities posted messages offering a place to worship or receive housing or job assistance. How will these high-tech lessons change preparations for the next disaster - or even daily congregational life?

PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT (see background)
Researchers are studying the psychological impact on survivors and emergency workers - the sleepless nights, the stress, the fear, the depression, and, for some, the spiritual questions. Some grieve the loss of those who died and struggle particularly with the way that they died. And there have been other losses: home, valued mementos, friends, neighbors, jobs, familiar places. There has been a move afoot to more closely coordinate mental health care between religious and medical caregivers and to consider spirituality as a factor in psychological care. Does Katrina show whether it has taken hold?

BEYOND KATRINA (see background)
Many faith-based groups have pledged to be around for the long haul of Katrina recovery. But they're also challenging congregations and other volunteers to remember that Katrina wasn't the only storm to hit hard. Work teams are still needed to help with the reconstruction of parts of Florida blasted by other hurricanes (remember Wilma, Charley, Dennis, Francis, Jeanne and Ivan?)

Why it matters

Katrina was a wake-up call for the nation - a violent reminder of how fragile life can be, and a forced glimpse into the pain of those struggling to survive. One year later, those images have not been forgotten. As this year's hurricanes bear down, they raise questions of how to mobilize a compassionate response and who's responsible for making sure those in need are taken care of.

Religious sources

AFRICAN-AMERICAN
• Iva Carruthers heads the Katrina National Justice Commission, a body of African-American faith leaders and community activists formed in 2006. She is general secretary of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, which equips the African-American community and its leaders to address the social justice agenda of the black church. It plans to evaluate local, state and federal response to Katrina and assess needs for the future. The commission will have its third round of hearings in Houston July 27-28. The Proctor Conference has a $200,000 to support African-American churches in Baton Rouge, Houston and Chicago that are helping Katrina evacuees.Contact through Rhoda McKinney-Jones at 267-218-4023.
• The Rev. William H. Gray III, pastor of Bright Hope Baptist Church in Philadelphia and a former U.S. congressman, quit as co-chair of a religious advisory committee to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, saying the Fund subverted the process the advisory committee set up to determine which churches got money. Contact 215-232-6004.
• Bishop T.D. Jakes is pastor of The Potter's House in Dallas. He resigned as co-chair of a religious advisory committee to the Bush-Katrina Fund, saying the Fund subverted the process the advisory committee set up to determine which churches got money. Contact through Tanisha Pace in the Potter's House publicity department, 214-325-8407, tpace@tdjakes.org.
• Roland T. Hairston is chief operating officer of The Potter's House, the 30,000-member Dallas megachurch pastored by Bishop T.D. Jakes. The Potter's House was deeply involved in the relief effort after Katrina - providing funds and volunteers and arranging housing, among other things. Hairston can speak about the importance of leadership in responding to disasters; of setting up networks of volunteers in advance; and of faith communities putting aside their differences to work together. Contact 214-333-6525.
• Churches Supporting Churches is a program to help rebuild 36 churches destroyed or damaged in 12 predominantly African-American neighborhoods in New Orleans. The National Council of Churches is working with six denominations on the project. Read a May 29, 2006, story in The Christian Post. Contact C.T. Vivian, chairman of the Churches Supporting Churches National Working Group, 404-505-8521, ctv@comcast.net.

OTHER CHRISTIAN GROUPS
• The Rev. Lura Cayton is helping coordinate the recovery response in New Orleans for Church World Service, a ministry of 35 Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox denominations. Contact 405-942-2044, lcayton@churchworldservice.org.
• Bishop Melvin G. Talbert, a retired United Methodist bishop, is chairman of the National Council of Churches' Special Commission for the Just Rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. The NCC represents 35 Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox denominations. Contact through the Rev. Leslie Tune, 202-481-6927 or 202-544-2350, news@ncccusa.org.
• Richard Stearns is president of World Vision, an evangelical Christian humanitarian agency that works to help children and communities worldwide by addressing poverty. It has collected more than $12 million for hurricane relief and launched other hurricane-related programs. Contact through Steve Panton, executive director of media relations, 202-572-6454, 202-492-6556 (cell).
• On its web site, Catholic Charities describes the displacement of more than 1 million people by Katrina as "a humanitarian crisis not seen in our country since the Great Depression." In the long-term response, caseworkers are helping people find jobs, housing and psychological support. And Catholic Charities plans to build 4,000 rental homes and apartments in New Orleans, operating as Providence Community Housing. Read an April 5, 2006, story from The Times-Picayune. Catholic Charities also is working with evacuees who left the Gulf Coast and have decided to relocate elsewhere, providing medical care and legal help. Read a June 1, 2006, summary of Catholic Charities' Katrina response. Contact Shelley Borysiewicz, manager of media relations, 703-549-1390 ext. 147, sborysiewicz@catholiccharitiesusa.org.
• The Southern Baptist Convention has started Operation Noah Rebuild to use volunteers to rebuild more than 1,000 homes and 20 churches in the New Orleans area. Read an April 28, 2006, story from Baptist Press. Jim Burton is director of volunteer mobilization for the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board. Contact 800-462-8657 ext. 6133, dr_offsite@namb.net. The convention's web site provides updates on disaster relief efforts and lists disaster relief contacts in each state.
• The United Methodist Committee on Relief is administering a $66 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to provide case management to assist Katrina survivors in becoming self-sustaining. Read Disaster News Network articles from Oct. 28, 2005, and Dec. 15, 2005.
• The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s disaster assistance program has put out a special call for volunteer work teams to go to Louisiana in July and August 2006. The Presbyterians say St. Bernard Parish, in New Orleans, has decided that all homes damaged by Katrina must be in the process of being gutted or renovated by Aug. 29, 2006, or they will be destroyed. The PCUSA has established "volunteer villages" along the Gulf Coast where church work teams can stay, and it plans to use that model for disaster assistance in the future. Contact Pamela Burdine, 502-569-5839, pburdine@ctr.pcusa.org.
• The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has started Camp Noah, a program to allow children affected by disasters to talk honestly about their feelings, but also to give them a chance to put responsibilities and concerns aside and just play. Camp Noah has been used previously to help children affected by flooding and by the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks; it's now being used for children whose lives were disrupted by Katrina.
• The Rev. Alan Baroody, a Presbyterian minister and pastoral counselor, is executive director of the Mary Lou Fraser Foundation for Families in Hinesville, Ga. He also is a member of the Church World Service Spiritual and Emotional Care Resource Team. In June 2006, Baroody helped lead "Caring for Caregivers" workshops for pastors and others in the Gulf Coast region - recognizing that pastors often suffer significant stress in helping others cope with the trauma of a major disaster. Contact 912-369-7777, abaroody@frasercenter.com.
• The Rev. Carl Wallace leads the Justice and Witness Ministries initiative in New Orleans for the United Church of Christ. He has been involved in efforts to help Gulf Coast communities determine what contaminants and environmental hazards may be involved in the Katrina cleanup. Contact 216-736-3702, wallacec@ucc.org.

JEWISH
• The Union for Reform Judaism had raised more than $4.2 million for hurricane relief as of June 2006, including direct relief for the Reform community in New Orleans. In the summer of 2006, volunteer work teams are being organized through Nechama: Jewish Response to Disaster, clearing debris from flooded houses. The slogan Nechama is using is: "Not a vacation, a life-changing experience." Read a weblog from some of the volunteers. Contact Seth Gardner, 763-732-0610, sgardner@nechama.org.
• As a way of creating a legacy of "historic witnesses," Jewish Women's Archive is conducting 75 to 100 oral history interviews with Jews from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The "Katrina's Jewish Voices" program is being conducted in partnership with the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. Contact project director Jayne K. Guberman, 617-232-2258, jkguberman@jwa.org.

MUSLIM
• Islamic Relief USA, a nonprofit group based in Buena Park, Calif., has promised to provide $2 million toward Katrina relief and rebuilding. And since Katrina blasted ashore, Islamic relief has forged on-the-ground working relationships that cross religious lines - for example, distributing food and other relief supplies with the Greater True Love Missionary Baptist Church; paying the rent for the Loaves and Fishes Community Kitchen in Biloxi, which was flooded out; and distributing hygiene and cleaning kits provided by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• Islamic Relief is one of a number of Islamic groups participating in a Muslim Hurricane Relief Task Force, which has announced plans to raise $10 million for the Katrina recovery effort. Contact 888-479-4968, info@irw.org.

MULTIFAITH / INTERFAITH
• The Rev. John Baumann is executive director of People Improving Communities through Organizing. This national network of faith-based community organizations, based in Oakland, Calif., encourages individuals and congregations to put their faith into action. In May 2006, PICO announced a "Why the Wait?" campaign to push Congress to pass legislation providing full funding for reconstructing housing and levees along the Gulf Coast. Contact 510-655-2801, baumannpico@aol.com.
• The Gamaliel Foundation, based in Chicago, is a community organizing network of congregations and others that considers itself multifaith and multiracial, and works on social justice issues. In June 2006, the foundation held a "Connecting the Dots" event in St. Louis, for African-American clergy and other community leaders to discuss what Katrina revealed about "a flood of segregation" in America. Contact Gamaliel's executive director, Gregory Galluzzo, 312-357-2640, galluzzo43@sbcglobal.net.
• Kymberlaine Banks is communications and grants coordinator at the Interfaith Housing Coalition in Dallas. In the months after the storm, the coalition went to areas where evacuees had gathered and worked to help Katrina evacuees find housing. Banks can speak about the importance of being proactive in providing emergency assistance. Contact 214-827-7220, kbanks@ihcdallas.org.

OTHER FAITHS
• The Pluralism Project at Harvard University offers information about and links to worship centers of a variety of faiths by state. Refer to their Center Profiles.

Click the map for interview sources in your state and region

National sources

OTHER NONPROFITS
• The Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund is offering grants for rebuilding houses of worship hit by Katrina. President George W. Bush asked former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton to lead this fund-raising effort. Contact Bill Pierce of media relations at 202-659 7931.
• The American Red Cross is teaming with African-American religious and civic groups to train volunteers who will be ready to help when future disasters occur. The Red Cross has sent trainers to work with groups from the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Progressive National Baptist Convention and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. See their page of contacts.
• The National Alliance to Restore Opportunity to the Gulf Coast and Displaced Persons is a coalition that includes religious groups and advocacy organizations working on behalf of those affected by Katrina. It has called for a "Season of Prayer" and issued a call for action for those affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Among other things, the alliance is asking congregations to continue to draw attention to the ongoing suffering of hurricane survivors, to lobby for federal assistance and to become involved in humanitarian efforts. Contact the Rev. Tony Johnson at tonyjohnson2@verison.net.
• National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster helps voluntary organizations to work together to train and plan for disaster response. NVOAD, based in Alexandria, Va., also helps build connections between the voluntary groups and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Contact Ande Miller, executive director, 202-955-8396, amiller@nvoad.org.
• Brenda Muñiz is author of the report "In the Eye of the Storm: How the Government and Private Response to Hurricane Katrina Failed Latinos," completed for the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), a national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. It was issued in February 2006. Contact 202-785-1670, bmuniz@nclr.org.
• Craig Nemitz is disaster services coordinator for America's Second Harvest, a network of more than 200 food banks and food-rescue groups. By the end of November 2005, America's Second Harvest, based in Chicago, had sent more than 1,900 truckloads carrying close to 59 million pounds of food to survivors of Katrina and Rita. In testimony he gave on March 7, 2006, to a U.S. Senate committee, Nemitz described some of the lessons learned from Katrina and the results of a study of clients receiving emergency food assistance in the Gulf region after the hurricanes. Contact 312-263-2303 ext. 6846, cnemitz@secondharvest.org.

ACADEMICS
• Douglas Brinkley is a professor of history and director of the Roosevelt Center at Tulane University in New Orleans. He is the author of The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast (William Morrow, 2006), which tells the story of the great storm through the eyes of its survivors and examines the failures in the government's response. Listen to a May 10, 2006, "Fresh Air" radio interview with Brinkley. Contact 504-314-7960, dbrinkl@tulane.edu.
• Beverly Wright is director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University in New Orleans. She is co-author of a report, sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation and released in May 2006, which concluded that minorities and low-income residents have recovered more slowly after Katrina, in part because they have less insurance and less access to government relief. Listen to a May 2, 2006 National Public Radio "News and Notes" conversation with Ed Gordon regarding the report. Dillard's offices currently are in Baton Rouge; contact Wright at 225-201-1604, dscej@aol.com.
• Manuel Sprung, assistant professor of psychology, is one of the researchers at the University of Southern Mississippi-Gulf Coast in Long Beach, Miss., who are studying how Katrina has affected children's thinking - including the impact of intrusive thoughts about the storm on their concentration levels. Read a March 12, 2006, story on the research from the The Clarion Ledger in Jackson. Contact 228-865-4512, manuel.sprung@usm.edu.
• Ronald C. Kessler is a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston. He directs a project called the Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group Initiative, which is studying the psychological impact of Katrina on survivors of the storm. Contact 617-432-3587, Kessler@hcp.med.harvard.edu.

Background

• The journal Vital Theology did a special issue on Katrina in September 2005. It explores the issues of evil, suffering, race, class and more.
• Read a June 2006 report done for the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C., on the role of grass-roots, nonprofit groups in responding to Katrina. It found that nonprofits - including congregations and other faith-based groups - responded with a huge outpouring of support but needed to be better integrated into the disaster response system. But some experienced international relief organizations had success in channeling resources to nonprofit agencies working on the ground. Contact Winnifred Levy, 202-736-5814, winnifred.levy@aspeninst.org.

Articles

PARTNERSHIPS
• Read a June 11, 2006, story from The Times-Picayune on the involvement of faith-based groups in the rebuilding effort.
• Read a June 7, 2006, story from the Pensacola News Journal about how faith-based groups are working together - and planning ahead - to be ready for the 2006 hurricane season.
• Read a June 4, 2006, story from The Clarion Ledger of Jackson, Miss., about the long-term involvement of religious groups in the recovery effort - and how necessity has led to creativity.
• Read a May 2006 story from Christianity Today about how Christians are networking with one another to work in impoverished areas, bring jobs and pastors back to New Orleans and practice "servant evangelism."
• Read the transcript of a press briefing the Red Cross held April 11, 2006, to announce preparations it's making for the 2006 hurricane season. The Red Cross has established a Catastrophic Disaster Task Force, saying it wants to forge closer partnerships with faith-based and other groups.
• Read an Oct. 31, 2005, story from MSNBC about how Katrina has tightened the connections between faith-based groups and state and local governments.
• Read the "Beyond Katrina" blog, written by Margaret Saizan from Baton Rouge. "Beyond Katrina" includes links to many groups involved in Gulf Coast activism and recovery work.

RACE & CLASS
• Read a spring 2006 article from Shelterforce Magazine - a publication of the National Housing Institute - about how Katrina has pushed grass-roots community organizers, including some religious leaders, to become more creative and persistent in working on behalf of evacuees and the poor.
• Read a report called "Understanding Katrina: Perspectives from the Social Sciences," posted on the web site of the Social Science Research Council. It examines issues of race and racism revealed by Katrina, and contains the links to writings on the hurricane by more than 35 academics.
• Read a June 16, 2006, Church World Service article about a surge in immigrant day workers helping with the demolition and rebuilding work in New Orleans. These immigrants - undocumented or contract workers - often lack decent housing and food, and faith-based groups are scurrying to meet their needs.

REBUILDING
• Read a June 11, 2006, story from The Times Picayune on the involvement of faith-based groups in the rebuilding effort.

CONGREGATIONS
• Read a June 26, 2006, story from WLOX television about how First Baptist Church of Pass Christian, Miss., is managing to hold Vacation Bible School this summer in a trailer with help from a Baptist church in Florida.
• Read the transcript of an April 19, 2006, Online NewsHour show from PBS about how New Orleans' pastors were preaching Easter sermons about resurrection and new life. The program also describes the financial difficulties of many parishes in the area, the pain it causes when a congregation closes, and how the decision of a parish to hold on and rebuild can give residents courage to return too.
• Read a March 17, 2006, letter about the struggles of congregations in Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana to survive, more than six months after the storm. Four of five Catholic churches were destroyed; a Catholic congregation and an Assembly of God church still were holding on.
• Read a March 15, 2006, story from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America News Service about Katrina's impact on Lutheran congregations along the Gulf Coast. And listen to a Jan. 29, 2006, interview on the ELCA program "Grace Matters" with the Rev. Patrick Keen, pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in New Orleans. Keen describes his efforts to search for and reunite his missing flock - Sunday attendance has dropped from 120 to 20 - but says the storm did not erode his hope or faith.
• Read a Nov. 4, 2005, story from The Times-Picayune, posted on the Council on American-Islamic Relations web site, describing how the diminished, scattered Muslim community in New Orleans came together to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan.
• On June 4, 2006 - the first Sunday of the 2006 hurricane season - the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans marked "Katrina Sunday." Catholic parishes in the area joined with other churches, synagogues and houses of worship to honor those who were killed and to ask people to check the official missing persons lists - to offer any information they could about the whereabouts and fate of those still not accounted for.

FRAUD
• The Project on Government Oversight posts a page of examples of Katrina fraud.
• Read a June 26, 2006, analysis by The New York Times saying that scams and mismanagement related to Katrina relief could cost taxpayers $2 billion.
• Read a June 19, 2006, Washington Post story showing record giving to disaster relief groups at $7.37 billion.
• Read a Jan. 7, 2006, opinion piece from the Chicago Sun-Times, written by Richard Radtke, president of Episcopal Relief and Development, about who's monitoring the performance of faith-based groups.
• GuideStar and other groups track the performance of nonprofit groups - although the relief arms of some faith groups, if they are not separately incorporated, do not qualify.
• Read a Nov. 18, 2005, Miami Herald article that describes how faith-based groups are responding to Katrina - and how some fraudulent charities have been shut down.

FAITH
• The Gulf Coast region includes many religious influences - among them, evangelical Protestantism and strong Catholicism, intertwined with a deeply Southern sense of family rootedness and place. Read a Sept. 18, 2005, story from The Boston Globe about the "distinctively Southern" nature of Katrina's impact, and about how some people have responded in religious terms.
• Read an April 4, 2006, Beliefnet story from a Katrina survivor who writes that "the only thing that keeps me sane is knowing that God has a purpose for me."
• Read an August 29, 2005, Beliefnet story called, "Did God Send the Hurricane?"

CONNECTIONS
• Read an April 2006 commentary from Rabbi Jeffrey Kurtz-Lendner of New Orleans, published in Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine, about how wireless technology helped him keep in touch with his congregation in the weeks after Katrina.
• Read an article from the Winter 2006 issue of the Duke Divinity School's Online Edition about how the campus minister at Tulane University used technology to contact students dispersed throughout the country - and how the students set up their own web page to check in with one another.

PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT
• The U.S. Department of Health and Social Services has estimated that perhaps half a million people - both survivors and emergency workers - may need mental health services. Read Dec. 7, 2005, stories about it - one from The Associated Press, printed in the Boston Globe, and from the Washington Post.
• With funding from the National Institutes of Health, Harvard Medical School has begun a two-year study of the psychological impact on Katrina survivors. Researchers are interviewing 2,000 people affected by the storm - a representative sample of the more than 6 million people who lived in the path of the storm or in New Orleans when Katrina hit the coast. Participants - called the Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group - are being interviewed every three months. Audio oral histories based on those interviews are posted on the project's web site. Read a Jan. 6, 2006, Boston Globe story about the study.
• Read an April 23, 2006, Associated Press story, published in The Washington Post, about how children who survived Katrina are showing signs of post-traumatic stress.

BEYOND KATRINA
• The Florida Hurricane Relief Fund has posted an interactive map showing which organizations are coordinating volunteer work across the state.
• Read a May 12, 2006, story from the Florida United Methodist News Service about the recovery work still needed, as yet another hurricane season has begun.
• Read a May 28, 2006, Miami Herald story about Floridians anxiously waiting for the next storms to hit, covered only by the blue tarps on their roofs.

HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS
• Read the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration prediction for this hurricane season, June 1 to Nov. 30.
• Read a fact sheet the White House released on Feb. 23, 2006, called "The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned." That report describes changes needed in preparation, training and communication, among other things.
• A Red Cross report, "Hurricane Season 2005: A Season in Review," summarizes the response to Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
• The Salvation Army has made what it calls "key improvements" in technology, training and response systems to prepare for the 2006 hurricane season. Among the changes: moving supplies into place in "strategic locations" in the South and East, and improving emergency responder training. It's also expanding its network of ham radio operators, who have been useful in making contact when cellular and land-line telephone service is disrupted.
• Read stories from June 1, 2006 - the opening day of the 2006 hurricane season - from USA Today and Disaster News Network about preparations for the season's storms.