Spring Break
CSU tackles Hurricane Katrina
Experts to speak at Saturday's symposium on the storm and its aftermath
Vimal Patel
Issue date: 2/16/07 Section: News
Professors from the sociology, civil engineering and environmental and radiological health sciences departments will also make presentations.
Laura Williams, Colorado project manager for the Crisis Counseling Program Grant, is set to speak about how her agency counseled Katrina evacuees who came to Colorado - about 14,000, she estimated.
The mental health expert said Katrina posed unique concerns to her agency.
"It was a very different type of disaster and required a different kind of response," she said. "Everything they had, everything that was familiar to them was gone. It was just gone. Many of them had absolutely nothing."
For Browne, her experiences working with the extended family have left her indignant - at the media, which she says she's generally a supporter of, and especially at the federal government, which she says responded ineptly.
"There has been no responsible, sustained compassionate effort on the part of the government in the response to Katrina," she said.
As an example, she cited a program that promises homeowners who had lost homes $150,000. It took about 15 months for members of the family she followed to even set up a meeting with federal officials.
And media coverage of the disaster shouldn't have dipped so fast, and it shouldn't have focused on the "way overblown" stereotypes of victims being poor and on welfare, she said. Members of the family Browne studied all had jobs, were hard working, and would be classified as lower-middle class.
"If more people saw up close what good, decent hardworking people have to experience," she said, "they wouldn't tolerate it."
The symposium is free and open to the public. However, due to limited seating, registration is required. To register, call Rosalie Samaniego at 491-0930 or e-mail rosalie.samaniego@colostate.edu.
Managing Editor Vimal Patel can be reached at news@collegian.com.
___________________________________________________
Schedule of Events
9 to 9:30 a.m.: Coffee and welcome.
Laura Williams, Colorado project manager for the Crisis Counseling Program Grant, is set to speak about how her agency counseled Katrina evacuees who came to Colorado - about 14,000, she estimated.
The mental health expert said Katrina posed unique concerns to her agency.
"It was a very different type of disaster and required a different kind of response," she said. "Everything they had, everything that was familiar to them was gone. It was just gone. Many of them had absolutely nothing."
For Browne, her experiences working with the extended family have left her indignant - at the media, which she says she's generally a supporter of, and especially at the federal government, which she says responded ineptly.
"There has been no responsible, sustained compassionate effort on the part of the government in the response to Katrina," she said.
As an example, she cited a program that promises homeowners who had lost homes $150,000. It took about 15 months for members of the family she followed to even set up a meeting with federal officials.
And media coverage of the disaster shouldn't have dipped so fast, and it shouldn't have focused on the "way overblown" stereotypes of victims being poor and on welfare, she said. Members of the family Browne studied all had jobs, were hard working, and would be classified as lower-middle class.
"If more people saw up close what good, decent hardworking people have to experience," she said, "they wouldn't tolerate it."
The symposium is free and open to the public. However, due to limited seating, registration is required. To register, call Rosalie Samaniego at 491-0930 or e-mail rosalie.samaniego@colostate.edu.
Managing Editor Vimal Patel can be reached at news@collegian.com.
___________________________________________________
Schedule of Events
9 to 9:30 a.m.: Coffee and welcome.
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