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From washingtonpost.com :
Hurricane Katrina left more than gutted houses and empty streets along the Gulf Coast.
The most devastating impact of the storm, which killed thousands of people and destroyed entire towns, can be seen in the desperate faces of people more than a year later, survivors and rescue workers said in a panel discussion Wednesday.
The Gulf Coast was hit hard by two massive hurricanes in the fall of 2005.
The panel was part of an annual Carter Center symposium on mental health policy.
This year's focus is on the psychological effects of Hurricane Katrina.
Panelists said mentally ill patients are still unable to get treatment and medicine because so few services are available in New Orleans and other damaged cities.
But the storm also triggered mental problems -- most commonly depression and anxiety -- in people who had never before had them.
With just two of the city's 11 hospitals operating, officers can take only the most serious cases in for medical attention, he said.
Wellborn said many police officers in New Orleans have not sought help for the trauma they suffered from rescuing stranded residents and policing essentially lawless streets.
"Hurricane Katrina is teaching us much about the long-term psychological impact of disasters," Rosalynn Carter, wife of former president Jimmy Carter, said in an e-mailed statement.
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Posted on November 9, 2006 12:22 AM
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