Interviewing in the Face of Disaster: Conducting a Survey of Hurricane Katrina Evacuees

By Melissa J. Herrmann, Mollyann Brodie, Rich Morin, Robert Blendon, and John Benson

On Monday, August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the northern Gulf Coast. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), the Washington Post (WPost), and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) together decided to undertake a face-to-face survey of Hurricane Katrina evacuees who were housed in shelters in Houston, Texas.

The main goal from the partners’ perspective was to give voice to people whose lives were devastated by Katrina and the ensuing floods. From an interviewing point of view, the general challenge was properly capturing this group of people despite their unexpected mobility and the constant fluidity of the situation. The solution relied upon strong communication and extreme adaptability.

The initial project was proposed by the KFF/WPost/HSPH project team on Tuesday, September 6, 2005. The team included Rich Morin, director of polling, and Claudia Deane, assistant director of polling, at the Washington Post; Drew E. Altman, president, Mollyann Brodie, vice president and director of public opinion and media research, and Erin Weltzien, research associate at the Kaiser Family Foundation; Robert J. Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health and the John F. Kennedy School of Government; and John M. Benson, managing director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The field period for the project was September 10–12, 2005. Ultimately, there were many issues to address in this short timeframe. Events unfolded as follows:

 

• Monday, August 29, 2005: Katrina hits the northern Gulf Coast.

• Thursday, September 1, 2005: Evacuees begin arriving in Houston.

• Tuesday, September 6, 2005: ICR is contacted by the KFF/WPost/HSPH team to conduct a study, and Erin Weltzien of KFF arrives in Houston.

• Tuesday, September 6–Thursday September 8, 2005: ICR develops a plan for the study and hires local Houston in-person interviewers.

• Wednesday, September 7, 2005: Lori Robbins (ICR) arrives in Houston.

• Friday, September 9th, 2005: Questionnaire is final and interviewers are briefed or trained.

• Saturday, September 10–Monday, September 12, 2005: Field period.

• Tuesday, September 13, 2005: Data are delivered.

• Friday, September 16, 2005: Article is published in the Washington Post.

Contributing greatly to the success of this project was the longstanding relationship (over ten years) among KFF, WPost, HSPH, and the researchers at ICR. The communication and trust engendered by this relationship were essential to the extreme adaptability needed to accomplish it.

The first step in executing the project was to find interviewers able and willing to work in the midst of the chaos found in Houston. Since these individuals had to be able to get into the area and have a place to stay overnight, ICR worked with a local firm of Houston field interviewers. One important consideration was the racial parity of the interviewers to the respondents. We expected (and did indeed find) respondents to be mostly African American, and so we hired mostly African-American interviewers.

The next decision was whether to offer respondents an incentive and, if so, what to offer. We ultimately decided against it. Evacuees were living in almost prison-like conditions, and we did not want to be in the position of being unable to give the incentive to everyone. Aside from not seeming fair, it might place the interviewers in an uncomfortable position with potential respondents, or with people who were not randomly selected yet still wanted the incentive. Mainly, we did not want to put respondents, who would receive something of value that other people in need might want, or interviewers, who would have such things to offer, in danger.

The next step was to obtain the approval of the Harvard School of Public Health's Institutional Review Board (IRB), a process expedited by the HSPH team at the requisite lightning speed. The many issues raised included the fact that our respondents were essentially a captive audience, the recent stress in their lives, and the need to ensure respondent and interviewer safety. There were also concerns regarding our ability to ensure confidentiality of interviews given the conditions of the shelters.

Once planning was completed, we went to work on training the interviewers. A few ground rules were applied that may have been unique to this project:

• We always explicitly asked permission to interview people, as we did not want to encroach on their personal space.

• We did not pressure people to participate or actively attempt any sort of refusal conversion.

• We assured all respondents that their responses were totally anonymous, and that their identities would not be connected with their survey answers.

Our most important goals were to minimize disruption to the already disrupted daily lives of the evacuees and their schedules, and to respect their privacy.