The most disadvantaged New Orleans residents were stranded in the city when the levees broke in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The author, a psychoanalytic clinician, encountered some of these victims as a first responder in the Red Cross shelters in Dallas, TX. Psychological first aid in such situations involves shoring up defenses and promoting resilience. Clinical and organizational vignettes demonstrate a psychoanalytic approach to psychological first aid and disaster response. Three trauma theories (Bowlby's attachment theory, Hobfoll's conservation of resources theory and Strozier's “ground zero” theory) are used to understand the trauma experienced by those in Dallas shelters.