Anxiety and depression are easy to spot at Utah's Camp Williams, where Katrina evacuees are just beginning to settle in. Eventually, some may exhibit signs of post-traumatic stress.

But the experts counseling evacuees say they are not seeing more acute mental health problems than they would at any mental health clinic, according to Janina Chilton, spokeswoman for the state's Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health.

And human resilience is evident everywhere, says Victoria Delheimer, a program manager for the division who is helping coordinate mental health services for the evacuees. As she talks with teens who were separated from their mom and dad, adults who are wondering whether their siblings survived, evacuees of all ages mourning the known deaths of loved ones, "I am amazed by people's optimism and resilience," she said.

Indeed, national experts say most people, over time, will recover their equilibrium.

Chilton said there have been surprises. For instance, a lot of the people who were homeless even before the tragedy seem to be coping better than many of the others. "That's their reality," said Chilton. "Now they will have help and maybe be able to regroup and actually start over."

While it's impossible to gauge the horrors all the evacuees have seen, Chilton said, this subpopulation of affected people are "used to fending for themselves and protecting themselves," and while some expected them to lack coping skills, they're doing quite well.

Delheimer was part of the crisis teams at the airports comforting families after terrorists crashed the planes on 9/11. She sees similarities and contrasts between Katrina and 9/11.

The human loss is in many ways the same, she said, with people mourning and wondering about loved ones. In 9/11, the wondering part was relatively brief. These evacuees may not know for a long, long time who lived and died, with people scattered across the country, communication disrupted and the daunting task of identifying the dead. She's even concerned about the many different lists that have been set up to reunite loved ones, which may actually increase stress, she said.

In 9/11 when you walked eight blocks, everything was intact. Katrina cut a much larger geographic swath of destruction — the extent of which evacuees are just beginning to recognize.

"People have been thinking that in a couple of weeks they're going home. Now, as they see televisions and newspapers, the reality is setting in that many have nothing to go back to," Delheimer said.