Hurricane Prompts Awkward Questions ( One Cannot Ignore Away the Underclass in a Disaster)

BBC ^ | 4 Sept 2005 | Elinor Shields

[Our_Man_In_Gough_Island]

Images from the stricken city of New Orleans show that many of those suffering in its streets and shelters are mainly black and poor.

The plight of those stranded amid the filth and the dead has highlighted a side of the city most tourists did not see - one in which two-thirds of its residents are black and more than a quarter live in poverty.

Anger is mounting among African-American leaders that this section was left behind when others fled.

Some say the chaos in Katrina's aftermath has exposed deep divisions in both the city and US society.

"We cannot allow it to be said by history that the difference between those who lived and... died... was nothing more than poverty, age or skin colour," Congressman Elijah Cummings said.

'Paycheck to paycheck'

Correspondents say New Orleans' glamorous reputation has always concealed a high level of deprivation.

NEW ORLEANS

485,000 residents 10 times national murder rate 21% of households without access to a car

The city famous for its jazz clubs and horse-drawn carriage rides was also a place in which about one in three children lived in poverty, in one of the poorest states in the country.

Observers say this group was particularly vulnerable in the face of a hurricane.

Many of those trapped by Katrina's floodwaters lived in dilapidated neighbourhoods that were long known to be exposed to disaster if the levees failed.

And a large number would have had no means to flee the region as the storm loomed - a recent US census found that one-fifth of the city's residents had no access to a car.

"We don't have transportation," one resident told WHBF-TV. "We're living paycheck to paycheck, it's not like we're just able to get up and leave."

A former leader of the black caucus in the House of Representatives agrees.

"It is one thing to receive a warning to get out - it's something else to have the ability to get out," US Congressman James Clyburn said.

Uneasy questions

Black members of Congress have also criticised the pace of relief efforts.

Some say the response was slow because those most affected are poor.

I'm ashamed of America. I'm ashamed of our government

Congresswoman Carolyn Kilpatrick

"I'm ashamed of America. I'm ashamed of our government," Congresswoman Carolyn Kilpatrick said.

"George Bush doesn't care about black people," rapper Kanye West told viewers of an NBC benefit concert for hurricane victims.

Other commentators object to the media's handling of the crisis.

"Television is creating a sympathetic image of white people fleeing, and black people caught up in a shoplifting orgy," Lawrence Aaron wrote in New Jersey's Record.

But some hope that the aftermath of the hurricane will force people to confront the issue of inequality.

"Most cities have a hidden, or not always talked about, poor population, black and white, and most of the time we look past them," Spencer Crew , the chief of a Cincinnati civil rights centre, told the New York Times.

"This is a moment in time when we can't look past them. Their plight is coming to the forefront now," he said.

[Our_Man_In_Gough_Island]

Although many Freepers will be startled and angered by this article, I believe the writer is at root correct: what, precisely, is to be done with the large, predominately Black inner-city underclass during a FEMA crisis? This time around ignoring them and giving them last priority did not work. Where, then, must our plans be changed?

I also believe the article is somewhat - but only somewhat- biased in that it may well be impossible to give the very poor full equality of treatment in a survival situation and that an attempt to do so may well undermine the middle class's already shaky trust in FEMA in the future. This bias may well be due to the fact the writer represents a British point of view unfamilar with how strong social tension may run in a USA city. Nevertheless, the essential point is as good as it is obvious: better plans need to be made for the underclass in future disaster scenarios.

[rellimpank]

---for starters, remove the now-into-three-generation "Great Society" keep 'em dependent on Uncle Sugar programs--

[craig_eddy]

This time around ignoring them and giving them last priority did not work.

And where is your evidence that they were "ignored"?

[Lexington Green]

Louisiana disaster plan, pg 13, para 5 , dated 01/00

'The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating'...

[mtbopfuyn]

"We're living paycheck to paycheck, it's not like we're just able to get up and leave."

If they had a paycheck, they wouldn't have been the poorest of the poor. Admit they're welfare recipients. The cost of a bus ticket to higher ground is cheaper than a carton of smokes. They CHOSE not to leave.

[Lion Den Dan]

'Paycheck to paycheck' ++++

Welfare Check to welfare check.

Some say the response was slow because those most affected are poor. +++++++++

It is obviously Bushes fault that City and State took no action when they had the chance.

But some hope that the aftermath of the hurricane will force people to confront the issue of inequality. ++++++

Yes, let's punish those rotten SOB's who work and pay taxes and make them move over for those poor people who don't work, who father children and don't support them. Let's make it illegal for any one with means to protect themselves or escape a disaster before the shiftless poor are rescued.

[Travis McGee]

I hope that sooner or later the MSM discovers that New Orleans did have a written emergency plan to cover the evacuation of the poor, but that the idiot mayor of New Orleans ignored it, and allowed the evacuation buses to be ruined by the flood, forgotten.

The city leaders had at least two full days to use these hundreds of buses to evac the poor, exactly as their own emergency management plan called for.

Here's the southeast Louisiana evac plan supplement, most recently revised in 2000. Go to page 13, read paragraph 5. It states:

5. The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.

[isthisnickcool]

The Democrats created the black slums and black underclass in New Orleans. The people that live there always vote Democrat and look what a Democratic mayor has done to them.

Unfortunatly, most of these people don't understand that because the only "black leaders" they listen to are the same poverty pimps that have been betting rich selling their votes to the Democrats. And THOSE black leaders like the mayor of New Orleans have proven that they are simply not smart enough to understand that they live in a very very dangerous place. New Orleans defies common sense. Why live in an empty bowl surrounded by water knowing that the only thing between you and death are pumps that have to run all the time, forever.

They should just flood New Orleans and be done with it.

The people that are "at fault" in this disaster are the morons who have been dumb enough to live in New Orleans knowing that at any time they are subject to destruction. This time it was from mother nature, maybe the next tim it's from terrorists that can blow up the walls that hold the water back.

[Just mythoughts]

Wait a minute. LIberalism is what wall these people off from the rest of the world... The whole world can now see what we conservative have been opposing for generations.

[cyborg]

Makes me sad when I see those pics.

[proudofthesouth]

Right on!

[teenyelliott]

Louisiana disaster plan, pg 13, para 5 , dated 01/00

'The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating'...

Disregarding the actual disaster plan adopted in 2000, this is what was released to the public on SUNDAY:

Evacuation Guidelines

General evacuation for disasters apply to both natural (hurricane, flood, thunderstorm, tornado) and man-made (chemical and fire). If you are told to EVACUATE you should move to a place designated by public officials.

Follow these steps:

Stay calm.

Take your disaster supply kit.

Remember as you leave your house to do the following:

- Turn off lights, household gas appliances, heating, air conditioning, and ventilation systems.

- Leave refrigerator/freezer on.

- Lock house.

Only use the phone in case of an emergency, injury, or illness. If you must use the phone, keep calls brief. Do not listen to rumors. Turn on your radio or television for up-to-date information from public officials during an emergency.

Use only one vehicle for your family. If you have room, assist any neighbors that may need a ride.

Tune to Emergency Alerting System 870 AM or 101.9 FM radio stations for reports about evacuation routes, conditions, etc. Use those travel routes specified. Drive safely. Traffic will be heavy. Law enforcement officials along the route will help with traffic.

If you need a ride, try to go with a neighbor, friend, or relative.

Let others know when you leave and where you are going.

Make arrangements for pets. Animals are not allowed in public shelters. Pet carriers are recommended along with pet supplies.

[ZOOKER]

How do you explain the fact that these people who are so desperate for help shoot at the rescuers?

I'd leave them alone, too...

[Alkhin]

Some say the chaos in Katrina's aftermath has exposed deep divisions in both the city and US society.

I am SICK AND TIRED of the projectionism that is inherent in this statement! The ills and stupidity of one city get cast upon the whole and entirety of the nation, when we know good and well NONE of the depravity we have seen in NO is found in other hurricane-struck portions of the country, and I guarantee you the dynamics of skin color there are no different.

the utter hatred of that statement!

[teenyelliott]

And where is your evidence that they were "ignored"?

See post 12.

Nagin, as well as Blanco, disregarded the disaster plan, and in the process left many, many people to die.

[BenLurkin]

'Paycheck to paycheck'

Really? Or is it 'welfare check to welfare check'?

[teenyelliott]

Look at post 12.

Nagin and Blanco left thousands of people to die.

[cyborg]

The media has not had an opportunity to play the trump cards of race and class in a long time. They can't explain why the black folks in Missippy aren't looting as in NO. They can't bring themselves to say it's democrat incompetance at all. Frankly folks if you want to save your health, avoid the MSM at all costs till this dies down.

[IronJack]

Television is creating a sympathetic image of white people fleeing, and black people caught up in a shoplifting orgy,"

Yeah, TV may be "creating" that image, or it may be reporting the fact that while white people are fleeing, black people are shoplifting. Or more accurately, that the majority of people who are fleeing are white, while the majority of people shoplifting are black.

The facts don't lie, even if they make certain ethnic groups uncomfortable.

[shuckmaster]

This event has made it painfully obvious that in a disaster situation, the people raised on welfare socialism will just sit helplessly on a bridge for days demanding that people raised on working class ideals come and save them. My question to the welfare socialists is: what kind of morbid perversity drives a person to place welfare housing in a known hurricane target in the first place?