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Hurricane Prompts Awkward Questions ( One Cannot Ignore Away the Underclass in a Disaster)
BBC ^ | 4 Sept 2005 | Elinor Shields

Posted on 09/04/2005 8:36:47 AM PDT by 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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: disasterpreparedness; innercity; katrina; neworleans
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To: craig_eddy
The primary evidence would be the fact that large-scale looting was not anticipated. Plans should be made to establish strong points, well guarded by troops scattered throughout the city. Several decades ago I wrote a FEMA-type plan for the military ( We called it FAWESP then, maybe they still do) for a large US city that had experienced recent horrific riots. We did establish those strong points and we also included plans to " canalize" the looting into sites that had a large store of basic foodstuffs and other necessary personal items.

Several posters here and elsewhere have also noted the over-reliance on private transport and have suggested buses and rail as equally important ways of leaving the disaster zone in advance.

21 posted on 09/04/2005 8:55:51 AM PDT by Our_Man_In_Gough_Island
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To: Our_Man_In_Gough_Island
"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.

A car in every driveway! A driveway in front of every house! A house for every family!

I can just hear the cries now.

22 posted on 09/04/2005 8:56:49 AM PDT by craig_eddy
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To: cyborg

Yep - bet they characterize what went wrong.


23 posted on 09/04/2005 8:58:15 AM PDT by patton ("Hard Drive Cemetary" - forthcoming best seller)
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To: Lexington Green
With a disaster of the magnitude of this hurricane you deploy the transportation, period! It is a basic NO BRAINER. With no source of communication how in hell is one going to determine whether or not an individual or individuals have their own transportation. Oh, I know how, they will all meet at the levee to board the buses! The statement below should have been reverted to sentence #2 in this instance.A rather simple thing to do if you read it but it appears the physical implementation phase by the mayor of NO was non-existent. He is no leader! (IMO). 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'...
24 posted on 09/04/2005 8:58:29 AM PDT by tuvals (America First - Support Our Troops!)
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To: patton

Unfortunately the media is going to get worse with this now that the hurricane is over. Remember it didn't take long for the libs to politicise 9-11.


25 posted on 09/04/2005 9:00:20 AM PDT by cyborg ("I want to know how God created this world. I want to know His thoughts..." A.Einstein)
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To: cyborg

Smart girl.


26 posted on 09/04/2005 9:02:48 AM PDT by patton ("Hard Drive Cemetary" - forthcoming best seller)
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To: Our_Man_In_Gough_Island
what, precisely, is to be done with the large, predominately Black inner-city underclass during a FEMA crisis?

Exactly the same thing that is to be done with the "over"class during a FEMA crisis. In fact, erase the whole notion of "classes'" it has no place at a time of crisis. It's artificial and divisive, and puts the focus in the wrong place: blame instead of solutions.

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

Is that what happened? Did someone somewhere actually "ignore them and give them last priority"? I doubt it. The fact is, there are a lot of poor in New Orleans. Most of them are black. Their sheer numbers mean that most of the stranded would be black; most of the CITY is black! If they live in areas that are hardest hit, and consequently, most difficult to get to, then it seems only natural that they would be the hardest to extract.

Where, then, must our plans be changed?

Analyze where the breaches are most likely and plan evacuation routes based on a variety of scenarios. To hell with the "underclass/overclass" nonsense. This is about effectiveness, not racial politics.

better plans need to be made for the underclass in future disaster scenarios.

I'll say it again: better plans need to be made for ALL people in future disaster scenarios, including the encouragement of individual initiative rather than passive expectation.

27 posted on 09/04/2005 9:05:35 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: Our_Man_In_Gough_Island
"I'm ashamed of America. I'm ashamed of our government,"

I'm ashamed of the local government and their non-concern for people who depend on public transportation and the failure of the local officials to have a plan in place to evacuate them.
28 posted on 09/04/2005 9:06:30 AM PDT by John Lenin (Liberalism: Where shame is a virtue)
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To: Our_Man_In_Gough_Island
"I'm ashamed of America. I'm ashamed of our government," Congresswoman Carolyn Kilpatrick said.

I am ashamed of the fools who put you in office.

The unmitigated gall! I want these people who are maumauing this held accountable - called to testify before Congress. And I want that Senator who threated the President hauled in by the Secret Service for a lengthy interrogation, if not jailing.

29 posted on 09/04/2005 9:06:33 AM PDT by don-o (Don't be a Freeploader. Do the right thing and become a Monthly Donor!)
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To: cyborg

Good advice. I'll go work on my writing instead :D


30 posted on 09/04/2005 9:06:35 AM PDT by Alkhin (http://awanderingconfluence.com/blog)
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To: Our_Man_In_Gough_Island

Free birth control is one practical solution.


31 posted on 09/04/2005 9:10:08 AM PDT by mc6809e
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To: Our_Man_In_Gough_Island

I hate to advocate larger government, but it seems as though time has come for some verifiable process to ensure the local governments are prepared for this type of disaster instead of just throwing money at them. I hate to use NCLB as an example, but there should be an inspection of emergency preparedness tied to the receipt of federal funding. That will crack the whip on the Boss Hawgs running these Dem festering swamps of corruption.

The N.O. Police department was complaining that their radios didn't work after the storm went through. After 4 years and countless millions in federal funding how can this be possible?

The inspection process works well for the military, there are too many lives at stake to leave this up to boobs like Mayor Nagligent.


32 posted on 09/04/2005 9:10:22 AM PDT by Wristpin ( Varitek says to A-Rod: "We don't throw at .260 hitters.....")
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To: Our_Man_In_Gough_Island

If we sent troops in beofe the storm to forcibly pull out the 50,000 people and took them to safe ground, and the storm didnt hit..you'd be hearing screams of gestapo, and racists formt he same idiots now yelling ..no way you can win..


33 posted on 09/04/2005 9:11:15 AM PDT by ken5050 (Ann Coulter needs to have children ASAP to pass on her gene pool....any volunteers?)
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To: Our_Man_In_Gough_Island
" This time around ignoring them and giving them last priority did not work."

This infuriates me. Are you aware that in some of the low-lying suburbs, rescues are only now starting? Those are white people out there. Blacks have received preference, perhaps not entirely because they're black, but because they're in the main part of the city. Nevertheless, if there has been ANY racial preferences in this (and I don't believe there was), it was not against blacks. Take your article and stuff it.

34 posted on 09/04/2005 9:12:47 AM PDT by MizSterious (Now, if only we could convince them all to put on their bomb-vests and meet in Mecca...)
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To: Travis McGee

Somewhere, there should be more pics of parked city buses. There are several "bus barns" in the city, and literally hundreds of buses. NO had one of the best public transportation systems I've seen in any city, except possibly San Francisco and New York.


35 posted on 09/04/2005 9:15:15 AM PDT by MizSterious (Now, if only we could convince them all to put on their bomb-vests and meet in Mecca...)
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To: Travis McGee

I count 200 plus buses in one pic alone....lets say 10% were down for maintenance. Fill em up and head for east , west and northern destinations as far as fuel allows and find shelters. If I'm not mistaken those would hold 40 plus people each, that's just one shool parking lot in the area.

8000 folks minimum saved per parking lot. Add the city transit system busses etc etc . I would add that any such future storm or impending crisis clearly predicted should warrant the immediate closure of inbound traffic on the Interstates and make all lanes available outbound. Seems a lot of folks could have been saved if "any plan" was allowed to proceed....improvised or not.


36 posted on 09/04/2005 9:15:24 AM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet. ©)
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To: Our_Man_In_Gough_Island

Looting SHOULD have been anticipated. It should be in any city, because more often than not, it happens. Disasters are considered looting opportunities for a certain type of person, and New Orleans has more than its share of them. Shoot, I'm not on ANY disaster planning committees, but when we knew the city was on the hurricane hit-list, I told Freepers there WOULD be looting. Someone should pay me what they're paying the doofus of a mayor.


37 posted on 09/04/2005 9:19:25 AM PDT by MizSterious (Now, if only we could convince them all to put on their bomb-vests and meet in Mecca...)
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To: 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.

Nope don't think it will happen unless FR forces it. Revealing that would be good for Pres. Bush and bad for every LIBERAL/LEFTIST/DEMOCRAT/SOCIALIST/PINKO SOB around the globe and that includes the MSM.

38 posted on 09/04/2005 9:23:36 AM PDT by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country. What else needs to be said?)
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Comment #39 Removed by Moderator

To: cyborg; rdb3; mhking; JulieRNR21; Rodney King
Re post #12.

We need every Black conservative screaming this from the rooftops.

IMO, so far the left has been quite successful in turning this into a race issue.

If Black conservatives can't make themselves heard over the drumbeat of the libs, I am afraid we will lose some of the ground we have gained.

Despite their own disaster plan, despite knowing that they had a large population of poor people in the city, despite knowing that a large number of them use public transportation to get around, they shut the city bus service down at noon on Sunday, let the school buses stay in the parking lots, and left people to die.

I realize this is CYA time for the demonrat leadership in LA. We CANNOT afford to allow Sharpton and Jackson line their pockets on this issue.

40 posted on 09/04/2005 9:27:46 AM PDT by teenyelliott (Soylent green should be made outta liberals...)
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