Katrina Killed Across Class Lines(and why aren't level headed minds surprised...)

The Los Angeles Times(no less) ^ | December 18, 2005 | Nicholas Riccardi, Doug Smith and David Zucchino

[kellynla]

The bodies of New Orleans residents killed by Hurricane Katrina were almost as likely to be recovered from middle-class neighborhoods as from the city's poorer districts, such as the Lower 9th Ward, according to a Times analysis of data released by the state of Louisiana.

The analysis contradicts what swiftly became conventional wisdom in the days after the storm hit — that it was the city's poorest African American residents who bore the brunt of the hurricane. Slightly more than half of the bodies were found in the city's poorer neighborhoods, with the remainder scattered throughout middle-class and even some richer districts.

"The fascinating thing is that it's so spread out," said Joachim Singelmann, director of the Louisiana Population Data Center at Louisiana State University. "It's not just the Lower 9th Ward or New Orleans East, which everybody has heard about. It's across the board, including some well-to-do neighborhoods."

Because New Orleans was one of the nation's poorest cities, where more than one in four residents lives below the poverty level, many of the victims were still found in neighborhoods that were impoverished by national standards. But by the standards of New Orleans, those neighborhoods were economically stable, and deaths citywide were distributed with only a slight bias for economic status.

[kellynla]

"Of the 528 bodies recovered from identifiable addresses in city neighborhoods, 230 came from areas that had household incomes above the citywide median of $27,133. The poorer areas accounted for 298 bodies...

Of the 380 bodies from New Orleans that have been formally identified, a moderately disproportionate number are white. New Orleans' population was 28% white, yet 33% of the identified victims in the city are white and 67% black."

[Mr. Brightside]

Upper middle class people died also?

Karl Rove must be losing his touch. (/sarc)

[JRios1968]

Don't forget Tookie

[upchuck]

But... but... Why aren't there any hurricanes named after blacks? (e.g. Kaniesha, Takeisha, LaToya, LaTeisha, Tyrell, Tyrone, Snoop, etc.)

Watch it! :)

[The Electrician]

The analysis contradicts what swiftly became conventional wisdom in the days after the storm hit

In other words, the Democrats and the media have yet again been revealed as liars with an ugly agenda...

[Hardastarboard]

Minister Farrakhan's theories about how this happened should be interesting.

[CajunConservative]

*Louisiana Ping List

If you would like on or off the Louisiana Ping list please FReepmail me and your name will be added or taken off of the list.

[WasDougsLamb]

The analysis contradicts what swiftly became conventional wisdom in the days after the storm hit

--And this comes as a suprise to whom?

[Howlin]

yet 33% of the identified victims in the city are white

It comes out to 52 percent of the victims are NOT BLACK.

[Shade2]

Yea but many folks here embraced the media's lies when it came down to Katrina victims. While some are relishing this info, it actually kills the notion spread around here that those poor black people were not taking care of themselves and were not working together for their survival.

[Gordongekko909]

The group that was hit hardest in terms of percentage of the population wasn't racial or econcomic class; it was age. The elderly died in numbers far greater than their percentage of the population.

Which should surprise absolutely no one; not only are the elderly and the very young the frailest among us, but trying to get an elderly New Orleanian of any race to evacuate in the face of a hurricane is an exercise in futility. "Why, I survived Betsy, you little whippersnapper! Back in my day, blah blah blah..."