Background Information
The Gulf Coast was struck by hurricanes Rita and Katrina in late August and September of 2005. Many communities sustained direct damage from hurricane winds and storms, while others, including New Orleans, received indirect damage (a.k.a., the bulk of damage was due to faulty human systems and procedures rather than to natural events).
On August 29th of 2005, Hurricane Katrina touched down in Florida on August 23rd and in Louisiana and Mississppi on August 29th. On September 24th, Hurricane Rita struck Texas and Louisiana. 1,863 deaths resulted from Hurricane Katrina; 120 deaths resulted from Hurricane Rita. There was inestimable property loss and building damage. The destruction of communities also occurred across the Gulf Coast, from tiny towns of a few hundred people who could not afford to rebuild, to large cities like New Orleans, which is struggling to return to life as normal.
The flooding of New Orleans in the wake of Katrina became the most reported-upon and well-known incident that resulted from the storms. Due to shoddy levee construction and poor engineering, (which was itself due to government corruption, corporate influence on civil engineering projects, and bad environmental practices), eighty percent of New Orleans was flooded. Over 1,500 people died in New Orleans, largely due to the combination of residents being unable to afford to evacuate and bad disaster response on the part of the local, state, and federal government. There was much speculation that the abysmal quality of relief efforts was tied to racism; New Orleans' population breakdown, as of the 2000 census, was as follows: 67% African American, 28% White, 0.2% Native American, 2% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 3% Hispanic or Latino of any race. Therefore, race, class, and economic status are integral themes in rebuilding.
In the wake of the disaster, rebuilding had been fraught with obstacles, especially in New Orleans. Relief measures which were intended to be temporary—such as housing survivors in FEMA trailers—have turned into long-term solutions, with bad consequences ("toxic trailers" which make residents sick) while returnees to the area struggle to receive money to rebuild. The programs established to provide individuals with money for rebuilding pose a number of problems: stipulations make funds accessible only to homeowners, but not renters—in spite of the fact that over 50% of New Orleans' pre-Katrina population was comprised of renters—and only to homeowners who can provide certain documentation (leaving out a large number of black homeowners who lived in the 9th Ward and owned homes which had been passed down through generations without titles.) It is typically held that funds received by survivors are not adequate to rebuild. Public housing has not been re-opened, and funds for programs providing counseling for youth who endured psychological trauma as a result of the disaster have had their budgets cut by the federal government. Government corruption continues in Louisiana and in other states on the local level.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
