The calamitous natural phenomenon known as Hurricane Katrina brought terrible side-effects to lower-class African Americans. A catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina changed the lives of the lower-class African Americans forever because of the devastation from several effects. People today are more prepared for a natural disaster because “Hurricane Katrina was one of the strongest storms to hit the United States coast within the last 100 years” in New Orleans (Brianna Frank). Most of these ramifications of Hurricane Katrina came from the phycological, economic and medical effects due to this natural disaster,
Hurricane Katrina has plagued both lower-class African American adults and their children due to the phycological effects. The repercussions of Hurricane Katrina had an everlasting effect on the lives of most adult victims. Many adults were at risk for being diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This was defined in an article as, “an anxiety disorder that can develop after a person has experienced an ordeal that poses severe physical harm” (Hurricane Katrina). A natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina would have been a primary trigger for causing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Unfortunately, the realization of this disease was that most adults effected would never be able to feel safe again. On the other hand, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on the lives of the innocent children was also just as devastating. Many children were at the risk of developing a disease called Serious Emotional Disturbance. This disease would have been caused by a traumatizing event. An example of this was Hurricane Katrina. The outcome would have caused severe stress on mainly the effected children. In their future, this disease would challenge the children’s thinking and problem coping difficulties. As discussed in one article, “children with SED are not able to cope with their peers or their environment” (Hurricane Katrina). Hurricane Katrina bedeviled the uneducated lower-class African Americans as well as the low- income families. Many lower-class African American families were already extremely poor prior to the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. These people were without adequate transportation to escape the
A modern-day study being done about the racial discrimination that was brought upon thousands of families during Hurricane Katrina is now in the limelight and takes a specific look at the way certain people perceive this notion of racism. The arguments that are being considered examine the past reports of Black and White participants regarding racial differences and their perceptions of the racial inequality following Hurricane Katrina. The participants for this investigation were asked whether or not the United States government would have provided aid and responded faster to different socio-economic and racial groups during the hurricane. According to de la Peña et al. (2010), a higher percentage of White participants said that socio-economic status is more important, while Blacks relied on race more. Additionally, more White participants believed that the slow government response effort was not influenced by race and/or socio-economic status of the victims. Although there is a contention between the two races, there is a higher percentage of agreement when concerning discrimination altogether.
Hurricane Katrina was a devastating disaster that has affected many people in New Orleans. The communication broke down hours after Katrina because of the unexpected fast winds and floods that broke down “3 million phone lines and 1,000 cellular towers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.”( Joch ). Because of the millions of phone lines that were broken down, contacting the government for help was difficult hours after hurricane Katrina. Not only that, the people of New Orleans underestimated the power of Hurricane Katrina causing many to be “ stranded with no food or water” (Narrator, “The Storm”,PBS).
Statistics show that 75% of the African Americans in New Orleans were affected compared to the 15% of African Americans in the Biloxi-Gulfport metropolitan area (Cutter and Gall, 5). It also states, “The calamitous combination of insured development certainly accounts for much of hurricane katrina’s damage, specifically in New Orleans.” All levels of government failed to do their part, which includes state and local government.
Hurricane Katrina was a devastating disaster that has affected many people in New Orleans as well as the surrounding areas. It had a stunning “death toll of 1300 people and damage over $100 billion ”( Davlasheridze 94 ). The communication were taken down hours after Katrina because of the unexpected fast winds and floods that broke down “3 million phone lines and 1,000 cellular towers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.”( Joch ). Because of the millions of phone lines that were battered, contacting the government for help was difficult hours after hurricane Katrina. Not only that, the people of New Orleans underestimated the power of Hurricane Katrina causing many to be “ stranded with no food or water” ( Narrator, “The Storm”,PBS ).
“When communities are rebuilt, they must be even better and stronger than before the storm,” (“Bush”). This is what former president George W. Bush said during his speech in New Orleans concerning the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was a massive natural disaster that consisted of high powered winds and immense amounts of water. The hurricane was initially a category 3, but gradually rose to the classification of a category 5 storm, which is the largest storm there is (“Hurricane Irene”). In fact, there were accounts of winds recorded at about 127 miles per hour in the Gulf areas such as Grand Isle, Louisiana, and near the Mississippi River (“Hurricane Katrina Statistics”). All of these factors are made
In December of 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, tearing through the levee systems, and resulting in massive flooding that eventually covered 80% of New Orleans (1), leading to the most significant number of deaths by the storm. As images of Hurricane Katrina were displayed on front pages and television sets across the counry, Katrina became a strategic research site for sociological theory and research of how identity shapes a natural disaster (1). In this essay, I want to explore the fate of New Orleans. How will climate change affect human populations and which human populations will it affect? To do this, I will need to review both scientific and socially scientific papers to understand what the future of New Orleans and southern Louisiana will look like. Though this concept is technically broad for the limitations of this paper, I will review several pieces of literature to begin to gain an understanding of the social and ecological situations at play.
As Hurricane Katrina ravaged the South and drowned large parts of New Orleans this past September, the ugly reality of our nation's continuing problem with class, poverty, and race became apparent. Many Americans began to question the possibility of racism being a deciding factor in the fate of many New Orleans citizens who were black and who lived in the poorest, most low-lying portion of the city, the Ninth Ward. Many, including First Lady Laura Bush, denounce critics who say race played a role in the federal government's slow response to the victims of Katrina. While it is possible that the government's slow response to the disaster was not directly due to racism, there are many unanswered questions suggesting the protection of the city
In this paper I read the Essay that Abe Louise Young wrote about “The Voice of Katrina Part One”. In this Essay at its core is about Hurricane Katrina, which was a massive hurricane that hit in 2005. It caused massive damage and destruction along the Gulf coast from Florida to Texas. Hurricane Katrina will always be remembered for hitting New Orleans, Louisiana, when the levee system failed leaving 80% of the city flooded and destroyed. Hitting the worst parts of New Orleans such as the 9th ward, already being one of the poorest areas in Mississippi. Much of the Essay talks about the people of New Orleans, Abe being a new graduate started Alive in Truth: The New Orleans Disaster Oral History and Memory Project, her goal she state’s is to
Since African Americans are limited to such opportunities, New Orleans is considered what is presumed to be a “racially segregated landscape of differentiated risk” -- spatial benefits of the post natural disastrous situation flowed to those who weren't from the lower socioeconomic tier. The racial projects that emphasize this formulation are found in how mainstream press coverage viewed those who were stranded and how structural programs not only failed to prepare relief but also intensified city
Since Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans, the city has been repopulated by rich whites and Latinos with African Americans returning to the area at much lower rates. Hurricane Katrina affected millions of people across the United States by tremendous flooding and Category 5 winds; Hurricane Katrina remains the most expensive and most destructive natural disaster to strike the United States.
In the wake of natural disasters, the minorities of America are down the pecking order in the government’s list of priorities. Specifically seen in the African-American people, the government fails to provide speedy response time, supplies and other aid, as well as providing substantial compensation for the families devastated by disasters, which could have been preventable or deterred from causing more havoc. In many cases, the African-American people were exposed to poor living conditions, living in undesirable areas, and a lack of wealth, education, and preventative warnings of oncoming disasters. This can be seen in the cases of the 1900 great hurricane of Galveston, Texas and the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave, but the greatest example of
D’Ann Penner received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, where she studied belief and resistance among Cossacks, farmers and women in the formative years of the Soviet Union. Keith C. Ferdinand is a clinical cardiologist, who was previously the Medical Director of Heartbeats Life Center and Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at Xavier University College of Pharmacy in New Orleans, Louisiana. Overcoming Katrina: African American Voices from the Crescent City and Beyond, is a collection of 27 interviews of people who dealt with multiple issues of abandonment, evacuation, displacement, and having to rebuild their lives after Katrina. The authors have divide the book up in four different sections that split the
Hurricane Katrina resulted in massive loss of life and billions of dollars in property damage. There are many lessons worth learning from this event. Finger pointing started before the event was over. Most of the focus on Hurricane Katrina was on its impact on New Orleans; however, the storm ravaged a much wider area than that. This paper will briefly summarize the event, the impact on the city of New Orleans and the lessons learned to ensure preparedness today.
The opinion of New Orleans residents regarding how Hurricane Katrina was handled by the government also depends on the resident’s race, class, and gender. Many of the poor urban residents in New Orleans that were the most devastated by Hurricane Katrina were African American (Pardee, 2014). These residents felt that they were forgotten by their government and left to die because they did
In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina vigorously tore apart the U.S. Gulf Coast Region killing at least 1500 people, ranking at the third deadliest hurricane in United States history. Author of Survival and Death in New Orleans, Patrick Sharkey (2007), looked specifically at data on New Orleans residents that perished during Katrina in an attempt to look at the communities that were most affected by this unfortunate disaster. The storm took the largest toll on the elderly population and by African Americans, who he argued were overrepresented in comparison to whites. The toll was not only physical but mentally damaging as well, due to the overwhelming amount of loss to their homes, family members, pets, and childhood neighborhoods in which