This is what it looks like when government fails to protect its citizens:
When Hurricane Katrina hit, more than a quarter of people living in New Orleans in August of 2005 lived below the poverty line. Many of the poor in stayed at home to weather the storm. Why?
27% of New Orleanians didn’t own a car, making evacuation even more difficult and expensive than it would otherwise be.
People without the means to leave are also the most likely to rely on the television, as opposed to the radio or internet, for news. TV news began warning people how bad the storm would be only 48 hours before it hit; some people, then, had only 48 hours to process this information and make plans.
Poor people are more likely than middle and upper class people to never leave where they grew up. This means that they were much less likely to have a network of people outside of New Orleans with whom they could stay, at the same time that they were least able to afford a motel room.
For those who were on government assistance, living check-to-check, it was the end of the month. Their checks were due to arrive three days after the hurricane. It was also back-to-school time and many were extra cash poor because they had extra expenses for their children.
A study of New Orleanians rescued and evacuated to Houston, described here, found that:
…14% were physically disabled, 23% stayed in New Orleans to care for a physically disabled person, and 25% were suffering from a chronic disease… Also,
• 55% did not have a car or a way to evacuate
• 68% had neither money in the bank nor a useable credit card
• 57% had total household incomes of less than $20,000 in the prior year
• 76% had children under 18 with them in the shelter
• 77% had a high school education or less
• 93% were black
• 67% were employed full or part-time before the hurricane
The city failed to get information to their most vulnerable residents in time and they failed to facilitate their evacuation. The empty buses in flood water, buses that could have been filled with evacuees prior to the storm, is a testament to this failure.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 22
Kat — August 27, 2011
I wonder how the percentages would change for those that died in Katrina. I am assuming that the percentages cited would be even higher.
Independent — August 27, 2011
As sad as this situation was, it continues to be glaringly apparent that most of those people rely on the government to take care of them. It's generational and will continue as long as our government continues to fund entitlement programs. In addition, the behavior exhibited AFTER Katrina hit was another example of the pathetic state of affairs today. Looting, violence, and trashing the places where they were housed. While the catastrophe was poorly handled, blaming the government for not taking care of people who were already dependent upon it gets old.
Anonymous — August 27, 2011
Wow. What idiotic comments. It's pretty cruel to basically say some people just deserve to die in natural disasters because they don't live up to your standards.
Edit: The worst comment seems to be gone. That's good. I just kind of had to say something even if it wasn't that productive.
Jane — August 28, 2011
Entitlement programs have always been to protect those who have. It is the only way that corporations can pay people so little that a person working FULL time can still be below the poverty line. it's outrageous.
It's one thing to pay people so little, but when people's children start dying, like during the depression, those same people become dangerous. That's when we started providing any entitlements.
If we keep this crap up about how we rich people(very few of US our rich) who live off the labor of poor people can't afford to pay taxes, we will just cut help for the poor, we will find out just how dangerous people with nothing to lose can be.
Susan — August 28, 2011
I am wondering how much notice you expect people to be given of an impending hurricane. I live in a cyclone prone area of Australia, and our first warnings - which is just a call to be on alert - are only issued when the effects of a cyclone are likely to be felt within 48 hours. We are put on warning when they will be felt within 24 hours. Anything earlier is any man's guess as to where the storm will go. It doesn't matter whether you are rich or poor, none of us get more than 48 hours warning. Maybe things are different here?
Anonymous — August 28, 2011
There was an evacuation plan in existence. One problem was that critical people, like the bus drivers, were unaware that such a plan existed and that they had a vital role in it.
Skole Skab — August 27, 2015
Dead links in the article. Update, please!
SoManyPeopleAreFatNowAdays — October 26, 2015
Democraps really screwed up bad in N.0. and some ppl actually believed the media thinking it was the Prez fault. The Deomcrap mayor and Governor didn't allow the repub prez do anything until it was to late. Because I rarely see the above truths written I'm guessing most don't know the truth and never will?
GeorgeWashington Jefferson — February 14, 2016
The fact that 93% of those rescued and evacuated were black says it all. Blacks are the perpetual victims of "the man" anytime something happens, isn't that strange? How could the numbers be so lopsided? After all, we are always told that the poor come in all colors, right? If the government was so poorly prepared, that they couldn't take care of things, before the storm hit, they wouldnt have been able to help the poor whites and Latinos, right? Hmmmm, how come all other race groups only made up 7% of those rescued? What is it about blacks that make them unable or unwilling to overcome victim hood, when other race groups, suffering the same physical, financial, mobility, or other handicaps, managed to self-extract from the situation? How can a race be so weak or reliant on others to take care of them?
Liberals will treat blacks as little children, incapable of caring for themselves. They will declare anyone, such as myself, who dares questions the accountability blacks have for themselves. They will say all the right things and coddle the blacks, until the next election is over. They will blame Republicans and scream institutional racism. Democrats will demand to expand government and call for a new "czar" to lead a new blackhole department to sink our tax money into. Blacks will blame whites, "da man", "da loomnati", or anyone else but themselves. Anyone left, will blame blacks for being stupid, lazy, ignorant, too suspicious, or any other thing that comes, too mind.
I am sure that anyone who happens to read this comment, after all this time, will quickly write me off as a racist, loon, or any other name, that is popular for liberals to call someone who doesn't tote their brainwashed company line. Sticks and stones........ It still leaves blacks in need of "rescue" next time something happens. When will someone stand up to the true racists, that coddle blacks, and force blacks to fend for themselves?
Lucy — February 19, 2016
Some people because they have never experienced a real tragedy just don't believe it can be that serious...psychologically unless you have experienced a disaster, you have no idea how serious it can really be - ignorance...not being stupid but being ignorant of the seriousness of it. Just like people who point a gun at a cop and expect them not to shoot. Ignorance to what can really happen.
toastypostingpuppet — September 10, 2017
Quijotesca is a stupid IDIOT. It's comment makes no sense because OTHERS can always lower their standard of behavior. At some point, uh, YEAH they deserve to die for being able to look after themselves. What's next? Some lazy idiot dies on his couch and it's MY fault for not coming ot his house, going into his fridge, making him a sandwich and bringing it to him? OOHHH the HUMANITY!!!!