Hurricane Katrina: Two Years Later?

Question

It is close to 2 years since Hurricane Katrina hit The Gulf Coast. The rebuilding process is slow and The Government shown to not care. Do you believe that both Race and Class are factors as to why the rebuilding process has been slow?

Answer 1

Yes, I do. I know that if the areas had been predomintately white/caucasian, then the rebuilding efforts, rescuing & so forth would've/would be happened/happening faster. The government downplayed this several times, placing blame on the mayor of each hard hit city.

I just saw some homes on the news a few days ago that were still in ruins from the hurricane & water damage. WHY?! No money? Where'd it all go? People are still living in worse conditions than when they had homes. WHY?! No place for them? BULLONEY! Take some of the foreclosed homes & GIVE them to the survivors, free & clear. They deserve a home, not some crappy trailer by FEMA or whomever else. Wow, I smell a HUGE tax write off for the property owners. Oh wait. They'll lose money on the mortgage payments? BOO FRIGGEN HOO! Those homes are barely worth what it cost to build them to begin with. There are about 1,000 such homes in my city here in Southern Calif. If I could, I'd be donating the homes myself!

Bush has pretty much ignored the Gulf Coast in the last year & 1/2. SAD SAD SAD. All he's worried about is putting more troops into the Middle East to play war games with a country that does NOT want us there in the first place.

Answer 2

As a lifelong resident of the region the rebuilding of the Gulf coast does not surprise me but race and class are not factors. For one thing the area of destruction is vast. Large areas of Eastern New Orleans including an entire Six Flags theme park are abandoned and the raccoons are taking over. This area is so low lying and the prone to flooding that it is likely that vast areas will be bulldozed and turned into parkland of some type The federal government has never been known to be quick at doing anything except wasting money. New Orleans was considered to be a poor city before the storm. I don't think race or class are factors in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast The average income of it's residence was low and the city was in bad shape financially like most inner cities. Even before the hurricane the school system was probably the worst in the country and millions of dollars were missing. Janitors were putting alleged overtime and were collecting paycheck larger than the school principals. Many of the neighborhoods effected were ,to be kind, on the borderline of being called slums. Few in these neighborhoods had any kind of homeowners insurance and are now waiting for the federal government to hand them the money for their loses. The majority of public housing were fetid pits of drugs and crime. High crime and iron bars on the windows were a fact of life there. In many of the more middle class neighborhoods progress is also slow and many are still fighting insurance companies. The insurance companies are saying they don't cover floods but it's the hurricane that caused the flood. So it's the what came first the chicken or the egg question.

New Orleans was in bad shape even before Katrina and will problably take another 20 years to get back up to bad shape

Answer 3

The government ie. the taxpayers have dumped billions of dollars into NO so don't say the "govt" does not care. The money would have been better used just throwing it down a rat hole. The reason the rebuilding is slow is residents do not want to rebuild below sea level and risk another Cat 5 Hurricane again. Many have learned their lesson. The city can't get them to rebuild in their old neighborhoods again for that reason. Many have also permanetly relocated out of the area. Why don't you complain to that nit wit Mayor Ray Nagin.

Answer 4

I don't think race is a factor. I don't remember the part in the constitution that says if some force of nature damages your property the government is obligated to rebuild it for you. If I recall correctly, the affected states were all issued emergency funds. I think class plays a role in so far that poorer people are less likely to own the right type of insurance for hurricane damage, and lots of that money has been held up by court proceedings. I think the process will speed up when someone discovers a way to make a buck from it.

Answer 5

I am from louisiana and it is a very poor up bringing, but currently in Minnesota for over 13 years. i visit often but not since katrina. Louisiana is one of the worse places in the U.S to raise your kids that is definately why my mom migrated. Not sure about the other states affected so i cant speak on them, but i do believe the life that these people lived and their race has a lot to do with rebuilding in louisiana, i guess some see it as they really didnt lose anything since they were poor and they majority was black so there is no reason to rush at rebuilding. honestly they probably will have a better life somewhere else even though its hard to let their past life go.

Answer 6

Not necessarily, i think the government is incompetent and simply does not have the best interests of the victims of Katrina at heart, although i would say that the media has often portrayed the black victim is as looters and criminals and this tells you a lot about race relations in America today.

Answer 7

We had hail and tornadoes final month. i'm nevertheless waiting for Oprah and Sean Penn to bypass to...yet it relatively is yet another difficulty. I keep in mind being on a bus excursion of recent Orleans. As we drove via a levee, the handbook mentioned that “all of us is acquainted with if the levee breaks the 9th will flood”. So if SHE knew on the subject of the difficulty of the levees, why didn’t the interior reach government? Katrina is getting used lower back to bash Bush. EDIT: Paul, bypass to youtube and seek for barney frank on katrina to work out who's bringing it up lower back.

Answer 8

yes, but only a part of the problem the gov just not set up to handle that big a problem and it should have been

Answer 9

Ray Nagin is a racist who has no class

So the answer is yes

Answer 10

you make a good point.