We all know about Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, and the devastation and destruction that came along with it. Somewhere near 1,800 people died and thousands were injured physically as well as mentally. What some people don't know is that Hurricane Katrina didn't hit New Orleans, it actually just passed by. The reason the destruction was so great is because the levees that were supposed to protect by preventing flooding broke. The sad thing is, the levees were never finished in the first place. Essential pieces that were needed to complete and secure the levees were never put in place.
It is a common misconception that all the people who were in New Orleans and felt the effects of Katrina have themselves to blame. People think this because they decided to stay even though they were warned of the storm and were told to leave. Although some people did choose to stay because they underestimated the power of the storm, many stayed because they had no other choice. If the inhabitants did not have a car or the money to leave town (poor and underprivileged), the warnings were useless. All the people in this situation could do was find higher ground and pray that they would be okay.
An issue the media caused in its reports of Hurricane Katrina was making it appear that only black people were the victims. Latino, Filipino, Vietnamese, Native American, and white people alike were hit hard by the storm. Therefore, it isn't so much a race issue as to the United States slow response, (as it is commonly portrayed) but it is largely a class issue. Remember, the people in affected areas did not have the money to leave the area and potentially save their lives.
It is argued that if this Hurricane would have happened in an upper class society, The United States government would have been on the scene quickly to lend a helping hand. People use the example of the Wildfires that occurred in California last year. The population in affected areas were largely middle and upper class citizens. Response time was quick and the situation will not go down in history as a national disaster.
A day before Katrina happened, former president George W. Bush went to a meeting with meteorologists from the National Weather Service who warned him of the danger the city would be in if a serious enough hurricane hit. Bush listened thoughtfully to their words, but did not act upon them. So, it's not like Bush could use the excuse of not knowing, because he knew full and well what would happen to these people if something like this was to happen. After the catastrophe happened, Bush lied on national television, saying that nobody could have predicted it.
It's such a pity and a shame that the government took five whole days for it to take action and help out people in its own country. It's a shame in America, something like this was happening. When the evacuees were taken to the Superdome, the living conditions were horrendous. There was no running water, no food, there was no where to clean yourself or use the restroom. There were thousands of people all crammed living in proximity. Temperatures sored and the smell of decaying corpses and human waste filled the air. People died from contamination and other factors due to poor conditions.
America is supposedly one of the world's richest nations, if not the richest. America does what it wants and what it see fits to do with its money. America spends billions of dollars sending people into space. America spends billions of dollars fighting the war in Iraq. America could have very easily stepped in and been down there the next day giving out food and water, and medical attention. Instead, the United States government abandoned its duties while other countries came the rescue. Israel, Canada, and Mexico are among the nations that helped the United States when they needed it most. Since the United States has a foreign aid program dedicated to helping out foreign countries in need, there should have been no problem getting down to affected areas to give aid to people in their own country.
We see how much destruction and damage happened; 80% of the city was under water. But imagine if Hurricane Katrina actually hit the region..... It is very well possible that none of these victims would have survived. The thing that is most saddening is that to this very day, the levees still aren't complete. So that means that the people who are currently living there are worse off than the people who were there four years ago since the unfinished levees are now broken. You would think that after a tragedy such as this, people would have learned and it would have became top priority to fix the levees, but obviously that is too much to ask.
Watch how Bush was warned about Hurricane Katrina: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEpdx0uPDxg
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