Groups of people would be affected differently if they received different amounts of care, support, and aid. During and even after hurricane Katrina it was apparent that different groups were prioritized over others regarding the aid, care, and support they would receive and when they would get it. The lack of these things in rural areas was made devastatingly clear when we saw that people were fighting to save their own lives and survive in the aftermath like Esch and her family had to do. When Katrina occurred, Esch and her family experienced a regime shift, and the lack of support left their survival in the hands of the people outside the community of Bois Sauvage. To find the truth, we created data sets using voyant, and with these data sets, we analyzed what words/phrases are used most and how they are used.The government claimed that it had done a lot in response to Hurricane Katrina, but It can be seen that the precautions it had for the storm were not adequate. In the days it took for hurricane Katrina to destroy the coast, the government would sit and watch. It would not be for another two days after Katrina made landfall that President Bush would hold a cabinet meeting to speak about federal relief efforts. FEMA and the coast guard were what the government sent out to perform search and rescue. The length of time it took for federal aid to get to the local scale was an unknown number; because of the storm, the rescue of many people was delayed multiple times due to the very unsafe conditions. The local fire and police departments were dispatched for search and rescue as soon as Katrina hit as the first line of support, but that became a more significant issue with the unpredictable weather cause the first responders to be added to the victim count as it states “many first responders had been incapacitated and thrown into disarray by the severe hurricane.” This was a big problem because the people sent out to do the rescues now needed their own support and help, increasing the death toll to even higher numbers. The largest hurdle the government had to beat to get federal aid to the local level was the communications failures they were experiencing when they were doing SAR. The fire and police departments’ communications suffered severely as it is stated, “the mutual-aid channel required each officer to wait for his or her turn, sometimes for 20 minutes, officers could not transmit to certain parts of the city because of its limited range” this made it difficult to know the conditions of specific areas and determine how much help was needed in those places. These conditions made it clear that the government could not send out help for a prolonged time, and according to the timeline, it would take 4 days after the hurricane made landfall for SAR efforts to continue. Many levels of the government failed the people when it came to planning, preparation, and support, which cost many people their lives and the lives of those who were there to help.
Hurricane Katrina affected people of color more than anyone else. There is a history of failure in response to natural disasters involving people of color. These natural disasters typically destroy houses and significant infrastructures, leaving mass devastation. Low-income communities don’t have the ability to cut their losses and rebuild like middle- and high-class communities. These families typically suffer tragic losses both mentally and physically. Their entire lives are turned upside down, and the hope they might’ve had is tarnished once the destruction becomes apparent. Some might think that financial status has nothing to do with how people could have been affected, but it does. Some people lost their entire lives working in this disaster, while others simply moved forward and rebuilt with ease. Not everyone comes from money, which makes tragedies like this worse. People were separated from their lives, homes, and relatives.
People refused to leave their childhood homes and decided rather risk their lives instead of losing something they considered valuable. Many homes were lost during this natural disaster, and many lives. Some people believed they could withstand the storm’s power but perished instead. many with strong community ties may have been displaced, many of whom were just starting the school year when the storm struck. The hurricane left hundreds of thousands of people without access to their homes or jobs; it separated people from relatives and caused physical and mental distress to those who suffered through the storm and its aftermath, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Public officials fail time and time again to make the necessary investments to ensure these communities are prepared. Many become unemployed after these disasters or homeless, which puts them at a disadvantage. Even if their houses were utterly destroyed, most insurance companies don’t cover flooding, which can be costly to repair. Even though people of color aren’t the target of these hurricanes, they are typically the ones who lose the most. The resources aren’t available to keep the community stable during these times. They also don’t have the financial stability to rebuild after the storm. Those who received support were provided with shelter to live In and food to eat; those who didn’t were forced to find an alternative way to get back on their feet amid natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina taught the world a multitude of things as far as how to be prepared and how to coordinate when disaster strikes. Katrina left many people homeless and confused about how to move forward. Relief funds were created, and many organizations stepped in and stepped up to the challenge to help the thousands of people in need.
Lower-income families aren’t given priority in these situations and have less protection. Many people who live in flood zones don’t have insurance. While natural disasters do not discriminate, their long-term impact disproportionately falls on low-income communities of color. These families often lack the resources to manage even minor financial emergencies. Many struggled daily simply to secure housing, food, and healthcare and maintain employment.
Regarding support, the federal government sent out military personnel, search and rescue teams, medical teams (mental, physical, veterinarian, and mortuary), shelters, MREs, and funding. Military personnel like the national guard would work alongside local police to perform house searches. But due to the nature of the situation reaching certain parts of the communities was impassable on foot. So they would have to airlift to recover some trapped people. But it was often problematic for people to receive this support because the local government and federal government were not prepared to face such a disaster.
Although support was generally given to all people, it is evident that African Americans did not receive enough support to bounce back correctly. Instead of recovering without worry, they face credit card debt, unemployment, reduced job hours, reduced pay, missed housing payments, etc. Their debt could have been accrued from prior debts and new debts from having to spend mass amounts of money to survive. Many people lost their jobs because buildings were utterly destroyed or badly damaged. So the local economy plummeted since people were not making money they were not spending money. This drop in consumer sales would cause people to be laid off from their job or have their hours cut. This causes the economy to fail even further, causing a butterfly effect. With the loss of income, people cannot pay for necessities such as housing payments, utilities, and basic survival needs. This causes people to build their credit card debt and apply for loans they know they can not pay back.
By the time people can start working again, jobs will be hard to find, and pay will be low. So, after all that time, people are still struggling to recover and be able to get back to where they were pre-hurricane. To make matters worse, banks and loaning companies expect to have their money back, and if they do not get their money, they will hit your credit and add large amounts of interest. Since most people do not have the best credit, they will suffer even more in the long run. Let’s take Esch’s family, for example; they were very poor and were barely surviving before the hurricane. So after the hurricane, it was back to surviving, ravaging the bones of their once beloved house owned by their grandmother. Not only tearing up the memories they once had but also the relationships they had during the time of the book.
In conclusion, different races and economic statuses may have been affected in different ways due to the quality of their lives and the resources they had prior to the disaster. The higher the economic status, the easier it is to rebuild, in most cases. Some people may have had access to quality mental health resources, financial support, and family support. There are some that do not have access to quality healthcare or any financial support, so they are having to start at ground zero when dealing with the psychological and physical damage the disaster may have caused. Surviving a major disaster is traumatic for everyone involved, and it hits harder when it happens in an already traumatic environment. There are some who won’t have the opportunity to choose who they want to deal with or the services that they want access to because of their economic situation; those decisions will be made for them. When that choice is being made for you, in most cases, it is a long wait to see them, and they may not provide the best care. Those that were of lower economic status had to rely on different agencies a lot more for basic needs, such as food and shelter. Some of the agencies that they could get these resources from are the Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Salvation Army, United Way, and the United States Coast Guard. The agencies are placed to help everyone, but not everyone needs the same amount of help. Everyone may have survived the same disaster, but the outcomes were different. Most differences are due to what individuals had access to before the disaster hit. Due to a lot of the lower class not having insurance and/or access to financial assets and resources, it was harder to rebuild what they once had. Unfortunately, before the disaster, they were in the planning or building stages of their foundation. Most of the time, in major disasters, the resources sent to help are outnumbered by the number of people that are in need; therefore, they can’t always reach everyone that needs help. The agencies are trying to help a mass number of traumatized people that all have different issues and may need help to qualify for or apply for the services provided. There may be numerous barriers to receiving assistance, such as people requiring proof of identification, which may have been lost in the disaster or may have never existed before the disaster. A lot of these cases can be devastating and cause PTSD, anxiety, lack of sleep, constant worrying, depression, and other mental health issues that they currently don’t have the resources to treat. Unfortunately, some may have been suffering from these depression-like symptoms before, but with the disaster, they worsened. The disasters themselves do not discriminate, but socioeconomic status will determine the outcome of the rebuilding process. “Disasters can have a huge impact on livelihood opportunities and on people’s ability to cope with further stresses. ” Impacts such as the loss of assets can increase the vulnerability of poor people and create a “downward spiral of deepening poverty and increasing risk” (Davies et al. 2008).
There were some non-English-speaking residents who weren’t able to understand and trust the warning signs that were given, so they were negatively impacted. Also, that same group wasn’t able to get proper resources due to not knowing how to get to them because of the language barriers.
“While natural disasters do not discriminate, their long-term impact disproportionately falls on low-income communities of color.” These families often lack the resources to manage even minor financial emergencies. “Many struggle every day simply to secure housing, food, and healthcare, and to maintain employment.” (Kate Walz, 2017) After a disaster, many don’t have a foundation in place to build on.
