I was listening to the album ‘endgame’ rise against. Which I read somewhere was written about hurricane katrina. And theres some songs that are quite sad when I listen to the words like ‘help is on the way’ cause at one part it says ‘we were told, just to sit tight, cause somebody, will soon arrive, help is on the way, but it never came’ like it makes me realise like that people were let down and stuff. I can’t say it makes me understand cause I never went through it but i dot like the thought of it all.

Is there anyone with stories about what they went through? or anything you could tell me about the whole even as I’m courious of it all. Like I saw pictures on the news (I’m in England) but don’t know much about it.

New Orleans is located in a low, soggy, hurricane prone area (below sea level); for that reason they used to have the levees to protect the city against floods provoked by hurricanes. Everybody knew the city was going to be engulfed sooner or later but the authorities did not do much to improve their structures against it, until Katrina came their way that fateful year. The levees broke once the hurricane hit and a massive wall of water invaded the city. The rest is history and it is also largely documented on the internet. Till this day you can see rubbles and debris all over the place there…it’s very sad
Maybe this link can help you with more details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

i know a lot of new orleaneans hate bush because of what happened during the hurricane, but what was it? i was in katrina and it was terrible what happened to the city of NO. i am curious what did bush do?

ps im not siding with him, i dont like him at all

Most people in New Orleans understand the fault lies with the Governor of Louisiana and - to a lesser extent - with the Mayor of New Orleans.

Realize several things:

1. FEMA is not a first-responder agency. FEMA basically writes checks and provides umbrella coordination, but that’s all. First responders are from state & local level unless the disaster is "federalized", which allows the use of active-duty military personnel.

2. At the time, authority for disaster response was wholly a responsibility of state government. The federal government could not intervene without authorization from the state governor. That is why then-Governor "Blank Stare" Blanco could tell the President No when he asked at least twice and possibly three times to "federalize" the response to Katrina. Blanco (a Democrat) did that because she didn’t want Bush (a Republican) to get any credit for helping LA. Hundreds of people died as a result. The law was changed in 2006 to prevent the same thing from happening in the future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act

3. At the time, there was NO PLAN for the evacuation of a major American city. There was NO WHERE for people to go. Nagin did fail to follow the city’s own emergency plan and that contributed to the problems. He also had appointed city management (police chief, etc.) based on political reliability rather than competence and that created even more problems. However, some of the things Nagin is blamed for were not within his power.

Many of the lessons from Katrina were implemented for Hurricane Gustav in 2008 (while Bush was still president).

What was the impact of Hurricane Katrina economically, environmentally and on humans?

The impact of Hurricane Katrina is still being felt 5 years later. At least 1,836 people lost their lives in the actual hurricane and in the subsequent floods, making it the deadliest U.S. hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane; total property damage was estimated at $81 billion (2005 USD), nearly triple the damage wrought by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
The economic effects of the storm were far-reaching. The Bush Administration sought $105 billion for repairs and reconstruction in the region, which did not account for damage to the economy caused by potential interruption of the oil supply, destruction of the Gulf Coast’s highway infrastructure, and exports of commodities such as grain. Katrina damaged or destroyed 30 oil platforms and caused the closure of nine refineries; the total shut-in oil production from the Gulf of Mexico in the six-month period following Katrina was approximately 24% of the annual production and the shut-in gas production for the same period was about 18%. The forestry industry in Mississippi was also affected, as 1.3 million acres (5,300 km²) of forest lands were destroyed. The total loss to the forestry industry from Katrina is calculated to rise to about $5 billion. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands of local residents were left unemployed, which will have a trickle-down effect as fewer taxes are paid to local governments. Before the hurricane, the region supported approximately one million non-farm jobs, with 600,000 of them in New Orleans. It is estimated that the total economic impact in Louisiana and Mississippi may exceed $150 billion.

Katrina redistributed over one million people from the central Gulf coast elsewhere across the United States, which became the largest diaspora in the history of the United States. Houston, Texas, had an increase of 35,000 people; Mobile, Alabama, gained over 24,000; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, over 15,000; and Hammond, Louisiana received over 10,000, nearly doubling its size. Chicago received over 6,000 people, the most of any non-southern city. By late January, 2006, about 200,000 people were once again living in New Orleans, less than half of the pre-storm population. By July 1, 2006, when new population estimates were calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau, the state of Louisiana showed a population decline of 219,563, or 4.87%. Additionally, some insurance companies have stopped insuring homeowners in the area because of the high costs from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, or have raised homeowners’ insurance premiums to cover their risk.

Hey

Basically i’d like to hear your views on the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Any views, facts, personal stories or anything concerning the way the American Government handled the disaster would be appreciated.

I’ve not asked this question to start arguments, i’d just like to hear other people’s views on the situation.

Thanks if you answer
I saw the people on the roof tops and knew that there would be trouble. I never expected it to be as bad as it was. I remember Brian Williams reporting at the end of day 2, in weighters up to his thighs, looking around and saying, "And I still don’t see the National Guard."
Those people on the roof tops were almost all black. W and Cheney, et al, saw that and thought, "Well, no votes for us there," and dragged their feet.
Racial prejudice from the right reared its big, ugly head. Anyone could see it coming, but it disgusted me nevertheless. New Orleans, once the most uniquely American city, is still today America’s shame.

I’m writing a story based around Hurricane Katrina and I need some basic facts about the disaster. I’ve done some research, but there’s just so much information out there I can’t narrow it all down to like maybe 10 easy facts.
And if there’s anything big you think I should know about the Hurricane, feel free to tell me.

See the link from the National Climatic Data Center and the Weather Channel.

Where happened and is happening to the black folks of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina?
We see some statistics from http://demomemo.blogspot.com/2006/06/new-orleans-before-and-after.html

Blacks as a share of the metropolitan area before Katrina: 37 percent
Blacks as a share of the metropolitan area after Katrina: 22 percent
The white share of the population grew from 59 to 73 percent.

The population of NO dropped radically after katrina…it has not come back to even close to pre-katrina levels…Of course it had a disproportionate effect on black people since the areas hit hardest were largely black populated.

Who are responsible for the disaster of Hurricane Katrina? Is Madison on the list of culprits?

Can anybody briefly explain this to me? and I don’t understand the second part question that why Madison is involved

My prof gives out questions without discussing.
Only thing I can think of is that Ronald Madison was killed when New Orleans cops fired on a bunch of people trying to cross a bridge.

What cause the flood of new orleans during hurricane Katrina?

The flooding in the city-proper (the water you saw around the Super Dome, etc.) happened because canal walls (part of the levee system) built by the US Army Corps of Engineers in the 1990s failed at the height of the storm surge. The walls failed because they were improperly designed and negligently built. Two separate federal court decisions (2008 & 2009) have confirmed the cause of the failures.

Katrina’s surge affected a huge area, and much of it (outside the city-proper) was flooded because the surge was much higher than the levees. Surge 28′ feet high and levee 15′ high = flooding.

Your question has attracted answers with some of the common myths about New Orleans.

First, most of New Orleans is above sea level and most of the parts below sea level are only a bit below. The flooding was so bad because Katrina’s surge was MUCH higher than sea level.

Second, the state of Louisiana (and the City of New Orleans) had nothing to do with financing, designing, or building the levee system. The state had/has some maintenance responsibility, but manly tasks like mowing the grass on the levees.

Third, the levees and walls that failed did so the same morning Katrina struck and while the storm was hitting the city - not "the next day".

A revelation in the 2009 hearing was that the US Army Corps of Engineers diverted money from the levee system to the "Big Dig" commuter tunnel under Boston Harbor and that was at least partly why the canal walls were poorly built. The reason the money was diverted was because Massachusetts is an "important" state while Louisiana is not. Other "unimportant" states (ex. South Dakota) were similarly victimized.

Hi there,

i need to have some sources, like statistics or newspaper articles (reasons as well) agreeing that the government was not racist in offering black people help during hurricane katrina.

Only answer if you have the answer to my question. This is school work and i didn’t choose wether to defend or attack the government in this issue.

thanks in advance

There’s no evidence at all that the US government discriminated against African-Americans in providing aid to survivors of Hurricane Katrina. The burden of proof of that accusation is on those making the accusation, and so far no one has produced any proof that is adequate of racism on the part of the Federal government.

Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, on the other hand, behaved in an overtly racist manner on several occasions during and after the storm. The most obviously racist act of Mayor Nagin was when he asked on national TV and radio for African-American refugees from Katrina to return (in time for the city mayoral elections) and "make New Orleans a ‘chocolate city’ again"

Before the storm arrived, his failure to accept Federal assistance in preparing for the hurricane led directly to many of the deaths among African-Americans. Fuel which could have been used to power school buses and other city-owned vehicles to evacuate citizens who later died could have been furnished from Federal stockpiles at the Naval Support Activity at Algiers (a neighborhood directly across the river from New Orleans) or from Alvin Callender Field, a Marine and Naval airstrip in the same general area. In refusing Federal assistance, Mayor Nagin appears to have been motivated by either racial hatred of President Bush and the Republican Party or from misguided loyalty to the Democratic Party.

Democratic Party political sabotage appears to have been the motivating factor in Governor Kathleen Blanco’s refusal to allow the use of state-owned vehicles in evacuation of endangered citizens from New Orleans, but racism on Blanco’s part (state government, not Federal, in other words) cannot be excluded as a possibility. Governor Blanco also declined offers of Federal assistance made by President Bush. She also sent troops from the Louisiana Army National Guard in to confine Katrina survivors to certain areas of the city.

FEMA’s errors made after the storm arrived seem to have been the result of incompetence, not racism. No one certainly has proven racism as a motivating factor in any of the errors made by FEMA, although the incompetence and insensitivity to people’s needs was astounding on several occasions and resulted in much unnecessary suffering on the part of blacks and whites alike.

But actual improprieties were committed not by Federal, but by state and local officials, ranging from diversion of Levee Board funds for sculpture and guns for civilian employees to politically-motivated refusal of aid to the citizens of New Orleans, to looting and other offenses committed by officers of the New Orleans Police Department and one instance in which bridges out of New Orleans appear to have been blockaded by out-of-city law enforcement officers or civilians with guns. Racist incidents, when they occurred, were committed by local and state officials, law enforcement and civilians, not Federal troops.

Allegations of Federal improprieties were made by Democratic Party political operatives and members of the media who seized on an opportunity to make false accusations in order to politicize the tragic deaths of New Orleanian citizens. No proof was ever produced of the accusation by these people and others that response by Federal officials might have been more rapid if the storm had occurred in a predominately white community.(4)

However there were many instances of racially motivated violence and even murder of people who took refugees in by some of the refugees, who were mostly black. These stories were not reported by and large by the national media, but covered locally in the communities which took in evacuees.

Many reports of racism were the result of racist attitudes on the part of both blacks and whites in New Orleans according to a sociological study by the University of California at Los Angeles. This study, however, defined white racism and black racism differently and was thus open to charges of racism itself because its definition of "white racism" assumed intent to be racist among whites even when whites said or did nothing overtly racist. According to this study, a white person, according to the study language, would have to drop whatever else he or she was doing to provide aid to a black person in order not to be accused of racism. No such definition was made of black racism, nor were overt acts of bigotrry on the part of blacks in the wake of Katrina (such as widespread looting and arson of residences in white neighborhoods) discussed at all. (5)

A US House of Representatives study of the response to Katrina ascribed the damage after Katrina to "a failure of initiative" - institutional error, NOT racism - at Federal, state and local levels, but also mentioned 166 million dollars in over-payments due to fraudulent applications by Katrina survivors or others. (Payments were made to 481,624 households in the four affected Louisiana parishes have received payments – when census data documents only 398,629 households living in these four parishes. Simple math indicates that around 83,000 households were made up in order that someone collected FEMA aid illegally.) (6) Dishonesty was definitely at work in an astounding number of cases, if not outright racism among some survivors.

I think, and I may be wrong, but I think Haiti and every other nation gave the USA $0.00 after Hurricane Katrina.

Oh well, enough of the cold, hard facts….start loading the supply trucks for Haiti…its a thankless job but someone (USA) has to do it.

I completely understand what you are saying. It’s not that we don’t care but rather we have our own issues that need to be taken care of. 100,000 people die each year in the US because of inadequate insurance. But we wont send aid to that, why? Because it’s not a catastrophic event?

Why can’t everyone dontate 10 dollars to that cause as well?

Why must we help another government that can’t even help itself?

Haiti has a government… just because it is flawed and doesn’t serve and protect the people the way ours does, does not mean that we must feel obligated to extend ourselves to them.

I just do not like how we put more value on some lives than others because one creates a better headline than the other, when we could and should help both.

My husband is Haitian and my mother-in-law lives in Haiti, so I do have a personal tie to the country, I just don’t see how we are so quick to aid another while there are people here that could use the aid as well.