Hurricane Katrina - the best and worst of the USA
Quetzalli Castro
Issue date: 12/7/09 Section: New Year
Many were displaced after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Louisiana region.
On Monday August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina made landfall in southeast Louisiana and later became the costliest hurricane, as well as one of the five deadliest, in the history of the United States. As the story goes, the most severe loss of life and property damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana. The result was that 80 percent of the city became flooded when the levee system catastrophically failed.
The media coverage brought to everyone's attention the devastation and suffering that people were going through. America saw how FEMA and the federal government were reacting slowly to the emergency needs of Americans.
We would see four years later, thousands of displaced residents in Mississippi and Louisiana were still living in FEMA trailers. Furthermore, the media endured its own humiliation when racism appeared within its reporting of the situation. As one may recall, there were several photographs of people wading through water to find food. Those who were Caucasian had "found" their food, while at the same time those who were African-American were "looting".
However, in the moment of this great catastrophe the general public came together with donations and a spirit of volunteerism to try and restore the affected states and its people.
It is an interesting reflection when considering that we supposedly live in a post-racial America now that Barack Obama represents the United States as our President. This part of our history also lends to the fact that our nation still has a ways to go before we reach a status of having the best welfare available for the population.
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The media coverage brought to everyone's attention the devastation and suffering that people were going through. America saw how FEMA and the federal government were reacting slowly to the emergency needs of Americans.
We would see four years later, thousands of displaced residents in Mississippi and Louisiana were still living in FEMA trailers. Furthermore, the media endured its own humiliation when racism appeared within its reporting of the situation. As one may recall, there were several photographs of people wading through water to find food. Those who were Caucasian had "found" their food, while at the same time those who were African-American were "looting".
However, in the moment of this great catastrophe the general public came together with donations and a spirit of volunteerism to try and restore the affected states and its people.
It is an interesting reflection when considering that we supposedly live in a post-racial America now that Barack Obama represents the United States as our President. This part of our history also lends to the fact that our nation still has a ways to go before we reach a status of having the best welfare available for the population.
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kamrienlorrry
kamrienlorrry
posted 1/08/10 @ 11:12 PM CST
Hello,
I know i do feel bad
I mean the whole incident with fema who took donations to the new orleans people who lost everything at katrina and this is sad but the people never got the stuff they instead sent it too people around other parts of the usa for like business schools and other government agencies i think thats pretty bad. (Continued…)
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