America's
Shame: 2 years after Hurricane Katrina
by the Sacramento Area Black Caucus
"If
you are poor and of African descent, America is not concerned about your
well-being."
On August 29, 2007, the nation will commemorate the second
anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. As we prepare to remember this
incomprehensible devastation, the Sacramento Area Black Caucus (SABC) is
outraged by the ongoing neglect of the thousands of community members,
communities, local businesses, schools, libraries and colleges throughout the
Gulf Coast regions.
The Sacramento Area Black Caucus wishes to extend our
sincere condolences to the 4,081 families who lost loved ones due to
Hurricane Katrina, and to our government's neglect and
incompetence. At least 1,836 people (men, women and children) lost
their lives due to Hurricane Katrina and in the subsequent floods, making it
the deadliest U.S. hurricane since the Okeechobee
Hurricane in 1928. More than
2 million US citizens were displaced due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Hurricane Katrina is estimated to have been responsible for $81.2 billion
(2005 U.S. dollars) in damage, making it the costliest natural
disaster in U.S. history.
"The people of New Orleans
and the Gulf Coast regions were exposed to poverty and a historic legacy of
institutional neglect, classism, sexism and racism."
Even before the storms, the people of New Orleans and the
Gulf Coast regions were exposed to poverty and a historic legacy of
institutional neglect, classism, sexism and racism. The Bush administration's
policies, designed to pad the coffers of big business and the pockets of the
wealthiest Americans, have deepened and reinforced this poverty. Tax cuts for
the wealthy, bold faced cronyism and the changes in bankruptcy laws all point to
a government that operates on a policy of quick grabs for the few with little
regard for those outside the favored circle or the future of the country. The relief and rebuilding efforts must first
and foremost benefit the people of these communities, restore their lives,
their businesses and put the region back to work.
The message was very clear during and even now two years
after Hurricane Katrina's devastation. The world witnessed first hand
American's shame: If you are poor and of African descent, America is not
concerned about your well-being. During
the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and even today, the world watched
the bureaucratic bungling, massive incompetence and
unconscionable neglect.
SABC is outraged by the slow recovery and the rebuilding
efforts. Residents can't return home because of lack of funds, lack of a safe
living environment (free of environmental hazards such as mold, formaldehyde exposure and unsafe drinking water) and
lack of safe affordable housing. We are also concerned about the lack of health
care, including mental health services; and the lack of support for schools,
libraries and historically Black colleges.
Our outrage is based on the following well documented facts:
On July 13, 2007, the Time Picayune reported
that no fluoride has been added to the New Orleans water supply since Hurricane
Katrina two years ago.
July 15, 2007: The Eagle-Tribune reports
thousands of pounds of government-owned ice stored in Gloucester in the
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are melting - so far costing taxpayers $12.5
million.
February 26, 2007: Bill
Quigley, a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New
Orleans, reports: Half the homes in New Orleans still do not have electricity.
Eighteen months after Katrina, a third of a million people in the New Orleans
metro area have not returned. Over $100 billion was approved by Congress to
rebuild the Gulf Coast.
Eighteen months later, less than 700 families have received
federal assistance. Renters, who comprised a majority of New Orleans, are worse
off. They get nothing at all.
Many in New Orleans do not want the poor who lived in public
housing to return. St. Bernard Parish, a 93 percent white suburb adjoining New
Orleans, enacted a post-Katrina ordinance which restricted home owners from
renting out single-family homes "unless the renter is a blood
relative" without securing a permit from the government.
Jefferson Parish, another adjoining majority-white suburb,
unanimously passed a resolution opposing all low-income tax credit multi-family
housing in the areas closest to New Orleans, effectively stopping the
construction of a 200 unit apartment building on vacant land for people over
the age of 62, and any further assisted housing.
"All
the public schools on the side of the Mississippi which did not flood were
turned into charters within weeks of Katrina"
New Orleans is now the charter capital of the U.S. All the
public schools on the side of the Mississippi which did not flood were turned
into charters within weeks of Katrina. The schools with strongest parental
support and high test scores were flipped into charters. The charters have
little connection to each other and to state or local supervision. Those in the
top half of the pre-Katrina population may be getting a better education. Kids
without high scores, with disabilities, with little parental involvement who
are not in charters are certainly not getting good educations and are shuttled
into the bottom half, a makeshift system of state and local schools.
John McDonough, a public high school created to take the
place of five pre-Katrina high schools, illustrates the challenges facing
non-charter public education in New Orleans. Opened by the State school
district in the fall, as of November, 2006, there were 775 students but
teachers, textbooks and supplies remained in short order months after school
opened. Many teens, as many as one-fifth, were living in New Orleans without
their parents. Fights were frequent despite the presence of metal detectors,
twenty-five security guards and an additional eight police officers. "Our
school has 39 security guards and three cops on staff and only 27
teachers," one McDonough teacher reported.
Mental health is worse. A report by the World Health
organization estimates that serious and mild to moderate mental illness doubled
in the year after Hurricane Katrina among survivors. Despite a suicide rate
triple what it was a year ago, the New York Times reported ten months
after the storm New Orleans was still without half of its psychiatrists, social
workers, psychologists and other mental health care workers.
With day care scarce, down 70 percent, and public
transportation down 83 percent of pre-Katrina busses, there is little chance
for single moms with kids.
Katrina exposed the region's deep-rooted inequalities of
gender, race, and class. Katrina did not create the inequalities; it provided a
window to see them more clearly. But the aftermath of Katrina has aggravated
these inequalities. In fact if you plot race, class and gender you can likely
tell who has returned to New Orleans. The Institute of Women's Policy Research
pointed out:
"The hurricanes uncovered America's longstanding
structural inequalities based on race, gender, and class and laid bare the
consequences of ignoring these underlying inequalities." As Oxfam
documented, government neglect has plagued the rebuilding of smaller towns like
Biloxi Mississippi, and rural parishes of Louisiana, leaving the entire region
in distress. In Biloxi, the first to be aided after the hurricane were the
casinos, which forced low-income people out of their homes and neighborhoods.
In rural Louisiana, contradictory signals by government agencies have slowed
and in some cases reversed progress. Small independent family commercial
fishing businesses have been imperiled by the lack of recovery funds. The
federal assistance that has occurred has tended to favor the affluent and those
with economic assets.
"Katrina did not create the inequalities; it provided a
window to see them more clearly."
Dr. Kevin Stephens, Sr., Director of the New
Orleans Health Department testified and shared the following findings:
The number of
doctors has been reduced by 70% and the number of hospital beds in Orleans
Parish has been reduced by 75%.
In some areas, such
as the Lower Ninth Ward and New Orleans East in Orleans Parish and Chalmette
and other places in St. Bernard Parish, residents have no access to health care
whatsoever. Mental health is another serious problem: even last year, 20% of
residents reported suffering from severe stress and depression.
Yet the number of
mental health inpatient beds has been reduced by 83% and the number of
psychiatrists has dropped by 90%. Residents reported observing a larger than
usual number of death notices in the newspaper, even long after Katrina and
into 2006. At the same time, even months after the storm, residents reported
going to more funerals than they ever had.
Dr. Kevin Stephens received communications from persons working with the families of
missing persons in Louisiana who claim that there are still 1000's of persons
looking for missing loved ones from the storm.
"People
displaced through no fault of their our have the right to return to their homes
and have the right to expect their government to help them do so."
In April 2006, the Sierra Club tested 52 FEMA
travel trailers on the Gulf Coast and found that 83 percent had formaldehyde
levels above 0.1 parts per million, a level where emergency responders are
warned about risks from one-time exposure.
More than a year ago, FEMA did test one occupied trailer because of the
persistence of the pregnant mother of a 4-month-old child who lived there. The
results showed formaldehyde levels 75 times higher than the maximum workplace
exposure recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health.
We are outraged that America is spending about
$10 billion a month on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, two illegal and
immoral wars. By the end of this year, the total funds appropriated will be
nearly $600 billion - approaching the amount spent on the Vietnam or Korean
wars when adjusted for today's inflation. But America is unwilling to make the
same financial commitment to support the families and cities of the Gulf Coast
Region to rebuild their lives. We are spending billions of dollars to kill
people in Iraq and Afghanistan, but as a nation we are unwilling and have not
made the same commitment to save US citizens in New Orleans and other gulf
coast communities.
We are calling for the resignations of President
George W. Bush, Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security Agency, R.
David Paulison, Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, Gil H. Jamieson, Associate
Deputy Administrator for Gulf Coast Recovery, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco,
Governor of Louisiana, and Ray Nagin,
Mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana for their collective failures to effectively
design, manage, and provide administrative oversight for a comprehensive
recovery and rebuilding plan that addresses the needs of the of Louisiana and
Gulf Coast residents.
Additionally, we are encouraging all citizens to
remember, "Passivity, massive
incompetence and indifference to the people's needs did the most damage" We are urging voters to engage in honest dialogues
and demand congressional candidates and presidential candidates that are
seeking your support to live up the America's responsibility. Americans should and must commit the much
needed resources to rebuild those communities destroyed in Gulf Coast
regions.
Finally, under the United Nations Guiding
Principles on Internal Displacement that people displaced through no fault of
their our have the right to return to their homes and have the right to expect
their government to help them do so, the federal, state and local governments
all have failed the citizens of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.
Maybe, Kanye West was correct in his assessment --"George Bush
doesn't care about black people!"