Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

On Saturday August, 27th 2005 President Bush was notified about the news on Hurricane Katrina while on vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, and after hearing the news remained on his vacation and took no action to help aid the people of New Orleans (Dyson 63-64). When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans it was at a Category 5 hurricane. Many unnecessary lives were lost in the hurricane and in the events after the disaster hit. What was the reason for the extreme amount of lives lost, when the authorities had warning days before the actual hurricane hit? Eliza Hubbard believes the slow response to aid the people of New Orleans was racially motivated.

Hubbard makes many great points giving other examples of previous disasters that have occurred in more white affluent areas that were not even close to being as severe as Hurricane Katrina, that were not only handled with much more urgency, but also better proficiency. It has been said that the situation in New Orleans was handled as if the United States was a third world country. Not only was President Bush on vacation while learning about the disaster, but he also then after attended a birthday party, still with no action to aid New Orleans.

When the warning came about the hurricane bus service was suggested to help aid in getting as many people as possible out of the areas, which would have saved a mass amount of people. But not even, something as simple as evacuating the people of New Orleans was done. It seems their was no other reason for these simple plans of action to be ignored other than racial motivation. One way to think about the situation is, if whether President Bush had any family members living in the area would his urgency to aid the victims have changed? Would he have done more for the people? I’m sure the answer is yes, and I believe that Eliza Hubbard would agree. Even the Federal Emergency Management