![]() ![]() “Aging disaster,” the double entendre of our title, refers to several related lines of analysis. In this essay, we draw from ongoing research among Hurricane Katrina survivors from New Orleans aged 40 to 98 to examine the long-term effects of this calamity and the role that age plays in relation to disaster. Still, we are only beginning to learn about the experiences of people who survived Katrina in relation to long-term displacement and their ability to recover in the face of ongoing challenges, post disaster, based on age and race ( Adams 2009a Button and Oliver-Smith 2008 Igoe 2008 Kaiser Family Foundation 2007). These include the elderly and African Americans, groups disproportionately affected by the hurricane and its aftermath ( Kaiser Family Foundation 2007). Five years later, the most recovered neighborhoods are only 52% -72% rebuilt ( Adams 2009a), and many who have returned have succeeded only partially in adapting to new, often compromised, daily routines. 28, 2013.Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding displaced more than 455,000 people from the Greater New Orleans area ( Liu et al. Note: This is an update of a post originally published Aug. But while 70% of whites say the city has mostly recovered from Katrina, just 44% of African Americans agree. For the most part, both black and white New Orleans residents are optimistic about the city’s future. Earlier this month, the Kaiser Family Foundation and NPR released their fourth post-hurricane survey of New Orleans residents. ![]() ![]() Fewer whites experienced such strong emotions – 55% said they had been depressed and 46% angry.īlacks and whites also drew very different lessons from the disaster: Most blacks (71%) said it showed that racial inequality remained a major problem in the United States most whites (56%) said that this was not a particularly important lesson of Katrina.Ī decade after the storm hit, racial differences in attitudes about the impact of Hurricane Katrina linger. Bush did all he could to get relief efforts going quickly.įully 74% of blacks said they felt depressed by what had happened to areas affected by the hurricane nearly as many (71%) felt angry. And nearly three times as many whites (31%) as blacks (11%) said then-President George W. Just 19% of blacks rated the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina as excellent or good, compared with 41% of whites. Two-thirds (66%) said that “the government’s response to the situation would have been faster if most of the victims had been white.” Just 17% of whites agreed – most whites (77%) said the race of the victims would not have made any difference. 6-7, 2005, a week after the storm made landfall, African Americans delivered a scathing assessment of the federal government’s relief efforts. Initial reactions to the government’s response to the crisis were starkly divided along racial lines. From the start, the tragedy had a powerful racial component – images of poor, mostly black New Orleans residents stranded on rooftops and crowded amid fetid conditions in what was then the Louisiana Superdome. Ten years ago this weekend, Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on the Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,000 people (the true death toll may never be known). A man pushes his bicycle through flood waters near the Superdome in New Orleans on Aug. ![]()
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