Hurricane Katrina Informative Response

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating tragedies to ever hit North America. It claimed the lives of over 900 people from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Unfortunately, that is not why a majority of people in America remember. As many know, these three states in the heart of the Deep South represent some of the poorest in the country. After the storm, the government was disgracefully slow to respond to the cause. Health care was in an overwhelming shortage. Depending on where people lived, determined their chances for survival. Race and class are believed to be the main factors in determined who was put at the top of the priority list. The purpose of this essay to explain how these factors contributed to the pitiful response

28% of the respondents underestimated the intensity of the storm. This was not an uncommon idea, as silly as it might have seemed to many observers after the fact, however. Hurricanes hit the gulf coast every year. The last major storm to have imposed that level and amount of damage was during Hurricane Camille in 1969. Also, 10% of respondents were those who had been born as well as grown up in New Orleans, and probably never left, that simply did not want to leave.

Unfortunately, many Americans believed that the government would be there to render aid in the face of a natural disaster, but it was not. Almost 75% of respondents from Brodie’s survey said that response from the government was too slow following the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Six out of ten reported the experience made them feel as if the government would have responded sooner if they had been wealthy and/or white. This led to a sense of blame being placed on issues concerning race and

Many who stayed during the storm had no transportation and did not believe their properties would be safe—least of all had any sort of insurance coverage whether it was health, home-owners, wind or flood. There was a need in New Orleans at the time of the storm for better awareness of health to promote accountability for reducing health issues in lower classes. Many people felt that private and public healthcare providers along with local and national governments needed to share in responsibility of the poor care that was administered after the hurricane. In the future, if the government could find a way to improve communication about critical threats to health, then the tragedy that was Hurricane Katrina, might be helped. During the Hurricane, basic forms of communication failed which decreased early recovery efforts. This led to confusion, rumors, chaos, and an overall sense of panic within the city. Dr. Greg Henderson arrived at the Convention Center on Friday; he was the only doctor for 10,000 people. He said in an interview with TIME