Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina, a Category 3 hurricane, made landfall south of Buras in Plaquemides Parish, Louisiana, during the early hours of August 29, 2005. Four days earlier, it had made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane north of Miami, Florida. It affected an area of 108,456 square miles in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. In New Orleans, the levees at the 17th Street Canal, the London Avenue Canal, and the Industrial Canal breached, flooding the city. The social impacts associated with the storm surge and flooding caused by Katrina were truly catastrophic—more than 1,800 dead, thousands injured and missing, close to 700,000 left homeless, approximately

800,000 displaced throughout the United States, with total damages estimated at $34.4 billion. Particularly noteworthy, and not lost on the international audience watching the media, was the particularly devastating impact this disaster had on the poor and people of color.

On August 28, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin ordered the forced evacuation of the city, and more than 1 million people left. However, approximately 150,000 people, most of them poor, minorities, and the elderly, could not leave the city and were the main category of victims caused by the flooding in the city. The general poverty rate in all storm-damaged areas was 20.7% (and approximately 30.0% for children)—much higher than the national average of 12.4%. In affected areas of Louisiana, the poverty rate was 21.4%. The labor force participation for men 25 to 64 years of age was 77% as compared with 82% nationwide; for male youth, it was 55% as compared with 65% nationwide. Particularly vulnerable were disabled elderly minority populations; approximately 48% of all persons age 65 [Page 666]years or older living in Katrina-affected areas reported having disabilities. In sum, the population victimized by Katrina had much vulnerability that rendered them less capable of responding to and recovering from the effects of the storm.

Hurricane Katrina victims. More than 140 evacuees from New Orleans, victims of flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina, fly to Austin, Texas, in a cargo plane (August 2005). There, they were given food, fresh water, and a place to sleep. Hurricane Katrina's impact on minority populations in many respects coincides with literature established in the social sciences regarding disasters, which suggests several ways that racial, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status shape the experiences of at-risk populations and disaster victims.

Source: U.S. Air Force photo by Neil Senkowski.

The challenge produced by Katrina is a matter of national interest not only because of the sheer catastrophic scale of its immediate and short-range effects but also because, like no other previous disaster, it illustrated the failure of the current public administration to manage emergencies and the lingering effect and power of social stratification and cultural practices in increasing the risks of disasters. It also mocked the often-repeated mantra heard after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, that the newly created U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had improved the security of the country. Katrina and its aftermath generated a great deal of soul searching. Most of it reflected a technical, tactical approach to the enormous problems that Katrina uncovered rather than a strategic assessment of what needs to change in the society and culture of the United States to mitigate the effects of hazards and to increase the resilience of the institutions of the society.

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