Katrina

Katrina, the messenger of race discrimination?!

*New Orleans
New Orleans is the land which is placed below sea level, bordered by the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain.





*Preparation
Assuming the chance that New Orleans can be under water, two days of warning was not enough for people and government to prepare for the happening. It was obvious that people will need drinking water, clothes, shelters, food, and so on, but the nation underestimated the power of Katrina.





*Aftermath/ Results
Extremely powerful Katrina hit New Orleans, and everyone lost their mind because of the unexpected strength. Not only people in the Big Easy, but also all the people in Louisiana shocked and flight to the secure places wishing their sweet ghettos’ safety. Unknown amount of people lost their homes, families, relatives, properties, etc, and it took more than 4 days for government to provide public toilets, drinking waters, electricity, food, etc. Experts assume that complete drainage will take more than 80 days, and complete recovery of the city will take more than 10 years.

*Problems
When a natural disaster comes, visible thing that people have been making for their safety, benefits, lives are destroyed first such as houses, hospitals, buildings. After that, invisible things break down like law, order, manner, and so on. People loot, rape, robs to make their lives, and for them, their satisfaction comes first than anything else.
When the disaster happened, I thought about 9/11. Compare to Katrina disaster, 9/11 was a disaster that is an unexpected attacking by people, targeting to kill people, and people from enormous countries passed away, but restoration and aids were pretty fast. Katrina disaster occurred by expected natural power, most of the victims are residents, and aids were not fast enough and satisfied enough. I saw lots of pictures of victims, and it was hard to find white people or other races on the picture. From there, discrimination controversy comes out. As a non-American person, I met many people who ignore blacks, Asians, Mexicans, and so on, and at this point, I can’t tear this thought away actually. Will it be the same if most of the residents are white people? I know that I cannot get the answer to this question, but I put charge on the US government about late aids, late actions, and late preparation. If the government cared about the people more carefully, then the damage of "people" might not be this huge.