BlackPerspective.net
Discussing the Diaspora as seen through an internal Black lens
On Three Year Anniversary of Katrina: Hurricane Gustav Threatens Louisiana Coast
August 29th, 2008
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In a post I wrote one year ago today called “The Gulf Coast After Katrina: A Study In Disparities and Deferential Treatment” I noted that:
Katrina has highlighted many disparities, both micro and macro; which are racial, social and economic.
On the micro level, prisoners where left to wallow in flood waters in prisons; even minors. Elderly in nursing homes, who were of no particular means, were left to drown. And those who couldn’t afford transportation and or lodging if they were to leave; were left to fend for themselves - and for the most part those same type of people still are. My personal visit to the Lower 9th Ward, as documented in “Katrina Nearly Two Years Later” makes me certain of that.
Not much has changed in another year. Well, except, the uncle I wrote about living in a trailer in his front yard has moved back into house.
Same can’t be said for a lot of Mississippi residents as today Mississippi’s Governor has called for Katrina victims living in trailers on Mississippi’s coast should evacuate
See photos that I took in OceanSprins/Boloxi MS and New Orleans last summer of some of the recovery and some of the remaining destruction: Pictures From The Gulf Coast
An Update from this morning on the hurricane, as well as Katrina Anniversary:
Potentially devastating storm threatened to target the Gulf Coast city.
By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
Last Updated: 7:17AM BST 28 Aug 2008
In Washington, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials stepped up preparations as forecasters predicted Tropical Storm Gustav could build into a major hurricane and plot a path similar to that of Katrina in 2005.
Gustav reached hurricane strength on Tuesday before losing power over Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where it triggered flooding and landslides that killed 23 people.
But meteorologists warned of “rapid intensification” as it travelled over water with the storm possibly building to a category three hurricane before striking somewhere from the Florida Panhandle to Texas on Monday. They said everyone in the area should be on alert.
“We know it’s going to head into the Gulf. After that, we’re not sure,” said Rebecca Waddington, of the National Hurricane Centre in Miami. “For that reason, everyone in the Gulf needs to be monitoring the storm.”
Officials in New Orleans, ever conscious of the fiercely criticised, mismanaged response to Katrina, laid plans for mandatory evacuations and a city-wide lock down as they braced for the first real test of infrastructure rebuilt in the wake of the ravaging three years ago…
In the hope of avoiding another Katrina-style catastrophe, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal put 3,000 National Guard troops on standby and declared a state of emergency to lay the groundwork for federal assistance.
Although the Army Corps of Engineers has spent billions of dollars improving the levee system that protects New Orleans, the new flood walls have not been tested given the quiet hurricane seasons of 2006 and 2007.
The strengthened system will protect against a 30-year storm, said Robert Turner Jr., the regional levee director. But Katrina was a 396-year storm.
Officials are taking no chances. A mandatory evacuation order will be issued if a Category three or stronger hurricane comes within 60 hours of the city and transport will be laid on to get people out of the city.
“Everyone will be getting out,” New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, who said he would leave the Democratic National Convention in Denver and return home, told CNN. “There’s buses, there’s drivers, there’s planes, there’s trains. There’s a whole different strategy for getting people out, starting with the people who have special medical needs.”
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Yobachi Boswell is creator and publisher of BlackPerspecitve.net. I’m a writer, activist and political watcher based in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve also been know to do some spoken word and MCing in my day.
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