The Poor Didn’t Get Out in Time
By Montag | Related entries in Environment, Hurricane Katrina, Media
There is an article on Slate today about the apparent reticence in the television media with regard to the race and class status of those who weren’t able to evacuate before Katrina struck.
…I don’t recall any reporter exploring the class issue directly by getting a paycheck-to-paycheck victim to explain that he couldn’t risk leaving because if he lost his furniture and appliances, his pots and pans, his bedding and clothes, to Katrina or looters, he’d have no way to replace them. No insurance, no stable, large extended family that could lend him cash to get back on his feet, no middle-class job to return to after the storm.
Indeed, a story that deserves to be told.
Embedded in the story is an interesting link to a 2002 five-part series from New Orleans’ Times-Picayune entitled Washing Away, on the dangers posed by a major hurricane hitting South Louisiana. Here: Washing Away
One of the concerns raised in that five-parter; quoting from the Slate article:
…the city’s 100,000 residents without private transportation were likely to be stranded by a big storm. In other words, what’s happening is what was expected to happen: The poor didn’t get out in time.
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 1st, 2005 and is filed under Environment, Hurricane Katrina, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
