Are the People of New Orleans More Important Than Everyone Else?
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Anyone that watched the coverage of Hurricane Gustav can agree that the coverage was focused on New Orleans.
Upon Hurricane Gustav’s approaching, I was watching a weather reporter on The Weather Channel. He was discussing possible landfall locations while pointing on a map of Louisiana. He actually had the audacity to say that he hoped the path would continue to track more westerly, not hit New Orleans, but instead hit at another area of Louisiana that he pointed to on the map. I could not believe that the reporter actually hoped it would hit one town over another. The callousness with which he said this was as if the homes and lives are of less value just because they don’t live in New Orleans. I have to wonder why New Orleans is so special compared to the residents of whatever area he was pointing to on the map.
I really don’t know why this would surprise me. I live in Mississippi and despite Hurricane Katrina leveling the Mississippi gulf coast and actually making land fall in Mississippi, the news focused 90% of their reports on the levees in New Orleans. Still, to this day when people talk about Katrina they correlate it with New Orleans. They do this even though the destruction in New Orleans was not a direct result of natural disaster, but rather the cities own ineptness.
I watched over the weekend as thousands were evacuated from New Orleans via government funded busses. I saw multiple interviews with New Orleans residents while the evacuation was getting started. They were asked if they were worried about evacuating, if they would evacuate, and what they thought would be different since Katrina? One woman said that they (the government) learned they were going to have to come in there and get them out. She went on to say how they (the government) needed to be more organized and get busses in there. She was interviewed in front of her home with a car sitting in the yard. I am perturbed at the special treatment New Orleans receives. Hurricane Gustav made land fall near Homa, LA. Yet, those people did not have busses lined up to evacuate them. They either evacuated themselves, went to a shelter, or stayed in their home. People in Florida receive more landfalls from hurricanes than any other US state. Again, they are not evacuated with government funded buses. They are expected to evacuate on their own. They are warned to leave and if they don’t, then they know that they are own their own. They are not on roofs screaming that it is everyone’s else’s responsibility to come save them. So, why in New Orleans, is this acceptable? The only people that the government has a responsibility to are those that are handicapped and truly unable to evacuate themselves. It is not the governments responsibility to evacuate able bodied and minded individuals.
Many may argue the underprivileged factor in New Orleans. However, Mississippi is the poorest state in the union. I live pay check to pay check but, I still had to find my own means to evacuate. Metro areas in Florida have homeless and underprivileged abounding too, and they still have to find their own way to evade natural disasters. Either the government needs to send busses to all locations that need evacuating or none. There is no means to justify valuing New Orleans residents more than all other areas.
Now, after Gustav’s landfall the media is still focused on New Orleans. There has been little more than the occasional mention of Homa, Grand Isle, etc.. – you know where the eye came on land and the worst destruction was at. Three fourths of the coverage is on New Orleans and whether or not the levees will hold. I guess the 15 ft storm surge in Gulfport, MS that flooded homes or that western Louisiana has roofs blown off is not news worthy. But, hey we are getting minute to minute coverage of the levees in New Orleans and all the tax payer busses that hauled people out.
7 Comments
Thanks for sharing this. Take care!
I applaud you for this, much needed article. To bring this to light to the rest of the world. I too am from Ms. and if we get evacuated, we do it all by ourselves, in our own vehicle, if we have one.
Thanks again, I truly am glad to see attention being brought to someone besides New Orleans.
Thanks for the comment on my article. Yes, it seems you and I think alike. Great article, I have passed it on to friends.
I’m with you on this. The residents of New Orleans have chosen to live there. They were aware that the city resides below sea level. If they already knew that, why would they even be surprised when the whole town is under water.
There are hundreds of cities around the globe that experience flooding on a regular basis and much more extreme than what Katrina did.
This is not to say that I don’t feel bad about the situation, I’m just smart enough not to live there.
And where are the people of New Orleans supposed to go? A vast majority of them are below the poverty line with no means of picking up their stuff and spending money on travel and a new domicile. And let’s say they did have the money to leave, what exactly would they do with their previous residence? Sell it? As if someone’s going to buy or rent a place in New Orleans after all that’s been going on. If you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, what kind of choice do you really have?
Not to mention that the media is being much nicer to New Orleans these days after the debauchery that was the evacuation before and after Katrina.
Ursula, I agree that a lot of people live in situations where it is hard to find a way to just pack up and go. I am one of them. My situation leaves me in a pay check to pay check situation and my daughters handicap has left us over 100k dollars in debt with a 30k income. However, where there is a will there is a way. I needed 31k dollars to get my child a biopsy. I had $224.00 to my name. I got out and begged, borrowed, cleaned houses with her right beside me in a wheelchair, collected cans on the side of road, baked cookies and forced every person going into Wal-mart to buy them, sold all but five pairs of my clothes, I studded out my dog, I stole scrap metal from the side of the road and turned it in for cash, my husband took two full time jobs and one part time job for three months, etc…. In three months I had that 31k and she got her biopsy. My point is that if they want to leave they can….they just don’t want to. It was hard for me as an educated woman to stoop and do things so demeaning, but I needed something and was going to do anything I had to do.
I agree. I believe the focus on New Orleans was race oriented. Sure, there are poor areas in and around New Orleans. There are poor areas in and around every city. What iritates me is when a hurricane is on its way – the storm is tracked for days. Residents of NO new full on what was brewing in the gulf, were given scenarios of what could/would happen. Katrina was not like a tornado that appears out of nowhere. For people that did not evacuate I do not feel sorry for – unless they were elderly and homebound, then that is an entirely different situation all together.