Hurricane Katrina

This article, though length, gives a good analysis of the reaction and suffering for some of the African-Americans who were effected by Hurricane Katrina. It tries to look at the situation from all angles, and come to a conclusion about why certain measures where not in place, and if they were then why they were not enacted. The hurricane devastated much of New Orleans, leaving many of the population, for which is heavily black, with no were to go to escape the carnage.

The report finds in its conclusion that showed 'that a combination of poverty and perceptions of racism and inequities influenced African Americans to not evacuate, even after reaching the stage of high threat perception.' If the government and local officials had reacted quicker to the threat, and later when getting people to safety, it seems to me that many lives could have been saved. I do not believe that race had a dominant factor in reactions by officials, it may have been underlying in a minority, but the speed and extent of the damage meant that by the time everything was in place, it was to late for most.