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Hurricane Katrina & the Inequality of Natural Disasters Research Sheet

Instructions: Go to the links and read the articles that will help you learn more about Hurricane Katrina & the inequality of natural
disasters. As you read through the sources, fill in the graphic organizer. Then answer the What Do I Think? section at the end!

Questions I Have about the Issue

What are 2-3 questions you have about Hurricane Katrina & the inequality of natural disasters? Jot them down here.

WHAT IS MY REACTION

WHAT NEW INFORMATION DOES THIS HOW HAS THIS NEW INFORMATION
LINK TO ARTICLE SOURCE TELL ME? AIM FOR 6-7 KEY FACTS. AFFECTED MY OPINION ON THE
INEQUALITY OF NATURAL DISASTERS? IF
MY OPINION IS THE SAME, HOW HAS IT
JUSTIFIED IT?

Hurricane Katrina: A Tragic Lesson
in Racial Inequality
Mayor Ray Nagin is serving a 10 year The Great Flood was just WRONG. They don't
prison sentence for fraud matter just because they are POOR?!
In 1926 the Mississippi flooded and city
officials broke a levee protecting 10000
poor and african american residents to
save the city.
African americans have been
systematically pushed away from the city
and their jobs
1 in 4 residents are arrested in a year
Poor residents often live where they
were born and their houses are all they
have
Poor residents didn't leave because they
didn't trust city officials

Many politicians say that katrina I didn't know that Blacks were so poor in New
destroyed all divisions Orleans. Also the fact that The rescue efforts
Where Black Lives Matter Began Instead of being evacuated people were were so biased that Blacks opinion on racial
brought to a stadium but then they ran relations went down id bad
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Natural Disasters: The Rich Get
Richer and the Poor Get Poorer
New Orleans Grew More Unequal
After Hurricane Katrina: Report
out of supplies
Many Blacks think that rescue and
preparation would have been better if it
was wealthier whites
Media coverage was sometimes racially
biased
After Katrina many blackes changed
their opinion on racial relations
After Obama was elected many Blacks
said race relations had improved
Global warming is increasing the Global warming is going to be a big problem
frequency and severity of natural for coastal cities in the future. I also didn't
disasters know that Fema made it so more people left
More people moved away after major the coast.
disasters after FEMA was formed than
before.
Poverty rates increase in areas recently
hit by major disasters
People living in areas more prone to
disasters are more likely to move away
following a disaster than people in less
prone areas
Rich people can move away from
disaster prone areas leaving the less
mobile poor communities behind
After Katrina the reconstruction widened Katrina really badly affected the poor
the gap between the poor and the middle communities
class
Katrina made it harder for poor people
to get jobs
New Orleans income inequality is
second to only Altantas
Blacks are 2 times as likely to be
unemployed than whites
Rich are gettin richer
What Do I Think?
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After looking at the new information you learned about Hurricane Katrina & the inequality of natural disasters, think of your
reaction to everything you have read. Write a 2-3 paragraph op-ed (opinion editorial) to inform others about the issue of
inequality in natural disasters.What have you learned in the last week? What is your opinion on the issue?

Injustice is everywhere, in law enforcement, in many communities but the one place you dont expect to see it is in the
middle of a hurricane. But sure enough injustice played such a large role in Katrina recovery efforts, that two years after
Katrina 55% of Blacks said that race relations were somewhat good, compared with 68% a year before Katrina. This largely
stems from the mistreatment and hatred for the black communities during and after the storm. New Orleans, one of the
hardest hit major cities, has the highest income inequality, second only to Atlanta. This is in part because the poorer
communities are being systematically pushed away from the city and their jobs.
In the years up to Katrina the poor communities became less mobile. This paired with the fact that many poor residents
distrusted city officials because of past events, made it so that when the governor announced the evacuation, many poor
black residents refused to leave. Because of this, thousands of people were stranded when the levees burst and flood waters
rose. As a relief effort the city of New Orleans sent many of the survivors to the superdome stadium but it was quickly
overcrowded and undersupplied. As time progresses and the storms get stronger the inequality will just get worse as the rich
and middle class move to safer areas leaving the less mobile poor behind.