How to Help the Poor in During Natural Disasters in the Guide to Enhance Risk Communication Among Low-Income Population

Prior to Katrina, New Orleans focused on a “levees only” to uphold a tight flood infrastructure system. However, Katrina was a force too powerful and destroyed these levees, affecting the communities around them. In terms of culture and race, the population of the lower socioeconomic class were pushed into poverty and driven out of their homes; to further illustrate, African Americans were a class that became the most exposed to high levels of risk and was depicted as criminals on press. On Yahoo News, two pictures have two different connotations. One says “White People ‘FIND’” and the other says “Black People ‘LOOT.’” The mainstream press coverage then views stranded whites as good citizens.

This article is written by Guy- Uriel Charles, he is a Haitian American who is a law professor at Duke Law School. He writes how the media stereotypes African Americans and Haitian Americans, as "looters". The media treats white people differently than African Americans and Haitian Americans in the event of a natural disaster, when the media sees a white woman taking something that she needs(food, clothing and etc.)they just simply describe her as," finding food at a local grocery store.", but on the other hand if an African American was seen doing the same thing they would be labeled as a "looter" someone who is stealing.

Question One: What populations are vulnerable and what resources are available for vulnerable citizens? The vulnerable populations in Houston are the low income communities (including homeless people), the elderly, people with disabilities, immigrants, and the "linguistically isolated communities…Chinese, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese speaking groups" (Nepal, et al, 2009). The St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities prepared a report on disaster preparedness for the Houston Department of Health and Human Services (Peranteau, et al, 2009). The report explains that vulnerable populations tend to be more impacted by hurricanes and other disasters than the middle class and upper middle class communities in Houston. The report state that "…Failure to address the needs of low income communities and individuals, who are disproportionately affected by natural disasters," hampers the recovery from a hurricane for all communities. "Low income communities" (i.e., vulnerable communities) are "disproportionately affected by natural disasters, and are disadvantaged again when the recovery process does not take their unique needs into account" (Peranteau, p. 3). The point of the research was to determine how best to serve this population during hurricanes and tropical storms, which are very common in Houston.

The storm unearthed weaknesses, inequalities, and prejudices that were present throughout the Gulf Coast and U.S. society long before the storm (Levitt 2). By unveiling the black poor of New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina had the potential to become a turning point that would force the United States to take another look at race and class relations in a supposedly “post-racial” and “democratic” society, spurring brand new conversation about the structural racial and classist intersections from which societal inequalities and institutionalized racism are produced. However, this hurricane did not become that turning point, and we were instead steered back to our ideological bases while we watched the unending coverage of the crisis. We were able to

The survey was not as helpful because the white and black respondents were not equal and the answers seemed to be really close when that was not the case for the interviews. Being able to hear why someone feels a certain way in these situations. Although a lot of the data from the survey somewhat matched the things that were from the interview, the interviews made a difference in the answers. The men in the white respondent group were a lot more talkative and proudly stood behind the American people. But the black men and women both did not stand behind the American people because of the things that they have been through. They go through daily struggles and they know how Americans can be. This showed me that the way that you react towards something really depends on the things that you go through in your

Following Hurricane Katrina, many people were homeless, and thought that the minorities were not being treated fairly post-hurricane. Media images that were shown from Katrina showed that nearly all those left behind to suffer and some die were black Americans. Families that were most able to afford homes in flood-protected areas and that had resources to evacuate easily suffered a great deal less than poorer families. There was not enough resources for them and they were forced to leave all of their belongings. Post-Katrina, many of the minorities were not allowed back into their homes because it was a hazard. Parts of the city was covered deep in water and thousands had been unable to evacuate, leaving them to die. As news spread fast

Hurricane Katrina struck the city of New Orleans, Louisiana on August 29th, 2005. The events that followed would leave the whole nation in shock until this day. One of the major topics of discussion after this disaster was whether or not the government's slow reaction time had anything to do with the fact that New Orleans is sixty-seven percent African American. As helicopters circled a wasteland that was once a major tourist attraction, the racism of the Deep South, thought to be extinct, proved it was only dormant. The same racism against African Americans that could be seen on Bourbon Street in the months prior to the hurricane reared its ugly head once more in Gretna, LA and was pointed out on live television by rapper Kanye West.

The article Being Poor, Black and American: The Impact of Political, Economic, and Cultural Forces written by William Julius Wilson is about the struggles and inequalities African Americans living in poverty encounter. Wilson discussed political, economic and cultural forces that have an impact on American impoverished communities. The author suggested the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina brought the media and world attention to poverty in the United States. Prior to Katrina, the author believes Americans did not focus or sympathize with poor communities. This unsympathetic attitude stems from the belief that people are poor because they did not work hard enough, or are not doing anything to get out of that situation. After Katrina, Americans started to notice and care about the impoverished communities because the hurricane was a natural disaster and out of their control. Overall, the author explains how politics, economics and cultures forced many families into poverty, and diminishes the idea that people live in poverty because of their own shortcomings.

Past research demonstrates a large racial divide in support of issues with clear racial overtones and we examine the possibility of a racial divide in reactions to Katrina using data from a national telephone survey of white and black Americans. Some find that there is a large different in racial sympthanys for the victims of Hurrican Katrina, how fast the government responded to urgency of attention for the victims, and support for proposed solutions to mend hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, verifying the racial nature of the disaster. Blacks viewed the hurricane victims more positively than did whites, drew a sharper distinction and held more sympathetic feelings for those stranded than evacuated from New Orleans, and were substantially more supportive of government efforts to improve the situation of hurricane victims and rebuild New Orleans. This racial gap is as large as any observed in recent polls, holds up even after controlling for education, income and other possible racial differences, and documents more fully differences that were hinted at in public opinion polls reported at the time of the disaster.

A modern-day study being done about the racial discrimination that was brought upon thousands of families during Hurricane Katrina is now in the limelight and takes a specific look at the way certain people perceive this notion of racism. The arguments that are being considered examine the past reports of Black and White participants regarding racial differences and their perceptions of the racial inequality following Hurricane Katrina. The participants for this investigation were asked whether or not the United States government would have provided aid and responded faster to different socio-economic and racial groups during the hurricane. According to de la Peña et al. (2010), a higher percentage of White participants said that socio-economic status is more important, while Blacks relied on race more. Additionally, more White participants believed that the slow government response effort was not influenced by race and/or socio-economic status of the victims. Although there is a contention between the two races, there is a higher percentage of agreement when concerning discrimination altogether.

Although the extent in which color blind racism surrounded Hurricane Katrina was a contributor to the relief efforts that went about helping those in need because of the pure carnage with Katrina had caused the representation also backed this up with different terminology used to portray different races in ways which made Black Americans more subordinate, which shows how colour blind racism played a hegemony part in the politics of Hurricane Katrina. From evidence gathered it can be seen in a context where the government's involvement before and after hurricane Katrina which can show and demonstrate the hegemony of color blind racism and the different dynamics which have shown the use of color blind racism. Although this approach wasn't primarily

As Hurricane Katrina ravaged the South and drowned large parts of New Orleans this past September, the ugly reality of our nation's continuing problem with class, poverty, and race became apparent. Many Americans began to question the possibility of racism being a deciding factor in the fate of many New Orleans citizens who were black and who lived in the poorest, most low-lying portion of the city, the Ninth Ward. Many, including First Lady Laura Bush, denounce critics who say race played a role in the federal government's slow response to the victims of Katrina. While it is possible that the government's slow response to the disaster was not directly due to racism, there are many unanswered questions suggesting the protection of the city

African Americans living in urban, low-income, impoverished environments are at high risk for exposure to traumatic events, and have a potential prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) due to previous and repeated trauma exposure.

In the wake of natural disasters, the minorities of America are down the pecking order in the government’s list of priorities. Specifically seen in the African-American people, the government fails to provide speedy response time, supplies and other aid, as well as providing substantial compensation for the families devastated by disasters, which could have been preventable or deterred from causing more havoc. In many cases, the African-American people were exposed to poor living conditions, living in undesirable areas, and a lack of wealth, education, and preventative warnings of oncoming disasters. This can be seen in the cases of the 1900 great hurricane of Galveston, Texas and the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave, but the greatest example of

This emergence of social media has also changed emergency management and disaster response. Emergency management as a whole is fairly new, only creating widely recognized, integrated emergency management systems beginning in the 1970s. Furthermore, at this same time people realized that the effects disasters have on the communities they strike can be mitigated by the creation of disaster plans ahead of time, proper disaster response training, and the efforts of human actions in these situations. Because social media has enabled mass amounts of instant information sharing, it allows not only locals and disaster response teams to help with the management of crises, but also many remote citizens.