A green view of the Katrina disaster.

• Author: Caldwell, Jr., Robert
• Position: Biodevastation

In New Orleans violent tropical storms are routine and hurricanes are a seasonal reminder of the power of Mother Nature. Hurricane Katrina was the most awesome disaster that residents of Louisiana have ever seen. But the deadly results of Katrina were as much a product of human callousness as an act of nature. The world watched as people were stopped for searches and herded into the Superdome to find themselves in a wretched and unsanitary place with no food, water, or proper medical care.

Those in areas of heavy flooding fled to their rooftops and begged rescue helicopters to airlift them to safety. Many died trapped in their attics or waiting to be rescued. Meanwhile hundreds of police were dispatched to protect property from looters.

At least half the city is at or below sea level, including the Central Business District and much of the housing stock of the city. Under normal conditions, massive pumps drain rainwater from the city. But even under normal conditions, poor areas of the city routinely face some flooding.

Hurricane Katrina promises to be the new textbook case for urban natural disasters, social dislocation, and (lack of) urban planning. It is important to begin to examine the social dimensions of the failed policies that contributed to such a massive disaster.

Misguided priorities

New Orleans is a city underdeveloped by America's corporations. Social services are chronically underfunded while working people depend on low wage service jobs and send their kids to underfunded, dysfunctional public schools.

Despite its once-massive port, the city has, like a third-world Caribbean island, depended on low-wage labor in the tourism industry. So it may be no surprise that Bush and Congress ignored those who explained that the critical infrastructure that would prevent New Orleans from becoming inundated with floodwaters in the event of a levee break was deteriorating.

According to columnist Sidney Blumenthal, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the US. But in spite of these warnings, the Bush Administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44% to pay for the Iraq war.

Congress did authorize $10.5 billion dollars for Gulf Coast aid. In contrast, affluent Floridians received even more--$16 billion--when hurricanes hit in 2004. The biggest contrast is with the $162 billion Congress appropriated for the first year of the Iraq war.

At the time of Hurricane Katrina, almost...