Hurricane Katrina reveals New Orleans

Everyone loves New Orleans. It is the fifty-four largest cities in the United States five hundred years ago, but the fifth largest city two hundred years ago, but it occupies more people in the heart of the nation than for example, Arlington, Texas or Mesa, Arizona. There is food, community, music, historic buildings, the Mississippi River, Carnival. But the love for New Orleans is the opposite of the cold, rational statistics story. It ranks close in measures such as poverty, murder and employment.

None of these are new. If a man proposes a New Orleans origin story like today, it may have begun in 1795, when a grower named Jeanétienne de Boré held a public demonstration to prove that he could grow and process sugar cane sugar on his plantation, which is located in what is now Audubon Park – throwing a place where I grew up from the stones in mine. This was during the years of the Haitian Revolution, which made the future of slavery in the Caribbean look uncertain. Deborre’s demonstrations sparked a sugar production boom in southern Louisiana’s plantation. Within a few years, as part of the U.S.’s new acquisition, New Orleans is becoming the country’s leading market for human trading.

In New Orleans, this history has always been human, but perhaps the most visible Hurricane Katrina,occur Twenty years ago This week. Two documentary series for anniversary – Traci Curry’s “Katrina: Match against Time”, Geeta Gandbhir, Samantha Knowles and Spike Lee’s “Katrina: Hurricane Katrina: Come to Hell and High Water” – not only suffer from painful pain, but also exhibit painful pain, and not the attitude towards it like something new or different. Both series recreate the week’s daily details with testimony from a group of eloquent witnesses. They vividly remind us of what we already know: except General Russel Honoré, head of military relief work, public officials, mayors, governors, presidents, heads of the Federal Emergency Management Agency –It turns out to be incompetent. Flood protection in New Orleans is completely inadequate. It was too late to evacuate the city. After the storm, the attempt to rescue people trapped at home and take them out of town was slow.

Both documentaries show that Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans’ story is about race. New Orleans’ subtropical swamp sites make it prone to repeated catastrophes, and these catastrophes periodically lead to large-scale displacement of black people. “high tide,” John Barry’s book on the Mississippi River flooding in 1927, remembers an earlier example. The worst-sinking neighborhoods after Hurricane Katrina were neighborhoods built in the 20th century, when the city built a pumping system that was supposed to keep its lower-rise areas, many of which were black neighborhoods.

In the days after the storm, thousands of refugees, the vast majority of blacks, were stuck in Louisiana’s supergiant, the Ernest N. Morrill Morrill Convention Center and the elevated areas of the local highway. In the week after the storm, white observers (including documentary reminders, members of the state media) often expressed suspicion that these crowds would inevitably steal, violent and revenge. This sentiment also has deep roots in Louisiana, dating back to the era of slave uprisings, which were later carried out during the reconstruction process, and whites often chose to see it as a “riot” that required violence, was often murdered, and often dispersed.

Racial injustice is not the only reason for the catastrophic consequences of Hurricane Katrina. The storm clearly shows that New Orleans anomalies are susceptible to general system failures. Hurricane Katrina is not a serious hurricane in world history, but it caused New Orleans to stop functioning almost entirely for months: almost everyone in all backgrounds had to leave town. Flood Control – The idea of ​​a disaster happening simply because of a trench break–is too narrow to fully explain Hurricane Katrina. The storm shows that it is a vulnerability, which is a vulnerability to extract the economy. From the days of plantation slavery, New Orleans and its surrounding areas had no strong motivation to develop a large number of middle-class or high-function institutions, which never happened compared to most American cities. Low-skilled industries such as sugar, then oil and chemicals, then tourism – now sugar has disappeared, but others, along with the port, still powering the local private economy – seem to provide what Louisiana needs. Local politics are historically corrupt and hostile to the participation of the federal government. Only one of the thousands of companies in the country is headquartered in New Orleans. A large number of rebuilding of embankments Prevent catastrophic flooding In 2021, the power in some areas has been exhausted for weeks and the streets are filled with months of uncollected debris. Most American places are better than New Orleans’ jobs.

The city’s population peaked in 1960, nearly 68,000. Today, that’s more than half of it. More than 250,000 people have relocated after Hurricane Katrina, and the city continues to see a long-term, slow, steady population decline. Community, e.g. Lower Nine Districtsthe area with the worst storms is still full of clearings. After Hurricane Katrina’s directness, it seems that every kind-hearted national organization has committed to helping for the long term. Shortly after the flood, the wave retreated again. The smaller-scale movement of community organizers, artists, writers, musicians and chefs into the city is more durable and has achieved many achievements – most of the best restaurants in New Orleans, some of its most active neighborhoods are the fruits of Hurricane Katrina – but it hasn’t changed the over-the-scenes situation in the city. New Orleans is one of the declining cities in which local universities and hospitals are one of the largest employers. In this place, you are more likely to be asked who your employees are than your life. Its purpose is for your heart and not your head. Must visit. New Orleans needs you. But don’t deceive yourself, because the city’s undeniable magic represents the level of its citizens’ health. ♦