Blog Category: Politics and Media

Author's Name: Robert Nelson Vance
Author's Email: Email Contact Form
Author's Website: http://robertnelsonvance.com/

Hurricane Katrina was no doubt one of this countries most devastating natural disasters and I feel nothing sympathy for the countless individuals who were displaced and lost everything. But something's been bothering me and I just need to get it off my chest.

There have since been a number of other natural disasters that have been almost as significant, or as significant as the Katrina disaster. What amazes me is that they don't make the headlines in the news the way the Katrina victims had and still do occasionally. The reason for this is clear - the demographic that was affected by Katrina most was low income African Americans. This is unfortunate I admit. I mean, if it were rich people who could afford to evacuate and escape death, or able to just rebuild their homes after they were destroyed, we'd be talking about a completely different issue. But it was mainly impovrished black folks who had to bear the brunt of it.

While I am neither African American or considered low income and would therefore hate to presume I could even begin to imagine how life would be for me under similar circumstances, I can associate based on others experiences where I have witnessed or been involved in first hand. I went to college at a university that lies on the outskirts of the Appalachian Mountains. Athens County, where Ohio University is located, and the surrounding counties are some of the most impoverished areas in the state of Ohio. The hometowns of most of my friends and many of the individuals who were around me were located in these areas. One of my best friends throughout college came from a home in Meigs County that was only 800 square feet, where he slept on the sofa in the living room, and his sister slept in his mom's room (the only bedroom). They live(d) near the Ohio River which flooded up to their front porch every few years and ruined most of their neighbors homes most big floods. The only reason this friend was even in college was because of the extreme generosity of a number of grant/scholarship providers. Despite my average middle class wasp happy-go-lucky life, I understand how bad things can be for people.

What I am getting to is that it really kinda aggravates me that Katrina received and still receives soo much attention, while these other fine people affected by more recent disasters hardly make the news for a weekend, most recently, the flood victims of the past couple week's horrible flooding. The water in a lot of areas has still not receded. I just wish they were show just attention as well. All we see on TV of the flooding from this spring are a couple b-roll video clips of a few flooded streets. Where's the heart wrenching stories of the individuals whose home were washed away? Where's FEMA during this disaster?

People who live in New Orleans know they live in a hurricane prone area. The people of New Orleans knew their dikes were old and wouldn't hold up to the larger and larger hurricanes that they have been hit by each year. Did they decide to raise their local taxes and have the city or state reinforce dikes, nope. I don't want to sound like I am saying the people of New Orleans deserved what they got, but the people in Minnesota, for example, didn't deserve what they got either.

How about some equality in media coverage. How about some equality in government assistance. How about some equality from other human beings.

How can you help?

• Donate to the Red Cross
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Flooding Resources

• National Weather Service Flood Safety
• National Weather Service Weather Warnings
• National Flood Insurance Program
• Federal Emergency Management Agency
• Federal Disaster Declarations RSS Feed
• Weather Underground Weather Center