Poverty, distrust kept many blacks from fleeing Katrina, study finds

[nam78_two]

Link courtesy of Sapphire Blue:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.nationlede10apr10,0,2419450.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines

COLUMBIA, S.C. // Perceptions of racism and other factors influenced many black residents not to leave New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina approached, according to University of South Carolina researchers.

The study, based on the views of 53 black residents who were evacuated to Columbia after the storm, found that:

• Poverty limited transportation options, keeping in the storm's path some who might have gotten out. Some did not leave because the storm struck just before payday and they did not have the money to find a way out.

• Many thought they could ride out the storm.

• Others concluded that local officials were most concerned about white residents and their neighborhoods.

"Some stayed behind because they did not trust the authorities to look after their communities," said Keith Elder, the study's lead author.

[Selatius]

1. There was chaos in areas hit after Katrina.

The authorities even on the Mississippi coast were dysfunctional at best in the days following the storm.

If the Republicans like to bag on Blanco for not having a plan to get out the poor and insisting disaster handling is a state issue instead of a national issue for FEMA, then they should look in the mirror at Haley Barbour and his poor performance getting out the poor in Mississippi as well. Over 200 souls died in Biloxi, MS, alone when that city went under.

[KamaAina]

2. That gives Biloxi a higher per capita death toll than even New Orleans.

Over 200 souls died in Biloxi, MS, alone when that city went under.

Or, in other words, about one-eighth the number of deaths in New Orleans -- which had a pre-K population about nine times Biloxi's roughly 50,000. Q.E.D. :grr: