The images that come to mind for most Americans of Hurricane Katrina are many and varied. Whether it is the helicopters rescuing people off their rooftops, residents wading through the flooded city in search of shelter or then-President George W. Bush looking down on the city as he flew over, the photos and video only illustrate part of the situation New Orleanians and other residents along the storm’s path had to endure.
For those who experienced it firsthand, the memories of the storm are much more visceral: the smell of contaminated, stagnant waters in the wake of the levee breaches, the heat of a subtropical city with no power and no place to find respite.
But what those experiences imparted to those who lived them were lessons. As a nation, we beefed up our storm response and preparation. We learned that those who do not have the resources to jump into their car and check into a hotel in a city hundreds of miles away need additional help and guidance.
Above all, we learned that the same biases that affect us in our everyday lives are at play during an emergency, except with a vengeance — and without a safety net.
LaShawn Warren, the chief policy officer for the Southern Poverty Law Center, has written an opinion piece for Verite News, a nonprofit news source in New Orleans. In it, she highlights some of the lessons learned from our experiences during Katrina — and how much of that knowledge we are in danger of losing in the current political environment.
“To elected officials who stubbornly refuse to acknowledge that Katrina was as much a man-made disaster as it was a natural disaster, perhaps a reminder of the lessons we’ve learned over the past two decades is in order,” Warren writes.
To read Warren’s full op-ed on VeriteNews.com, click here.
Image at top: In a photo from Aug. 29, 2010, New Orleans resident Tank Ball stands near a levee wall in the city’s Lower Ninth Ward during a service to remember the victims of Hurricane Katrina, on the fifth anniversary of the hurricane making landfall. (Credit: Rod Lamkey Jr./AFP via Getty Images)