by Leila, Dana, Tenaye, Ashley, Thomas
Environmental response and relief focuses on two main points, the refugees of Hurricane Katrina that migrated to Texas and Black Houstonian’s who are experiencing their first major storm, and specific relief systems that are in place for Black neighborhoods. In our research, we attempted to answer a few core questions; How do Houstonian’s feel in regards to their treatment post-harvey? Is there anything being done for them at a government level? Why aren’t there better shelters in place in the case of emergency? Who is receiving aid? Is this aid proving adequate assistance to the community? Who is being most effected? Why?
Houstonian people who suffered through the storm aren’t being treated justly and are aware. The government officials aren’t fighting hard enough for equal opportunity for their people. Meanwhile, the victims of the storm are getting little to no help from insurance companies and relief systems. The majority of those who were given assistance were the least affected individually, but more affected regarding their physical property. However, we also discovered that according to their “privilege” of affording physical property their expected contribution was overestimated, making it more difficult to receive assistance. The most frightening part is that it is disproportionately influencing people of color people who are, in a sense, forced into undervalued and unsafe property. According to NOLA.com, more than 22,500households settled in Harris County, Texas, the home of Houston, immediately after Hurricane Katrina (Swenson, 2015). It was where most people migrated compared to any other county within that first year (Swenson, 2015). From this data, one can infer that these regions are more accessible for the affected communities; this is largely due to their wealth.
Wealth dictates who will be able to regroup following the storm of Hurricane Harvey. This simply means if you have no money, you are not getting help. In Houston, around 26 percent of black and 27 percent of Latinx residents live below the poverty line, compared to just eight percent of white residents. Areas like Rockport, Port Aransas, Victoria County’s, Lake Conroe, Port Arthur and Bridge City were affected heavily by the storm. As stated in the complex article, “17 percent of homeowners in the areas most impacted by Harvey have flood insurance, meaning the large majority of families will have to rely on the government or donations to rebuild.” Those affected heavily by the storm have no other support other than the government on fixing major issues they have to live comfortably, leaving them depending on uncertainty.
So far, 95,745 people in Texas have been approved for emergency assistance, which also includes financial help with rent, repairs and lost property. FEMA has so far disbursed about $57 million to citizens in Texas. Due to the delay of improvement until after hurricane Harvey its states “more than 121,000 survivors have already been approved for more than $83.4 million in assistance from FEMA.” This is shown to be a good enough value, but 457,000 registrations were received by FEMA. Many families have been working together to improve the situation they are in. Also Paypal loans have been sent through and account built by Roni Dean-Burren, a fellow Houston resident, where money can be sent to the app to help black women battling through Harvey. Unfortunately, loans like these aren’t as helpful as they may seem. Providing loans to women who are already in serious debt due to Harvey’s destruction may only bring more problems. Some charities that are specifically for Hurricane Harvey are Houston SPCA, Houston Humane Society, Houston Food Bank, and San Antonio Humane Society. One relief corporation, the Red Cross, was criticized for its efforts during Harvey. In what seems to be a recurrent theme, the Red Cross has had unexplained distributions of funding, a large complaint that also came out of victims of Hurricane Katrina, and was not immediate in its assistance to all victims. This lack of assistance, unfortunately, leads to generalizations about the affected areas, especially in the media, creating a gap for the ill-informed to blame the victims for a delayed reconstruction.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes with the help of Neena Satija, an investigative reporter for the Texas Tribune, investigated what made Houston particularly susceptible to a hurricane like Harvey. This report dove into how local officials were ignoring problems, like road structure and the effects of climate change, that were set to make Houston weak in a situation like Hurricane Harvey and how citizens banded together to help themselves where aid had lacked. In another interview, CNN’s Rosa Flores is speaking to an African American woman, who is clearly distraught, and urges her to comment on the situation she is going through. This take shows a more disconnect between the media portrayal of the victims of the hurricane and those who had the privilege of not experiencing it to that effect. Although both of these corporations attempted to provide a representation of what was occurring during and shortly after Harvey, they both failed to address or even acknowledge the disproportionate effect on black and poor Americans.
Harvey continues to wreak devastation on those that are confined to poor communities of color, something that was also seen in Hurricane Katrina. In Houston, poor communities of color were the most vulnerable during this destructive storm (Roberts). People in these communities had the lack of resources to evacuate, in all senses, authorities failed them. The storm was expected to make tornadoes and floods and in its path were homes inhabited by poor people of color. This is creating a comparison to be drawn between the black community in Houston and that in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina as a lot of the issues presented are about as being less fortunate in the situation that happened.
Through our research, we found an overwhelming amount of surprises. One of the most surprising things we learned were that a lot of the Hurricane Katrina refugees migrated to Houston and that a considerable amount endured the same hardship during Harvey. We found it astonishing how the communities had to wait so long for police to rescue them and that there were no systems set for better evacuation in preparation for the storm. We were especially surprised to find out that the houses and areas these people live in are knowingly prone to being flooded yet nothing is being done to close off those areas.
Unfortunately, it becomes difficult to answer exactly why there is a lack of attention to these situations. For us to truly attempt to answer this, we would have to contact Houston officials, relief boards, and the President to ask them directly. However, even in this case there are no guaranteed or straight forward answers. A lot of it comes down to systematic failures directed at our black and poor communities. It is our government’s duty to provide aid and adequate care for all of its citizens and it is their duty to work toward this goal.
References
Ellison, Charles D. “Race and Class Are the Biggest Issues Around Hurricane Harvey and WeNeed to Start Talking About Them.” The Root, Www.theroot.com, 29 Aug. 2017, www.theroot.com/race-and-class-are-the-biggest-issues-around-hurricane-1798536183.
“Hurricane Harvey and the Red Cross.” The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 15 Sept.Web.
Nigel Roberts “Houston’s Poor Black Community Among Hurricane Harvey’s Most Vulnerable Victims.” News One, News One, 28 Aug. 2017, newsone.com/3737978/houston-poor-black-community-hurricane-har
McGonigal, Chris. “These Are The Forgotten Images Of Hurricane Katrina.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 27 Aug. 2015,www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/forgotten-images-from-hurricane-katrina_us_55d36f19e4b0ab468d9e90c4.
Times-Picayune, NOLA.com The. “Hurricane Katrina Migration: Where Did People Go? Where Are They Coming from Now?” NOLA.com, 26 Aug. 2015, www.nola.com/katrina/index.ssf/2015/08/hurricane_katrina_migration_di.html.
NBCNews. “American Red Cross Fails To Pay Funds Promised To Many Hurricane Harvey Victims NBC Nightly News.” YouTube, YouTube, 19 Sept. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=D72cCXxzuF8.
Metro.co.uk, Oliver McAteer for. “Just like Katrina, Black Americans Will Be Hit Hardest by Hurricane Harvey.” Metro. N.p., 05 Sept. 2017. Web.
Msnbcleanforward. “Why Houston Wasn’t Ready For A Big Hurricane Like Harvey.” YouTube. YouTube, 28 Aug. 2017. Web.
The Storm Is Expected to Leave behind Billions of Dollars in Damages. “Businesses Donate over $157 Million to Harvey Relief Efforts.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, n.d. Web.