HURRICANE KATRINA: A CASE OF SOCIAL VULNERABILITY

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HURRICANE KATRINAA CASE OF SOCIAL VULNERABILITY
DR. BETTY HEARN MORROW
Seminar on Inequalities, Flooding and Water
Resources University of Surrey,
Guildford October 25, 2006
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LOCATION
HURRICANE VULNERABILITY
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LOCATION
HURRICANE VULNERABILITY
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
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176 year old house in the Ninth Ward
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LOCATION
HURRICANE VULNERABILITY
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
SOCIAL FACTORS
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SOCIAL VULNERABILITY AT COMMUNITY LEVEL
Hazards disasters through human decisions

• Patterns of coastal development
• New Orleans below sea level
• Levees allowed more development
• Exploitation of natural environment
• Oil drilling caused land to sink
• Drainage pumping caused land to sink further
• Loss of wetlands

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SOCIAL VULNERABILITY AT COMMUNITY LEVEL
Social, Political and Economic Status

• Economic decline
• Tourism - low paying jobs
• Decaying infrastructure
• High poverty level
• Lack of political power
• Ineffective local government
• Low status within state and federal government
• Lack of social power
• African American majority
• Inadequate educational and social services

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SOCIAL VULNERABILITY AT THE HOUSEHOLD LEVEL

• Marginal land marginal housing more damage
• Renters with no control over maintenance and
  mitigation
• Poor insurance coverage
• Inadequate economic and material resources

• Less access to disaster-related resources
• Little or no political power
• Racial and ethnic discrimination
• Cultural differences

• Physical and mental limitations
• Illiteracy or lack of language proficiency
• Lack of knowledge and/or prior disaster
  experience
• Low household ratio of productive adults to
  dependents

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Pre-Katrina New Orleans

• Population around 440,000
• 67 black or African American
• 30 below poverty level
• Per capita income of blacks 20,000 less
• 53 renters
• 11 over age 65
• 22 households with someone over 65 yrs
• 20 with disabilities
• 55 adults female
• 18 female-headed household w/children
• 30 person living alone

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NEW ORLEANS EVACUATION

• Mandatory evacuation called the day before
• 80 left (a U.S. record)
• 130,000 without cars
• Many without funds for trip
• Many with no place to go
• Past history minimized the risk

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100-125 mph winds 920 mb central pressure 3rd
most intense landfall
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• 80 flooded
• 15-20 feet of water

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KATRINAS TOLL

• 1100 direct deaths in New Orleans
• 100 in hospitals or nursing homes
• 142,000 units lost in New Orleans
• 80 were affordable to low income families
• Mostly rental units
• Estimated losses of 81 billion
• Over 250,000 from N.O. remain dislocated

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NEW ORLEANS 14 MONTHS POST-KATRINA

• Population 187,000
• 60 of white population has returned
• 26 of black population is back
• 3 out of 4 blacks have not made it home
• Many areas still untouched
• No public schools - few Charter schools

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KEY ISSUES
Why were vulnerable residents abandoned?
Is safety a basic human right rather than
something purchased in the marketplace?
Whose city will New Orleans be?
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• Dr. Betty Hearn Morrow
• Professor Emeritus
• Florida International University
• Consulting Sociologist
• SocResearch Miami
• 8215 SW 140 Avenue
• Miami, FL 33183
• betty_at_bmorrow.com