There’s not much I can say about the Hurricane Katrina aftermath that hasn’t been shouted from the rooftops already. The way I see it there are three possible reasons this could have happened (not the storm, but the response — or lack thereof — to the storm and subsequent flooding):

1. government and emergency officials were sufficiently prepared for this but there was nothing they could have done to prevent it;
2. government and emergency officials were not sufficiently prepared…
   1. but are reacting as best they can;
   2. and reacted slower than we (the public & the media) expected because the vast majority of flood victims are poor and/or black

The first statement is obviously false; Katrina’s path over New Orleans was predicted at least 48 hours prior to it making landfall, and multiple experts had warned of the specific risks to New Orleans since 2001. Furthermore, troops and supplies have been days in reaching the city and FEMA has been proven horribly disorganized thus far.

2a might be true, but my gut tells me the truth is closer to 2b; the media, and a lot of the American public, seems to agree. Honestly, ask yourself this: what would possess the president to stay on vacation for three days during what might well end up the worst natural disaster in his country’s history, when he cut a previous vacation short based on the faint hope that a lone brain damaged white woman in Florida might actually still have cognitive ability?

I once spent three days in New Orleans. A desk clerk at the hotel expressed shock that I had run across the street for a burger, telling me, “That’s a black people’s Wendy’s.” On that day, five years ago, I was amazed at the level of racism that still exists in the south; I’m far less shocked today that it’s still alive in Washington.

I simply do not understand.