Documentary Analysis: The Effects Of Hurricane Katrina

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The Effects of Hurricane Katrina On August 29, 2005, a category five hurricane hit the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. History.com states that New Orleans, Louisiana had the greatest threat from Hurricane Katrina because the city was at least six feet below sea-level. Levees and dams were built to contain miscellaneous rivers, lakes, and swamps from flooding the wards below. All of the news stations warning the residents of flooding and the dangerous effects this hurricane would bring could have predicted that the levees were going to break (History.com, 2009). In the documentary “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Parts” by director Spike Lee, Gina Montana, a resident of the Mid City of New Orleans, …show more content…
This is just one of the reasons why most of the areas greatly affected by Hurricane Katrina depicted this natural disaster as a social class and race issue. Before we discuss the effects on policy and race this hurricane brought to light, we must talk about the local and state governments’ efforts to aid and protect these people affected by the hurricane. The mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, issued a mandatory evacuation for the city of New Orleans a day before the hurricane hit, but most of the people couldn’t leave (ThinkProgress.org, 2005). Marc Morial, the former mayor of New Orleans from 1994-2002, states “I think there is one agency we should single out for a job well done and that’s the United States Coast Guard.” Morial then goes into detail about how the United States Coast Guard was there the day after the hurricane with helicopters rescuing people from rooftops. This was not the case for other governmental agencies that were supposed to help. Many residents that were interviewed in the “When the Levees Broke” documentary had a strong disgust with how little help they were receiving by the federal government. The biggest agency under attack was FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). Three days after the hurricane …show more content…
The biggest change was the response of George W. Bush. As Reid Wilson of MorningConsult.com says, Bush made a much greater effort when 9/11 occurred than he made when Katrina hit. The man who stood in the rubble of the twin towers was now only flying over the aftermath of Katrina with little to no help coming their way. This led to a mass majority of African American people and minorities to lose trust in President Bush. This situation went from a natural disaster to our President not caring that poor people in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama were dying let alone barely surviving. Wilson also goes into detail about how local officials weren’t doing as much as they could either. Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana, relied only on the federal government’s aid. She didn’t set forth her own efforts to help her people. Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi, on the other hand was out in her cities helping people for days after the storm (Wilson,
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