This week, August 29, 2021, marks the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the category 3 storm that put on full display America’s proclivity towards social and environmental racism. We commemorate this anniversary while anticipating another hurricane with the potential to surpass Katrina, similarly incapacitating poor Black people. We are also mourning the millions of people — the majority of them poor, disabled, Black, and/or otherwise marginalized — that have suffered or died due to the mismanagement of and capitalist exploitation throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In both cases, it is abundantly clear that America has and will always desert working-class, Black, and disabled people when the effects of white supremacist capitalism turn deadly. 

HURRICANE KATRINA

Hurricane Katrina is considered the third deadliest hurricane in U.S. history based solely on the number of people that died—more than 1800. It’s also the most expensive because the repairs — which remain incomplete — cost around $108 billion. Neither of these numbers accounts for the abject failure of the U.S. government to care for its people in the wake of one of the worst hurricanes of the last century. As Louisiana prepares for Hurricane Ida — a category 4 storm — poor, elderly, and disabled Black people face similar or worse circumstances, with many lacking access to cars or other means of evacuation. 

LATE EVACUATIONS

One of the first ways that the United States government failed the people of New Orleans in 2005 was in its refusal to evacuate people in a timely manner. A few days before Katrina flooded 80% of New Orleans, the then-governor of Louisiana called a state of emergency which was ignored for more than 24 hours by U.S. President George W. Bush, who was actually on vacation. What happened next was a devastating storm that tore through Mississippi and New Orleans infrastructure, killed over 1,800 people, destroyed over 800,000 homes, and left countless others houseless and without transportation out of the flood zones.

SHODDY CONSTRUCTION 

Another way the government left its people to die was through the construction and ultimate failure of the levees meant to protect folks from the kind of devastation that Katrina brought. According to a 2006 report, the levees were rendered useless by the floods because they were poorly-built. This was not the result of inexperienced engineers or unfamiliarity, but because New Orleans officials cut corners in order to cut costs.

LEFT BEHIND

In the days and weeks following the hurricane, neither the local nor federal government showed up for low-income, largely Black people without access to a car or other transportation out of SE Louisiana. Thousands of people were left for dead by a system that pushed them to the margins of society and then failed to provide transportation and other resources to help them evacuate in time. When aid did arrive, leaders were found to be incompetent and aid was totally insufficient.

HUNTED AND KILLED

Worst of all, in the weeks following Katrina mobs of white people hunted and assassinated Black people in an attempt to keep them from seeking refuge within the gated communities that weren’t destroyed, ones that white residents barricaded with fallen trees and guarded with assault weapons. New Orleans police officers went on manhunts of Black people, killing 10 people within the first week after Katrina hit. One group of cops commandeered a moving truck, rolled up on a group of unarmed Black people evacuating under a highway, and unleashed fire, killing two people. We have no idea the number of Black people that were murdered in the months following Katrina because local law enforcement did nothing to protect them and barely any one reported on it.

COVID-19

The same callous disrespect for Black life displayed in the wake of Katrina, a climate crisis, was perpetrated in the response to the COVID-19 health crisis. Throughout the pandemic — which has now killed over 630,000 people in the U.S. and 4 million globally — the government has not only failed to show up for working class Black people. They have disregarded our lives at every turn. 

During these moments of crisis when all of us — especially those living on the margins — are vulnerable to the circumstances beyond our control, is when the government is supposed to show up to protect human life and the common good. From Katrina to COVID-19, we see countless examples of the U.S. government willfully ignoring its responsibility to its citizens. And what’s worse, power hungry politicians often use these moments of destruction and chaos to further criminalize and exploit Black people, just to make a profit. From building cancerous factories, dangerous pipelines, and chemical plants in areas where poor, Black, brown, and Indigenous people live, to deserting us when natural disasters hit, to forcing working class people to work during the height of a pandemic simply to preserve the economy—America has shown that they will risk our lives to maintain the system of white supremacy. 

As we remember all that we lost due to Katrina, continue to try to survive this health pandemic and prepare for another devastating gulf coast storm, the truth that “we all we got” has never been more salient. We must love and protect each other. Give to mutual aid funds NOT THE RED CROSS. Look for care drives in your community and listen to community leaders in affected areas to understand the best ways to support.