Understanding Disaster Vulnerability: Floods and Hurricanes

Last week we learnt of the damages natural disasters are capable of inflicting and the repercussions it can have for citizens living in the afflicted area, specifically when it came to the case of Hurricane Katrina. I found Allison and Stephanie's presentation to be very informative and they did a good job of bringing this point the surface. I had no idea hurricanes could potentially be so powerful...1 000 000 nuclear bombs?! What?! The video did a good job of showing what the reason for a lot of the damage done was, the levies, as well as what happened after...or didn't happen. It really does seem as though "the city" is trying to extinguish residents in places like The Lower Ninth Ward as there has been ample time do provide them with some sort of worthwhile assistance and 2 and a half years later, it's pretty clear by the current conditions that this type of assistance hasn't been sent. To me, if this is case, the question of whether it's a coincidence that most of the residents are of black descent comes up. I would like to hope it would be. However, I remember hearing in class about the possibility of turning this area into a tourist area in the future with casinos and hotels. All I would say to this person is, "This sounds like a good motive from an economic standpoint but it would seem like sometimes when you see things purely in this way, you fail to include human lives into the equation and when this happens it makes it seem like you put a value on life and assume you're worth more than others. This may not be true, but you see the logic."
However you look at it, there is no excuse for letting a whole group of people live in the conditions they are in in some of New Orleans when you have the power to easily save them.