Katrina Was Not a Natural Disaster—What Went Wrong in the Gulf Coast?

Hurricane Katrina will go on record as one of the worst catastrophes in American history. The heavy price paid by low-income residents and people of color in New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast revealed the policies that have concentrated poverty and deepened racial segregation for decades. Katrina was a brutal reminder that although hurricanes and similar disasters may be “natural,” who suffers, and what relief that suffering finds, reflects the public policies and private practices that have created racially and economically segregated neighborhoods. It was no accident that the poorest and blackest neighborhoods were the most vulnerable.

This Open Society Institute forum explored the political and economic roots of Katrina as an unnatural disaster and discussed democratic approaches to creating more equitable and sustainable communities. Participants included select contributors to the book There Is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster: Race, Class, and Hurricane Katrina (Routledge, 2006), co-edited by Chester Hartman and Gregory Squires, who spoke about race, gender, urban planning, and local organizing in the Gulf Coast.

Moderators

• Chester Hartman, Director of Research at the Washington, DC–based Poverty & Race Research Action Council and Adjunct Professor of Sociology at The George Washington University
• Gregory Squires, Chair of the Department of Sociology at The George Washington University

Panelists

• Hassan Kwame Jeffries, Assistant Professor in the History Department and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity at Ohio State University
• Avis Jones-DeWeever, Director of Poverty, Education & Social Justice Programs at the Washington, DC–based Institute for Women's Policy Research
• Peter Marcuse, Professor of Urban Planning at Columbia University
• Wade Rathke, Founder and Chief Organizer of New Orleans–based ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now

Susan Tucker, Director of the OSI After Prison Initiative, introduced the event.

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