Hurricane Katrina and the Fall of the Big Easy

In the days and nights following the landfall of Hurricane Katrina, America lost a city of enormous cultural and economic value, and the impact will be felt for years to come. New Orleans was a cultural epicenter for our country. It was the birthplace of jazz music as it’s nickname “The Big Easy” implies how easy it was for musicians to find work in the city during the jazz era. New Orleans was also a major battleground in the fight to integrate the public school system and to rid our nation of segregated schools. With such a rich history it is easy to place the entire city of New Orleans under the category of a national landmark. Yet as hurricane Katrina fell upon the city suddenly it was all lost, in one swift blow the city was left in shambles. Was this some inevitable act of god or is there a deeper story that has yet to be told? When we examine the facts and statistics it becomes more and more evident that the loss of life and the hardship that was felt by so many Americans could have been greatly reduced if not entirely avoided. The truth is that New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen, the response to the Hurricane was grossly inadequate and an examination of the city’s demographics shows the real value of an impoverished life to the officials that run our government.

The geographic location of the city of New Orleans has always been precarious and historically it has been prone to damage resulting from flooding. In an interview given to CBS News Dr. Walter Maestri who is the director of emergency management for Jefferson Parish, LA. gave this synopsis to describe the geographical danger zone in which the city of New Orleans is located, “New Orleans exists below sea level, basically in a bowl," he said. "It resembles a soup bowl, surrounded on all sides by levees, the entire metro area. If the levees are topped by the tidal surge flooding, the water comes into the bowl