Natural Hazards Observer
| November 2005 | Volume XXX | Number 2 |
Focus on Hurricane Katrina
The Continuing Significance of Race and Class among Houston Hurricane Katrina Evacuees
More than a quarter century ago, William J. Wilson published his controversial book, The Declining Significance of Race, in which he asserted that conditions were improving for middle-class African Americans and thus, the significance of race was declining in America.(1) Over a decade later, Joe Feagin published his now famous reply to Wilson, arguing that race remains an issue of continuing significance, particularly with respect to perceptions of antiblack discrimination in the United States.(2) Recent experiences of Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Houston, Texas, highlight the continuing significance of race and class in America and offer new opportunities to explore issues of inequality within a catastrophic context. While Hurricane Katrina provided many significant challenges to disaster researchers, preliminary observations highlight the significance of race, class, looting, evacuation, sheltering, and housing.
Background
On August 29, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana creating a catastrophic situation that resulted in the prolonged inoperability of many Gulf Coast residential communities as well as facilities and operational bases for numerous emergency organizations.(3) The magnitude of this event, particularly in the city of New Orleans, resulted in a massive evacuation from a couple of large shelters at the New Orleans Convention Center and the Louisiana Superdome to Reliant Park in Houston, Texas, beginning August 31. Reliant Park is a sprawling four site property in downtown Houston that consists of Reliant Stadium, which was not used for evacuees, the Reliant Astrodome, Reliant Arena, and Reliant Center, each of which became large shelters. Additionally, the George R. Brown Convention Center, approximately six miles from Reliant Park, was also used for evacuees from Louisiana. At its peak on September 4, the four sites (Astrodome, Arena, Center, and Convention Center) sheltered approximately 27,100 Hurricane Katrina evacuees.(4)
With funds from the Natural Hazards Center’s Quick Response program, interviews were conducted with 46 evacuees at Reliant Park to gather perishable data regarding evacuees’ experiences and their intentions to rebuild or relocate in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Based on that reconnaissance trip, this article highlights some preliminary observations on issues related to race, class, looting, evacuation, sheltering, and housing.
The Significance of Race and Class
For many Hurricane Katrina survivors, issues of race and class were central to their evacuation experiences. Several evacuees noted that at both evacuation sites in New Orleans and at Reliant Park in Houston almost ninety percent of shelter residents were African Americans (approximately two-thirds of New Orleans was African American when Katrina hit). This stood in stark contrast to the law enforcement, support, and volunteer staffs that were predominately white. Some evacuees reported feelings of discrimination throughout their evacuation and shelter experience. These feelings were based on incidents ranging from perceived discriminatory statements made by public officials to denial of service due to race.
Statements concerning discrimination due to class were less often reported by evacuees. However, it is interesting to note that a Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University study of Houston shelter evacuees suggested an intersection between race and class: 68 percent of respondents thought that the federal government would have responded more quickly if more people trapped in the floodwaters were wealth and white rather than poor and black.(5)
These perceptions of access and disparate treatment provide support to previous research highlighting both the perceived and actual benefits of white privilege in American society.(6) In addition, the disproportionate number of working class evacuees in the shelters highlights issues of scarce financial resources. Evacuees frequently reported not having the necessary resources to evacuate prior to Hurricane Katrina and explained this was why they had been in the shelter for two weeks as opposed to living in a hotel in Houston like many middle-class or upper-class dislocated were able to do. Although race and class were significant issues for many evacuees, issues of age, gender, religion, physical and mental disability, previous disaster experience, and care for dependents were also formative influences on evacuees’ catastrophe experiences.
“Looting” as Prosocial Behavior?
Following Hurricane Katrina, there were many media reports of chaos, anarchy, and looting, particularly among the residents of New Orleans. Many of the evacuees interviewed in Houston reported observing, or in a few instances, admitted “finding,” “taking,” “borrowing,” “stealing,” or “looting” things for functional purposes. Although there is a widespread public perception, which is portrayed by the media, that looting is an antisocial behavior that involves stealing expensive material possessions, such as televisions, stereos, video recorders, jewelry, and clothing, few evacuees reported this type of behavior occurring. Although a few individuals reported taking boats to assist in the evacuation process, the majority of the “looting” behavior involved taking essentials to survive in increasingly unsanitary and hazardous conditions. In contrast to the antisocial stereotype of looting and hoarding of scarce commodities, almost all of the individuals who reported that others were seen taking things or admitted taking things stated that “taken” goods were shared to help others survive as well. The recipients of these shared items were often told to conserve or ration them, particularly food and water, because of the uncertainty as to how long it would be before they were evacuated. These preliminary observations suggest a possible prosocial element in appropriating behavior.
Evacuation
Preliminary data from Hurricane Katrina survivors in Houston suggest at least three distinct, but not mutually exclusive types of evacuation: vertical, waterborne, and relocation. Several interviewees reported having evacuated to upper floors or to the roof of a dwelling unit due to the hurricane or the rising flood waters from the breeches in the New Orleans levee system. Most of the vertical evacuees reported that their houses or apartments filled with water in a matter of minutes and that they did not have time to take things with them, forcing them to use what was available to them on the upper floors. Evacuees reported kicking, pushing, sawing, or using a bed railing to break through a higher floor or attic to escape rising waters.
Many individuals reported having to wade, swim, or boat through increasingly contaminated waters to reach safer locations. For many, this evacuation process was complicated by age, mental or physical disability, the need to care for dependents, or material possessions they were trying to take with them. Several individuals who reported “taking” boats first evacuated their own families to safer locations and then engaged in prosocial, altruistic behavior by repeatedly returning to the area to evacuate friends and neighbors. Preliminary observations suggest that similar to the waterborne evacuations of lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001, the waterborne evacuees of New Orleans used their knowledge of the local area to locate elderly residents and people they knew would likely need assistance, often before transporting others.(7)
Most Katrina survivors interviewed reported evacuating to a site such as the New Orleans Convention Center, the Louisiana Superdome, or the Interstate 10 overpass before eventually being evacuated by bus, car, or helicopter to Houston. Although the time spent at the relocation site ranged from minutes to days, almost all interviewees described the site evacuation process as disorderly and disorganized, with minimal communication about where evacuees were heading and when the next transportation would arrive. This created a state of uncertainty and insecurity, irrespective of evacuation site or law enforcement or military presence.
Sheltering
Many evacuees reported spending time in the Louisiana Superdome before, during, and after the hurricane, and almost all found it to be an uncomfortable or miserable experience. This was due in large part to holes in the roof pouring in storm water and the loss of basic electrical, water, and sewage services, which created rapidly deteriorating unsanitary living conditions inside the Superdome. Interestingly, many different evacuees “heard from other people” that fights, fires, rapes, shootings, suicides, murders, and more had occurred inside the Superdome, but almost all said they had not directly observed any of these events, lending substantive support to the prevalence of rumors at the Superdome.
Upon arrival at the shelters at Reliant Park in Houston, most evacuees were grateful to be able to have a place to sleep, shower, be fed three meals a day, and receive medical treatment from the American Red Cross. At Reliant Park, individual and family financial assistance in the form of debit cards from the American Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency were available to evacuees, and most took advantage of these resources. Many additional social services were available to the evacuees at Reliant Park, such as housing and job offers from cities in other states, offers of Section 8 Housing in Houston from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and an airline offering free one-way tickets to reunite dislocated family members. Most of the residents emphasized how grateful they were for the services provided on-site and to the city of Houston for its hospitality and willingness to assist them.
Housing Intentions
A critical element of the research in Houston was capturing evacuees’ early intentions to return and rebuild in Louisiana (primarily New Orleans) or relocate elsewhere. Although this research is ongoing, initial intentions indicate a slight majority plan to return and rebuild in New Orleans, a substantial minority plan to relocate in Houston or elsewhere, and some are unsure of their long-term housing intentions due to the uncertainty of the current state of their house, the intentions of other members of their family, or their employment status.
For many natives of New Orleans who had experienced Hurricanes Betsy, Camille, and/or Georges, Katrina marked their first evacuation outside of Louisiana. The anticipated prolonged inoperability of New Orleans provided a unique opportunity for evacuees to reflect upon their lives and the city. Perhaps most surprising was the intent of a few lifetime residents of New Orleans to permanently relocate their entire families to Houston as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Of those predominately working-class African Americans that intend to return to New Orleans, it is important to note that many do not have the financial resources to rebuild or as renters may be significantly constrained in their housing choices due to a shortage of decent, safe, and sanitary houses in a post-Katrina New Orleans.
Future lines of research in this area could yield particularly substantive understanding of how a catastrophe may serve as a catalyst for the reproduction or exacerbation of inequality. Already, there are reports of external real estate speculators attempting to purchase properties in the French Quarter and Garden District of New Orleans in hopes of redeveloping the area.(8) Although the potential effects of gentrification in a post-Katrina New Orleans are not presently known, this research provided an excellent opportunity to assess the ephemeral intentions and aspirations of evacuees.
Conclusion
This report attempted to highlight the significance of race and class issues by demonstrating that predominantly working-class African Americans did not evacuate because they did not have the financial resources to do so. In addition, this report has provided some preliminary observations on issues related to looting, evacuation, sheltering, and housing among Hurricane Katrina survivors at Reliant Park in Houston, Texas. Based on the scope and severity of the damage and the prolonged inoperability of New Orleans, it will be sometime before the full impact of Hurricane Katrina is known. However, ongoing analysis of these data will provide a starting point for exploring the short- and long-term implications of Katrina and the impacted population. In addition, this research has highlighted the need for disaster studies to focus on both organizational features of disaster and explore how disasters may serve as a catalyst for the reproduction or exacerbation of inequality.
John Barnshaw (barnshaw@udel.edu)
Disaster Research Center
University of Delaware
The author wishes to thank Havidán Rodríguez and Joanne Nigg for their assistance.
(1) Wilson, William. 1978. The declining significance of race: Blacks and changing institutions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
(2) Feagin, Joe. 1991. The continuing significance of race: Antiblack discrimination in public places. American Sociological Review 58:101–116.
(3) Quarantelli, Enrico. 2005. Catastrophes are different from disasters: Some implications for crisis planning and managing drawn from Katrina. Social Science Research Council Web site. (http://understandingkatrina.ssrc.org/Quarantelli/)
(4) Harris County Joint Information Center. 2005. Number of Citizens. Harris County, TX: Harris County Joint Information Center. (http://www.hcjic.org/default.asp)
(5) The Washington Post, Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University. 2005. Survey of Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Menlo Park, CA: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. (http://www.kff.org/newsmedia/upload/7401.pdf)
(6) Feagin, Joe, Hernan Vera, and Pinar Batur. 2001. White Racism. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.
(7) Kendra, James, and Tricia Wachtendorf. 2003. Creativity in emergency response to the World Trade Center disaster. In Beyond September 11th: An account of post-disaster research, ed. J. Monday. Boulder, CO: Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center.
(8) Blanton, Kimberly. 2005. Speculators circle New Orleans for real estate deals. Boston Globe, September 9, 2005.