[StBernard] (no subject)

[Westley Annis]

Katrina has become disaster benchmark
N.O. victims usually lose in comparisons 
Sunday, July 13, 2008
By Jenny Hurwitz
West Bank bureau 
Janelle Dozier does not usually get worked up about chain letters,
particularly the ones that spread, virus-like, over the Internet. But this
one set her off. 

Titled "Iowa vs. Louisiana," the e-mail sought to draw comparisons between
Hurricane Katrina and the recent catastrophic flooding in the Midwest. It
praised Midwesterners for refusing to play victim and for not "looting,"
"shooting" or begging the federal government for help. 

In the nearly three years since it struck, Katrina has served as the
benchmark against which other disasters are compared. Often, however, these
comparisons turn into critiques of the Katrina survivors. 

Google the phrase "Midwest flooding Katrina," and you do not have to look
far to find the heated comparisons of victims of one catastrophe with those
of the other. 

The phenomenon is not new. According to snopes.com, a Web site that examines
rumors circulated on the Internet, an e-mail sent out in late 2005 extolled
the virtues of North Dakotans who withstood a blizzard without "howling" for
government assistance or asking for a "FEMA Trailer House." In 2006, similar
e-mails referred to the aftermath of a blizzard in Marquette, Mich., and to
Colorado, which was hit by two severe snowstorms. 

The day after she got the chain letter, Dozier responded, detailing the
struggles she and countless others faced in the early weeks after the storm.
Dozier, 54, lives in Austin, Texas, but she was living in Mandeville when
Katrina hit and working as a professor at the University of New Orleans. 

"I'd like you to know that not everyone hit by Katrina was a drug addict,
government-sponging criminal," she wrote. "This catastrophe hit working
class, middle class, wealthy, young and old. It DESTROYED an entire city." 

It is hard to accurately draw comparisons between the aftermaths of
disasters, given the sweeping differences in scope, topography and
population. While the Midwestern floods caused billions of dollars in damage
and left nearly 20 people dead, Katrina was one of the costliest disasters
in U.S. history and logged a death toll of close to 1,500. 

Recently, on nola.com, The Times-Picayune's affiliated Web site, an
anonymous poster using the name River100 wrote a comment typical of the
sentiment: "What you saw up North: Thousands working together to try and
save their communities. In NOLA: Thousands doing nothing, except holding out
their hand, or demanding someone else take care of them." 

The discussion is not confined to the Internet; radio talk hosts Neal Boortz
and Rush Limbaugh have made similar comparisons. 

"Up there in that part of the country, you find a great deal of
self-sufficiency," Boortz said, referring to the Midwest. "Down there in New
Orleans, it was basically a parasite class totally dependent on government."


Commenting about the news images from the Midwest, Limbaugh said, "I don't
see a bunch of people running around waving guns at helicopters. I don't see
a bunch of people shooting cops. I don't see a bunch of people raping people
on the street." 

Mary Beth Romig, spokeswoman for the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention &
Visitors Bureau, said many people still "don't understand how vastly New
Orleans was affected." 

"We will face that for a long time to come," she said. 

Certain parallels do exist between the two catastrophes, said Shirley Laska,
a University of New Orleans sociologist who studies disasters. Both
communities are dependent on complex levee systems; both suffered
considerably because those systems failed, she said. 

The media imagery from the Midwestern floods -- rooftops jutting from lakes
of water, mold blooming on walls -- also served as a striking reminder of
Katrina. 

"The country is seeing it all over again," she said. 

Duke Austin, a sociologist from the Natural Hazards Center at the University
of Colorado at Boulder, noted that, like Iowa, Colorado has a mostly white
population. In 2006, its snowstorm victims were similarly portrayed as
hard-working people who refused to take government handouts, especially
compared to Louisiana, where the African-American population is three times
the national average, he said. The National Guard rescued many Colorado
towns, and hard-hit areas received federal aid, he said. 

"It is not surprising that flood victims in Iowa, a state that is almost 95
percent white, get portrayed as hard-working -- even if their behavior is
similar to the victims in Louisiana," Austin said. 

Others believe that the criticism stems from people's need to subconsciously
protect themselves by distancing themselves from disaster victims. 

"If you can find something unique about an area that has been terribly
harmed, you can say, 'It won't happen to me,' " Laska said. "The horrific
(nature) of what happened to us, no one wants to happen to themselves." 

. . . . . . . 

Jenny Hurwitz can be reached at jhurwitz at timespicayune.com or 504.826.3784.