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          UNITED NATIONS - 16 September 2005  / www.MaximsNews.com/ Throughout the stricken Gulf region, the flood waters are receding, civil order has been restored, and in some places, residents are being allowed to return to their damaged—or “disappeared”—neighborhoods and homes.

But even a cursory glance at the stories in the nation’s newspapers, or a half-hearing of radio and television news reveals the deep scars that Hurricane Katrina has gouged across the lush coastal region and the lives of many of its people.

I suspect this catastrophe has pushed the American nation into uncharted territory in many ways, a notion brought home to me by a gripping story in the September 12 Washington Post describing the extraordinary challenges confronting the Gulf rescue operation.

“The sheer geographic extent of the calamity, covering 90,000 square miles of Gulf coast,” the report noted at one point, “with floodwaters containing gasoline, chemicals and human and animal waste, and a complete meltdown of the region’s communications networks are only the most obvious difficulties in a search and rescue effort now nearing two weeks.”

This bizarre scene, it added, “has presented even the most seasoned search and rescue workers with logistical, medical and safety challenges that far surpass those of any U.S. disaster the veterans here can recall.  The story quoted one rescue worker plying the flood waters of St. Bernard’s Parish just east of New Orleans:  “I don’t think I’ve ever had a more surreal experience in my life.”

Imagine what the victims of the Hurricane’s full force and its aftermath are feeling. 

Furthermore, there remain reports from many quarters that substantial relief aid has yet to reach many stricken poor rural communities and urban neighborhoods in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.  The pleas for help—and the anger that help has not yet arrived—is as bitter as it was in the first agonizing days after Hurricane Katrina hit.   

By now, many have noted that in its devastating wake, Hurricane Katrina has made visible what had, for many, again become invisible—the coruscating impact of race and class and poverty on life in America.

It was surely Fate that the hurricane struck just days after the U.S. Census Bureau released its annual report on income, poverty and health insurance.

The Census report showed that, despite America’s general economic recovery, the bottom has literally fallen out from under millions more Americans in the past five years:  

Four million more Americans are living in poverty than before the economic recession of 2001, meaning that now there are 37 million Americans in poverty; and 4.6 million more Americans could no longer afford their health insurance, pushing that total figure to 45.8 million.

The import of those figures was then underscored by the demographic profile the Associated Press published September 4 of residents in the three dozen neighborhoods in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana hardest-hit by the storm.

The AP analysis, based on Census data, determined that those living in these neighborhoods were predominantly people of color and were twice as likely to be poorer than the national average and to not own a car.

For example:  Twenty percent of these neighborhoods’ residents didn’t own a car; the national average is 10 percent.  

Nearly 25 percent of these residents had incomes below the poverty line, almost double the national average.  

One in 200 American households doesn’t have adequate plumbing—running hot and cold water, a shower or bath, and an indoor toilet.  

In these neighborhoods, the figure was 1 in 100 households.  

The indicators of poverty were even worse in particular neighborhoods in New Orleans, in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and in Mobile, Alabama. 

University of South Carolina historian Dan Carter told the AP such figures shouldn’t be surprising, but that usually there’s “not a lot of interest in (issues of poverty), except when there’s something dramatic.  

"By and large, the poor are simply out of sight, out of mind.”   

As I’m sure Professor Carter intended, there’s America’s inspiration, challenge—and obligation.

Now, as the drama of this issue begins inevitably to be transformed into the seemingly more mundane work of recovery and reconstruction, let America not forget what—and who—has been made visible again in America. 

Let Americans turn their minds and hands to the work needed to put our fellow Americans back on their feet and, for those that need it, to giving them the tools to lift themselves out of poverty.

One resident of New Orleans who had been trapped at the city’s convention center for five days after the storm told the AP, 

“Let them know we’re not bums.  We have houses. Our houses were destroyed.  We have jobs.  It’s not our fault that we didn’t have cars to leave.”

Now, in the wake of this great storm, is America looking?  Is America listening?

   MarcMorial@MaximsNews.com

Marc Morial's Columns in MaximsNews 

Hurricane Katrina’s Continuing Crisis—and Opportunity...  16 September 2005

After Hurricane Katrina...  7 September 2005

Hurricane Katrina...  31 August 2005

The Supreme Court Nomination... 7 July 2005

Ex-Felons and Voting Rights...  24 June 2005

Vicente Fox's Foolish Words  24 May 2005

Reject the Nuclear Option 11 May 2005

Kenneth B. Clark  4 May 2005

The State of Black America 11 April 2005

The Main Event in American History  16 February 2005

  Never again!  1 February 2005

  Jack Johnson, American  27 January 2005

  The Mississippi Arrest: Bending Toward Justice... 11 January 2005

  Reforming America's Obsession with Incarceration...  7 December 2004

A Pre-Election Snapshot of Black America...  26 October 2004   

Issues for the Candidates -- and for Us...  19 October 2004

The "Routine" Tragedy in the Sudan...  2 September 2004

A Wonderful Life...  26 August 2004  

America, We Have A Problem...  19 August 2004

Looking Forward; Leaving No One Behind...  28 July 2004

Empowering Communities, Changing Lives...  8 July 2004

July: The Other Black History Month...  30 June 2004

Justice for History's Sake—and Our Own...  24 June 2004

Let America Be America The Beautiful...   16 June 2004

Quiet Activism on The Movement's Front Lines...  8 June 2004

Vernon Jarrett, Dreamer and Doer ...  2 June 2004 

Buddy Fletcher's Gift...  26 May 2004

 The Murder of Emmett Till: Still Seeking Justice...  20 May 2004

 The Meaning of the Brown Decision...  12 May 2004

 The Complexity of Black Achievement...  4 May 2004

USA Today's Con Artist...  27 April 2004 

The "Moving Target" of Black Educational Progress ... 13 April 2004

Elaine Jones: Energized by Adversity...  6 April 2004

The Urban League in Washington: Bringing Reinforcements...  30 March 2004

The Pain of Those Left Behind...  17 March 2004

Deeply Desiring Denial...  9 March 2004

One Step Forward; Two Steps Back...  3 March 2004 

Innocent of the Crime, But Almost Executed Anyway...  24 February 2004

Civil Rights: America's Unfinished Business...  17 February 2004

What Will They Do Now?   2 February 2004

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