ARTICLES RELATING TO SOCIAL CAPITAL IMPACT OF HURRICANE KATRINA AND 9-11
For September 11 materials click here
Hurricane Katrina
Our thoughts go to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
How to help: you can find worthy organizations to donate to here and here.
.Launched by Saguaro member Paul Resnick, there is an Interesting and nice graphical interface to help connect Katrina refugees with offers of private housing at katrinahousing.net (click on "try searching our map").
.there is also a good integrated site with resources for those who want to help (including site that enables people to connect with lost friends, relatives).
Post-Katrina Classroom (NYT 8/18/08 by Paul Tough) highlighting the "radical experiment in reform" engendered in high schools in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina including Miller-McCoy Academy for Mathematics and Business. The hope is that the lessons learned in N.O. will help inner city schools revive nationwide. And this interactive feature shows how some New Orleans schools have benefitted while others have been left behind.
With Regrets, New Orleans Is Left Behind (NYT, 12/18/07, by Adam Nossiter) about the increasing permanency of the diaspora caused by Hurricane Katrina.
Two year anniversary
As the second anniversary approaches, Princeton Prof. Melissa Harris-Lacewell, in an interview on NPR with Bob Moyers asked how history will reember Americans forgetting Katrina victims. (8/17/07)
One year anniversary
The Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group, a project of Harvard Medical School, issued a report on the Katrina evacuees in August 2006. They found resiliency among the Katrina evacuees with 89% saying that their experience has given their lives a deeper sense of meaning or purpose and 84% having a lot of confidence that they could personally rebuild their lives. 40% of evacuees had experienced one or more stressors. 80% of evacuees living in a different county than pre-Katrina planned to move to a different town, but only 25% of pre-Katrina New Orleans residents planned to return. Over one-third of respondents (41%) reported that they experienced five or more significant hurricane-related stressors respondents, such as the death of a loved one, a major financial loss, extreme physical adversity, and extreme psychological adversity. All these stressors were more commonly reported by socially disadvantaged people (e.g., poor, minorities, low education), they were also common even among the most socially advantaged.
Who Exiled New Orleans' Poor? (Washington Post op-ed, 5/17/07,
Judith Browne-Dianis, p. A17)
argues that those in power have used various excuses to keep Katrina evacuees from returning to New Orleans public housing even when the dwellings are sound because leaders make to make New Orleans less black and have a different vision of public housing in New Orleans.
Bridges Over Troubled Waters: What are the Optimal Networks for Katrina’s Victims?
By Jeanne S. Hurlbert, John J. Beggs, and Valerie A. Haines (2006)
The Lost (and Found) Voters of Hurricane Katrina (Carnegie Reporter, p. 12, Spring 2007, Robert Rackleff) about ACORN's and others' efforts to get Katrina victims to the polls in 2006.
Houston Grumbles as Evacuees Stay Put: Many Katrina victims aren't leaving their new city, but the costs and crime anger residents (L.A. Times, 8/21/06, Miguel Bustillo)
With bulk of Katrina evacuees, Texans begin to feel burden: A year after the hurricane, Houston complains about their persistent joblessness. State officials plea for federal help. (Christian Science Monitor, 8/22/06, Kris Axtman)
USA Today/Gallup Poll results. (phone interviews with 602 adults from LA, MS and AL between Aug. 3 and 17)
:A New Orleans Home Is Reborn, With Grit and Persistence (NY Times, 8/23/06, John Schwartz, p. 1) describes the tireless efforts of one couple to rebuild their home.
2005 Racial Attitudes and the Katrina Disaster Study by Melissa Harris-Lacewell
Storm's Escape Routes: One Forced, One Chosen (NY Times, 8/24/06, Shaila Dewan, p. 1) includes a chart showing the Katrina Diaspora, using change of address forms from the Post Office.
: After Katrina, Baton Rouge Weathers a Storm of Its Own (Washington Post, 8/25/06, p. A1, Wil Haygood).
: Children of the Storm (NYT, Sunday Magazine, 8/27/06), a photo-essay on the impact of Katrina on children.
: Outlines Emerge for a Shaken New Orleans (NYT, 8/27/06, Adam Nossiter).
The Lost Year (New Yorker, 8/21/06, Dan Baum) about the failure of New Orleans to rebuild.
: MoveOn's It Takes a Nation describes and celebrates the grassroots response to Hurricane Housing in which 10,000 volunteers housed 30,000 Katrina evacuees.
: Silence After the Storm; Life Has Yet to Return to Much of a City Haunted by Katrina (Washington Post, 8/27/06, p. A1, Peter Whoriskey) and The Empty Streets Of New Orleans; A Year After Hurricane Katrina, Much of the City Remains Vacant as Former Residents Move On (Washington Post, 8/27/06, p. A1, Peter Whoriskey)
: This interesting story how the Lost Cajuns of Tennessee (started pre-Katrina) became a catalyst for Katrina evacuees in Tennessee seeking to get integrated into the new community.
. The Harvard Journal of African American Policy devoted their summer 2006 issue to social policy issues arising from Katrina.
- Oxfam published these reports on the one year anniversary of Katrina
Forgotten Communities: Unmet Promises -- An Unfolding Tragedy on the Gulf Coast
‘Arise and Rebuild’ — Words That Have Brought Order to Phoenix, La.
: Other Oxfam reports and stories here
Weekly Standard (March 2007) in its cover story examines the state of Post-Katrina New Orleans.
Harvard's Weatherhead Center has a Working Paper entitled Strong Civil Society as a Double–Edged Sword: Siting Trailers in Post–Katrina New Orleans ( Daniel P. Aldrich and Kevin Crook, 2006) that shows that zipcodes with greater amounts of social capital (based on voting rates) got fewer FEMA trailers.
Baby Boomlet after Katrina: Katrina Begets A Baby Boom By Immigrants (NYT, 12/11/06, Eduardo Porter)
John Edwards at the end of December (2006) plans to launch his campaign for president in 2008 in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans (site of horrendous Hurricane Katrina devastation) and focus on reducing poverty as a cornerstone of his campaign.
Series of articles by Bob Herbert, NY Times Op-Ed columnist on Katrina in Dec. 2006: Sunrise and Sunset (NYT, 12/14/06) about the bleak life lived by Katrina evacuees still housed in FEMA trailer parks, Out of Sight (NYT, 12/18/06) on the social fallout of Katrina, and America's Open Wound (NYT, 12/21/06)
see also Descending To New Depths (NYT, 1/15/07)
Dan Hopkins, in a project funded by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, explored church-state cooperation in Arkansas and elsewhere in the Mississippi Delta in the provision of assistance to Katrina victims. His Nov. 2006 report can be found here.
Civic implications: - There have been interesting pieces about the civic implication of Hurricane Katrina including:
. Thomas Friedman’s “Osama and Katrina”
. David Brooks’ “Katrina’s Silver Lining”
. Kate Gurnett's "No Shelter From Storm of Issues".
. George Will, one not prone to advocating for government, in "Leviathan in Louisiana" argues that Katrina will reshape Americans' attitudes positively toward the need for government far more than 9-11 did.
."Katrina shows it takes a community” (Baltimore Sun, 9/11/05, p. 1F)
."Poverty Line" by Noam Scheiber (TNR, TRB from Washington, 9/19/05) shows how the lack of social connections were as likely as the lack of economic resources to define who the victims of Hurricane Katrina were.
“A Perfect Storm?” by Michael Tomasky (American Prospect, 10/5/05) discusses whether Katrina could lead to a political transformation.
- "The Broken Contract" (Michael Ignatieff, New York Times Magazine, 9/25/05) on how the response to Katrina violated our bonds of citizenship with each other.
Note :The American Sociological Association's City & Community journal [June 2006] has 3 comments on rebuilding people and lives after Hurricane Katrina by academics Xavier de Souza Briggs, Sudhir Venkatesh, and Susan Greenbaum. Read Xav Briggs' essay here.
Civil society response: - There have been reports of the breakdown in civil society such as Dan Baum's "Porch Duty" (New Yorker, 9/12/05, p. 37) and reports of community building, e.g., a very interesting first-hand account by two SF paramedics about the civic efforts of New Orleans victims and assertions that officials squelched these efforts (at least the bridge stand-off piece of this story has been confirmed by the New York Times). This New York Times piece also describes the role of organized religion.
- A Sept. 27 report in the Los Angeles Times says that reports of lawlessness following Hurricane Katrina were inflated because lack of telephone communication allowed untrue rumors to rapidly spread. And the NY Times in a more thorough report says the the post-Katrina violence was overstated although some was true; for example, police have no official report of any rape or assault post-Katrina.
- There have been greater donations to Katrina victims than to the 9-11 disaster or the tsunami in their first two weeks ($867 million for Katrina vs. $558 million for 9-11 vs. $406 million for Tsunami. according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy), but so far the total amount of donations are less than September 11 or for Tsunami victims and the Red Cross has indicated that it needs further volunteers (9/16/05). By the end of September, the total raised for Katrina was almost $1.4 billion. (NYT 10/2/05)
- Katrina initially seemed to depress trust of government, but there is some evidence that faith in government is rebounding.
- Deluged (New Yorker, Dan Baum) questions where were the police in the civic response.
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Tens of thousands of Americans responded to Sojourners' Katrina Pledge to assist the Katrina victims and work to ameliorate the inequities that Katrina has revealed.
- A New York Times piece talks about how social connections were critical to launching a fashion industry benefit for Katrina victims. ("For Hurricane Relief, Connections Count", Guy Trebay, NYT 9/19/05).
- in Houston, 20,000 volunteers came to the Astrodome to be trained in the process of resettling Katrina evacuees. (firsthand report of Prof. Steve Klineberg, Rice University).
- David Remnick has a long narrative about the civil response, conspiracy theories of poor residents, and conditions on the ground since Katrina.
- "Who's Killing New Orleans" (by Nicole Gelinas, City Journal, Autumn 2005) on a re-evaluation of the degree of lawlessness post Katrina in the city.
A Grass-Roots Group Is Helping Hurricane Survivors Help Themselves (Ralph Blumenthal, NYT, 10/31/05).
Resettlement:
- Storm Evacuees Placing Strains On Texas Hosts (NY Times, by Jennifer Seinhauer, 4/20/06)
- A February 2006 study of Houston residents (the annual Houston Area Study by Rice sociologist Stephen Klineberg) found Houstonians evacuee-wary and feeling the strain of the Katrina evacuees.
- There is the potential to build substantial amount of bridging social capital (between people of different races or classes) from the resettlement of Katrina refugees. [As noted above: katrinahousing.net aims to facilitate this.]
- A New Yorker Letter from Louisiana (11-28-05) called SHELTER AND THE STORM: Katrina’s victims come to town describes the tensions in one Louisiana Gulf town that originally took in Katrina evacuees with good intentions.
- The Displaced: Which Way is Home describes the highs and lows of 5 groups of Katrina evacuees (Time magazine, 11/28/05)
- A Los Angeles Times story called Town Sets Sights on Quaint Alternative to 'FEMAvilles' (Richard Fausset, 3/6/06) details the frustrating FEMA bureaucracy that wouldn't approve funding for 300 square feet cozy cottages in Mississippi that were no more costly than trailer homes since the cottages were not deemed temporary housing.
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some like David Brooks have called for large-scale Moving to Opportunity type programs
- Bruce Katz/Mark Muro have a strong Op-Ed piece on how a large-scale Section 8 housing approach could meet needs of displaced Katrina victims. Such an approach was used after the L.A. earthquakes and was endorsed in a NYT Op-Ed on September23, 2005. Not noted in the Katz/Muro piece is that Section 8 housing could greatly increase the opportunity for bridging social capital across class and race. (The Section 8 approach has gained some traction. After the Senate in rare bipartisan fashion approved 3 months of Section 8 vouchers, the Bush Administration finally stated that they have come on board as well.) A story in the NYT indicated that finding housing with vouchers is not always so simple, see: Vouchers in Their Pockets, Evacuees Find It Hard to Get Keys in Hand (NYT, Jodi Wilgoren, 10/28/05). And “Lack of Section 8 Vouchers for Storm Evacuees Highlights Rift Over Housing Program” (NYT, Jason DeParle, 11/8/05) shows the Bush Administration's clear ambivalence over Section 8 housing.
- New Vision Institute has discussed housing options post Katrina, including a Moving to Opportunity Program in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, signed by 176 leading scholars nationwide.
- A Sept. 16, 2005 survey by Kaiser/Washington Post/Harvard School of Public Health found that half of the Katrina refugees in Houston do not want to return to New Orleans. Survey methodology here. Another survey by CNN/USA Today found that 39% of New Orleans refugees still did not plan on returning, approximately one month later. (10/13/05)
- Utah and Texas may be undermining some of the opportunity for bridging social capital by trying to have separate schooling for Katrina evacuees and residents. See "Separate But Equal? Schooling of Evacuees Provokes Debate" (Daniel Golden, WSJ, 9/13/05, p. B1)
- Mississippi Governor Hale Barbour (former head of the RNC) appointed a commission headed by ex-CEO of Netscape Jim Barksdale to investigate rebuilding along the Gulf Coast. Barksdale named Andres Duany, founder of the New Urbanist movement, to head a series of charrettes in October 2005 to get input from communities with advice from New Urbanists about how to design communities that are more environmentally friendly, more walkable and more community-friendly. The first charrette was held in Biloxi on October 17. More information available here. (See also Neil Peirce, "Post Hurricane Gleams of Light", 9/27/05). Another story of the role of New Urbanism in rebuilding scenarios was aired on NPR on Oct. 14, 2005.
- There have also been stories of a backlash in some communities, like Baton Rouge where gun sales have increased with the increase of New Orleans refugees from Katrina.
-“Forced From New Orleans, but Neighbors Still” (NYT, 10/12/05 by Deborah Sontag) discussing community in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans.
- “In a Strange Land: From New Orleans to Sallisaw/Scattered in a Storm's Wake and Caught in a Clash of Cultures” (NYT 10/9/05 by Isabel Wilkerson, p. 1) discusses the diaspora that has formed of refugees. And this graphic of the diaspora.
- "‘Budget Hotels Provide a Few Simple Pleasures” (NYT, 10/13/05, by Jodi Wilgoren) about impromptu community springing up in low budget hotels housing refugees.
Rebuilding:
- New Urbanist-Style Architect Sets His Sights on New Orleans --- Duany Makes His Case to Lead Rebuilding of New Orleans Area (WSJ, by Thaddeus Herrick, 4/26/06).
- Evacuees' Lives Still Upended Seven Months After Hurricane (NYT, 3/22/06 by Shaila Dewan, Marjorie Connelly and Andrew Lehren).
- There is a long interesting 2006 piece called The Long Road Home: Race, Class, and Recovery from Hurricane Katrina
by Susan L. Cutter, Christopher Emrich, Jerry Mitchell, Bryan Boruff, et al.) [Environment journal 48(2): 8].
- This article New Orleans Today: It's Worse Than You Think describes the challenges and setbacks in rebuilding New Orleans. (Time Magazine 11/28/05)
- A NYT Front Page article "Louisiana Sees Faded Urgency In Relief Effort" (11/22/05) notes that the federal government appears to be seeing less urgency in rebuilding New Orleans.
- Beneath all the controversy surrounding Mayor Nagin's decision to permit rebuilding in any part of New Orleans (even areas with significant flooding), there has been some praise (for example by Neal Peirce) for the involvement of local neighborhood planning efforts in the rebuilding plan.
- Bruce Katz and others at Brookings have developed a Katrina index to chart the effort of the city to get back to normal. The index focuses much more on physical rebuilding than the rebuilding of social networks (which are equally important, but harder to track).
- James Q. Wilson had an essay in December 2005 on how the efforts to rebuild are focusing more on the physical infrastructure than the social infrastructure called American Dilemma: Problems of Race Still Cry to Be Solved.
Inequality: Katrina would appear to heighten Americans' awareness of inequality in America, both its ugly presence and that the poor were disproportionately likely to be affected by the hurricane. There are interesting inequality parallels with Katrina and the 1889 Johnstown flood (in PA). The wealthy South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club—members included Carnegie, Fricke, and Mellon had an earthen dam that had not been maintained, and water overflowed the dam, traveling 15 miles downstream and killing several thousand poor people in Johnstown. Johnstown occurred at a peak of income inequality in the U.S. (much as Katrina). The wealthy were never held accountable for the damage or the deaths.
- a recent piece by Pat Sharkey, "Were Whites Really More Likely Than Blacks to Die in Katrina?" shows that African-Americans, controlling for age, were disproportionately likely to have died in Katrina.
- Sadly, research out of Stanford (3/06 by sociologists Grusky and Ryo) found that Katrina was not a watershed event in focusing the country on inequality and this accompanying news release of the study. They found some increase in awareness of poverty, and perhaps a fragile majority that might be mobilized into governmental response, but most of the people who became newly aware of poverty did not translate into believing it was a problem or governmental action was advisable.
Here are some articles specifically on inequality in the wake of Katrina (more general articles on inequality can be found on our In The News page):
E.J. Dionne's "Is the Post-Katrina War on Poverty Already Over?" (10/14/05)
David Ellwood wrote a strong Op-Ed called "Empowering the Poor" (Boston Globe, 9/27/05).
The Economics of Return (Blaine Harden, Washington Post, p. A1, 10/19/05)
discusses the differential impact of Katrina on wealthier and poorer evacuees.
As noted above in the resettlement section, "Separate But Equal? Schooling of Evacuees Provokes Debate" (Daniel Golden, WSJ, 9/13/05, p. B1) discusses Texas and Utah's attempt to create separate schools for Katrina evacuees.
Polls Explore Racial Attitudes: Response to the storm divides blacks, whites by Steven Thomma (Detroit Free Press, 9/13/05)
Two-In-Three Critical Of Bush's Relief Efforts/Huge Racial Divide Overd Its Consequences (Pew Research Center for People and the Press Report, 9//8/05) Katrina an
Money and motorcars - the difference between safety and despair (Guardian, 9/6/05)
The poor reap the whirlwind (Guardian, 9/5/05)
Receding floodwaters expose the dark side of America - but will anything change? (Guardian, 9/5/05)
After the Katrina tragedy, the looters come with their lies and half-truths (London Times Online, 9/2/05, Op-Ed article by Gerard Baker)
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September 11
Fifth Anniversary of 9-11
: Whatever Happened to the America of 9/12? (NYT, 9/10/06 by Frank Rich)
: So far, the cost for most Americans in the way they lead their lives has been negligible (Sydney Morning Herald, 9/9/06 by Michael Gawenda)
: Will 9-11 Define a Generation? (USA Today, 9/10/2006)
: 9/11/06 (NYT Editorial, 9/11/2006). The Times editorial staff remarked "What we do revisit, over and over again, is the period that followed, when sorrow was merged with a sense of community and purpose. How, having lost so much on the day itself, did we also manage to lose that as well?" They believe that our "pinched" sense of responsibility originated with President Bush's failed leadership to call for any citizen sacrifice other than paying our normal taxes. They assert that we we wouldn't be fighting in Iraq if everyone's sons and daughters were called into service, but instead the demands of the post-9-11 era were to be fought with the "blood of other people's children, and with money earned by the next generation."
"The country still hungers for something better, for evidence that our leaders also believe in ideas larger than their own political advancement.....It would be miraculous if the best of our leaders did something larger -- expressed grief and responsibility for the bad path down which we've gone, and promised to work together to turn us in a better direction. ...If that kind of coming together happened today, we could look back on Sept. 11, 2006, as more than a day for recalling bad memories and lost chances."
: What 9/11 Didn't Change (Washington Post, 9/10/2006, George Will)
: Five Years Later; Moving Ahead, Guardedly; 9/11 Has Changed Few Lives; Surprisingly, the mind-sets of most Americans haven't been greatly altered. (L.A. Times, 9/11/06, by
Stephanie Simon)
: NPR takes advantage of the fifth anniversary to do this series on Muslims in America.
A Barna Group update analyzing 9 national Barna surveys conducted at or since 9-11 found that despite a surge in faith right after 9-11 that Americans religiosity has returned to pre-9-11 levels.
: This latentblog entry has interestng speculation about why President Bush didn't call for greater sacrifice after 9-11.
: Nancy Foner's Wounded City: The Social Impact of 9-11 (2005) chronicles the impact of 9-11 in communities as diverse as Asian garment workers, graphic artists and Muslims in Jersey City.
"September 11 as Civics Lesson" by Thomas H. Sander and Robert Putnam (Washington Post Op-Ed. 9/10/05) presents evidence of a new civic 9-11 generation among youth.
“American Idle” by Lawrence Kaplan (The New Republic, 9/12/05) in a well-written article discusses the civic fallout of September 11, 2001, and how the fact that Americans were instructed by the Bush Administration early on that they could achieve victory on the cheap (without sacrifice) has only exacerbated the difficulties as the cost (both human and financial) have become all too real. We think there is a youth exception to his finding that there is no change from September 11.
"Shaken, Not Stirred" (National Journal, 9/13/2003 by Siobhan Gorman, pp. 2776-81) commented quite intelligently on how 9-11 had not dramatically changed the county's long-term civic habits.
"U.S. Attitudes Altered Little By Sept. 11, Pollsters Say” by Adam Clymer (NYT 5/20/02, p. 12)
"Living With a 9/11 State of Mind Mood: Many search for meaning and reinforce ties to loved ones. But will it last?” [L.A. Times, 2/11/02]
“Lure of Millions Fuels 9/11 Families' Feuding” by David Chen (NYT, 6/17/02, p. A1) on how families of 9-11 victims were cooperating for a long time, but now feuds have started to appear.
NCORP (National Council On Readiness and Preparedness), a non-profit, has formed ReadyCorps to involve citizens in localized emergency preparedness, whether for terrorism or natural disaster.
[ e-mail us other interesting stories on the social impact of 9-11.] |
