Share and Voice 4: "The Old Man and the Storm"

Hey guys!

So today I watched the documentary titled "The Old Man and the Storm" which was held in Bohannon 90 with discussions led by Dr. V and others from the civic engagement department! I went to watch this documentary for a few reasons, but the main reason I decided to go was because I am embarrassed to say this, but Hurricane Katrina occurred during the summer before my senior year and by being involved in sports, living in a bubble, and it being my senior year, issues in the news did not really interest me. Being in college now, it made it sad to think that the only time I saw issues of Hurricane Katrina was on magazine covers or watching the t.v. show "Keeping Up with the Kardashians"...I needed to open my eyes and understand what happened down there!!!

The focus of this documentary was about class and race and how the environment effects it. This film reminded me a lot about the film we watched in class called "Green". I think "Green" reminded me of "The Old Man and the Storm" because in this film, it was about the Hurricane Katrina victims, but New Orleans is still a mess, nothing has really been done about it, and people are wondering, is this a socioeconomic issue? The citizens are furious and feel that the government doesn't care about poor people or black people. I think it is a socioeconomic issue because many of the Hurricane Katrina victims were from low-income, uninsured, or underinsured families, and even today in 2009, many families are still homeless, job-less, and are trying to put the pieces back together. 

All images from pbs.org

This interview style documentary followed the Gettridge family. One member of the family is an 82 year old man named Herbert Gettridge, who stayed down in Louisiana because he is trying to restore his damaged house to try to bring back his wife of 65 years home. Herbert and his family of 300 members were effected by this hurricane in a major way. Everyone in that family is scattered around the country. This hurricane tore apart the Gettridge family, and this family is just a small reflection of the 500,000 families effected!! 

Here are some alarming facts that I learned from the film about the effects of Hurricane Katrina:

• 500,000 families are displaced
• Charity is the solution for people who didn't have insurance during the storm
• This hurricane caused the largest federal funded restoration project ever! 7.5 BILLION dollars
• Many families are depressed and teenagers admitted that they feel like they needed counseling. Drinking  and violence rates went up and suicide rates tripled!
• 18 months after the hurricane, 100,000 people applied for the RoadHome Program, but only 500 people got some money.
• 25,000 powerlines of Entergy were torn down, leaving that company bankrupt and no electricity
• There are no schools, no police stations, no firestations
• Political figures in that area of that time either resigned or did not run for their position again because they feel like they did all that they could do.

So, what do you think?? Do you think this is an example of environmental racism? Do you think if the people that were effected by Hurricane Katrina were from higher income families and maybe a different race that they would be treated differently and something would be done sooner? Let me know what you think!!!

Thanks for reading!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." ~Mahatma Gandhi