Survivors who are poor suffer health crisis

As news about the fate of survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita fades from the headlines, the aftermath and continuing effects of what many call “hurricane America” continue for them. That hurricane persists in providing safety and security for the wealthy few while ignoring the needs of the poorest sections of the working class.

A study released April 18 by the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and the Children’s Health Fund describes a “second crisis” found in FEMA’s temporary housing in Louisiana—an alarming epidemic of chronic medical conditions and mental health disorders, compounded by a lack of treatment and prescription medicine. (The complete study findings can be accessed at www.ncdp.mailman.columbia.)

According to a press release, the study found that:

* More than one-third of children have at least one diagnosed chronic medical condition and are more likely to suffer from asthma, behavioral or conduct problems, developmental delay or physical impairment, and learning disabilities.

* Nearly half the parents surveyed reported that at least one of their children had emotional or behavioral difficulties not observed before the hurricane.

* More than half the women caregivers showed evidence of clinically diagnosed psychiatric problems, such as depression or anxiety disorders.

* On average, households have moved 3.5 times since the hurricane, some as many as nine times, often across state lines.

* More than one-fifth of the school-age children who were displaced were either not in school or had missed 10 or more days of school in the past month.

The authors of the report stress that failure to address the physical and mental health needs of survivors will have long-term consequences. Yet Anthony Speier, Louisiana’s director of disaster mental health, says that although 500 crisis counselors are being paid for by the federal government, the money allocated for them cannot be used to treat mental or behavioral disorders. (New York Times, April 18)

Who gets redevelopment money?

Meanwhile, in New Orleans, “Just as disparities between rich and poor were exposed in the days after Hurricane Katrina, class and wealth seem to be playing a significant role [in redevelopment].... While [the wealthy, gated community of] Eastover is full of the sounds of saws ripping wood and the pneumatic punch of nail guns, the sound of the Lower Ninth Ward is mainly silence.” (New York Times, April 25)

On its face value, the redevelopment plan being used in New Orleans calls for community control—residents get to decide as a group what their vision is for the rebuilding of their neighborhoods. However, funds and resources to enlist the help of planners, architects and other experts are not attached to this plan.

In addition, the plan requires residents to determine how many of those displaced will be returning to the neighborhood—an estimate that the city will use to decide whether areas will be rebuilt and provided city services, turned into swampland, or sold to the highest-bidding developer.

This redevelopment plan was first proposed by the euphemistically titled “Bring New Orleans Back Commission,” with real estate executive—and George Bush fundraiser—Joseph Canizaro at the helm.

Unlike wealthier home-owning areas, only one small enclave in the Lower Ninth Ward, the Holy Cross neighborhood, had a homeowners’ association, according to the Times. In the wealthier areas these associations have been useful in tracking down residents and contracting professional planners to devise blueprints for rebuilding.

The largely African-American Lower Ninth Ward has the largest number of residents currently displaced throughout the country. They are being denied the ability to participate in the planning process due to lack of means to travel to the area. At the same time, gas and potable water have not been reestablished in the area, and FEMA has cited this as the reason for still not delivering residential trailers there.

Pork-barrel emergency funding

With the need for resources clearly still a critical issue for many hurricane survivors, criticism has fallen on the emergency “supplemental” spending bill the Senate will consider in early May, with a price tag of $106 billion. Even though the continuing occupations of Iraq and Afghan istan were never an “emergency” and the Depart ment of Defense budget for 2006 is already $419.3 billion, the largest portion of the bill would spend an additional $72 billion for military operations in those countries.

However, the main criticism of the bill is in response to other allocations, such as $4 billion for the already well-subsidized farming industry and $1.1 billion for fishery projects, including $15 million for a “seafood promotion strategy.”

When funding for all the other projects in the bill is shaved away, the amount left for hurricane recovery efforts is $27 billion—a measly amount compared to the magnitude of the task.

Louisiana officials point out that the cost of rebuilding the levees alone—a crucial task with the hurricane season now weeks away—will cost upwards of $6 billion. The Senate bill would add only $600 million to the $1.5 billion approved by the House for Gulf Coast levees and flood control projects. To date, the Bush administration has not come up with a formal plan to rebuild the levees.

Recent audits show that up to $1 billion was wasted by FEMA in the immediate aftermath of the storms, when it bought trailers and rented whole cruise ships to provide temporary housing that was impractical and unwanted. (Washington Post, April 14) While cruise lines and trailer companies profited, many hurricane survivors wound up in expensive but inadequate hotel rooms while the government’s Section 8 housing program that provides subsidies for apartment rentals went unused.

Democrats play politics on the backs of survivors

Yet the opportunism of the two major political parties knows no bounds. Just as the Republican party held its 2004 election-year national convention in New York in order to capitalize on sentiment surrounding the 9/11 attacks, now the Democrats are considering holding their national convention in New Orleans in 2008.

The Democratic National Committee held its spring meeting in New Orleans from April 20 to 22. The Democrats’ response to a city with one of the highest poverty rates in the U.S. before the hurricane struck, which was deprived of the funds to maintain critical levees, leading to the ensuing devastation, has been as sluggish and neglectful as the Republican response. Their main concern is to use the ongoing Gulf Coast tragedy to push for the presidential win in 2008.

While it is very possible that many voters across the country will desert the Republicans because of the administration’s lack of response to the hurricane, and their own disdain for the Iraq war, a growing number of working and poor people are coming to realize that the true solution to the crisis of imperialism at home and abroad lies in the organization of the people to end capitalism once and for all.

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