A human toll

There are many similarities between the devastation suffered by the people of New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina and the devastation suffered by the people of Lebanon after a month of Israeli bombing.

DISPLACED PEOPLES:

In Lebanon, 800,000 people— one-quarter of the population —were made refugees by Israeli bombing.

In New Orleans and nearby areas in Louisiana, 600,000 people became displaced by the flood and broken levees.

DEATHS:

In Lebanon, 1,500 are believed dead, one-third of them children.

In Louisiana, 1,577 lost their lives to the flood,* disproportionately the old, sick and infirm.

THE HARDEST HIT:

In Lebanon, Israel bombed to smithereens the southern suburbs of Beirut, and southern Lebanon, home to Lebanon’s poorest sector, the Shiites.

In New Orleans, hardest hit were the African-American residential communities, especially the impoverished Ninth Ward.

—JC

* (Times-Picayune, May 19)