"The people who couldn't get out of New Orleans to escape the storm were predominantly Black"

The statement foregrounds the racial contours of vulnerability exposed by Hurricane Katrina, when the capacity to flee depended less on individual will than on access to resources historically denied to many Black residents of New Orleans. Evacuation required a car, cash for fuel and lodging, time off work, healthy bodies, and social networks outside the city. Those were not distributed evenly. Decades of segregation, redlining, and disinvestment concentrated Black communities in flood-prone neighborhoods and left them with fewer assets, weaker infrastructure, and limited transportation options. When public transit halted and contraflow prioritized automobile traffic, people without cars, disproportionately Black, poor, elderly, and disabled, were effectively trapped.

The disaster response magnified those inequalities. Communication failures, inconsistent orders, and delays at every level turned a natural hazard into a social catastrophe. Images of predominantly Black residents stranded on rooftops and crowded in the Superdome reflected not a moral failing but a policy one: evacuation plans that presumed private mobility and ignored the realities of poverty. Media framing often criminalized survivors, labeling them “looters” rather than recognizing acts of survival and mutual aid, which further shaped policing and relief decisions.

The aftermath deepened the divide. Displacement scattered families across the country, while rebuilding favored tourist corridors and neighborhoods with political clout. Public housing was demolished, rents rose, and return was harder for those with the fewest resources. The result was a reconfigured city with fewer Black residents and a legacy of loss that extended far beyond the floodwaters.

The line underscores a broader truth about disasters: the storm did not choose its victims; society did, through long-standing patterns of racialized wealth gaps, environmental neglect, and unequal planning. Building real resilience requires centering those who were left behind, funding robust public evacuation systems, accessible shelters, affordable housing, and community-led preparedness, so that safety is not a privilege reserved for those who can afford to leave.