Differential Vulnerabilities: Environmental and Economic Inequality and Government Response to Unnatural Disasters

on august 29, 2005, hurricane katrina made landfall near New Orleans, leaving death and destruction across the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama Gulf coast counties. * Katrina was the most destructive hurricane in US history, costing over 70 billion in insured damage. Katrina was also one of the deadliest storms in decades, with a death toll of 1, 836, and still counting. Katrina’s death toll is surpassed only by the 1928 hurricane in Florida (estimates vary from 2, 500 to 3, 000 deaths) and the 8, 000 who perished in the 1900 Galveston hurri-cane (Kleinberg, 2003; Pastor et al. , 2006). After some two and a half years, reconstruction continues to move at a slow pace in New Orleans and the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama Gulf coast region. The lethargic recovery is now begin-ning to overshadow the deadly storm itself (Kromm and Sturgis, 2007). Questions linger: What went wrong? Can it happen again? Is govern-ment equipped to plan for, mitigate, respond to, and recover from natu-