{"id":13385,"date":"2015-08-27T09:25:56","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T14:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/remembering-katrina-wide-racial-divide-over-governments-response\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T11:49:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T15:49:28","slug":"remembering-katrina-wide-racial-divide-over-governments-response","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/08\/27\/remembering-katrina-wide-racial-divide-over-governments-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Katrina: Wide racial divide over government\u2019s response"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A
A man pushes his bicycle through flood waters near the Superdome in New Orleans on Aug. 31, 2005. Photo credit: AP Photo\/Eric Gay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ten years ago this weekend, Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on the Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,000 people (the true death toll<\/a> may never be known). From the start, the tragedy had a powerful racial component \u2013 images of poor, mostly black New Orleans residents stranded on rooftops and crowded amid fetid conditions in what was then the Louisiana Superdome.<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ten<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Initial reactions to the government\u2019s response to the crisis were starkly divided along racial lines. In a national poll<\/a> conducted Sept. 6-7, 2005, a week after the storm made landfall, African Americans delivered a scathing assessment of the federal government\u2019s relief efforts. Two-thirds (66%) said that \u201cthe government\u2019s response to the situation would have been faster if most of the victims had been white.\u201d Just 17% of whites agreed \u2013 most whites (77%) said the race of the victims would not have made any difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just 19% of blacks rated the federal government\u2019s response to Hurricane Katrina as excellent or good, compared with 41% of whites. And nearly three times as many whites (31%) as blacks (11%) said then-President George W. Bush did all he could to get relief efforts going quickly.<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fully 74% of blacks said they felt depressed by what had happened to areas affected by the hurricane; nearly as many (71%) felt angry. Fewer whites experienced such strong emotions \u2013 55% said they had been depressed and 46% angry.<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blacks and whites also drew very different lessons from the disaster: Most blacks (71%) said it showed that racial inequality remained a major problem in the United States; most whites (56%) said that this was not a particularly important lesson of Katrina.<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A decade after the storm hit, racial differences in attitudes about the impact of Hurricane Katrina linger. Earlier this month, the Kaiser Family Foundation and NPR released their fourth post-hurricane survey of New Orleans residents<\/a>. For the most part, both black and white New Orleans residents are optimistic about the city\u2019s future. But while 70% of whites say the city has mostly recovered from Katrina, just 44% of African Americans agree.<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: This is an update of a post originally published Aug. 28, 2013.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ten years ago this weekend, Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on the Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,000 people. From the start, the tragedy had a powerful racial component \u2013 images of poor, mostly black New Orleans residents stranded on rooftops and crowded amid fetid conditions in what was then the Louisiana Superdome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":24724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[112,80,28],"bylines":[989],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[520],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-13385","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disasters-accidents","category-federal-government","category-race-ethnicity","bylines-carroll-doherty","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-politics"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":363,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/08\/27\/remembering-katrina-wide-racial-divide-over-governments-response\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":24724,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/08\/FT_13.08.28_KatrinaAnniv_640x300-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/08\/FT_13.08.28_KatrinaAnniv_640x300-jpg.webp?w=564&h=300&crop=1","width":564,"height":300,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":24724,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/08\/FT_13.08.28_KatrinaAnniv_640x300-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/08\/FT_13.08.28_KatrinaAnniv_640x300-jpg.webp?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":24724,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/08\/FT_13.08.28_KatrinaAnniv_640x300-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/08\/FT_13.08.28_KatrinaAnniv_640x300-jpg.webp?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":24724,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/08\/FT_13.08.28_KatrinaAnniv_640x300-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/08\/FT_13.08.28_KatrinaAnniv_640x300-jpg.webp?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":24724,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/08\/FT_13.08.28_KatrinaAnniv_640x300-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/08\/FT_13.08.28_KatrinaAnniv_640x300-jpg.webp?w=640&h=300&crop=1","width":640,"height":300,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":24724,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/08\/FT_13.08.28_KatrinaAnniv_640x300-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/08\/FT_13.08.28_KatrinaAnniv_640x300-jpg.webp?w=640&h=300&crop=1","width":640,"height":300,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Remembering Katrina: Wide racial divide over government\u2019s response","description":"Ten years ago this weekend, Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on the Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,000 people. 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