Quote Originally Posted by English assassin
There does have to be a suspicion that things would have been different in Seattle, but maybe that's just because New Orleans is disorganised rather than the south is racist. I find it rather hard to imagine that any federal agencies were on Miller time just because it was blacks in the water.
I agree, the theoretical differences in response to such a disaster would depend a lot on where it hit... for instance, if it had hit California, I should think it would be quite a different scenario, not because of all those rich whites, but because (I hope) disaster planning is much more part of the 'norm'. An even better example would be Japan, but Japan seems to attract every sort of natural disaster possible.

What did strike me was the incredible class element. Here we have this mass of people too poor to own their own cars, pay for alternative accomodation, or any of those things, and no one seems to have planned a damn thing to do about them. (And that is a state and city matter) Some people even suggested it was their fault, overlooking the fact that they had no means of transport and nowhere to go.

This would never have happened in the so-called class divided UK.
Suggesting that it's their own fault because they are too poor is just wrong, but I don't think there is any sort of concerted effort to keep the poor down, the poor will always bear the brunt of a disaster, it's just the way it is. Just another side effect of very bad planning and a lacking response.