Natural Disasters Don't Discriminate, Emergency Aid Can, and Does

In Claudia Rankine's book titled Citizen, she writes a piece on Hurricane Katrina, the horrific category 5 hurricane that swept the Southeastern states like Alabama, Mississippi, and disproportionately more so, Louisiana and it's popular city, New Orleans. The immediate aftermath of the storm was atrocious, having flooded entire cities, breaking dams and levees, practically trapping or displacing thousands of people in a matter of days. Rankine writes a found poem, a collection of statements said on CNN's reporting of the cyclone. She quotes survivors who felt a physical and social isolation perpetuated by the lack of the federal government's execution of public preparation and subsequent aid. New Orleans, a city who's population is 60% black, had 80% of its land flooded; but natural disasters don't discriminate, emergency aid, arguably, can, and does. A day after the Lake Pontchartrain Levee flooded over, Louisiana's National Guard requested seven hundred buses for a mass evacuation, as the Superdome, filled with 30,000 evacuees had only prepared to sustain 36 hours worth of food. FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who, days prior, was granted full discretion by the Bush Administration to mobilize aid to the victims, only sent one hundred out of the seven hundred requested evacuation buses. This federal neglect continued for days after as Bush dilly dallied around the country, hosting birthday parties, and ignoring pleas from New Orleans national guard demanding "everything you've (Bush) got." Rankine quotes a survivor "And someone said, where were the buses? And simultaneously someone else said FEMA said it wasn't safe to be there... What I'm hearing, she said, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas" (84). 
Many questions arise from our countries response to our first post-9/11 national emergency. The insane mismanagement of our federal bureaucracies and the factor that race and socio-economic status played in this situation perpetuated many Americans further distrust with their leaders. The lack of urgency from the Bush Administration and federal government as a whole begs the question, how did race impact the response and recovery of Hurricane Katrina? Subsequently, the handling of Katrina has been compared to our nation's reactions with Hurricane Harvey and Flint, Michigan. The Root argues that climate change and racism are too often overlooked contributors when America talks about natural disasters, even though they can be the largest causes of sustained suffering. 
Rankine added a piece on the handling of Hurricane Katrina in her novel for a reason. It's well over time we start addressing these factors on a larger scale, so the effects of natural disasters are limited to its course, rather than our conscious. 

Here are links to more articles regarding Hurricane Katrina:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/13/katrina.response/
https://www.theroot.com/race-and-class-are-the-biggest-issues-around-hurricane-1798536183 
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/08/hurricane_katrina_10th_anniversary_how_the_black_lives_matter_movement_was.html 
http://www.history.com/topics/hurricane-katrina