Climate change has caused more severe disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, as well as flooding across the United States. While these disasters affect all, it is minority communities and low income communities who are often hit the hardest.
Minorities disproportionately live in coastal communities most vulnerable to disaster. In 2010, minority populations represented 35 percent of those living in coastal communities, compared to the combined share of the total U.S. population at 28 percent (NOAA).
To break it down further, based on the NOAA whatever, 47 percent of the U.S. black or African American population, 64 percent of the U.S. Asian population, and 49 percent of the Hispanic or Latino population lived in a coastal shoreline county.
Of the 818 fatalities during Hurricane Katrina for which race is listed, 55 percent were African-American (Schleifstein).
Not only are minority communities hit with natural disasters more frequently, they also face more vulnerabilities in recovering from such disasters (Jealous). Many of these communities are found in low-income neighborhoods that have a harder time recovering from the rising food prices and water shortages that follow natural disasters.
WORKS CITED
Jealous, T. B. (2010, August 28). Katrina’s lessons still not learned 5 years later. The Grio. Retrieved from http://thegrio.com/2010/08/28/for-saturdaynaacp-on-katrina/.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2013, March). National Coastal Population Report: Population Trends from 1970 to 2020. Retrieved from http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coastal-population-report.pdf.
Schleifstein, M. (2009, August 27). Study of Hurricane Katrina’s dead show most were old, lived near levee breaches. The Times-Picayune. Retrieved from https://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf/2009/08/answers_are_scarce_in_study_of.html.
Minorities disproportionately live in coastal communities most vulnerable to disaster. In 2010, minority populations represented 35 percent of those living in coastal communities, compared to the combined share of the total U.S. population at 28 percent (NOAA).
To break it down further, based on the NOAA whatever, 47 percent of the U.S. black or African American population, 64 percent of the U.S. Asian population, and 49 percent of the Hispanic or Latino population lived in a coastal shoreline county.
Of the 818 fatalities during Hurricane Katrina for which race is listed, 55 percent were African-American (Schleifstein).
Not only are minority communities hit with natural disasters more frequently, they also face more vulnerabilities in recovering from such disasters (Jealous). Many of these communities are found in low-income neighborhoods that have a harder time recovering from the rising food prices and water shortages that follow natural disasters.
WORKS CITED
Jealous, T. B. (2010, August 28). Katrina’s lessons still not learned 5 years later. The Grio. Retrieved from http://thegrio.com/2010/08/28/for-saturdaynaacp-on-katrina/.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2013, March). National Coastal Population Report: Population Trends from 1970 to 2020. Retrieved from http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coastal-population-report.pdf.
Schleifstein, M. (2009, August 27). Study of Hurricane Katrina’s dead show most were old, lived near levee breaches. The Times-Picayune. Retrieved from https://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf/2009/08/answers_are_scarce_in_study_of.html.