Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Beyond Katrina
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines meditation, in basic terms, as "a discourse intended to express its author's reflections or to guide others in contemplation." In an interview with Jonathan Fink, Trethewey reveals that her text is aimed at recollecting people's historical and collective memory (Hall 85). This is the only sure way to deal with the issue of history-erasure, and have a more complete version. The author's aim, therefore, is to "reclaim and to get as many of those erased stories back into the larger narrative" (Hall 85).
This section's main focus is showing the degree of importance attached to commercialized activities, at the expense of the environment, and people's safety. However, other points of concern are: the state's tendency to forget about the victims of such catastrophes, the change in the social aspect of people's lives after Hurricane Katrina, and the large extent of erasure facing such historical occurrences.
Effect of Commercialized Activities
Gulfport experienced massive economic growth in the late 1940s, attracting a large number of business developers. The rise in business developments brought more opportunities for employment, leading to growth of both the population and commercialized activities. The economic success continued through the 1950s and 60s, before Hurricane Camille struck in 1969. Attempts to revive Gulfport's economic affluence, which had been largely affected by the 1969 Hurricane Camille, saw the passage of the Mississippi Gaming Control Act in 1990 (Trethewey 64). The legislation legalized gambling and consequently saw the development of a significant number of coastal casinos. The resultant growth was extensive. For instance, "between 1992 and 1996, the number of hotel rooms at the coast increased from six thousand to more than nine thousand" (Trethewey 65).
The high economic growth yielded a number of positive results. In addition to the fact that gambling served as a leisure activity for many young people, casino activities, in totality, brought about many opportunities for employment. Most locals got absorbed in the areas of food and client...
Moreover, part of the revenues realized from the casino industry was used for the reformation of the education and police sectors in the coastal region.
However, the economic growth had its share of negative results: inadequate policies to ensure employee safety, and environmental damage. Casino employees worked under degrading conditions, without the fundamental "benefits, including workman's compensation - when any of the workers sustained injuries on the job, they paid for the trip to the emergency room themselves" (Trethewey 65).
By 1998, the effects of gaming activities were quite noticeable. The coastal shoreline was greatly altered as more sites for dockside gambling developed, and the shore was pushed further inwards. The resulting rise in the sea-water level was responsible for the disappearance of wetlands, which play a crucial role in "cleansing polluted water, recharging ground water, and absorbing storm wave energy" (Trethewey 60). In effect, wetland loss was dangerous for both marine and human life, as it "rendered the Mississippi Gulf Coast more susceptible to hurricane devastation" (Trethewey 60).
The poem 'providence' depicts the extent to which Gulfport was exposed to natural disaster. The poem paints a picture of the extremely strong winds witnessed, just before Hurricane Camille struck. Additionally, the haunting images that Treetheway recorded in the notebook allude to this fact. In the author's words, these recordings are evidence enough, that she, "like many people from the Mississippi Gulf Coast are haunted - even at the edges of consciousness -- by the possibility of a natural disaster" (Trethewey 7).
The Change in People's Social Lives
The change in people's interactions after Katrina is shown through Aesha, the girlfriend to the author's brother. Despite the fact that she has a month's claim, she gets evicted from her apartment. In her words "her landlords didn't care -- or couldn't care -- so busy were they dealing with their own difficult circumstances"…
Works Cited
Hall, Joan W., ed. Conversations with Natasha Trethewey. New York: Harper Collins, 2014. Print.
Trethewey, Natasha. Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Athens: University of Georgia, 2010. Print.
Katrina The problem with the response to Hurricane Katrina was not that a National Response Plan (NPR) was not in place or that a National Incident Management System (NIMS) did not exist. It was that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had been in decline for years, was suffering from significant turnover among top leaders, and the individuals who were in charge lacked the appropriate leadership experience and knowledge to oversee
psychological impact of Katrina & Lusitania Hurricane Katrina which took place in the year 2005 is said to be one of the worst storm disaster that took place in the history of the United States. It led to loss of many lives, and it was unavoidable. The winds both from Louisiana to Alabama caused the level of water to arise at about 80% of the New Orleans and neighborhoods. The
Hurricane Katrina revealed to the American public that race and class are still issues which are alive and well in the United States of America. The images on television and other media modes revealed that a select segment of society was overwhelmingly affected by this natural disaster. In fact, many died simply because they were poor and African-American. The adverse consequences they faced were a direct result of either actions
An organized effort, in this case, means knowing who is responsible for what, when the time comes. This prevents chaos in the event of a disaster. Planning for who is responsible for organizing a public memorial is the best way to quickly get the community back on the road to recovery. Another aspect of the community plan needs to address special populations that may have difficulty accessing services. At-risk populations
These groups, Flaherty asserts, provided the first organizers in shelters, and continue to support the homeless and luckless victims of Katrina. Meanwhile, an article in the journal Reason laid out the race and class dynamic with forceful simplicity: "Obviously, race and poverty are intertwined in America, and to that extent race was related to who survived in New Orleans" (Young, 2005). And when there are problems connected to the Republican
The research stated that Because disasters tend to accelerate existing economic, social, and political trends, the large losses in housing, population, and employment after Katrina are likely to persist and, at best, only partly recover. However, the possibility of breaking free of this gloomy trajectory is feasible and has some historical precedent Post-Katrina, there is much that can be done to help not only the city's renewal and revitalization from a