Go Maher Restoration Scholarship Contest 2022: Biggest natural disasters in the US and how it has impacted communities

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One of the largest natural disasters that occurred in the history of the US, was Hurricane Katrina. It is a mostly well-known phenomena that lower income communities suffer the brunt of damage whenever natural disasters occur. Before Katrina, it was known of the physical gaps in the levees surrounding Louisiana. Years before, engineers and some government officials warned of the failed wall, and how it could impact the state, primarily lower income communities in the southern region of Louisiana. Unfortunately, their warnings were not heeded. Up to $180 Billion in damage, 1800 lives lost, tens of thousands of jobs gone, and 800k or more people displaced due to flooding and destruction of homes.

One of the consequences of ignoring advice by professionals is the displacement of lower income workers. Obviously, as part of the state was uninhabitable, these citizens now had to move to surrounding states and cities in order to set up a new home and work. Many, if not most, of those people never received the proper financial help to get back on their feet. Some had nowhere to go, a few stayed with family, most others completely started from scratch, while the wealthy, already have multiple properties or a decent personal financial safety net, could afford to temporarily move, or start fresh elsewhere. This is a continued "failure" of the federal and, many "fiscally conservative", state governments. They operate in the paradigm that individuals are sufficiently able and capable to withstand the effects of these large natural disasters; they are not. 

The horrendous economic policies of the Reagan administration has been implemented, regular average workers need the help and assistance of diligent government to ensure they are able to have the same level of survival as those who were much more financially well-off. This income discrepancy has only been further aggravated by the continuous influx of disasters that keep hitting poorer people are disproportionate rates. The levees in Louisiana have been completed this year but one wonders how many lives, properties, and livelihoods would have been saved among the working class if these warnings had been heeded years before Katrina.