I cannot help but think about Hurricane Katrina and the dismal response we witnessed from federal and state authorities after the storm. During the event, George W Bush Jr was the sitting president. Well over a thousand people died during Hurricane Katrina. History (despite Trump's efforts to erase it) will forever remember images of people standing and waving on rooftops for help which never came, or came simply too late. The Bush administration's response to aid people was outrageous. Much of the hurricane victims resided in predominantly black areas, a similar parallel to what we see with the storm impacting Gary Indiana a few weeks ago. Racial dynamics certainly can play a role in withholding or expediting state and federal responses to natural disasters. We have seen it before.
Keep in mind it is summertime in Indiana and the temperatures are hot! A lot of residents in Gary have lost food in their refrigerators and even freezers. They have to deal with the rotting mess adding further insult to the injury. School attendance has been canceled and some stores are basically out of food, water, and essentials. Trees, limbs and other debris litter the streets and create hazardous situations even until this day. Many homes have extensive property damage and I'm not sure FEMA has reached out to these individuals. To compound the issue our felon Chief Donald J Trump is the sitting president.
The New York Times reports Indiana's governor Mike Braun has called for an investigation into a regional utility company regarding its slow response to restore power. "The utility, Northern Indiana Public Service Co., had promised that power would be restored by Tuesday to the nearly 4,000 customers who are still in the dark after a storm that ripped through northwest Indiana on Aug. 11. The storm toppled trees and knocked out electricity, at one point, to more than 370,000 customers."
Gary Indiana is predominately a black city. We know how such demographics effect federal and even the state level response during catastrophic events. The inadequate response following the aftermath of the Gary storm rarely makes the news on prime time networks. Stories about the struggles of its residents are scarce to make local news in the area I live in which is a hell pit in the south. However, Indiana is a red state. It is going to be "interesting" to see how this plays out as Indiana's state government attempts to tap into federal resources for its residents and to address the damage in the area.
