Lessons 'unlearned'

"Twenty years ago, the floodwalls protecting the city of New Orleans crumbled when Hurricane Katrina made landfall, killing almost 1,500 people. Scenes of desperation were broadcast worldwide on August 29, 2005, from across the southern United States city of about 500,000 people, particularly from its inundated and predominantly Black Ninth Ward. The storm, which targeted Gulf Coast states and killed more than 1,800 people in total, was the third deadliest hurricane on the US mainland since 1900."

"It quickly became a mass displacement event often compared to the Great Plains exodus during the 1930s Dust Bowl. In its wake, Katrina's generational destruction laid bare stark realities of rampant racial and economic inequality, prompting a passionate if incomplete reckoning over both local policies and national responsibilities to vulnerable communities before and after extreme weather events. Two decades later, the storm's legacy continues to haunt many experts in the emergency disaster field,"

Hurricane Katrina's breach of New Orleans floodwalls in 2005 killed almost 1,500 people in the city and over 1,800 across the Gulf Coast, causing widespread flooding, especially in the predominantly Black Ninth Ward. The storm triggered mass displacement comparable to the 1930s Dust Bowl exodus and exposed deep racial and economic inequalities. Katrina's destruction revealed fragility in systems meant to protect citizens and led to an incomplete reckoning of local policies and national responsibilities toward vulnerable communities before and after extreme weather. Two decades later, the storm's legacy continues to influence emergency preparedness while proposals to reduce federal emergency capacity raise concerns about repeating past failures.

Read at www.aljazeera.com