Thread by @mayatcontreras

1. It's the 17th Anniversary of #HurricaneKatrina. Aug. 29, 2005. Below is a report from 2002. It warned that the Levees had only been built "to withstand a Category 3." Katrina was a Category 5. 1,833 died, and millions were displaced. Bush, cut the levee budget to pay for Iraq.

2. June 8, 2004: Walter Maestri, emergency management for Jefferson Parish, warned the Times-Picayune a year before Katrina: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq. I suppose that’s the price we pay..."

3. Walter Maestri, from the June 8, 2004 interview continued, "Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us." pbs.org/wgbh/pages/fro…

4. The Federal government and its agencies were lackadaisical in their response even as local and state officials and the public begged for aid. #HurricaneKatrina

5. Some residents born and raised in Louisiana became permanently displaced, and could not afford to stay in their home or community, and this led to mass gentrification, "Gentrification was more likely in neighborhoods that had worse physical damage.”
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

6. Black women were disproportionally harmed and ignored by government officials when mapping out recovery policy. #HurricaneKatrina bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

7. By the way, Black women were the only group that polled in the majority against invading Iraq. Never doubt our political instincts. #HurricaneKatrina

@PatrinaC Thank you! That's what I get when I post before coffee. :(