by Elizabeth Wright & Tonio Verzone

As Oakland area writer and activist Bob Wing stated, “Disasters are not purely natural events; they can be caused or seriously aggravated by human action like global warming, racism, poor city planning, economic inequality, incompetence, greed, politics and war.”

Such is surely the case for the governmental and national disaster that has followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005. However, that is not the first time that the human actions of racism and poor planning have aggravated a natural catastrophe. The timeline below highlights several examples.

May 31, 1889 – Johnstown Flood, Johnstown, PA
Lake Conemaugh broke through its dam. Rushing down at 40 miles per hour, the flood devastated the 14-mile valley between Lake Conemaugh and Johnstown, PA, killing more than 2,200 people. Many who survived awaited rescue for days on top of broken homes and debris.

The failure of the South Fork dam came as no surprise. Owned at the time by the South Fork Fishing & Hunting Club, the dam’s reliability had long been a contentious issue. Some area residents suspected that the club had carelessly modified the dam to benefit wealthy homeowners living on Lake Conemaugh.

After the flood, several unsuccessful lawsuits were filed against the club. The disaster was ruled an “act of God,” absolving Club members of liability.

April 18, 1906 – Earthquake and Fire, San Francisco, CA
At 5:12 AM, a major earthquake struck San Francisco, registering 8.25 on the Richter scale. Although the quake lasted only a minute, it ignited fires which ravaged the city for three days, destroyed 490 city blocks, and left 250,000 homeless and thousands more dead.

Only 478 deaths were reported, leaving hundreds of casualties in Chinatown ignored and unrecorded. Between 3,000 and 6,000 lives are now believed to have been lost. (US Census Bureau, Facts for Features, Special Edition: “100th Anniversary: San Francisco Earthquake – 4/12/06)”

Employing anti-Chinese racism, developers attempted to grab the prime real estate temporarily abandoned by 25,000 Chinese residents. As Chinese residents left town, city officials moved quickly to keep them from returning. The police were unleashed against anyone suspected of looting, and many were killed trying to salvage items from their own homes and businesses.

The Army built 5,610 “relief houses” to accommodate 20,000 displaced people. The camps had a peak population of 16,448 people.

Although many Chinese residents were never able to return, a combination of Chinese resistance and the city’s desire for Chinatown taxes foiled the power elite’s plan to destroy Chinatown.
April 16, 1927 – Great Flood, Greenville Mississippi
In 1927, the Mississippi River was undergoing fast-paced development. The Army Corps of Engineers constructed levees stretching from Cairo, Illinois to New Orleans, and declared that the levee system would prevent future flooding along the river.

In 1927, rain came down the Mississippi valley in quantities exceeding ten times the yearly average. Rivers throughout the region overflowed their banks, flooding parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois, and Kentucky. In March, white residents of Greenville, Mississippi fled the area and headed north to escape the rising waters.

Greenville police rounded up African Americans at gunpoint and sent them to work on the levees as “slave” laborers for the Red Cross. “You stayed on the levee unless you got a pass to be able to go into town. You had to have a tag on you. Your chest was full of tags. You don’t go nowhere unless you got permission to go. You had to have a tag on you. And it was just … it was really slavery,” remembers Greenville resident David Cober. Convicts were also forced to work, and ultimately 30,000 men were moved onto the levee camp to stack sand bags.

In parts of Greenville, river water poured through broken levees at a rate twice that of Niagara Falls. Many of the African American workers were swept away with the river. For 100 miles around Greenville, the Delta became a sea, leaving thousands stranded on rooftops and clinging to trees.

May 30, 1948 – Vanport Flood, Oregon
On the banks of the Columbia River, the city of Vanport contained one of the largest public housing projects in the country. At its peak, nearly 50,000 people—many of whom were Black—called Vanport home.
On May 30, after heavy rains and high snow melt, the Housing Authority of Portland issued the following statement: “Remember: Dikes are safe at present. You will be warned if necessary. You will have time to leave. Don’t get excited.”

The entire city of Vanport was washed away after a dike along the Columbia River gave way. Although only 15 people died in the flood, the entire population of Vanport was left homeless and most lost all their belongings.

Vanport was never rebuilt. Government officials were criticized for their failure to adequately warn residents and for their slow response after the flood.

September 9, 1965 – Hurricane Betsy, New Orleans, LA
Hurricane Betsy made landfall at Grand Isle, Louisiana. It was one of the most intense, deadly, and costly storms to make landfall in the United States to date. The storm killed 76 people in Louisiana, and was the first hurricane to cause damages in excess of $1 billion. Betsy drove a storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain, causing the levees for the Mississippi River to fail. The flood water reached the eaves of houses in some places. Some residents drowned in their attics trying to escape the rising waters.

The lower Ninth Ward neighborhood took the brunt of the hit because a levee collapsed. Residents insisted that the levee failing wasn’t an accident but instead their community was sacrificed intentionally.

“We could hear ‘em that night blowing the levees. They knew if they didn’t, the water was gonna get to the French Quarter or to the white people uptown. And they didn’t want that,” Horace, a 16-year-old resident of New Orleans, said.

It was 10 days before the water level in New Orleans went down enough for people to return to their homes. Those who did not have family or friends with dry homes had to sleep in the shelters at night and forage for supplies during the day, while waiting for the federal government to provide emergency trailers. 164,000 homes were flooded at the second landfall. The Army Corps of Engineers built new levees for New Orleans designed specifically to resist a Category 3 hurricane. The resulting levee improvements failed when Hurricane Katrina hit.

February 9, 1972 – Buffalo Creek Flood, West Virginia
In the early 20th century, railroads built in Appalachia provided access to the region’s rich coal resources. By the 1940s, coal production began in Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, and pollution and environmental destruction soon followed. The Buffalo Mining Company (owned by the Pittston Corporation) built a preparation plant for cleaning coal. The plant used 500,000 gallons of water a day and discharged black sludge directly into Buffalo Creek. Two problems were apparent for the mine: large quantities of water had accumulated behind the refuse dump and new state anti-pollution laws prohibited draining the sludge-filled water straight into Buffalo Creek. The company solved both problems by building a coal waste retaining dam above the big refuse dump.
By February 1968, residents feared the collapse of the dam and the refuse pile, and contacted the Governor, asking that he do something about it. Inspectors from the Public Service Commission and Water Resource Division looked at the dams, but no action was taken.

Just four years later, water and coal refuse measuring 30 feet high and 550 feet across burst through its hillside location after two days of rain. Waste cascaded more than 15 miles down Buffalo Creek, washing out communities along the way. The disaster killed 125 people, injured 1,000, and left 4,000 homeless. Property damage exceeded $50 million.

“We all just started drifting with the water. We were all hanging onto Daddy, and this big old car came and hit Daddy in the side and knocked Mommy loose from him. The last time we saw Mommy, she was going down the river hollering for help,” recalls Barbara Elkins, a survivor of the flood.

Following the disaster, 625 plaintiffs filed a class-action lawsuit against the Pittston Company. In response, Pittston hired a public relations firm, which asked the press not to report the pretrial actions – such as depositions in which Pittston officials said they talked about the rising water level, but did nothing. Ultimately, the 625 plaintiffs were awarded $8.5 million.

“Officials of the Buffalo Creek – Pittston Company are guilty of murdering at least 124 men, women and children living Creek Hollow,” read the findings of the Buffalo Creek Citizens Commission.

“Buffalo Mining couldn’t be charged with negligent homicide because there’s no way to put a corporation in jail,” stated Oval Damron, a Logan prosecutor.

August, 2005 – Hurricane Katrina, Gulf Coast
August 28 2005: Katrina upgraded to a Category 5 hurricane. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin issues “mandatory evacuation” orders. Louisiana National Guard requests 700 FEMA buses for evacuations. Only 100 are sent. As many as 30,000 people gather at the Superdome with 36 hours worth of food. Reports abound of possible levee failure.

August 29 2005: The 17th Street Canal levee is breached. Two major flood-control levees are breached, and the National Weather Service reports “total structural failure” in parts of New Orleans. A section of the roof of the Louisiana Superdome is torn open by the storm, threatening those taking refuge inside. On the same day, President Bush poses for a photo op with Senator John McCain’s birthday cake. Louisiana Governor Blanco asks Bush for help – “we need everything you’ve got.” Bush goes to bed without addressing requests.

Tens of thousands are trapped inside the Superdome and 25,000 are trapped in the Convention Center as conditions deteriorate, with no food and water. 80,000 people are stranded in flooded New Orleans. A public health emergency is declared for the entire Gulf Coast.

Director of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff stated, “The Dept. of Homeland Security is extremely pleased with the response of every element of the federal government to this terrible tragedy.”

In flooded New Orleans, stranded people remain in buildings, on roofs, in the backs of trucks or gathered on higher ground. Although 40,000 National Guard troops were requested, only 4,200 National Guard troops were deployed.
Low-income African Americans made up a disproportionate share of the hurricane’s victims. Prior to Katrina, 40% of the 9th Ward/Orleans Parish earned under $20,000 per year, and more than 70% of the households were headed by a single parent. More than one in three black households in New Orleans (35 %) lacked a vehicle.

Approximately 300,000 homes were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, over half of them beyond repair. 750,000 people were displaced by the Hurricane and many still cannot return home.

1,723 deaths have been attributed to the Katrina disaster. However, the real number may never be known. A Congressional report called the response to Katrina a “failure of leadership.” FEMA director Michael Brown has been the only local, state or national political leader to be removed over Katrina.

Neil Smith, a professor of anthropology at City University of New York, summed it up this way: “There is no such thing as a natural disaster. In every phase and aspect of disaster – causes, vulnerability, preparedness, results and response – the contours of disaster and the difference between who lives and who dies is to a greater or lesser extent a social calculus.”

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The timeline above was developed at the Highlander Center by Elizabeth Wright and Tonio Verzone, based on discussions at a Highlander Center workshop in March 2006. The timeline and other materials developed at the workshop will be available soon on the Highlander website: www.highlandercenter.org.