Disasters

Today, another tsunami smashed into Indonesia, killing many people. In the past few days, a man from Gulfport, Mississippi, rendered homeless last year by Katrina, died in a fire in his FEMA trailer. Authorities were trying to find a relative before releasing his name.

People of faith, and insurance companies, call these "natural disasters." The former do so out modesty and awe at the terrible power of God. Faith allows people to accept these horrors as part of some larger plan that may not be apparent to mere mortals. The latter do so as part of a strategy to get out of paying off legitimate claims.

There is a little-noticed trial going on in Gulfport, involving how an insurance company did not cover the losses of homeowners post-Katrina, saying the damage was caused by flooding, and most residents did not carry flood insurance.

When I interviewed residents (as well the volunteers who were helping them) along the Gulf Coast three months after Katrina hit, they all described a similar experience: The Gulf of Mexico, pushed by Katrina's winds, rose up into a wall of water 30 feet high. This terrifying wave destroyed almost everything in its path as it roared ashore.

In East Biloxi, which is a peninsula, the wave rushing in from the Gulf crashed head-on into a second 30-foot wave rushing in from the opposite direction, Back Bay. The two exploded over East Biloxi, and the result, when I saw it, was beyond my powers of description. Let's say I fell silent as my girlfriend drove me through these ruined streets, and those who know me understand it takes a lot to shut me up.

Here is how it looked:



I am neither a man of faith nor of the insurance industry. Just a simple observer, a journalist trained to notice details. My analysis is the social forces that lead poor people to congregate in marginal areas, vulnerable areas, provide the context for who gets hurt most when disasters strike.

In other words, God may well make the earth shake and the waters rise; and insurance adjusters may well have the final word on whether policy-holders get help (though the courts, and especially juries of peers have a voice in this matter); but it is the class system of the modern world that more often than not, determines who lives and who dies when tsunamis and hurricanes hit.

Afterwards, as the cleanup begins, a land grab ensues, and those victimized once by the storm, are inevitably victimized twice as casinos (Mississippi), or hotels (Indonesia) seize their land. I hope I don’t sound too cynical, dear reader, which is not my intent. My intent is to honor the angels who show up to help victims survive, and organize to fight for a better tomorrow.