Disaster relief: Hurricane Katrina

Second anniversary of the Gulf Coast disaster

All of us at UUSC were deeply moved by the tragedy that struck the U.S. Gulf Coast. Our thoughts remain with those who lost family members, homes, and livelihoods as a result of Hurricane Katrina. To support relief and recovery efforts, UUSC joined with the Unitarian Universalist Association to establish the UUA-UUSC Gulf Coast Relief Fund.

In moments of human suffering on this scale, the fact that forces of nature beyond our control bear responsibility may bring a strange solace. But in this case, although Katrina was indeed a terrible storm, the enormity of the disaster it has wrought is, in every sense, a human tragedy.

As a starting point, even the extremes of the storm’s fury can be traced to the rising ocean temperatures brought about by global warming. Further, the fact that New Orleans was no more than a breached levee away from a catastrophe of historic proportions has been well known and widely analyzed for decades. While public and private interests pursuing “development” continued to take actions that increased the city’s vulnerability, resources that might have shored up levees or reduced the risks in other ways were directed elsewhere.

As the city lay in Katrina’s path, government officials prepared no plan to evacuate the most vulnerable people, those who lacked the wherewithal and/or the ability to get out of the center city. For the media, those residents — predominantly black and poor — became "those who chose to stay." It is no accident that they have also become the victims, pariahs, and heroes of a most unnatural disaster.

That this crisis is human-made only adds to our collective responsibility to respond. Join UUSC as we act from our hearts and share of our bounty to support the affected people’s own efforts to respond to this crisis. And join with us as we raise our voices to demand that the government response to this tragedy respect and protect the basic human rights of those who are enduring the nightmare. However you act, do so now!