Recovery Planning After Hurricane Katrina: A Case of Climate Justice

Abstract

Natural disasters give researchers and practitioners a unique opportunity to rebuild cities in a manner that integrates resilience and disaster risk reduction programs. However, the disaster recovery process is often unequal, and gentrification may occur in post-disaster reconstruction. Previous research reveals that urban transformations within New Orleans, Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina widened the gap between the rich and the poor, led to uneven representation in the City’s government during recovery planning, and pushed the most vulnerable individuals away from the city, reducing future opportunities for urban and socio-demographic diversity. This study builds upon this previous research and contends that race and ethnic components were predictors of delayed or discriminatory planning in the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. This is especially true for neighborhoods that were home to high concentrations of African Americans before Katrina and experienced a rapid population decline in the aftermath, such as the Lower Ninth Ward. Using the Lower Ninth Ward as a case study, this article highlights the social, economic, and political context of post-Katrina planning and uses spatial analysis to support the theory that reconstruction efforts in the Lower Ninth Ward were discriminatory to African American communities.