Katherine Stapp

NEW YORK, Aug 30 2006 (IPS) — They were the backbone of the U.S. Gulf Coast economy, working the hardest jobs for the lowest pay.

Now, a year after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita swept through the region, thousands of poor African-American women evacuees have been essentially left to fend for themselves in government trailer parks far from any urban centre, with no buses to get to work or childcare if they do find a job.

“We wanted to do something to lift the sisters and give them a voice, and to let the people around this country know that all is not well down here,” said Melanie Campbell, executive director of the National Coalition for Black Civic Participation, a group with 80 member organisations in 12 states.

So she and others organised a seven-day tour called “Hear Me Now! Reflections One Year After Katrina-Rita”, where women survivors in the states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, on the Gulf of Mexico coast, were invited to share their stories and concerns.

“We’re focusing on women, specifically black women, because many are alone and are the primary caregivers and don’t have support systems,” Campbell told IPS. “It’s as if [the hurricanes] happened yesterday, but we’re acting as if that tragedy is over and we’re waiting for the next one. Meanwhile people are having a crisis every day.”

Campbell noted that the cost of housing has escalated dramatically throughout the region. In Gulfport, Mississippi, for example, the average rent has soared from 300 dollars to 1,000 dollars a month. Urban populations have doubled and tripled overnight.

Katrina caused an estimated 81.2 billion dollars in damages and killed at least 1,836 people, making it the deadliest U.S. hurricane in nearly a century. The federal government’s disorganised and slow reaction in bringing aid, particularly to desperate flood survivors in the city of New Orleans, led to a congressional investigation and the resignation of the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Michael Brown.

“There needs to be a Marshall Plan [for rebuilding], and it has never happened. It was piecemeal from day one, after the debacle of the response,” Campbell said.

FEMA, which is handling the billions of dollars in aid for Katrina and Rita evacuees, reports that there are still some 101,174 families living in trailers and mobile homes a year after their homes were destroyed.

Charlotte McGee lives in the largest FEMA trailer park in Louisiana, ironically dubbed “Renaissance Village”, which houses over 2,000 Hurricane Katrina evacuees. She says the government reneged on pledges to provide food and propane for 18 months, services that were cut off in January. McGee, who has been disabled for three years, now must pay someone to buy and install propane tanks so she can cook.

“Every time I think about the federal government it just brings me to tears,” she told IPS in a telephone interview. “I’ve always been a taxpayer. I’m a black woman, and I’ve heard about racism, I’ve experienced racism, but the treatment that the government gave me and my family and my neighbours, people of colour, that was the most devastating thing. They just don’t care, and it really hurts.”

“It must be a low for America. How can my president just look away because I’m poor, because I’m black?” she asked.

Margaret Chopin, McGee’s neighbour and friend at the trailer park, said she has essentially been told to “just get over it” by government aid agencies.

“I’m trying to get over it,” she said, “but when I’m looking around at people that are hungry, needy, mentally disturbed, have become substance abusers, are suicidal, it’s hard.”

Chopin herself is so stressed out that once, while washing her clothes, she forgot she wasn’t back in her own home.

“I started to take off my socks and I almost took off my shirt, and then I realised I was in a laundromat in a trailer park,” she said.

Indeed, the depression rate among survivors living in temporary trailers in Louisiana and Mississippi is seven times the national average, according to a new study by the California-based International Medical Corps. They are also 15 times more likely to take their own lives than people in the rest of the United States.

Bishop Diana Taara Williams of Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation has been doing outreach and mental health work with hurricane survivors. She believes more federal aid should be funneled through faith-based and community groups, particularly to help people suffering from post-traumatic stress who don’t feel comfortable talking to outsiders.

Williams, who participated in the listening tour, which ended Tuesday, agreed that women have been hit hardest by the disaster.

“The lack of transportation at the trailer parks means women have a huge struggle to get to their jobs,” she said. “And what if the school calls and tells you your child is sick and you need to pick them up? There’s no way to do it. And there’s no childcare offered whatsoever.”

A new study by the Washington-based Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that even before the hurricane, women, and particularly African American women in the city of New Orleans, were at the bottom of the economic ladder. In fact, they were among the lowest paid women in the entire country.

Since the disaster, women’s employment has fallen more than men’s in the New Orleans metro area. At the same time, men’s wages have increased and women’s have fallen.

The study also found large disparities between the types of jobs held by men and women, and between white and black workers. While white women worked as lawyers, postsecondary teachers and waitresses, black women primarily worked as maids, health aids and cooks.

“It’s really disheartening,” said Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever, director of poverty, education, and social justice programmes at the institute. “It seems as if the types of jobs that are now available are largely excluding women, particularly in industries where women heavily dominated, like the healthcare and education professions.”

“Those were hit hard because about half the hospitals were shut down, and most of the schools. Women haven’t been able to re-enter the scene in a way that would allow them to take part in the rebuilding of the city,” she told IPS.

Educational disparities contribute to the problem, the report says. In 2004, among black women 25 and older, only 18.9 percent had a college degree or higher, compared with 50.6 percent of white women and 61.8 percent of white men living in New Orleans.

“But even when people of colour go that extra mile and do get those degrees, they still don’t earn comparably to their white counterparts at the same levels of education,” Jones-DeWeever noted.

Still, having traveled several times to the region, she said she was amazed at the level of resilience. “I’ve met with a lot of very dynamic women who are doing things themselves, pulling together grants and donations, working with religious and community organisations. People are not sitting there twiddling their thumbs and waiting for [U.S. President] George Bush to come down.”

Chopin and McGee are now working with Chase Bank to create a fund to buy land in the area and build decent, affordable homes for hurricane evacuees.

“We’re trying to make housing available so everybody gets out of here with a key,” Chopin said. “The government won’t help us so were trying to do it ourselves. We’re not looking for handouts, and we can’t sit back and wait. We’re forgotten. They’re talking about it today because it’s the anniversary, but we have nothing to celebrate.”