{"id":324271,"date":"2017-09-02T05:21:33","date_gmt":"2017-09-02T04:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/disaster-coverage-still-has-blind-spot-for-low-income-victims\/"},"modified":"2017-09-02T05:21:33","modified_gmt":"2017-09-02T04:21:33","slug":"disaster-coverage-still-has-blind-spot-for-low-income-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/disaster-coverage-still-has-blind-spot-for-low-income-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"Disaster Coverage Still Has Blind Spot for Low-Income Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"BBC:<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the few examples of journalism examining the impact of poverty on Harvey’s devastation came, unsurprisingly, from an overseas outlet.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August 2005, the national news media expressed collective alarm<\/a> at the discovery that in modern America, many people shelter in place during storms for the simple reason that they can\u2019t afford to get out (Extra!<\/b>, 7\u20138\/06<\/a>). As CNN<\/b> commentator Jack Cafferty (9\/1\/05) said, in the wake of scenes of poor New Orleanians trapped at that city\u2019s convention center with no food amid the bodies of their dead neighbors:<\/p>\n

\n

Many of them didn\u2019t follow the evacuation orders because they didn\u2019t have the means to get out of town. They just couldn\u2019t do it. A lot of them are sick. A lot of them don\u2019t have cars. A lot of them just didn\u2019t have the means to leave the Big Easy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Numerous media outlets (e.g., CNN<\/b>\u2019s Reliable Sources<\/b>, 9\/18\/05<\/a>) \u00a0vowed to do better in the future\u2014though within months, reports on poverty and the poor had retreated to background levels, and CNN<\/b> (2\/27\/06) was approvingly reporting on how New Orleans had ripped out the carpet at the convention center to \u201c[bring] it back ahead of schedule,\u201d even as at least half of the city\u2019s actual residents<\/a> remained displaced.<\/p>\n

Twelve years later, as Hurricane Harvey has wreaked devastating flooding across southeast Texas, reporters\u2019 ability to notice the nearly one-third of Americans living in or near poverty<\/a> has again been put to the test. And though direct comparisons with Katrina are tough\u2014Harvey is a different storm, playing out over days of rising waters instead of mere hours, and Houston chose not to call for residents to evacuate as New Orleans did in 2005\u2014news coverage has revealed some of the same blind spots that have plagued reporting on previous natural disasters.<\/p>\n

The slow progression of floodwaters made for plenty of ready-made drama: At times, CNN<\/b> seemed to have converted itself into a 24-hour rescue network, with tales of narrow escapes and heroic first responders. And as more deaths have been discovered, including a mother who died trying to save her three-year-old daughter from floodwaters (Washington Post<\/b>, 8\/30\/17<\/a>), much coverage has focused on these stories, with investigations of the storm\u2019s broader impacts having to wait.<\/p>\n

Much of the more in-depth coverage has focused on the floods\u2019 impacts on the aged and infirm, like the nursing home residents who were rescued after the daughter of one tweeted a photo of her walker-bound mother in waist-deep water (USA Today<\/b>, 8\/27\/17<\/a>). CNN<\/b> (8\/29\/17) reported on how \u201c<\/b>there are still plenty of people back there who either didn’t want to leave or haven’t been able to leave,\u201d focusing on two wheelchair-bound Houston residents, one who was rescued by jet ski, another whose fate was unknown.<\/p>\n

But if the elderly got special notice in Harvey coverage\u2014rightly\u2014there was relatively little focus on another group that is especially susceptible to natural disasters: the poor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the inequalities of your society, those are very often replicated in the disaster,\u201d says Jacob Remes, who teaches disaster studies at New York University. This plays out in several ways, he says:<\/p>\n

\n

People who have more money are likely to have friends who have more money, and so when they have to stay with friends, they\u2019re going to stay in a guest room. When poor people have to evacuate, they stay on a floor or on a couch\u2014and that\u2019s if they\u2019re lucky.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

During Hurricane Sandy, he notes, when his college shut down for two weeks, \u201cit was like a two-week vacation for me\u201d\u2014but \u201cfor people who work hourly, they were out of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

To discover what Harvey has meant to south Texas\u2019s low-income residents\u2014nearly 600,000 Harris County residents<\/a> live below the poverty line\u2014one had to read carefully between the lines. The New York Times<\/b> followed up its in-depth report on storm survivors (8\/27\/17<\/a>) with a long, sympathetic report (8\/28\/17<\/a>) on residents temporarily being housed in Houston\u2019s convention center.<\/p>\n

\"NYT:<\/a><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/strong> (8\/27\/17<\/a>) wondered how the homeless would weather the storm—but didn’t check back in to find out.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But aside from the former story\u2019s brief mention of an immigrant hotel worker who\u2019d waded through waist-deep waters to get to her $10-an-hour hotel job, washing and ironing sheets and towels\u2014and who, in the Times<\/b>\u2019 description, \u201cseemed to epitomize Houston\u2019s work ethic, its resolve and its shock\u201d\u2014the paper paid little attention to the wherewithal of those fleeing the storm or why they were there. The Times<\/b> (8\/27\/17<\/a>) did send a reporter on Saturday, as Harvey first hit, to report on homeless Houstonians trying to ride out the storm under flood-prone highway overpasses, but never followed up to see how they\u2019d fared once the waters rose.<\/p>\n

One question that reporters could easily have asked Harvey survivors, but generally did not, involved flood insurance. Only 17 percent of homeowners in affected counties have flood insurance, according to the Washington Post<\/b> (8\/29\/17<\/a>), while CNN<\/b> (8\/29\/17) pegged that number at 15 percent. (No one seems to have asked about renters, who may lose to flooding both their personal possessions and, significantly to their economic well-being, their cars.)<\/p>\n

The Associated Press<\/b> (8\/29\/17<\/a>) managed to write an entire report on Texans lacking flood insurance without talking to a single resident (it did note that \u201cpeople in those areas and near them have complained for years that the premiums are too high,\u201d without elaborating), while the Washington Post<\/b> (8\/29\/17<\/a>) worried only that \u201cHouston’s middle-class homeowners are unlikely to have the savings or insurance to rebuild, and that could have devastating consequences for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Largely uninvestigated in Harvey coverage, meanwhile, were the reasons why Texans might be deciding to go without flood insurance. The cost of the federal National Flood Insurance Program, the most commonly used policy, has been on the rise thanks to an increasing number of damaging storms that has drained the program\u2019s finances (New York Times<\/b>, 4\/7\/17<\/a>; The Hill<\/b>, 8\/30\/17<\/a>)\u2014a result of both stronger storms thanks to climate change<\/a>, and increasing development sprawl<\/a> that has left more residents in the path of danger. President Trump has proposed cutting funding for updated flood maps that would let residents know their risk and thus their need for insurance, a cost that the National Flood Insurance Program is likely to pass along in the form of higher insurance premiums (Forbes<\/b>, 3\/18\/17<\/a>); Just days before Harvey made its first landfall, Trump\u2019s FEMA administrator, Brock Long, endorsed the idea of requiring either policyholders or state and local governments to take on higher costs of flood insurance (Bloomberg<\/b>, 8\/23\/17<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"Democracy<\/a><\/p>\n

Democracy Now!<\/strong> (8\/29\/17<\/a>) examined how class and race affected the hurricane’s choice of victims.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Another disaster impact that falls unevenly on the poor is environmental. Even before the explosions at the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Democracy Now!<\/b> (8\/29\/17<\/a>) noted that neighborhoods near petrochemical facilities, according to environmental justice activist Bryan Parras, were \u201cliterally getting gassed\u201d by effluents from shuttered oil refineries. A Houston Chronicle<\/b> map (8\/31\/17<\/a>) shows how petrochemical facilities are clustered on the city\u2019s poorer east side<\/a>; these largely low-income neighborhoods already suffer from high rates of respiratory disease and cancer (The Nation<\/b>, 6\/3\/14<\/a>), as well as high unemployment as both residents and businesses have pulled up stakes and fled the recurrent toxic fumes, leaving behind those who can\u2019t afford to relocate.<\/p>\n

\u201cHouston is the fourth-largest city, but it\u2019s the only city that does not have zoning,\u201d explained Texas Southern University professor Robert Bullard on Democracy Now!<\/b>. \u201cAnd what it has is\u2014communities of color and poor communities have been unofficially zoned as compatible with pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n

By contrast, most mentions of the petrochemical industry in Harvey coverage have been regarding its possible impact on car drivers in the rest of the US: As CNN<\/b>\u2019s Alisyn Camerota (8\/29\/17) put it, \u201cThe torrential rain and catastrophic flooding impacting America’s oil industry in a big way, and that means higher prices at the pump for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Virtually every news outlet (e.g., Washington Post<\/b>, 8\/28\/17<\/a>; Wired<\/b>, 8\/28\/17<\/a>) devoted attention to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner\u2019s decision not to call for residents to evacuate\u2014noting the lessons learned from Hurricane Rita in 2005, when dozens of people died on the roads during an evacuation panic. But few noted the problems faced by those who might want<\/i> to evacuate, but lacked cars or the money for gas or a place to stay\u2014though the LA Times<\/b> (8\/28\/17<\/a>) did note in passing that one reason not to call for an evacuation was that \u201cthe city would also have to scramble to transport the poor, the elderly and the disabled who did not have cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, remarkably few outlets investigated people\u2019s reasons for staying put, financial or otherwise. A Guardian<\/b> report (8\/30\/17<\/a>) on Cajun Navy volunteer rescuers who had trouble convincing residents to be evacuated by boat never asked any of those declining help why they were choosing to stay put, despite reports that floodwaters could rise another four feet. A Vox<\/b> report (8\/25\/17<\/a>) on the eve of the storm, meanwhile, elaborated multiple possible reasons people might choose to remain in harm\u2019s way, including disabilities, fear of looters or not wanting to be separated from pets\u2014but not lack of a car or other resources\u2014before spending much of the article discussing ways to frighten people into leaving, including using markers to write Social Security numbers on their skin so their bodies can be identified by search and rescue teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost reporters don’t understand what it’s like to live under severely constrained economic circumstances\u2014and media rarely help people learn such things,\u201d says Stephen Pimpare, a University of New Hampshire professor who has authored several books on Americans\u2019 attitudes toward poverty. \u201cSo they are baffled by some people’s inability to do what, to them, seems easy and obvious.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were some improvements over Katrina coverage, which was notable for reports, later revealed to be unsubstantiated, of widespread violence and looting. When ABC News<\/b> reporter Tom Llamas (Twitter<\/b>, 8\/29\/17<\/a>) reported on \u201clooting\u201d at a Houston supermarket\u2014and then noted seemingly in passing that a dead body had been discovered nearby\u2014he was lambasted on social media, and in several news reports (MarketWatch<\/b>, 8\/30\/17<\/a>), and even columnist Becket Evans of the conservative Washington Examiner<\/b> (8\/29\/17<\/a>) cited \u201cChristian theology\u201d as justification for taking another\u2019s property when in fear for your life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s been a lot of realization that that rhetoric of dangerous, animalistic people in New Orleans was seriously harmful, because it kept away real aid,\u201d says Remes, noting that he\u2019s seen articles for journalism students on this very subject.<\/p>\n

\"Houston<\/a><\/p>\n

Unconfirmed claims of violence by “looters” were sometimes reported (Houston Chronicle<\/strong>, 8\/29\/17<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Looting panic did break out in some corners of the media, but remained relatively contained. Both Fox 5 San Diego<\/b> (8\/28\/17<\/a>) and the Daily Caller<\/b> (8\/28\/17<\/a>) repeated the Facebook<\/b> claims of Clyde Cain of the Louisiana Cajun Navy rescue team that thieves had tried to make off with one of their boats\u2014a charge that other news outlets revealed to be unconfirmed (Miami Herald<\/b>, 8\/29\/17<\/a>). The Houston Chronicle<\/b> (8\/29\/17<\/a>) reported without questioning statements by Houston Police Officers Union vice president Joe Gamaldi that looters had fired shots at police and firefighters responding to the scene, which also turned out to be unverified.<\/p>\n

Some of the most incisive reporting, meanwhile, came from the international press. The BBC<\/b> (8\/27\/17<\/a>) reported on residents of \u201chardscrabble\u201d Rockport who were hit by the brunt of the storm, unable to flee because, as one resident said, \u201cI had some problems getting out of town, a little broke and stuff, so I had to come home and, you know, tough it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Atlantic<\/b> (8\/27\/17<\/a>) was one US-based exception, noting that \u201cwhile many South Texans evacuated North<\/a> per the recommendation of Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a>, poorer or disabled residents may not have had the resources or the capability to follow that advice,\u201d and pointing out that poorer residents tend to be concentrated in areas more prone to flooding.<\/p>\n

\"NYT:<\/a><\/p>\n

“Tropical Storm Harvey…wreaked havoc across Houston, battering poor and rich with similar ferocity.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Poor people being subjected to misery, of course, aren\u2019t news in the same way that the wealthy are. The New York Times<\/strong> (8\/31\/17<\/a>), in a puzzling article headlined “Storm With \u2018No Boundaries\u2019 Took Aim at Rich and Poor Alike,” reported on two flooded-out Texans, one a working-class construction worker, one a well-off doctor. While the Times<\/strong> briefly noted that “there are huge differences between the options open to the poor and to the well-to-do”\u2014the doctor has savings and flood insurance, the construction worker does not\u2014it concluded that “the devastation is connecting people of disparate means in one common experience: loss,” leaving readers with the impression that the true tragedy here was that the flooding hadn’t spared those with expensive homes.<\/p>\n

And on Tucker Carlson Tonight<\/b> (Fox News<\/b>, 8\/29\/17), correspondent Trace Gallagher remarked over footage of flooding that the damage included \u201c<\/b>hundreds of houses in a very upscale neighborhood here in Lake Houston,\u201d where \u201c400 people [were] taken out on rescue boats.\u201d Carlson\u2019s response: \u201cAnd not just people, but deer.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, there were occasions throughout the Harvey disaster where animals appeared to be getting more attention than poor people. NBC News<\/b> (8\/30\/17<\/a>) and Fox News<\/b> (8\/30\/17<\/a>) were among the outlets reporting on pet rescues, while an image of a dog named Otis carrying a bag of scavenged dog food went viral, with the pooch being called \u201csweet\u201d by AOL.com<\/b> (8\/29\/17<\/a>) and \u201cresourceful\u201d on the Today<\/b> show (8\/28\/17<\/a>). No outlets, at least, accused Otis of looting\u2014if that\u2019s progress, we\u2019ll have to take it.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Research assistance: Gunar Olsen<\/em>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>
\nThis piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the few examples of journalism examining the impact of poverty on Harvey’s devastation came, unsurprisingly, from an overseas outlet. Days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August 2005, the national news media expressed collective alarm at the discovery that in modern America, many people shelter in place during storms for the simple […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-324271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}