NOW Board Calls for Disaster Planning Without Discrimination

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NOW Board Calls for Disaster Planning Without Discrimination

September 27, 2005

During NOW's September 2005 national board meeting, board members developed and passed a resolution calling attention to and demanding action to address the discrimination witnessed during the hurricane Katrina response and rescue efforts. "We expect our leaders to call for independent oversight of the rebuilding efforts, as well as an independent panel to review the disaster response and make recommendations for improvements," said NOW President Kim Gandy.

The resolution calls on officials to address the discrimination apparent in the response by the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA), Homeland Security, and the Bush administration. "We want to make sure that the money spent to rebuild the Gulf coast will be managed responsibly and that the people of the region will be tasked with and funded to rebuild their own communities and cities," said Gandy. NOW members are encouraged to find ways to directly help the survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and to voice concerns over the unfair and discriminatory approach that the Bush administration is taking in the rebuilding efforts.

ELIMINATE DISCRIMINATION IN DISASTER PLANNING AND RESPONSE IN THE UNITED STATES

WHEREAS, the statement of purpose of the National Organization for Women (NOW) calls for equal rights and responsibilities including freedom from discrimination based on sex, race, ethnic origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, physical/mental ability or parenthood; and

WHEREAS, the United States recently experienced Hurricane Katrina which killed hundreds of people, displaced thousands of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi residents, and caused billions of dollars in property damage; and

WHEREAS, the federal government response was grossly incompetent, led by Bush's FEMA and Homeland Security political appointees whose primary focus heretofore seemed to be the allocation of federal pork; and

WHEREAS, numerous sources have reported that Hurricane Katrina has had its greatest effect on women, people of color, lower income households and families, the elderly, children, ill and infirm individuals, and people with disabilities; and

WHEREAS, the immense tragedy experienced on the Gulf Coast exposed long standing discrimination and segregation practices in U.S. culture; and

WHEREAS, there was no evacuation plan for the people of New Orleans who did not own cars and could not afford to obtain transportation to leave; and

WHEREAS, buses reserved by FEMA were held outside the city of New Orleans in the white suburbs of Jefferson Parish and were not allowed by FEMA to enter New Orleans to rescue people from the Superdome or the Convention Center because it was "too dangerous;"

WHEREAS, rescue boats were not allowed to enter low-income, flooded, mostly African-American areas because it was 'too dangerous;" and

WHEREAS, low-income patients at the public Charity Hospital were not rescued for several days and were finally carried by dedicated hospital workers down pitch-dark stairways to nearby Tulane Hospital's helicopter pad, only to be left (some to die) while richer, less critically ill, private patients from Tulane and Methodist hospitals were rescued first; and

WHEREAS, the Jefferson Parish sheriffs and City of Gretna police used armed officers to stop hundreds of mostly-black evacuees from escaping the flood waters by crossing over the Crecent City Connection Bridge into Gretna, which is part of Jefferson Parish; and

WHEREAS, for several days, low income people, mostly black people, were not rescued from the Superdome or the Convention Center and many needlessly suffered and died; and

WHEREAS, bodies of the dead were not treated with dignity and were left untouched for weeks, and we still do not have a count or identification of the dead; and

WHEREAS, the Coast Guard heroically rescued people from rooftops in many cases only to place them on a highway bypass, with no further rescue for days and with virtually no provisions; and

WHEREAS, the relocation process has led to the separation of families, and has brought comparisons to the disintegration of families and communities during the Middle Passage of the slave trade; and

WHEREAS, the current administration is attempting to use this tragedy as an avenue for imposing long-time right-wing goals, such as the suspension of the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act requiring the payment of the prevailing wage in federal contracts, the imposition of private school vouchers, and the undermining of environmental regulations; and

WHEREAS, the Bush administration has announced a huge spending program to restore New Orleans and the Gulf Region without any plan, and is already handing out huge no-bid contracts to their "fat cat" political cronies -- the first such no-bid contract of $500 million went to Halliburton; and

WHEREAS, the Bush administration has repeatedly cut funds requested by the Corps of Engineers for urgently needed levee projects in New Orleans, which could have prevented much of the post-Katrina havoc; and

WHEREAS, the government's slow response and failure to deploy adequate personnel and resources contributed to the lack of personal safety and numerous accounts of physical, sexual and psychological violence particularly to women and children,

WHEREAS, the reopening of predominantly white areas of New Orleans, combined with the mass relocation of African-American residents to other parts of the nation is a form of "ethnic cleansing"; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that NOW denounces these racist and classist policies and actions;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NOW calls for immediate and effective action by the federal government to address the needs of those who have suffered from Hurricane Katrina, including but not limited to: reuniting family members, and providing housing, food, healthcare, counseling, employment, job training and education;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NOW calls on Congress to establish an independent commission to review the preparation for and response to Hurricane Katrina and make recommendations for the handling of future catastrophes, and that said commission include proportionate representation of female and male residents from the affected areas; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NOW calls on Congress to establish an independent oversight commission for the rebuilding efforts, eliminate no-bid contracts, give priority to contractors from the region, especially minority and women-owned businesses, require preferential hiring of local labor at a the pre-Katrina prevailing wage; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that NOW urges its members and supporters to take action as states, chapters, and individuals by:

Communicating to their congressional delegation the importance of establishing these independent commissions and for significant oversight by Congress;