Why many Texans couldn’t leave during the hurricane.
Hurricane Harvey has devastated many areas of Texas.
One woman, Judie, said she stayed because she had nowhere to go and didn’t have the money to leave.
In 2008, when Hurricane Gustav was about to bear down on New Orleans, residents told CNN they couldn’t afford to leave.
One of the people interviewed, Sidney William, said he couldn’t afford to leave when Katrina hit and he couldn’t afford to leave before Gustav.
But one of the major reasons people gave for staying in the area was money: Although many of the participants had cars, they did not have cash to evacuate, since they would have had to evacuate before their next paycheck.
“This is part of the legacy of historic inequities and discriminatory housing and other policies that have pushed low-income people and communities of color to low-lying areas that are highly vulnerable to flooding and are sources of pollution and landfills that make conditions particularly hazardous.” It doesn’t always occur to emergency responders that these communities lack the resources to move during a weather event either, Kelly said.
In some cases, people stay to protect their property, especially their houses.
The budget also proposes killing the EPA’s environmental justice program, which helps low-income communities, indigenous communities, and communities of color access clean air and clean water.
The team’s research also suggested that “the rich may have the resources to move away from areas facing natural disasters, leaving behind a population that is disproportionately poor.” “Water pollution risks in low-income areas and limited availability of affordable and safe housing — these are problems that already exist and in the wake of a storm, they are exacerbated,” Kelly said.