Uneven vulnerabilities · Contours disaster and difference between who lives and who dies is due to the social calculus (Smith, 2006, after Hurricane Katrina) · Some people bear the sharp brunt of tragedy in urban emergencies · Highly racialised and genders, disproportionately affects women, the poor, the vulnerable and the elderly · Women more likely to be living in poverty and make up a higher proportion of elderly so are generally more vulnerable · Mortality rates are increased more for women than men during an urban emergency - more duties to care and domestic ties, less mobility? The shock doctrine and 'disaster capitalism' (Naomi Klein) · Prisoner of interrogation methods making people child like can be replicated in whole communities during urban emergencies making everyone follow orders · Just as prisoners are softened up by shock, natural disasters shock us up so governments can push through painful policies before people can recover enough to protest · Shock wears off, it is temporary, so it is important to be informed and know what is going on · Politics rely on sharp shocks to achieve political change in the aftermath - disaster capitalism / economic shock therapy · Following hurricane Katrina, written that it was an opportunity to privatise the city and radically reform the education system Issues of access to mobility: · Haiti earthquake 2010 lost many lives, Port au Prince infrastructure, hospitals, ports and communication systems broke down . People who are able to survive disaster have differentiated access to mobility · Places like Haiti with splintering urbanism focus our attention onto who is capable of mobility States of emergency: the limits of democracy? · At certain times of emergency, the rules of law is suspended, powers are separated effecting democracy · Emergency powers originated in Britain through DORA act in 1914, WW1 . The state held onto DORA after the war into 1920 but the extension overlapped with a desire for protests and strikes . In 1939 start of WW2 there were amendments to the act to allow the state to reposes property and search homes without reason · COBRA making decisions on emergencies occurred in the 1970s and PM introduced three day week following miners strikes · Slight parallel to fines given in 2020 for sitting on benches during pandemic · Emergency legislation manages a lot of emergencies · Today our emergency legislation has planners, responses without obtrusive power although corona virus may have changed this Hurricane Katrina and the evacuation of New Orleans Why did the levees break?
. Four of the cities levees broke, 80% of the city flooded · 2000 people died, families were separated and communities permanently displaced . August 2005 Hurricane Katrina occurred causing a storm surge that broke the protection levees · Levee failure was key infrastructural vulnerability during this emergency . In 1965 there was another Hurricane, Hurricane Betsy which had heavy flooding in Florida and New Orleans, in response Congress passed flood control act so the Cores of Engineers were