JURIST Guest Columnist Jim Chen of the University of Minnesota
School of Law says that the Hurricane Katrina disaster one year
later still challenges us to acknowledge and address America's
deep social vulnerability, so exposed in the aftermath of the
storm... urricane Katrina broke America's collective heart. No
previous natural disaster in the nation's history inflicted a
grimmer toll. The legendary city of New Orleans all but sank
when its levees failed and the resulting storm surge drowned
much of the city and many of its feeblest, most vulnerable
residents. Although Katrina exposed flaws in virtually every
aspect of disaster management at every level of government in
the United States, the magnitude and senselessness of the loss
serve to indict American society for its callous disregard of
social vulnerability. "The moral test of government," said Vice
President Hubert H. Humphrey, "is how it treats those who are in
the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of
life, the aged; and thos