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.Butthere is also an expectation of compassion and empathy.Manycriticized Bush for not failing to recognize how truly horriblethe situation was for Gulf Coast residents.People had losteverything they had.In Biloxi, Mississippi, for example, oneman told CNN that all that was left of his house and belong-ings was a single shoe.In nearby Waveland, only tiny remind-ers of the lives people once led could be found among thewreckage things such as family photos, Barbie dolls, jazzrecords, whiskey bottles, according to one CBS News report. 1Exodus from the Gulf CoastKanye s Revengeuotations often come to symbolize a particular time periodQor event like when Martin Luther King declared I have adream during the civil rights era, or when Neil Armstrongfamously stated that the U.S.Moon landing was one smallstep for man; one giant leap for mankind. Hurricane Katrinahas no shortage of memorable quotations, but none sparkedas much controversy as the statement that rapper KanyeWest made in front of millions of viewers during a live televi-sion appearance on NBC s Concert for Hurricane Relief the evening of Friday, September 2.Abandoning his script,West told Americans who had tuned in to the broadcast that George Bush doesn t care about black people. This was definitely not what NBC had bargained for whenit booked the musician to help solicit funds for the Katrina res-cue efforts.West was supposed to say a few things about thedevastation and rebuilding, but instead began his imprompturemarks with complaints about the slow federal response andmedia portrayals of African-American evacuees as criminalsor looters. NBC removed his comments from its taped WestCoast broadcast, but celebrities including fellow rapper andmusic producer Sean Diddy Combs applauded West forsaying publicly what others were thinking privately.Others,including former congressman and conservative commenta-tor Newt Gingrich, felt the rapper s remarks were despicableand dishonest. But, they grabbed attention nonetheless.People began selling t-shirts with the slogan, while one musi-cian even recorded a song inspired by it. 2HURRICANE KATRINACould Bush really relate to what it was like to have an entirelife s savings or possessions wiped out by the storm? And didhe understand that Brownie as he called the FEMA direc-tor, was hardly doing a heck of a job. Michael Brown haddropped the ball, just like his boss Michael Chertoff.Nevertheless, under the leadership of the National Guard sGeneral Russell Honore, a native Louisianan who had alreadybegun barking some orders in New Orleans on Wednesday,massive evacuations and relief occurred over the weekend.The airport filled up from wall to wall with evacuees, whowere flown off to temporary shelters all around the country.Appearing Monday at the Astrodome in Houston, the formerfirst lady Barbara Bush added yet another unfortunate gaffeto the series of embarrassing public statements made afterKatrina.Touring the facility with her husband, former presi-dent George H.W.Bush and former president Bill Clinton, themother to the current president claimed that the setup wasfavorable for evacuees. So many of the people in the arenahere, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is work-ing very well for them, she chuckled.The more financially well-off of the Katrina evacueestried to find housing in areas close to the affected Gulf Coastregions, such as Baton Rouge, where all available real estateand rental housing was quickly purchased.True to the lawsof supply and demand, real estate prices went up in unaf-fected areas near the Gulf region in the months after Katrina.Victims found housing with people all over the country whoopened their houses to total strangers left homeless by theflood.Web sites such as Hurricanehousing.net and Craigslist.com helped connect victims with people willing to put themup for a few days, weeks, or months.Those who had taken refuge at the Superdome and con-vention center were shuffled to cities all over the UnitedStates from Salt Lake City, Utah; to Pensacola, Florida; toMinneapolis, Minnesota, where Cory Delany s family resettled. 3Exodus from the Gulf CoastFederal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) directorMichael Brown became the scapegoat as efforts to send aid tothe Gulf Coast failed to help hurricane victims.Later, as mediainterviews and exposed e-mails revealed his oblivious and glibattitude, the shamed Brown resigned as FEMA head. 4HURRICANE KATRINAThrough various nonprofit and government programs, theyfound housing in various hotels or apartment buildings set upfor evacuees.For many, it was like starting life anew.The worldthey once knew had been destroyed in the flood.Sadly, as manywere making their farewell trips out of the city over the week-end, law and order continued spiraling out of control.Policegot into a shootout with a group of men on Danziger bridge,wounding four and killing two, including an unarmed men-tally retarded man.Four officers were charged with murderand attempted murder in connection to the case, while threeother officers were charged with attempted murder.OUTPOURING OF GENEROSITYOne of the positive things to come out of the Katrina tragedywas the outpouring of generosity from all over the world.More than $4 billion was raised to assist the rebuilding ofthe Gulf Coast, through major events like NBC s fundraisingtelethon to a child s lemonade stand in Houston, which raised$1,000 in two days.Most of the money raised for Katrinaefforts went to the American Red Cross, although hundredsof lesser-known charities also rushed in to claim their shareof Katrina donations.With that kind of money floating around, there werebound to be problems, however, and an unintended conse-quence of post-Katrina generosity was a corresponding risein tragedy-related scams.Just as scam artists hustled to makemoney off of well-meaning donors after the 9/11 attacks, theydid the same after Katrina.They used Web sites that appearedto be linked to charitable donations but were actually just away for criminals to extract money from people s credit cardsonline.Others posed as Katrina victims themselves.Back in New Orleans, the process of picking up the dev-astation was only beginning.Rescue teams charged withinspecting houses came up with a system for identifying whatthey found inside.It involved spray-painting an X on the 5Exodus from the Gulf CoastAfter the waters receded, officials began to shift their focusfrom rescue to recovery.Here, the markings painted on thehouse indicate who searched the house, when, and the grimfindings inside
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