New Book Takes A Look At Women And Hurricane Katrina
Kim Glovas
As Women's History Month wraps up, a local sociologist has released a book he co-edited, which takes a look at Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath on the female population of New Orleans.
The book co-edited by Emmanual David is titled "Women of Katrina: How Gender, Race and Class Matter in an American Disaster". David is an assistant professor at Villanova University. He says part of the book is very personal.
"Some of the stories are downright heartbreaking. We have journal entries from women who stayed in New Orleans during the storm and they were generous enough to share their journals with us and they allowed us to reprint their stories."
David says the issues of classism and racism greatly affected the women left after the hurricane. He says 26 percent were living in poverty, which prevented them from getting out, finding resources they needed and putting them in harm's way.
David says however, the upside is many grassroots organizations were formed to help them.
