Who's getting soaked?

The Times-Picayune published copies of new flood maps from the Army Corps of Engineers, along with a long analysis of what has and has not been done since the levees broke. Apparently if you're rich and white, you get flood protection first.

It took a little work, but I pulled together a comparative map of flood risk pre-Katrina and today (based on the ACE's maps: the bluer the area, the greater the flood risk) and layered it on top of the 2000 census map of percentage of African-American households (the greener the map area, the higher the percentage). Look carefully at the two maps and you'll see what I mean. Perhaps more shocking than the fact that Gentilly, New Orleans East and the Ninth Ward haven't gotten any flood protection relief is that the protection afforded to the Broadmoor and Mid-City areas is greatest in the areas with the smallest African-American populations.

Map 1 (pre-Katrina)

Map 2 (post-Katrina)