Katrina relief efforts -- a response

In the wake of charges that blacks were being shorted during relief operations following Katrina, Project 21 issued this press release:

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus held a press conference today in which it was that asserted God "cannot be pleased" with the Bush Administration's response to Hurricane Katrina and suggested race is a factor affecting the likelihood of a person's survival in the aftermath of the hurricane.

Speaking at the press conference, Rep. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), said "To the President of the United States, I simply say that God cannot be pleased with our response." Cummings also said: ""We cannot allow it to be said that the difference between those who lived and those who died in this great storm and flood of 2005 was nothing more than poverty, age or skin color."

Members of the black leadership network Project 21 have blasted the Congressional Black Caucus - whose elected members are charged to serve the best interest of all Americans - for racially politicizing a natural catastrophe.

"The comments and actions of the Congressional Black Caucus were morally opprobrious and divisive," said Project 21 member Mychal Massie. "It is beneath the level of sane discourse for the Congressional Black Caucus to suggest that blacks are suffering more than the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have been displaced."

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To date, the federal government has responded to the devastation brought by Hurricane Katrina by sending more than 15,000 National Guardsmen, 7,800 U.S. military personnel and 61 Federal Emergency Management response teams to assist in the recovery efforts. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that federal, state and local government efforts have saved more than 4,500 lives, assisted more than 30,000 people and evacuated more than 22,000 displaced persons of the hurricane.