Why did the aide for the California fire victims arrive so much quicker than the aide for the Katrina victims?
Aside from the fact that Southern California is far more metropolitan (and largely unaffected by the fire in some areas) it also has to do with scale of disaster. A hurricane is devastating on a large area and leaves no pathways for rescue, evacuation, or reversal once it strikes. The fires, on the other hand, began as largely relegated to certain high risk areas, and much of the southland being unaffected could provide aide for itself while the disaster was being combatted. Given that Katrina was a much larger scale aide project requiring outplacement numbered far higher than the fires and leaving no domestic supplies locally available, it is akin to sending aide to Mexico vs Malaysia and Africa during food shortage. When a problem is easier to solve, like sending excess corn across the border, then it is within the community’s power to impact change. However, when the disaster is monstrous and threatens to destroy a civilization and can only be saved at great cost to another civiliza
