Hispanics criticize hurricane disaster response

“For two days as Hurricane Katrina’s landfall loomed, Victoria Cintra begged the television station in the Gulfport, Miss., area to let her broadcast evacuation messages in Spanish.

Director of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, Cintra knew that hundreds of Latinos lived along the state’s Gulf coast and worked in the booming gambling-casino industry. Many spoke little, if any, English, but no efforts had been made by local officials to put out warnings and shelter information in Spanish.”

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