Week 9

Week 9: Malibu

This week I took the bus down to Malibu to experience the seaside.The ride was largely uneventful aside from the occasion comments from a few homeless men who were complaining about the rain. The most notable thing about the ride was how long it took. The frequent stops made me wonder how much time regular bus users wasted by taking the bus. I became painfully aware of the inefficiency of public transportation in Los Angeles.

 I was looking to find an article about Malibu that I could write about and found this on the LA Times website. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/11/pch-closed-homes-evacuated-after-gas-line-ruptured.html 

I found this to be quite relevant with the article that we read about New Orleans evacuation after Hurricane Katrina. The main road through Malibu, PCH had to be temporarily closed due to a gas line rupture. In order to take precautionary measures to assure the safety of the residents, the area was evacuated.

  

Malibu is an area that is predominantly white and has wealthy residents. Despite the people in these areas being of a higher class, they still had to evacuate. I would like to reaffirm that natural disasters  are not race and class specific. Disasters strike areas randomly. What can be of interest to scholars is the way we can study the reaction to these disasters as Elliot and Pais explored in regards to Hurricane Katrina response.