Many African-American leaders note that the victims in New Orleans were largely black and poor, those who toiled in the background of the tourist havens, living in tumbledown neighborhoods that were long known to be vulnerable to disaster if the levees failed. Without so much as a car or bus fare to escape ahead of time, they found themselves left behind by a failure to plan.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205J.shtml