Salon.com News | "With each day I feel less and less lucky": "While everyone here was hard hit by Katrina, not everyone was affected in the same way. The wealthy lost property on the seafront. But the lives and the livelihoods of the poor without cars with which to escape, sturdy homes to protect them and insurance to fall back on, were the most vulnerable.

In one of the poorest states in the country, where black people earn half as much as white people, this has taken on a racial dimension. 'People who live in poverty and don't have the means to evacuate were definitely more likely to perish,' said Michael Matthews, an African-American who was nudging his car slowly along the four-hour queue for gas in Lucedale.

'The president is flying down here tomorrow in a plane, to tell us we can only use 20 gallons of gas. I think they are taking advantage.'

In Yvonne trailer park in Lucedale, residents hold out little hope of speedy government help. 'I don't think we'll see any of that here,' said Raybelle Perrymon, sitting in the shade on her wheelchair, stricken by polio. She is an elderly black woman cared for by a younger white man, Charles Childens, who shares her trailer and her Kools.

She cannot get her disability benefit because the banks are closed. That means she cannot pay her rent or buy food. 'We need help, but I don't think we're going to get any, until everybody else has gotten theirs,' she said. Childens nodded. 'We need something to eat,' he said. 'We need it pretty soon.'"

(Via Salon.)