Empire Files: After Hurricane Harvey...
This is a three-part documentary by Abby Martin and her colleagues of TeleSUR. This thread has also been posted at our sister forum, Eye-Rise.
PART 1 - Abandoned Community Takes Charge (23 minutes)
"After a flurry of media attention, Hurricane Harvey faded from public view. But after unprecedented floods and widespread destruction, the story is far from over.
In Part 1 of her investigation, Abby Martin travels to Houston, Texas one month later, and visits one of the most devastated neighborhoods in Lakewood. Victims there give harrowing testimony about nearly drowning and having no assistance to this day from local or state officials.
This first installment reveals the untold stories of how, while abandoned by the state, the community banded together to save lives and rebuild their homes."
PART 2 - The Sacrifice Zones of Hurricane Harvey (27 minutes)
"In this second installment of special coverage Hurricane Harvey's aftermath, Abby Martin explores how the petrochemical industry dominates the city and why its low-income, Black and Latino areas are in the highest-risk areas for flooding and pollution, earning them the name "sacrifice zones."
Abby explores Houston's unique lack of zoning and regulations that maximized the impact of the storm, the "fence-line communities" deliberately put in harm's way, inhumane treatment of incarcerated people in the disaster, and how the ownership of the city by Big Oil puts thousands of lives in peril.
Featuring interviews with Dr. Robert Bullard, professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University; Azzurra Crispino, co-founder of Prison Abolition Prisoner Support (PAPS); and Yvette Arellano of the Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Series."
PART 3 - Decentralized Disaster Relief Fills Void (26 minutes)
"After uncovering total failure by the U.S. government to meet the needs of communities suffering in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Abby Martin meets the people who filled the void.
Speaking with volunteers who mobilized from out-of-state, to community leaders who organized relief efforts, this final installment of the Empire Files' investigation shows how people came together to replace the failures of the system.
Featuring interviews with anarchist Scott Crow of the Common Ground Collective, the Black Women's Defense League, Altruist Relief Kitchen and other autonomous decentralized relief groups."
