![]() Whenever a disaster happens, for some reason the city is slow to respond to people in ethnic communities, in low-income communities." "But this is a common thing that I'm seeing in cities around America. "I understand that the city is trying its best to restore everybody's power," he says. Authorities accused of slow response in Black communitiesĬherry's uncle, Ta'Wan Grant, detects a pattern in their plight. When people here call the power and water authorities, they get only vague assurances. A faint smell of sewage wafts up from the street. Water comes out of the faucet, but it's little more than a thin brownish stream, unsafe to drink. "They're saying the islands got destroyed," observes 24-year-old Lexxus Cherry. Unlike the affluent seaside communities of Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach, where the media has descended to chronicle every detail of the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, the people who live in the squat homes in Dunbar have faced the crisis mostly on their own.Īnd for many in the historically African American neighborhood, there's a sense of anger and frustration. ![]() ![]() Ta'Wan Grant and Lexxus Cherry in the front yard of their home in the Dunbar neighborhood of Fort Myers, Fla., on Sunday.įORT MYERS, Fla.
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