All Headline News - Poll Shows Racial Divide On Views Of Hurricane Response - September 14, 2005

All Headline News - Poll Shows Racial Divide On Views Of Hurricane Response - September 14, 2005Poll Shows Racial Divide On Views Of Hurricane Response

September 13, 2005 12:27 p.m. EST

Hector Duarte Jr. - All Headline News Staff Reporter

New Orleans, LA (AHN) - A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday says white and black Americans have strong opposing views of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, with blacks viewing race as a factor in problems with the federal response.

The poll found six in 10 blacks say the federal government's response was slow in rescuing those stranded in New Orleans because of their race, while only one in eight white participants shared the same opinion.

Sixty-three percent of blacks blame poverty for the slow response, compared to 21 percent whites.

The poll is based on interviews with 848 whites and 262 blacks and has a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points.

A separate survey on the hurricane response, which was not broken down by race, found a majority of those interviewed disapproved of Bush's handling of the emergency.

The first poll showed blacks were more likely to blame Bush for problems in New Orleans, with 37 percent blaming him for residents being trapped inside the city after it was immersed.

Twenty percent of blacks blamed Mayor Ray Nagin, 11 percent blamed residents themselves and 27 percent blamed no one. Among whites, 29 percent blamed Nagin, 27 percent blamed residents, 15 percent blamed Bush and 24 percent blamed no one.

More blacks than whites say they were angry about the government's response to Katrina, 76 percent versus 60 percent.

Only 15 percent of blacks say Bush did a good job in the initial days after Katrina and 36 percent thought he did a good job in recent days. For whites, it was 49 percent in the initial days and 63 percent more recently.

Questioned on whether Bush cares for blacks, 67 percent of whites say they believed so, while only 21 percent of blacks agree.

Eighty-eight percent of blacks say there should be an investigation by an independent panel into lax government response, while 67 percent of whites back up such an investigation