Hurricane Katrina Enables .4B No-Bid Disaster Capitalism Takeover

Hurricane Katrina became the largest implementation of ‘disaster capitalism’ in U.S. history, with corporate interests using the crisis to advance privatization agendas previously blocked. Within 10 days of the levees breaking, .4 billion in no-bid contracts were awarded to four major contractors: Fluor (.4 billion), Shaw Group (50 million), Bechtel (75 million), and CH2M Hill (30 million). Halliburton/KBR received 24.9 million while government paid up to 29,000 per trailer costing 4,000-20,000 to manufacture. The disaster enabled complete educational privatization—7,500 public school teachers were fired within two weeks, Louisiana passed Act 35 giving state control of 100+ schools, and by 2019 New Orleans became the first all-charter district in America, destroying the South’s strongest teachers’ union overnight. Public housing destruction displaced nearly 100,000 Black residents permanently, with four major projects demolished despite minimal storm damage. The GAO documented at least billion in fraudulent payments with only million recovered. UN human rights experts condemned the systematic violation of housing rights. Dick Cheney toured areas matching Halliburton contracts while Heritage Foundation advocates led ‘Pro-Free-Market’ response meetings, transforming disaster response into corporate opportunity.