Legislators say blacks left in lurch

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Members of the Congressional Black Caucus charged Friday that poor black victims of Hurricane Katrina were left in the lurch.

At a news conference, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., suggested some people were dying because of "poverty, age and skin color," the Detroit News reported.

New Orleans, the major city hit hardest by Katrina, is 67 percent black. Many residents who stayed in the city were unable to leave because they did not have cars or the money for bus fare.

Some representatives were angry at news coverage, accusing the media of heavy coverage of looters and sometimes of race-biased coverage. One complaint circulating on the Internet involves photographs showing people carrying food, with blacks described in captions as looters while whites were called people who had found food.

Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., said many people still in the city had been forced to rifle stores to get food and water.

"Desperate people do desperate things," she said.