Three Years Later
Today marks the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast. On August 29, 2005, Katrina cut "a 125-mile swath of destruction stretching from coastal Alabama across Mississippi to the French Quarter and the Superdome." Katrina was the costliest hurricane in American history and the third deadliest, killing 1,800 people. New Orleans was particularly hard-hit, which submerged 80 percent of the city. Sadly, as the anniversary of Katrina nears, New Orleans is bracing for another storm, Gustav, which is projected to hit the Gulf Coast early next week as a Category 3 hurricane. The development of Gustav prompted Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) to proclaim a state of emergency and prepare "hundreds of buses and emergency shelters to help residents flee should Gustav strike as expected." Gustav's approach also caused the cancellation of events commemorating the Katrina anniversary. The threat of another hurricane serves to highlight the progress that New Orleans has made in the last three years, and the work that still remains cleaning up and repairing the city.
BUSH VISIT A 'REMINDER OF BROKEN PROMISES': Last week, President Bush appeared in New Orleans to say that "hope is coming back" to the city, due to $126 billion in disaster aid sent to the region in the last three years. "The good future is here," Bush said. "I predicted New Orleans would come back as a stronger and better city. We helped deliver $126 billion in taxpayer money." Three years ago, however, Bush was preoccupied as Katrina hit. While 75 percent of New Orleans residents do "feel hopeful about the future of the greater New Orleans area," Bush's visit was more a "reminder of broken promises" than the sign of hopeful future. In 2005, Bush did not organize a federal response to Katrina for two days after the storm hit, despite repeated requests for assistance from former Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco (D) and reports that levees in New Orleans had been breached. He then spent the following days claiming -- falsely -- that no one anticipated the breach of the levees and that he was "satisfied with the [federal] response" to the storm. In 2006, the New York Times reported that to federal aid to the region hit by Katrina was plagued by "breathtaking waste and fraud." The New York Times called the waste of federal dollars "one of the the most extraordinary displays of scams, schemes and stupefying bureaucratic bungles in modern history, costing taxpayers up to $2 billion." Last week, the Bush administration announced that the funds sent to the Gulf Coast region for hurricane recovery were "sufficient" and that there are "enough funds in the pipeline, to get the mission done."
PERSISTENT PROBLEMS: Even if "hope is back" in New Orleans, massive problems resulting from the hurricane remain, including "significant debris management issues," and "a cleanup fraught with environmental issues." While "97% of the population has returned to Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson counties, the three areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina," New Orleans still has a far greater proportion of vacant homes than any other city in the country," with "more than one in three residential addresses vacant or unoccupied." According to the research and advocacy institute PolicyLink, "thousands of residents who want to return home are facing a critical rental housing shortage, inadequate rebuilding grants and a recovery plagued by red tape and ever-changing rules." Part of the problem is the federal Road Home program, which is "the main conduit by which federal funds were to compensate homeowners for the damage wrought" by Katrina. "In New Orleans, 4 of every 5 Road Home recipients rebuilding their homes did not get enough money to cover their repairs," with an average shortfall of $54,586. As of March, "only 13% of the $1.6 billion in the state's emergency community development block grant funds had benefited lower-income victims." Further compounding New Orleans' troubles with Gustav approaching, the Associated Press conducted a yearlong review of levee work which revealed "a pattern of public misperception, political jockeying and legal fighting, along with economic and engineering miscalculations, that threaten to make New Orleans the scene of another devastating flood."
HAVE THE MEDIA FORGOTTEN NEW ORLEANS?: Earlier this week, the Independent's Richard Holledge published an article proclaiming that in the last three years the media "forgot the city of jazz and jambalaya." "Three years after Hurricane Katrina, the world's media has lost sight of the ongoing misery in New Orleans," he wrote. "Coverage by the international and national news media in the run-up to the anniversary is negligible...One of the world's most cataclysmic natural disasters, one made worse by official incompetence and corruption, is almost forgotten." Conservative talker Glenn Beck, however, has made sure to deride the rebuilding of New Orleans as the anniversary nears, saying, "We shouldn't spend a single dime of taxpayers' money in a place where - I don't care where it is - where it is in a flood zone." Jon Amoss, editor of New Orleans' Times-Picayune, echoed Holledge's sentiment, saying, "I don't think we are on people's minds. We have to contend with those voices, particularly on pop radio, which say 'New Orleanians with their eternal whining – why don't they pull themselves up by their boot straps?'" But highlighting the continuing role Katrina plays in the life of New Orleanians, Amoss added "I wondered a year-and-a-half ago whether there would ever come a time when the word hurricane or Katrina would not appear on, or near, page one [of the Times-Picayune]. There have been some days when there hasn't been a single story on page one, but that is still a rarity because it is the fabric of our life."
BUSH VISIT A 'REMINDER OF BROKEN PROMISES': Last week, President Bush appeared in New Orleans to say that "hope is coming back" to the city, due to $126 billion in disaster aid sent to the region in the last three years. "The good future is here," Bush said. "I predicted New Orleans would come back as a stronger and better city. We helped deliver $126 billion in taxpayer money." Three years ago, however, Bush was preoccupied as Katrina hit. While 75 percent of New Orleans residents do "feel hopeful about the future of the greater New Orleans area," Bush's visit was more a "reminder of broken promises" than the sign of hopeful future. In 2005, Bush did not organize a federal response to Katrina for two days after the storm hit, despite repeated requests for assistance from former Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco (D) and reports that levees in New Orleans had been breached. He then spent the following days claiming -- falsely -- that no one anticipated the breach of the levees and that he was "satisfied with the [federal] response" to the storm. In 2006, the New York Times reported that to federal aid to the region hit by Katrina was plagued by "breathtaking waste and fraud." The New York Times called the waste of federal dollars "one of the the most extraordinary displays of scams, schemes and stupefying bureaucratic bungles in modern history, costing taxpayers up to $2 billion." Last week, the Bush administration announced that the funds sent to the Gulf Coast region for hurricane recovery were "sufficient" and that there are "enough funds in the pipeline, to get the mission done."
PERSISTENT PROBLEMS: Even if "hope is back" in New Orleans, massive problems resulting from the hurricane remain, including "significant debris management issues," and "a cleanup fraught with environmental issues." While "97% of the population has returned to Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson counties, the three areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina," New Orleans still has a far greater proportion of vacant homes than any other city in the country," with "more than one in three residential addresses vacant or unoccupied." According to the research and advocacy institute PolicyLink, "thousands of residents who want to return home are facing a critical rental housing shortage, inadequate rebuilding grants and a recovery plagued by red tape and ever-changing rules." Part of the problem is the federal Road Home program, which is "the main conduit by which federal funds were to compensate homeowners for the damage wrought" by Katrina. "In New Orleans, 4 of every 5 Road Home recipients rebuilding their homes did not get enough money to cover their repairs," with an average shortfall of $54,586. As of March, "only 13% of the $1.6 billion in the state's emergency community development block grant funds had benefited lower-income victims." Further compounding New Orleans' troubles with Gustav approaching, the Associated Press conducted a yearlong review of levee work which revealed "a pattern of public misperception, political jockeying and legal fighting, along with economic and engineering miscalculations, that threaten to make New Orleans the scene of another devastating flood."
HAVE THE MEDIA FORGOTTEN NEW ORLEANS?: Earlier this week, the Independent's Richard Holledge published an article proclaiming that in the last three years the media "forgot the city of jazz and jambalaya." "Three years after Hurricane Katrina, the world's media has lost sight of the ongoing misery in New Orleans," he wrote. "Coverage by the international and national news media in the run-up to the anniversary is negligible...One of the world's most cataclysmic natural disasters, one made worse by official incompetence and corruption, is almost forgotten." Conservative talker Glenn Beck, however, has made sure to deride the rebuilding of New Orleans as the anniversary nears, saying, "We shouldn't spend a single dime of taxpayers' money in a place where - I don't care where it is - where it is in a flood zone." Jon Amoss, editor of New Orleans' Times-Picayune, echoed Holledge's sentiment, saying, "I don't think we are on people's minds. We have to contend with those voices, particularly on pop radio, which say 'New Orleanians with their eternal whining – why don't they pull themselves up by their boot straps?'" But highlighting the continuing role Katrina plays in the life of New Orleanians, Amoss added "I wondered a year-and-a-half ago whether there would ever come a time when the word hurricane or Katrina would not appear on, or near, page one [of the Times-Picayune]. There have been some days when there hasn't been a single story on page one, but that is still a rarity because it is the fabric of our life."
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