Two years after Katrina....
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Posted By: bob Brown on August 29, 2007 Two years ago, the Big Easy was the Big Heartache, a city submerged in water and death. Today, it is submerged in something else — the bitter memories of a town pounded by two disasters, one natural, the other man-made. Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast near New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005, flooding the city, killing almost 2,000 people and devastating broad swaths of the area. It looked like the aftermath of a major war, with bodies strewn throughout the flooded sections of the city, some of them left in the water for days before emergency officials could collect them. Compounding the natural disaster was the bureaucratic bungling epitomized by Michael Brown, then head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Brown was so inept that during an interview with CNN, he had to be informed that thousands of evacuees had sought shelter in the New Orleans Convention Center. An absurdly positive performance review by the president — who told the FEMA head, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job" — could not obscure the ugly truth: The government failed to respond, both before and after the catastrophe, in a responsible and intelligent manner. President Bush did not convene a federal task force until two days after the hurricane struck. Some people there have not eaten or drunk water for three or four days, which is inexcusable. Two years later, New Orleans is still struggling to recover from the devastation, and the government is still struggling to forge a system that will be better prepared to deal with future disasters. The results, on both fronts, have been mixed. A recent estimate places the population of New Orleans at 273,598, about 60 percent of its pre-Katrina population, according to the Louisiana Recovery Authority. And while the city is experiencing modest growth on the job front, especially in the mining and construction areas, the area is still down more than 100,000 jobs from the pre-Katrina days, authority data indicates. The federal government has provided more than $100 billion for rebuilding and recovery projects, according to the White House, a figure complemented by the millions that private corporations have provided. While the appropriations are encouraging, the total is misleading; according to a Government Accountability Office report issued last summer, between $600 million and $1.4 billion in taxpayer money had been wasted "on improper and potentially fraudulent individual assistance payments," the New York Times reported. In addition, the Times reported, the House Committee on Government Reform found that 19 Katrina contracts worth $8.75 billion "experienced significant overcharges, wasteful spending or mismanagement." Disasters will occur, but how the government responds to them can mitigate or aggravate the pain. It seems absurd to use the term "lucky" to describe an area that was plunged into so much misery two years ago, but New Orleans residents have been fortunate since then, having been spared the kind of disaster that could devastate an already ravaged city. How much longer can the Big Easy rely on luck? When it comes to preventing another disaster, the most crucial upgrade has to be centered on the levees that broke two years ago, the flood protection system that failed the city. The Army Corps of Engineers recently revealed plans for a $14.7 billion improvement that could be completed by 2011, a figure that doubles an earlier cost estimate, the Times reported last week. "I don't know of anything more significant than the new flood system for the long-term viability of the city of New Orleans," Donald Powell, the head of Gulf Coast reconstruction for the Bush administration, said. The cost seems staggering, particularly considering the amount already poured into the recovery effort, but the future of a once great American city may depend on it. If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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