Anybody Covering Why NO Can't Rebuild?

It's not that hard. Instead of reading the NYT and taking your news budget from there, open today's Times-Picayune. There's the story, with sound-bite ready interviewees conveniently named for you. The thrust: the new, post-Mike Brown FEMA is dragging its feet to provide the maps on which insurers, mortgage lenders and all other decision makers will base their decisions on which parts of NO will rebuild, and how soon. This while Feds in DC continue to lambast the city and state for the "lack of a plan". How you can plan before the private sector is given the information to turn those plans into a reality is a question that deserves Anderson's, or Brian's, or somebody's attention.

Note also two vibrant quotes from R. David Paulison, the un-Brownie; on the agency's Katrina performance:

"If you look at the whole scheme of things, with what FEMA was designed to do, we did a pretty good job," he said.

And about the agency, looking forward to the next hurricane season, just two months away:

We have a tendency to overpromise," he said.

He's no Joran van der sloot, but he's pretty good.

UPDATE: Another piece of the puzzle, also from the T-P: HUD won't reopen any of the public housing it controls until, at least, FEMA releases those maps, and a study indicates the employment infrastructure is there if only potential employees had...housing.

NEW UPDATE: Reading the comments to this and other posts about New Orleans coverage, it's clear that most readers want to focus on the politics of the situation, or the long-range coastal wetlands/global warming issues. Fair enough. As to the politics, one question for the liberals who feel this is a simple situation: name one prominent national Democratic leader who has put the case for New Orleans in the spotlight, early or late, consistently or even once. Hint: Sen. Mary Landrieu doesn't count.