It's been two years, and New Orleans struggles onward - quite possibly towards oblivion at some point in the coming decades. And the country, it seems, yawns.
I still don't get it.
True national traumas are relatively rare events in America. 9/11 was one, and you have to say 8/29 was another. As the levees collapsed and water rushed into city neighborhoods, it also tore back the thin curtains that conceal various brewing, very serious national problems - the persistence of poverty and racial inequity, neglected infrastructure, government with its wheels off. In fact, the basic compact between people and government - for measure of protection against the loss of life and property - failed.
The collapsed levees have been repaired, but that compact remains broken. The harsh reality of 8/29 is still lived out every day by the residents of New Orleans - but America couldn't face it. We blamed Bush and Brownie and Blanco and Nagin and we quickly turned away. There were other things for the political/media culture to focus on, such as the continuing sideshow of Iraq, which has become an inexhaustible source of meaningless debate in Washington.
If you think Katrina is just about New Orleans and the Gulf coast, think again. Our national failures there have alarming implications for the future. There are many practical problems we could be grappling with now, but aren't. New Orleans could have been - and could yet be - a laboratory for devising technologies and policies for sustainable development in this era of rapid, dangerous environmental changes. But, though gradual progress is being made (driven almost entirely from the bottom up) the absence of national leadership has made the New Orleans recovery an improvised, intractable mess, our own domestic quagmire.
What I don't understand is how politicians and the public can so casually accept this shameful and dangerous state of affairs. We've turned a corner, here. Has America become too fragmented, too indifferent, too shell-shocked by the various threats of the past few years, real and imagined, to deal with real problems?
Follow John McQuaid on Twitter: www.twitter.com/johnmcquaid
1) N.O. has always been virtually an island, dependent on constant resupply of goods & services from 30 to 100 miles or more away. Only three highways crossing lakes, swamps, and marshes connect. MS Gulf Coast is not an island. Big difference.
2) New Orleans has unlike most sprawling American cities, remained a pedestrian-oriented city with a functional public transportation system. Tens of thousands of residents were car-less because they used public transportation and walked, and are now being blamed for not evacuating the city ahead of the storm. RE-instituting regional light rail service and regional public transportation is essential infrastructure to any pedestrian community, whether old or new.
3) New Orleans could have been developed in a way less vulnerable to inevitable storm surges . More buildings and homes should have been up on high pilings, for sure. However, before y'all all jump on the "abandon New Orleans cuz it's down in a hole" bandwagon, just remember that ALL cities built in a river floodplain are artificially kept dry year-round by levees. New Orleans is by no means the only city dependent on federal infrastructure, nor levees. And don't get me started on why we support cities in the desert, dependent on fresh water being transported great distances.
3) I won't go into the wonky stuff,but rebuilding our natural wetlands is absolutely imperative to any sort of repopulation and recovery of New Orleans and the region. Look at an OLD map---plenty of wetlands used to be east and northeast of the city south of the Rigolets. Now it's open water.
4) And, yes, we do need to learn to build in ways that recognize the realities of our geography and climate, if we expect to continue living here.
5) And, finally, Louisiana, like many states, has struggled for years with public corruption. Please help us do better in recovering by asking your senators, representatives, governors and business leaders to encourage all the Louisiana leaders and citizens they meet to continue to push for increased ethics laws.
Corruption is NOT any more an issue in Louisiana than it is in any city, state, or region. Just read the papers.
The levee and floodwall system around NOLA, just as levee systems around the US were built, are funded, are maintained and are the responsibility of the federal gov't.
As far as knowing about 'the big one'--there is a 'big one' of some kind predicted for every region of the US, whether it is hurricane, earthquake, flood, tidal wave, disasters of natural and man-made 'worst case scenerios' are studied extensively in order that we, as a nation can be prepared.
I believe you meant 'Camille' not 'Wilma'- which was a hurricane that followed Katrina and Rita in 2005.
Louisiana, in particularly New Orleans has a 300 year colorful history, under the flag of France, under Spain, under France again, under American, under Confederate, under Martial Law, and under American again. There have been many battles fought on its lands.
From NOLA's beginnings it has been an international city accepting of many races, many religions, many cultures, and many causes as well as its lands nearby were home to many Native American tribes. As a major entrance to America with its vital river port that provided not only protection, but to supply most of the country with goods from all over the world.
Louisiana politics are taken serious, from the school board positions to the top State positions are hard fought and often aren't pretty. Louisiana also has had some nationally well-known colorful politicians, most loud and eccentric compared to the norm. As such, many legends have been born, some deserved, some embellished, some completely false but make for funny jokes, that is until it is used as pure propaganda to influence the outcome of a disaster hitting the State. Louisiana is no more corrupt than any other state, that's a fact.
money was thrown at the problem. Now the story is getting more press and I am hearing about sectors without electricity and tens of thousands who haven't returned. The big picture, I suspect, is our national response to problems.Back in the Kennedy administration, there were stockpiles of food and portable hospitals stored in strategic locations as part of our cold war preparedness.
Now we don't appear to be prepared for bad weather. I think that using our National Guard troops and equipment in Iraq isn't helping either. Raising this issue with the current adminstration might get more appropriations
but is there much oversight of the current spending? Are there competent appointees at the helm? Do we spend enough $$ but cronyism is handing out cash and not really solving problems?
That alone should tell all Americans where the priorities of this Regime stand. These are the real Traitors of the United States.
Out of the total amount, most was used to payback the initial rescue & recovery & housing & debris removal issues of the 6 states; $2000 credit cards that were handed out, the cruise ships to house evacuees, hotels, airplanes, buses, boats, fuel,ice, food, fema trailers, money to the states that took in evacuees, the Red Cross, to fema itself and other federal contracts & personnel. I believe it also includes the payouts of the fed flood insurance monies to those that had flood ins. There is a 'pipeline' with which fema disburses the money...an amount is allocated to address specific instances, ie housing, education, recreation, infrastructure...a request has to be made, it moves up the pipeline through several people and then if approved the money trickles down the same pipeline. In many instances, you pay as you go and receive reimbursement from them after you prove your expenditures. In other words, a lot of bureaucratic 'red tape' and hoops to go through.
Does this suffice to warrant a bit of compassion from you for them?
The second issue, in addition to the web, is Bush. At this stage, Americans know that we have no influence over our Nimrod of a president. We can say we want stem cells. He says it goes against his religion. We say we want the war to end. He says that he believes all people deserve to be free. (Which is ironic, considering that we are free to speak - and even be recorded by the NSA while we speak! - and yet have no sway over our own government.)
We’re tuned out. And our single-minded, self-obsessed leader actually makes that condition a pragmatic one, since we no longer have a voice.
isrealinsider 04/05/05:
Peres to ask U.S. for pullout funding, Sharon to meet with settlers on deal
Israel will ask the United States for money to help with the Gaza withdrawal, Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Tuesday, ahead of a trip to Washington.
Peres spoke as Gaza settlers sought higher compensation for their homes and demanded to be moved to Israel as a group -- a sign that many have resigned themselves to the pullout, after initially threatening a fight to the finish. Settler leaders were to meet with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon later Tuesday to discuss compensation and resettlement, ending months of angry silence.
Sharon agrees in principle to a proposal to move most Gaza settlers as a group to the Nitzanim coastal area, between the towns of Ashkelon and Ashdod, just a few miles from their current homes, a senior Israeli official said. Sharon was expected to tour the Nitzanim area in coming days.
In a meeting with Cabinet ministers and senior government officials involved in the withdrawal, an angry Sharon demanded quicker action. He urged officials to cut through red tape, participants said.
The government, meanwhile, approved the first compensation deal with a settler family, saying the first check would be signed by weeks-end, after a committee on Monday reviewed the first eight compensation claims. So far, about 60 out of 1,600 settler families have reached tentative agreement with the government to leave voluntarily this summer, in exchange for compensation.
.
Hours before leaving for Washington, Peres refused to say how much money Israel is seeking from the United States. Peres is to meet Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials to discuss the planned withdrawal from Gaza and four West Bank settlements. Sharon is to meet with Bush next week.
One official close to the Bush administration said there are expectations in Washington that Israel would request $500 million in aid.
Peres told The Associated Press on Tuesday that "I think, the United States has already allocated money, and we want to coordinate our efforts."
We are a big country and we look to our elected officials for leadership, for a checklist of things that we can do to help 1 month later, 1 year later, 2 years later...and nothing. We even elected a new Congress since the storm - and they have failed us, too.
NOLA is in sorry shape but she won't cry. She's done with crying - her tears weren't acknowledged 2 years ago. She's through with us, the government, the insurance carpetbaggers. She's trying to go it on her own, even knowing that she might not make it. I'll continue to do what I can, sending bits and pieces down to a city that I love. And if she ever does regain her neighborhoods and her citizenry, I'll march with them when they seek, once again, to be part of France.
Has anybody ever asked him what steps he's taken to help the recovery of our region?