Put Kids on Obama's New Orleans Tour

The White House announced Monday that President Obama would be visiting New Orleans this month -- his first visit since taking the presidential oath.

During his two-day swing, the President will only see a small fraction of the challenges New Orleans confronts four years after Katrina, such as the closure of a key public hospital and the difficulty local residents have in finding affordable housing.

But if the President wants to help ensure that New Orleans's future is as vibrant as its past, he should pay special attention to the city's children.

Katrina affected everybody in New Orleans, but the long term effects of days in crowded shelters, months of homelessness, and years of changing schools have proved especially destructive to children. More than half of Louisiana's children now experience some effect from the disaster - such as a behavior disorder that puts them at risk of a less-than-bright future.

While we can't stop hurricanes, we can ensure that the treatment of children during disaster relief doesn't become a disaster in its own right. At the National Press Club on Monday, I spoke about how government can better meet the needs of children the next time a disaster strikes.

Most of what I described is common sense, but it has tragically not become policy. We need national standards at shelters to meet children's needs, a requirement that state child care agencies include disaster planning as a licensing standard, and the integration of children's needs into disaster planning.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Craig Fugate joined me at the Press Club and discussed the steps that FEMA has recently taken to address our recommendations, like assigning a senior FEMA staffer to children' issues.

When President Obama visits New Orleans this month, I hope that he will see the progress that has been made in rebuilding the city and where progress is still lacking. But I also hope that he will absorb what can happen when government does not prepare to meet the needs of all men, women and children during disasters--and take bold action.

Comments

[backhandpath]

No, in your "safe world" you missed seeing the child I saw on the 4th day after the Corps' levees failed, laying face down dead and alone in the flood waters cause by your US Army Corps of Engineers. She was about 4 feet long with a blue dress and little pink ribbons in her hair. She had pictures of butterflies on her dress. There was no one around, no parents, no cops, no hospitals.­.. all courtesy of your Corps of Engineers --Not Hurricane Katrina. I was there and saw it with my own lyin'eyes.
That is the goddamned truth. We had survived Katrina when it Missed the City by nearly 40 miles.
Until you can face the greatest civil engineering disaster in the history of this nation, and honestly face the over 1200 deaths directly attributed to it, you will never understand true disaster planning. I find such Bourgeois Nievete galling and nearly criminal in its negligence of the welfare of children caught by such a Man Made Disaster.
This is for the children..­.the lost or outright abandoned, the marginalized or used, for the separation anxiety, trauma and tears on long hot nights that just got worse and worse.
This is for the countless orphaned souls, forced to bear an adults pain with no advance warning, no preparation or guidance.
This is for what we owe them, first and foremost; their satisfaction will be our compensation over time.

[backhandpath]

[While we can't stop hurricanes, we can ensure that the treatment of children during disaster relief doesn't become a disaster in its own right.]
Mark, how about we Save the Children from Lies?
I'm sorry but until you get yourself straight on who cause the Flood of New Orleans, I will not believe a word you say about anything else.
Why? Because you are adopting a Stupid Myth which happens to be Very Dangerous because it wasn't Katrina that Flooded New Orleans but the US Army Corps of Engineers.
It wasn't Nature, it was Man.
Saying Katrina devastated New Orleans is like saying Traffic brought down the MN Bridge Collapse.
Until you can Face this Reality, I cannot see how you will have a clear view of any disaster whether Man Made or Natural.
So you would use New Orleans as a stump to Save The Children.
Fine but get your facts straight first: our levees and floodwalls, built by the Corps of Engineers, failed in 56 locations. 3 of those catastrophic failures, resulting in 80% of the water, failed below design specs at HALF LOAD according to the ILIT Study, the Corps own studies, their own confession in Federal Court and conceded by the Corps of Engineers in sworn Congressional testimony from Lt. General Carl A. Strock.

This is important.

[smk101]

I think it's safe to say that you've missed the point of this blog entry.

[doctorj2u]

No, we understand all too well what trauma these children have faced. We know how it effects our adult lives. How can children cope with these things? Many are not. We also understand we can NEVER have this happen again. For that we need the help of our government, which means we need the help of our felllow citizens. We need to make you understand the CAUSE of the misery and trauma, which is failed, poorly designed government levees. America and the media seem to be completely deaf to that point. Hopefully Mr. Obama will listen to the citizens and the many citizen groups that have formed to defend the people when government failed. Will you listen Mr. Obama? Will you ACT on what you learn?