Rebuild or no? [Archive] - Big Big Forums - Coupons, Freebies, Deals & Discounts

adorkablex

02-04-2006, 12:14 AM

You know what you can do don't you? You can kiss my lily white arse :D I am not the one that has the bad attitude and has to stoop to calling people names and cussing them out. Thank God I have a bit more intelligence than that.

Now, let the record show, you are the one trying to start the scrap. All I have ever done is stated my opinion. The only reason that I responded to adoralex (?) post is because it was offensive and I stated that fact....as did others.

Yep, you only stoop to telling people to kiss your butt. So classy ;P

And as for your reply to something that I had posted 2 months previously, I didn't have to "dig up" you post...it was just there. If I wanted to cause "trouble" as you say, then I would have hunted down ALL of your post...but that is not what I did. And why be so upset because I did not agree with you? Why aren't you upset by other's comments?

I could really care less what your opinion, need4free or anyone else's is of me. I have the right to my opinion and I will state when and where I feel like it. If you are so paranoid to think that I am "out to get" you, that is your problem not mine. Let me say this, I have nothing against you and I do not waste my time "hunting" you down.

I saw the post from 11/27/05 a couple of nites ago and mentioned to some friends about it. I actually thought it was hilarious that you had taken something so personally and I had not even bothered to come back into this thread until the other nite to see how the poll was going. So you are right...don't get your panties in a wad, I sure don't take things personally unless someone else makes it personal.

You replied to a post after you started throwing poo in another thread. No one had posted in this thread for over a month and was well buried in other posts before you boosted it. Not only that, but you didn't boost it to comment on the actual topic at hand, but to bring to attention something dumb I'd said.

And I don't know if you're just too dumb to read dates/times, but I didn't bump this thread up months after you posted, I replied to what you said about a week after you replied to it. And I haven't said squat to/about you since it's been rebumped.

tngirl

02-04-2006, 06:07 AM

:eek: Oh my!! I guess I have been put in my place....now haven't I? :D Sorry about that...I had to crap :p

Jolie Rouge

02-05-2006, 10:22 PM

Sad reality sinks in for New Orleans music scene
By Todd Martens
Sun Feb 5, 5:44 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Like nearly every house in New Orleans, Bethany Bultman's home has holes in its roof. Buckets to catch rainwater surround her desk, and she is hesitant to go out at night. Much of her neighborhood is still completely without power.

She is one of the lucky ones. Leaky roof aside, her house suffered little damage, and she has a second one in Massachusetts, a world away from the devastation Hurricane Katrina inflicted last August. Bultman admits to missing her Cape Cod getaway, but she cannot bring herself to abandon New Orleans. There would be the guilt of leaving behind the city and those who are suffering, but more important, there are checks to write.

Bultman inscribes upwards of 70 per week, each for $100, each given to a New Orleans musician. To date, her efforts have been funded largely by donations from Pearl Jam and nonprofit organization Jazz Aspen Snowmass; she recently was promised $250,000 from MusiCares, the Recording Academy's charitable arm.

The checks Bultman writes are allocated only to those who work, which these days in New Orleans can mean performing at a club in front of a handful of Federal Emergency Management Agency workers.

On many nights, money from the door is minimal or nonexistent. Bultman hopes her $100 subsidy is enough to dissuade someone from taking a gig in another city. If instruments and artifacts from the city's musical heritage were washed away, then New Orleans' soul -- the musicians who define it -- must stay.

"As the time wore on," Bultman says, "more and more musicians who were dumped all over the country wanted to come back. We soon realized that this is really about giving people instruments and giving people hope, and that's when we started paying the gig fees."

Two months ago, Bultman, a writer/historian and the co-founder of the New Orleans Musicians' Clinic, was urging displaced musicians to return to the city. She started the clinic with her husband in 1998 with the assistance of Dr. Jack B. McConnell, the developer of Tylenol tablets whose son, Page, played keyboards for the band Phish. With a mix of pride and a dedication to preserving a music culture that she says "percolates out of the ground," Bultman hoped all New Orleans' evacuees would soon be returning.

'NEW ORLEANS IS NOT A HEALTHY PLACE'

Reality, however, soon sunk in, and now she is not so sure. "The goal was to get everyone we could get back to New Orleans," she says. "Now that we're back, we've moved away from that. We've moved away from the fantasy that everything would go back to the way it was. New Orleans is just not a healthy place for everyone to come to."

Eight of the city's ZIP codes are still without full power, according to the January 24 status report from the mayor's office. The area affected most by Katrina -- the Ninth Ward -- remains under curfew, and 911 emergency availability is scattered. Few hospitals are open, and the New Orleans Musicians' Clinic, which had free use of the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans, has lost such privileges, as much of the facility needs extensive repairs.

And for many, life was not all that great before Katrina. One in four of the city's residents lived below the poverty line, and a great number of its working musicians relied on a steady influx of tourists.

Bultman stays in touch with the national organizations providing relief to New Orleans musicians, including MusiCares, which announced its pledge in support of her efforts January 25.

She is heartened by the outpouring of generosity of her top donors and has nothing but praise for MusiCares. But five months after Katrina, Bultman feels that little has been accomplished. Nearly all of the 200 musicians she helps lack a place to live. She worries the situation will only get worse with a dearth of health care and tries to communicate to the national associations that the effort to restore the music community in New Orleans is one that will take years -- and one that will happen one saxophone at a time.

RETURN TO SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Pianist Joe Krown was playing 12 gigs per week prior to Katrina. His wife, who worked at Tulane University Hospital, was laid off after the hurricane. He filled out the paperwork for nearly every charity dedicated to helping musicians.

"I have a mortgage and a rent and no income, and before I said anything more to a couple of them, there was a check in the mail," Krown says. "That happened with MusiCares and the Musicians' Clinic and the Jazz Foundation."

He also benefited from the New Orleans Musicians' Relief Fund, which was started by one-time dB's member Jeff Beninato and his wife, Karen. Along with Chicago rock group Wilco, the couple brought Krown and such musicians as Leroy Jones, George French, Craig Klein and Cranston Clements to Chicago for a benefit show that raised more than $100,000.

Beninato says he started the charity two days after Katrina hit New Orleans, and a few days after that he heard from MusiCares. He began working with the national organization, providing names of musicians he knew were still in New Orleans.

Beninato is re-outfitting the New Wave Brass Band, hoping to get the big band in marching form for Mardi Gras. Providing instruments for working New Orleans musicians has become a group effort, and MusiCares is at the forefront. Wick says the charity has helped more than 600 musicians get new instruments, and he says MusiCares receives between 30 and 80 applications per day.

MusiCares has partnered with Gibson and the Guitar Center chain and launched its Music Rising replacement initiative in New Orleans with U2's the Edge. While an unknown number of musicians still need a place to live, they need the instruments to make a living.

Krown, for one, says he was able to replace some equipment thanks to MusiCares, and the program has made it easier for him to be self-sufficient. "It was starting to feel like I was begging, and I have too much pride for that," Krown says.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060205/music_nm/neworleans_dc;_ylt=AhQVSvPhA.Xjjg5ZlPhBJxauGL8C;_y lu=X3oDMTA4dDg2MG9mBHNlYwMxNjk3

Freebeemom

02-06-2006, 07:04 AM

Willow

02-06-2006, 07:38 AM

A couple of weeks ago in church (yes I went to church LOL) the pastor was talking about how people blame God when something bad happens. She mentioned hurricane Katrina and how people blamed God for making that happen. Then she went on to say that when the americans stole that land from the indians that they were told not to build there but they did anyway. If they rebuild it's just going to happen again. Why keep rebuilding when you know it's not a safe place to build on?

Jolie Rouge

02-06-2006, 01:18 PM

Jolie Rouge

02-06-2006, 01:22 PM

If they rebuild it's just going to happen again. Why keep rebuilding when you know it's not a safe place to build on?

Did we rebuild San Fransco after the "Great Quake" - Did we rebuild Los Angeles after the quakes in the 80's ? What about the tornando's and floods in the Mid West ? The hurricanes in Florida all these years ? Are we rebuilding the Twin Towers - after all they bombed them twice before - they may bomb them again.... what would be the point ?

Willow

02-06-2006, 01:31 PM

The Twin Towers being knocked down was not something that was expected. When you build on sand you should expect it not to last.

Jolie Rouge

02-06-2006, 02:55 PM

The Twin Towers being knocked down was not something that was expected. When you build on sand you should expect it not to last.

LOL - it's not sand. It is swamp.

Does that apply to major fault lines ? Did you hear they are trying to get federal funding to put a tunnel under a mountain to help with LA traffic ?? :rolleyes:

Where do you place a seaport - fishing industry - Deep Water Rigs and all the attendant service industries if not on the water ?

Willow

02-06-2006, 03:41 PM

LOL - it's not sand. It is swamp.

Does that apply to major fault lines ? Did you hear they are trying to get federal funding to put a tunnel under a mountain to help with LA traffic ?? :rolleyes:

Where do you place a seaport - fishing industry - Deep Water Rigs and all the attendant service industries if not on the water ?

Nothing you say is going to get me to change my mind. LOL The question was Rebuild or no? My answer is no and I'm sticking to it.

TxGreek

02-06-2006, 03:42 PM

So we just close the nations largest seaport ?

Close the oil and gas industry which supplies 75% of the countries' domestic entergy supplies.

Close down the seafood industry which supplies 65% of the US seafood ?

You do realize that these very things were one of the main causes of the flooding, right??
While the MRGO supplies New Orleans with revenue, it does very little to secure the homes of the natives.
IMO, you can have one or the other, but definitely not both (as was proven with Katrina).
So which would you choose?

Freebeemom

02-06-2006, 04:15 PM

I have no problem with rebuilding in IN ANOTHER LOCATION...like, shoring up the land THE CORRECT way, creating natural barriers, even flood the current area and move New Orlean's in. You can keep the harbor...just reloacte it. Sorry, but the ARmy Corps doesn't have the funds to totally rebuild this now.

Plus, Why on earth should we rebuild a city in a bowl??

THAT was poor planning from the getgo.

Jolie Rouge

02-06-2006, 07:56 PM

Sorry, but the ARmy Corps doesn't have the funds to totally rebuild this now

If it had been been done right the first time we wouldn't have this problem now. The damage in New Orleans wasn't done by Katrina - but by the levees breaking after the worst of the storm had already passed.

We have been begging for revenues from our oil & gas leases for years to protect and build up the wetlands which are the natural protections. Florida and California recieve more money from the profits of our oil & natural gas then WE do. If that money had been re-invested in OUR protections we wouldn't have this mess.

Jolie Rouge

02-07-2006, 01:25 PM

Calif. Fire Prompts Evacuation of Thousands
By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer
Tue Feb 7, 11:28 AM ET

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Nearly 2,000 homes were under a mandatory evacuation order early Tuesday as firefighters battled a wildfire that had consumed an estimated 3,500 acres near Orange County suburbs.

Officials said firefighters were making progress, but they warned of high Santa Ana wind and low humidity during the day.

No residential damage had been reported, but homes were evacuated as a precaution, said Orange County Fire Authority spokesman Stephen Miller. A Red Flag warning, signifying a high fire danger, was in effect through Wednesday afternoon.

"The Santa Anas blow right through here and they're supposed to blow for another couple of days. That's the scary part. They can really get going," said Gary Treguboff, who lives in the Serrano Heights area of Orange.

On Monday, fire crews stood guard in neighborhoods of Anaheim Hills and the city of Orange.

"The ash was coming down like snow. I had all the windows and door shut because it was just overwhelming," said Kathie Scott, who was ordered to evacuate her Mayberry Ranch home.

The seasonal Santa Ana wind often plays a role in disastrous wildfires. In 2003, wind-driven wildfires destroyed more than 3,600 homes and killed 22 people in Southern California. The cause of the fire that was burning on Tuesday had not been determined.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060207/ap_on_re_us/california_wildfire;_ylt=Aspre5SZc.FyLv1.gb4PxN2s0 NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-
___

On the Net:

Orange County Fire Authority: http://www.ocfa.org/

So, according to the prevailing logic here; none of these people deserve any help because they suffer from these wildfires and such every year and therefore it is "their" problem ? They live near a forest in a dry climate with the "Santa Ana winds" ... what else can they expect ?

Jolie Rouge

02-07-2006, 01:30 PM

Hell yeah! As long as Haliburton has the hookup it'll be rebuilt. haha

Nah - it is the Shaw Group whose CEO is the head of the Democratic Party in Louisiana and close friends with Gov. Blanco.

Jolie Rouge

02-07-2006, 01:35 PM

You do realize that these very things were one of the main causes of the flooding, right??
While the MRGO supplies New Orleans with revenue, it does very little to secure the homes of the natives.
IMO, you can have one or the other, but definitely not both (as was proven with Katrina).
So which would you choose?

Please define the question .... which would you define as "one of the main causes of the flooding" The 22 foot storm surge in Gulfport, St, Benard and Plaquemines parishes from Katrina ? The 18 foot storm surge in Holly Beach and Camereon from Rita ? Or the failure of the levees in New Orleans ?

"You can have one or the other" - not clear on the options you are offering ?

TxGreek

02-07-2006, 03:17 PM

I don't know how to make it any more plain for you.

As long as the MRGO exists, St. Bernard parish shouldn't.

Yes, the storm surge was one of the main reasons for the flooding, but the MRGO was a huge factor also.

So, your options: the MRGO or a safer (not safe, but safer) place to live? They can't exist together.

TxGreek

02-07-2006, 03:24 PM

Jolie Rouge

02-07-2006, 09:32 PM

Also, I'm really surprised you're on here fighting to have St. Bernard rebuilt AND supporting the revenue the MRGO brings in. You can't have both.

I'll take a wild guess and say you're not in contact with the parish officials much, right? :confused:

I think your anger is misdirected. You think the people on BBS are going to hold hands and block people from entering the city to rebuild? Hardly.

If anyone on here is like me, they'll just be less likely to donate time, money, etc when this happens again. One disaster like this should be enough to give people a clue that the dangers are very real and inevitable.

No - I am NOT fighting to have MRGO - that needs to be filled in. The state does have other sources of revenue throughout South Louisiana than the MRGO - I was just confused because you brought in it up and THAT wasn't what I was talking about at all.

My brothers are all working in Chalmette at the moment trying to get the power restored so although I am not in touch with Parish Officials I guarentee I have a better idea of the situation then most posting here. ( You realise we have lost everything south of Buras ... )

It is not just about New Orleans - we are talking about an area the size of Great Britian that some feel like should just be abandoned. Not practical from many viewpoints.

Are the dangers any less for those living on the Florida panhandle or the San Andres Fault ?

TxGreek

02-07-2006, 10:34 PM

We may be closer to being on the same page than I had originally thought. My family and I know that it's not just New Orleans. We sat in front of Tvs and computers for DAYS just trying to get any info we could on the parts of town that they lived in. (Unfortunately, their areas weren't as news worthy of the other areas, even though they had the same amount of, if not more, damage).
YES, I know how much was lost. I've watched sweat and tears drip off of my family's faces as they try salvaging whatever pictures and mementos they can find.

I told my mom her house looked great today. It's unsettling to think a house with a floor covered with feet of mud and oil and that has walls as solid black as night could look "great," but it does because I know how much effort it's taken to get to this point.

I feel for every person going through what my family is going through. BUT I won't support my family if they decide to return (And, as of right now, they have little desire to).

I just don't understand the thought process it takes to come to the conclusion that New Orleans, Slidell, Arabi, Chalmette, etc can ever be safe.

As for Floridians, I just don't get that, either. I couldn't/wouldn't live there (at least not after I lost everything to a hurricane). So, I have the same feeling about all of the hard hit areas. I feel for the people, but I may never understand their mentality.

Jolie Rouge

02-08-2006, 08:17 AM

One of the ideas being put forth is to have homes rebuilt with parking on the first floor and living areas begining on the second. Would take care of most of the damage from flooding and alieviate the parking problems in some of the Urban areas. Not practical for those with disabilities but may be the only way to get insurance.

I - personally - could never understand people who live in CA. At least you can see a hurricanne coming - but EARTHQUAKES !?! The ground should just be still. Not to mention mudslides, wildfires, flash floods ect...... :eek:

Jolie Rouge

02-09-2006, 02:54 PM

Their Levees - Our Levees

Here's how the British hold back the waters from flooding London:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0112-10.jpg

And the Dutch solution to protecting an entire nation that mostly rests below sea level:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0112-11.jpg

The Italians are defending their city on the sea, Venice:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0112-15.jpg

And...
Here's how the richest, most powerful and technologically advanced
nation on earth protected against the long-forecasted flooding of New Orleans:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0112-13.jpg

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0112-15.htm

Freebeemom

02-10-2006, 06:25 AM

Something that should also be taken into consideration is the per capita of San Fran vs. New Orleans. Sure, there is a high concentration of homeless in both areas, but generally, San Fran is wealthier. People can afford earthquake/natural disast. insurance. Look how many had nothing in New Orleans. The welfare state was alive and well in this town....they won't rebuild for a long time, if ever.

JewelsRose

02-11-2006, 08:04 AM

So we just close the nations largest seaport ?

Close the oil and gas industry which supplies 75% of the countries' domestic entergy supplies.

Close down the seafood industry which supplies 65% of the US seafood ?

Destroy and eliminate the culture of the Acadians and the Creole's ?

How very shortsighted ....
You do make a good point and make it sound so healthy and wealthy, but, then why can't they find the funds to clean up and start up again?

Jolie Rouge

02-12-2006, 10:08 PM

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ae/Fema827map.gif

This shows the areas devestated by Katrina and Rita - it isn't just about New Orleans.

Experts anticipated Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which hit Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas in late 2005, to be the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history. Some early estimates exceeded $100 billion, not accounting for potential catastrophic damage inland due to flooding (which would increase the total even more), or damage to the economy caused by potential interruption of oil supply, and exports of commodities such as grain.

Other predictions placed the minimum insured damage at around $12.5 billion. Before the hurricane the region supported about one and a half million non-farm jobs, 600,000 of them in New Orleans. As current damages estimates are placed at $75 billion, it is likely that $100 billion was an underestimation of the total economic impact (usually far greater than total damages), and the economic impact may be as high as $200 billion.

Hundreds of thousands of residents of southern Louisiana and Mississippi including nearly everyone who lived in New Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes are now unemployed. No paychecks are being cashed and no money is being spent in the region, thus no taxes are being collected in the city. The lack of revenue will limit the resources of the affected communities and states for years to come.

At least twenty offshore oil platforms have gone missing, sunk, or gone adrift, according to the Coast Guard. Two went adrift in the Gulf of Mexico, but they were recovered. One platform, originally located 12 miles (20 km) off the Louisiana coast, has washed up onshore at Dauphin Island, Alabama.
( Do you know how big a oil platform is - and how those things are anchored ?? :eek: )

As of August 31, 12 p.m. CDT, eight Gulf of Mexico refineries remain shut down and one is operating at reduced capacity. Evaluation of five of the eight refineries is incomplete since access is limited. Aggregate offline capacity exceeds 1.9 million barrels per day, about 10% of total US oil consumption. Aside from the problems involved in re-starting the refineries (which is a lengthy process) there are major issues with worker housing, since a large proportion of their homes were destroyed by the hurricane.

Although the after effects of the Hurricane Katrina are expected to cause further economic misery for the poor residents of New Orleans and other affected areas, Congress has refused to allow victims of the hurricane to take advantage of any exception to the recent Bankruptcy Reform, a recent bill passed with widespread support of the banking industry that aims to curb abuse of bankruptcy protection by repeat filers and those who are able to repay debts reasonably. "If someone in Katrina is down and out, and has no possibility of being able to repay 40 % or more of their debts, then the new bankruptcy law doesn't apply," Jim Sensenbrenner, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said .

Just in New Orleans the I-10 Twin Span leading east toward Slidell, Louisiana - according to a FEMA official, the entire length of the Twin Span had been destroyed. CNN video indicates that many segments of the Twin Span were either in the water or displaced 10-30 feet perpendicular to the road. In Mississippi, the bridge between Bay St. Louis and Pass Christian is out, the Biloxi-Ocean Springs bridge totally gone and US 90 "totally gone" in numerous reports through Biloxi and Gulfport due to heavy debris and damage to the roadbed ( like a CASINO ! )

In St Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, in Waveland MS there is virtually not a single structure that didn't sustain substatial damage. Houses, businesses, churches, schools, hospitals, stores, warehouses .... everything.

How can we rebuild if there is no home to live in, no workplace to go to ? Where are they getting income to pay for their mortgages and for the repairs ? Five months after the storm - there is still no power in parts of St. Bernard, Palquemines, Washington, Camereon, and Houma parishes.

You think it is just our problem ?? What do you think it is going to do to the US economy if the banks have to foreclose on 300,000 unsaleable, unusable properties ?

Jolie Rouge

02-12-2006, 10:14 PM

Government-Wide Katrina Failings
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
Sun Feb 12, 6:45 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Unheeded warnings, poor planning and apathy in recognizing the scope of Hurricane Katrina's destruction led to the slow emergency response from the White House down to local parishes, a House investigation concludes.

The 600-page report by a special Republican-dominated House inquiry into one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history concluded that late state and local evacuation orders exacerbated an untrained and inexperienced force of federal emergency responders.

It also said President Bush received poor and incomplete counsel about the crisis unfolding in the Gulf Coast.

Overall, the House report said, the federal government's response to Katrina was marked by "fecklessness, flailing and organizational paralysis."

"Our investigation revealed that Katrina was a national failure, an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare," said a summary of the scathing report obtained Sunday by The Associated Press.

"At every level — individual, corporate, philanthropic, and governmental — we failed to meet the challenge that was Katrina," the report concluded.

"In this cautionary tale, all the little pigs built houses of straw."

The House findings mark the first of two congressional inquiries and a White House review of the storm response expected over the next six weeks.

On Monday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee was to continue its own investigation into the Aug. 29 storm response by examining potentially widespread abuse in federal emergency cash assistance programs for disaster victims. Up to 900,000 of 2.5 million applicants received aid based on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names, congressional investigators found.

"Everything that we have found ... confirms exactly the indictment of the House Republicans," Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, that committee's top Democrat, said Sunday. "It's shocking and it is unsettling."

Excerpts released from the House report, which issued a total of 90 separate findings, spreads the blame through all levels of government.

Among the conclusions:

_ Late decisions by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco to issue mandatory evacuations in the New Orleans area led to deaths and prolonged suffering.

_The White House was unable to effectively sort through conflicting reports about levee breaches and other disaster developments, preventing rapid relief.

_The Federal Emergency Management Agency suffered from a lack of trained and experienced personnel.

_Military assistance was invaluable, but the military failed to coordinate with state, local and other federal assistance organizations.

_Government officials at all levels failed to take into account lessons learned from a 2004 fictional storm exercise, dubbed Hurricane Pam, that was supposed to specifically test the region's readiness.

The House investigation criticized Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's actions, saying his overall responsibilities for the federal disaster relief were fulfilled "either late, ineffectively or not at all."

The special report concluded that Chertoff unnecessarily delayed naming a top federal coordinator for relief efforts and the activation of an internal disaster management group. More prompt action by Chertoff would have quickened the relief effort, the report said.

The House report also faulted Chertoff for not following a response plan specifically for catastrophic disasters.

In blistering testimony Friday, former FEMA director Michael Brown said Chertoff had marginalized the agency's role in the Homeland Security Department, which he said was focused more on fighting terrorism than preparing and responding to natural disasters.

However, an investigator who helped write the House report said Sunday that Chertoff was no more to blame for the sluggish response than other government authorities.

Chertoff was expected on Monday to outline details on reforming FEMA before the next hurricane season begins June 1.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke did not have an immediate response. But White House spokesman Trent Duffy said Bush was "engaged and fully involved in the response efforts," noting that the president declared Katrina a disaster before the storm hit and made a personal plea for citizens to evacuate.

"He knew full well the danger of the storm and the threat it posed," Duffy said Sunday night. "But when he wasn't satisfied, he was the first to stand up and take responsibility."

The special House panel, chaired by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., was boycotted by Democratic leaders who called for an independent inquiry of the government's failings similar to that of the 9/11 Commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

But two Democrats who participated in the House inquiry, while widely praising the draft report, said it should have called for removing Chertoff from his job.

"Our judgment, based on a careful review of the record, is that the Department of Homeland Security needs new and more experienced leadership," Reps. Charlie Melancon and William Jefferson, both of Louisiana, said.

Details of the House findings were first reported in Sunday's editions of The Washington Post.

House investigators "are left scratching our heads at the range of clumsiness and ineptitude that characterized government behavior before and after this storm," the summary said. "...If this is what happens when we have advance warning, we shudder to imagine the consequences when we do not. Four and a half years after 9/11, America is still not ready for prime time."

___

Associated Press Writer Hope Yen contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060212/ap_on_go_co/katrina_congress;_ylt=Ausx6OMYbDuEUQ6EDfOf.ocEtbAF ;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Jolie Rouge

02-12-2006, 10:47 PM

Neighborhoods at stake
By Richard Baker
Fri Feb 10, 7:09 AM ET

Louisiana's in limbo. Months after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed more than 300,000 homes and businesses, little progress has been made toward rebuilding. Nor will it if these properties languish in ruins for years. Think about that: American ruins.

Thousands face paying mortgages on homes lost or accepting foreclosure and losing still more. The private sector is held back by a broken market: Even individuals with resources to rebuild won't when their neighborhood remains decimated. The only answer: Restoring whole communities.

To help, I have proposed the Louisiana Recovery Corp., which would purchase property from willing sellers, providing them financial stability to move forward and options to come home. By clearing title and reconditioning land, the LRC would open the door for the private sector, following local plans, to finance rebuilding, with proceeds from land sales returned to taxpayers.

At an average payment of 60% of $200,000, covering every property would cost $24 billion, but if only half were recovered through resale, the overall cost would be $12 billion. That's a major investment, but consider: In nearly six months, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent more than $8 billion on Gulf Coast "housing," for such things as trailers, motels and cruise ships. While helpful, these "temporary" arrangements aren't solutions. For 50% more over 10 years, the LRC would allow people to make long-term housing plans, while laying a path to rebuild a vast portion of a vital state. Isn't this a better way?

To say assisting Louisiana's floodplain is unwise closes the door on whole parishes and New Orleans itself, and overlooks that many were inadequately insured because they had relied on levees built by the federal government. Stronger levees, building codes and insurance requirements would ensure that government and Louisianans live up to their responsibilities and rebuild responsibly.

Offering philosophical objections but no workable alternative does nothing to address the reality. If there's a fairer, more effective and fiscally responsible plan, I'd like to hear it. But as it is, the LRC enjoys broad support across ideological lines. A fair hearing and an up-or-down vote is all we ask.

Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., chairs a subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060210/cm_usatoday/neighborhoodsatstake;_ylt=AnSu42k5_.blTp5nH.xP80T8 B2YD;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWF***A2BHNlYwM3NDI-

Rebuild Louisiana, but not by creating federal money pit
Fri Feb 10, 7:09 AM ET

They call it the "devastation tour," and sadly for New Orleans, it delivers everything the label implies.

The three-hour bus excursion, offered since last month by Gray Line New Orleans, takes visitors through the ruins that once were graceful neighborhoods in one of the nation's fabled cities. Now, nearly six months after Hurricane Katrina struck, the tour shows ghostly shells of homes, upended trees and roof-high water marks - the brownish calling cards left by flooding. Unseen are the smashed lives the waters also leftbehind.

New Orleans and the surrounding area are devastated and need help. Americans want to provide it. But Congress is focused on a scheme that would serve neither the city nor the taxpayers well. Actually, it's less a plan than an exercise in thoughtless political spending - and further proof that Washington can't manage disaster relief.

Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., proposes creating a new federal bureaucracy, the Louisiana Recovery Corp. (LRC), to buy damaged properties, repackage them and sell them for redevelopment. Baker's plan is gaining traction in Congress and plaudits in Louisiana. At first glance, it appears promising. But look deeper, and costly flaws appear:

• Unknown price tag. The plan would allow the new corporation to borrow up to $30 billion from the U.S. Treasury, but there's no limit on how much could ultimately be spent to set up and run this entity. And no hard figures on how much taxpayers might hope to recoup.

• No guarantee. The LRC would buy homes from sellers for at least 60% of their fair market value before Katrina struck - an interesting, if expensive, goal. But the land would be acquired in disconnected chunks. There's no provision for emptying flood-prone areas and scant help for homeowners who want to rebuild safely, not sell.

• Questionable recipients. Baker's plan would reward lenders by paying them as much as 60% of outstanding mortgages. This would apply even to lenders who failed to fulfill federal requirements that homes in designated flood plains be insured as a condition of getting a mortgage. Taxpayers shouldn't be forced to bail out lenders who took such risks. Doing so would encourage cavalier practices in the future.

• Dangerous precedent. Though the New Orleans flood was an unparalleled disaster, this vast new program would lead homeowners to expect similar aid in the next catastrophe. The poorly run National Flood Insurance Program is nearly bankrupt after Katrina; this is no time to create a bureaucracy with an open checkbook.

The Bush administration wisely opposes Baker's plan, but despite the passage of time, it hasn't proposed an alternative.

Katrina's victims merit help to restore their lives, and New Orleans needs help in rebuilding. That requires substantial aid from the federal government, which contributed to the disaster when its levees failed.

Even so, aid programs that lack accountability to taxpayers or a clear plan for rebuilding would make matters worse. Nor should the federal government usurp local responsibility and control. New Orleans needs a sound state and local rebuilding plan. Neither the City Council nor the state has adopted one. That, not an expensive federal bureaucracy, is the first building block toward putting the "devastation tour" out of business.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060210/cm_usatoday/rebuildlouisianabutnotbycreatingfederalmoneypit;_y lt=Aoo4oHsKLr5ocNd8nJDgwE78B2YD;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWF** *A2BHNlYwM3NDI-

As I am trying to show both sides of the coin - I feel that this point deserves a personal comment :

Questionable recipients. Baker's plan would reward lenders by paying them as much as 60% of outstanding mortgages. This would apply even to lenders who failed to fulfill federal requirements that homes in designated flood plains be insured as a condition of getting a mortgage. Taxpayers shouldn't be forced to bail out lenders who took such risks. Doing so would encourage cavalier practices in the future.

The present situation is thus : although I was not affected by flooding my home was damaged by Katrina's winds - ripping up sections of my roof. I have homeowners insurance - never made a claim in the 8 years that I have had my home, have a $500 deductable. Well - the adjuster ( employed by the insurance company ) came out and assessed the damage to my house - to the tune of $18,000 - and then I find out that because of a little known loophole that allows the insurance industry to implement "emergancy provisions" in National Disasters - that my deductable is now $3000. You also can not sue your insurance company for breach of contract. FEMA will not help because I have homeowners insurance which is supposed to cover this.

Right.

But that is not the kick in the pants.

A friend rents her home - hence she doesn't have homeowners insurance ( landlord does ) so FEMA gave her $2,500 for damage to her home which was a ripped off shutter, a broken window and some missing shinges. Which her landlord repaired. Another friend lives in an apartment complex that flooded - although she lives on the second floor and sustained no damge FEMA sent EVERYONE who lives in the complex a check for $2,000 whether they applied for aid or not.

So here I sit, the responsiable homeowner with a blue roof ( not courtesy of FEMA, bought my own dammn tarp at Lowe's ) while people with no insurance and no damage collect my tax dollars.

TxGreek

02-13-2006, 12:43 AM

My DH had to take a train to NO to go to someplace else...long story short....he said that there are still boats in the streets, abandondned, water marks on all the buildings, tons of garbage and that the place totally stinks and smells.

Sorry, but why rebuild? They can't even afford to clean up!

I agree with you about the rebuilding part, but I have to disagree that "they" can't afford to clean up.

There are still boats in the streets and water marks on the buildings because the people willing to work (Many FOR FREE) have to prioritize. It's not about having enough money; it's about having enough resources.

The water marks on houses will probably stay there for a long time to come (or until washed off by the next hurricane). Every family without flood insurance is responsible for cleaning/gutting their own houses. I can tell you from direct experience that it's grueling work and it's that much harder when you're emotionally involved.

So, why didn't they have flood insurance? As silly as it sounds, the insurance companies told people they were NOT in the flood zones. (This is outside of New Orleans/the "bowl") It's probably hard to believe anyone could think that, but many people detrimentally relied on their agents.
On top of that, the water damage wasn't caused by flooding (which is what flood insurance would cover); it was caused by a storm surge. There are actual pictures to prove this, but it may be hard for someone to see if they're not familiar with the area. (Doesn't sound like a difference, but it's a huge difference as far as insurance coverage is concerned).

I don't think we've even seen the beginning of the lawsuits to come.

1tiredmom

02-18-2006, 10:39 PM

borrowed from nola.com St. Bernard forum

During this Crisis, we in south Louisiana, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, find the news and other Media sources stressing the fact that New Orleans is the most important city to restore and repopulate. Let me please tell you about St. Bernard, and the Historical and industrial reasons that this community deserves the respect and help it needs to rise from the ashes, or should I say above the flood waters?.

In my own words I will give you reasons for feeling we deserve concessions:

In 1814 after the British war was declared over, an uninformed British fleet, descended upon the Louisiana coast, with the the intention of capturing the Port of New Orleans. Then supplying over 80% of imported foreign products, as

well as it's own natural resources, including indigo, Tobacco, rice, cotton, assorted fresh produce,and sugar, to name a few, to the United States.

The capture of the Port of Orleans would have been devastating financially as well as dividing the U.S, and making it a republic of Britain. But because of the Islenos community, located in St. Bernard Parish at the mouth of the Mississippi,

beneath New Orleans,that is not what happened. Most likely, it would have resulted in the entire U.S. Becoming a British Colony. Had not it been for the courage and bravery of the small group of Islenos men, (Spanish immigrants of the Canarie Islands, From whom I am decended.) who went into the swamps with few weapons, in many cases no weapon at all, and fought hand to hand, on Christmas Eve, of 1814. Fighting until, and then, side-by-side with the Army, under the direction of Col.Andrew Jackson,The Port would have been lost. The mission was successful, and the port of Orleans remained in the hands of the United States of America. The Battle itself ,as well as the Battle field, is located in St. Bernard Parish.

What in Gods name constitutes, if these actions do not, the definition of patriotic??

St. Bernard has never even received the credit it deserves in the part it played in such an important part of American history. After all, it's not called the Battle of St. Bernard, which it was. Nor is it called, the Battle over New Orleans. Even song writers penned this line:

" In 1814 we took a little trip,

along with Col. Jackson down the mighty Missipp,

we took a little bacon and we took a little beans,

and we caught the bloody British in a town in New Orleans."

Shouldn't the words be.."a town "NEAR" New Orleans.".....???

In two hundred years we received no thanks, no concessions, no press, with the exception of a foot note on local news stations, during the reenactment's.

Katrina hit St. Bernard head on, 100% of structures damaged and flooded. Not one single house, shed, business, or government building untouched. New Orleans is 75% up and running, while St. Bernard at almost six months after the storm,

with only 2% up and running, No hard line phone service and the first U.S. Postal Office opened on Feb, 13, 2006. (So much for that Rain, sleet or snow" non-sense.)

I wonder if the government officials, and I mean from Parish President right up to President of the United Stated were forced to be homeless for four-or-five months, then, " IF" lucky enough to get an 8 foot by 31 foot travel trailer, with their families in tow,with No electricity over 90 days and counting,and no end in sight, and after that trailer was delivered, only to find out the tub cracks under the weight of a 100 pound woman, leaks in waterlines everywhere inside those homes, faulty equipment inside,(and those are the ones that made it through Governmental (FEMA) guidelines and inspections), And above all forced to live in them for several months, How fast would they get off their all to plump bottoms to resolve these issues??? Don't get me wrong, Local officials are housed in trailers as well as the rest of us. However they are double-wides, fully furnished,with fireplaces, wet-bars and sunken tubs, at a mere 24 foot by 60 foot. Also located in a gated community with armed guards, Supply centers on grounds, as well as food services. Not All officials have the good ones, but enough to bake your beans!

Would the urgency be greater to resolve the issues of the people, if officials shared the same 8x30 foot living enviornment?

St. Bernard was hit as hard as the ninth ward in New Orleans. The difference is the Same bloodline of people who said :

"You British can not have our country, no matter how many of us die trying!!!",Also said, "We can not hope our government

which we protected, will protect us. We must return and clean our own , on our own and rebuild." We are willing to work for

our own, take care of our selves. God helps those who help themselves ( though I'm sure he didn't mean , a big screen TV and a

Sewell Cadillac.)

I my self signed 8 affidavits to allow FEMA to clear my property. Several months later they removed the few tree logs we cut and cleared ourselves,and the refrigerator is still on the front lawn. And we had two acres to clear, One Woman and two men, ALONE!!!! It is 98% done. FEMA never came. But you America, WILL get the bill for work they never did . I love New Orleans and have been here for 11 generations and counting, and by no means do I wish to set them aside. Nor do

I wish to see St. Bernard get more than Orleans. I AM saying that St. Bernard Parish has given till it killed us, and more then once,for two hundreds years now we have given when needed. In the twenty's the levees were blown twice, in 1922 AND 27 in St. Bernard, Flooding it entirely, 100%, to save New Orleans from rising waters during hurricanes. In 1927 St. Bernard Parish as a whole was compinsated only $100,000.00 for the entirety of the Parish's losses. Let's not forget , to mention saving New Orleans for themselves as well as the United States of America in the "Battle FOR New Orleans".

When will we be taken seriously??? When will our people be treated fairly??? When will we see America treat us as AMERICANS?? The Terrorist attacks of 9-11 shook the souls of America. We stuck by the sides of those victims as well ,we should have. Till this day, those survivors are held in deepest regards, as well should be. Even at This moment, helpful services are pulling out of St Bernard and people across the nation and world believe that the Crisis is over. only 10,000 people of the over 80,000 residents have returned home, of that 10% only 3 % of us have

even been given our "FEMA" trailer cans. Keep in mind that tens of thousands sit in staging areas across the U.S.A. undelivered, Some are even scheduled to be destroyed because they are rotting on poor soil, not prepared to hold unblocked

homes.

For the Love of America, Please help St. Bernard return to the American line. Help us fight the long battle we face for safer levees and fair treatment. THIS IS NOT A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY!!!

Why are my Fellow Americans suffering????

We are still fighting for America, as America watches it's children struggle for

simple needs, we cry out in pain, in loss, in confusion, as other Americans complain about the inconveniences we have caused. Even Family members in other Parishes and States make us feel unwanted, and abandoned, and heavily show their inconvenience. Brothers against brothers. We all are use to our own lives and ways, but this is no vacation for us!!! Even in our darkest hours,

http://www.losislenos.org/history.htm

TxGreek

02-25-2006, 08:50 PM

It's so crazy to me that there are people here who are familiar with St. Bernard/Chalmette. I've joked with my mom my whole life about the city with a population of 10 (because it really seems that small compared to other places I've been).
Anyway, my Grandma sent this to me and I thought it was funny enough (and so true) to pass on.

Jolie, I'm going to send that link about the levees to my Grandma. It's an eye opener.

Anyway.........

You know your'e in Post-Katrina New Orleans when:....

McDonald's and every other fast food place closes at 3, while people are still in line from breakfast.

There is no such thing as a "quick" grocery trip anymore;no more express lines, and 2 registers for 50 customers. But somehow, you don't mind the crabby teenagers scanning your groceries anymore.

There are 2 gas stations open on Vets from Cleary all the way down to the parish line. It doesn't matter who has the cheapest gas anymore, it's who's got the shortest line.

Lakeside is the only mall open for 30 miles...

You swap horror stories with complete strangers while in line for groceries, gas, dinner, etc...

When you tell people you are from Chalmette, they just go "ooooh" like someone just died.

It's not "How's ya mama and dem?" anymore, it's "How ya'll made out?"

Chalmette has more kids in school than new orleans.

Nobody speaks English anymore.

You are starting to learn some Spanish words so you know what people are talking about around you.

You actually know the words to a few spanish songs 'cause that's all you hear!

Your mayor is proud to be the owner of the only chocolate factory in the country that brings in more debt than income.

Trailers aren't just for the poor folks anymore, and some have gone to great lengths to hire decorators to make them feel like home.

The water line in your house is like your badge of honor now.

Everyone in the nation knows where and what the 9th Ward is, but still has no idea where Chalmette and Slidell are. But they all know who Junior Rodriguez is.

FEMA is a four letter word now. Who would have thought a government agency would be more messed up than the New Orleans School Board?

Jolie Rouge

02-25-2006, 09:37 PM

Bwahahahahahahaha

I like those - hadn't run across that list. Here is one we have been passing 'round here

You know you live on the Gulf Coast when...

*You have FEMA's number on your speed dialer.

*You have more than 300 C and D batteries in your kitchen drawer.

*Your pantry contains more than 20 cans of Spaghetti Os.

*You are thinking of repainting your house to match the plywood covering your windows.

*When describing your house to a prospective buyer, you say it has three bedrooms, two baths and one safe hallway.

*Your SSN isn't a secret, it's written in Sharpie on your arms.

*You are on a first-name basis with the cashier at Home Depot.

*You are delighted to pay $3 for a gallon of regular unleaded.

*The road leading to your house has been declared a No-Wake Zone.

*You decide that your patio furniture looks better on the bottom of the pool.

*You own more than three large coolers.

*You wish that other people get hit by a hurricane and not feel the least bit guilty about it.

*You rationalize helping a friend board up by thinking "It'll only take gallon of gas to get there and back"

*You have 2-liter coke bottles and milk jugs filled with water in your freezer

*Three months ago you couldn't hang a shower curtain; today you can assemble a portable generator by candlelight.

*You catch a 13-pound redfish. In your driveway.

*You can recite from memory whole portions of your homeowner's insurance
policy.

*You consider a "vacation" to stunning Tupelo, Mississippi.

*At cocktail parties, women are attracted to the guy with the biggest chainsaw.

*You have had tuna fish more than 5 days in a row.

*There is a roll of tar paper in your garage.

*You can rattle off the names of three or more meteorologists who work at the Weather Channel.

*Someone comes to your door to tell you they found your roof.

*Ice is a valid topic of conversation.

*Your "drive-thru" meal consists of MRE's and bottled water.

*Relocating to South Dakota does not seem like such a crazy idea.

*You spend more time on your roof then in your living room.

*You've been laughed at over the phone by a roofer, fence builder or a tree worker.

*A battery powered TV is considered a home entertainment center.

*You don't worry about relatives wanting to visit during the summer.

*Your child's first words, "hunker down" and you didn't go to UGA!

*Having a tree in your living room does not necessarily mean it's Christmas.

*Toilet Paper is elevated to coin of the realm at the shelters! .

*You know the difference between the "good side" of a storm and the "bad side."

*Your kids start school in August and finish in July.

*You go to work early and stay late just to enjoy the air conditioning.

Jolie Rouge

02-25-2006, 09:52 PM

You might also enjoy this little ditty : Vic Molero, an evacuee from St. Bernard Parish, grew tired of describing his Hurricane Katrina ordeal, so he put his tale to music. With apologies to "The Beverly Hillbillies," Vic offers "A Song for St. Bernard Parish" (you'll have to imagine the banjo):

Come and listen to my story
about St. Bernard;
a lot of friendly people there
but sometimes times are hard.

And then Katrina came,
she hit us with her eye;
she knocked down all our houses
and the water's getting high.

(Flood, that is; black gold, Murphy spill.)

Well, the first thing you know,
the water's to the roof;
whoever made the levees, man,
they sure did make a goof.

Folks say "Camp Katrina"
is the place you gotta be,
so we loaded up the skiff
and we got our MREs.

(Food, that is; bottled water, National Guard.)

Well, now it's time to say goodbye
to all we've ever owned;
our furniture, our VCRs,
and even our cell phones.

You're all invited back
when we have electricity;
with FEMA and the SBA
to spend eternity.

(Set a spell; take your shrimp boots off. Y'all come back now, hear?)

Jolie Rouge

02-25-2006, 10:32 PM

Despite Mardi Gras, New Orleans Struggling
By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - They're throwing Mardi Gras beads again — so many strands, they're landing in tree branches and getting snagged on the trellised balconies of the French Quarter.

You'll find them adorning the arms of Spanish statues. Tourists are wearing them, but these days so are contractors and the National Guard. It's hard to walk on Bourbon Street without stepping on them. You're likely to crunch them underfoot, long necklaces of plastic pearls brightening the asphalt.

At the corner of Bourbon and St. Peter, Pat O'Brien's is once again serving its syrupy, yet potent Hurricane cocktail. At Tropical Isle, you can get an equally potent Hand Grenade in a tall, plastic go-cup.

But walk to the end of Bourbon Street, take a left on Esplanade Avenue, a right on Rampart Street and head east. At first, the debris comes in bits: A small pile of siding. A rusted box spring. One taped-up refrigerator. At first, you find them in neat piles, in the front yard or outside on the curb.

There's still a semblance of order. But keep going. It gets worse.

You pass an elegant sofa, the kind you might imagine a grand dame reclining in, sipping her mint julep. It is lodged in the middle of an intersection. A few miles farther, the innards of rotting houses spill out on both sides of the road.

Six months have passed since Katrina ravaged this city. For a half a year, its people have counted the dead (officially, 1,080 in Louisiana and 231 in Mississippi) and struggled mightily to keep their city among the living.

A slimmed-down Mardi Gras is testament to their success; a tour of the devastation that remains is testament to how far they have to go.

Hurricane Katrina created an estimated 60.3 million cubic yards of debris in Louisiana, 25 times as much as the ruins of the World Trade Center and enough to fill the Superdome more than 13 times. Of that, only 32 million cubic yards — a bit more than half — has been removed.

Meanwhile, there are just under 2,000 people listed as missing. Some are not missing at all — they turned up, but their families never notified authorities. Hundreds of others, though, were very likely washed into the Gulf of Mexico or swept into Lake Pontchartrain or alligator-infested swamps, according to Dr. Louis Cataldie, Louisiana's medical examiner. Still more may be buried in the rubble.

At a hurricane morgue near Baton Rouge, 86 bodies remain unidentified. State officials are trying to reach relatives for another 74 who've been identified but have no place to go.

Mayor Ray Nagin says a comparison to New York City should be a favorable one. "Let me remind you that after 9/11 in New York, it took them six to eight months to get out of the fog of what happened to them. And to date, there's still a big hole in the ground. So when I look at everything that's going on, I think we're right on schedule," he said.

Indeed, in the French Quarter and on St. Charles Avenue, on Magazine Street and in the plantation-style mansions of Uptown, life has moved on, though protective blue tarps that serve as roofs for many are a constant reminder of the work left to be done.

In the Quarter, uber chef Paul Prudhomme is blackening his signature redfish again. Bourbon House is shucking oysters, and Antoine's, the 166-year-old dining icon, is dishing up plates of Pompano Pontchartrain with slices of tart lemon.

Yet even here, Katrina has left her mark. All three restaurants are short-handed. Antoine's, which lost its $200,000 wine collection in the storm, is shifting its wine list away from French staples, embracing New World wines instead.

And look closely at the brass band playing outside Prudhomme's K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen: The golden sheen on the tuba is gone, lost in the deluge at the musician's house.

But in the flood zone, the destruction is not so subtle. Leave the French Quarter on Rampart and head east, toward the devastated Ninth and Lower Ninth wards and East New Orleans.

All around are the carcasses of flooded houses. Katrina laid waste to more than 215,000 homes. Many are abandoned, their doors wide open.

Only an estimated 189,000 of the city's roughly 500,000 pre-Katrina residents have returned. For now, the city is overwhelmingly whiter and more affluent than it was before.

Affordable housing is scarce, and FEMA has only filled 48,158 of the 90,000 trailer requests it's received from displaced families in Louisiana, leaving many to wait out their existence in places like Atlanta, Houston and Little Rock. With only 20 of 128 public schools now open, parents who can't afford to send their children to private schools have no choice but to live elsewhere.

Children who have returned must wade through wreckage to get to school. "You never really get used to it," said 18-year-old Mark Buchert, a senior at Brother Martin, an all-boys Catholic high school in the devastated Gentilly neighborhood.

The destruction gets worse. Keep driving as Rampart turns into St. Claude Avenue and you'll go six miles before you pass a working traffic light. Broken signals swing from their poles like men hanging from gallows. Others blink red. Elsewhere, they lie on their side in intersections, blinking yellow.

Even with a diminished population, traffic at rush-hour is heavy. Many people living elsewhere temporarily return to the city each day to work at their jobs or to work on their homes, so the main arteries in and out of town are clogged. Add to the mix the large trucks used for the cleanup, and a commute from suburban New Orleans to the central business district that took 10 minutes before the storm can take 45 minutes now.

At night, the darkness is pervasive. Six months after the storm made landfall Aug. 29, a little over a third of the structures in the city have electricity. Even fewer have hot water or cooking gas.

Past the Industrial Canal, even farther east, is the cement slab upon which Carolyn Berryhill's house used to sit. In the field of rubble,all that remains of her neighborhood in the Lower Ninth Ward, the 60-year-old "Miss Carolyn" recognizes the pieces of her house by their signature green color.

One piece of her home landed at the base of a nearby pecan tree, the same tree whose branches cradled Berryhill for 12 hours after a gush of water — the result of a broken levee — rushed into her parlor and blew apart her home like a bomb. She somehow floated to the tree and waved madly at rescuers in helicopters until they finally saw her and plucked her to safety.

In what used to be Berryhill's backyard, an unchipped porcelain plate is half-filled with a meal of mud. The earth is still spongy, as if it hasn't fully swallowed the storm's waters. In it, a golden doorknob is embedded as if it's about to open a door to the underworld. "A lot of people, they talk about coming back and rebuild," she said. "Rebuild what? What can you rebuild out of this? What can you salvage out of this?"

A half block away, she finds what she thinks might be her stove.

On a parallel street, 71-year-old Gloria Jordan warns that if you walk much farther, "you'll see things I pray to God you never see again."

It's a street where three people drowned in their attics, including a 12-year-old girl. Their bodies were found months later. "I have no appetite. It's hard to eat these days," says Jordan, frail like a leaf.

She joins her husband, Clarence, on what used to be their porch, now nothing but a concrete foundation. Jordan's eyes gladden as she remembers how each morning she used to sip her coffee in a rocking chair and look out across her small garden of flowers. She wishes she could remember their names.

For now, she and Clarence are living with their daughter in White Castle, 73 miles west of New Orleans.

"Baby, I had a beautiful home," said Jordan, who owned her house for 49 years. "It's hard when you lived on your own for so many years and just like you pop your finger, or in the twinkling of an eye, you're homeless."

Her property is exactly the way the hurricane left it: Her husband's suits were blown into a neighbor's yard, still on hangers. His truck is on its side. Still waiting for her insurance check, she hasn't even started clearing the debris.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060226/ap_on_...WtkBHNlYwM3MTg-

Jolie Rouge

02-25-2006, 10:39 PM

continued

Those who are rebuilding are largely the ones who can front the costs of repairs.

Contractor Darren Schmolke returned alone to his destroyed home after losing his wife in a car wreck during their evacuation to Florida. National Guard troops had roped off the posh Lakeview neighborhood where he raised his family.

Each time they chased him away, he would pretend to leave, walking instead around the block and returning through the back door. He worked nonstop to reassemble his house, a two-story colossus in granite, marble and brick. His neighborhood, where homes had water up to their roofs, is one of many that are now in limbo, waiting for government officials to determine whether residents can rebuild. "After I lost my wife, I couldn't sit around and wait," Schmolke said. "I had to do something to get some control back over my life."

Businesses that are rebuilding are running into another problem — a shortage of workers.

"Help Wanted" and "Now Hiring" signs are everywhere. They're in the windows of unpretentious delis as well as cultural landmarks like Cafe du Monde, the 144-year-old institution that for generations has served New Orleanians its iconic beignets.

Call any New Orleans Domino's and before you can order a pizza, you'll first be asked to listen to a 20-second message recruiting new drivers.

"The problem is more basic than `where are the people?' The problem is the people don't have anywhere to live," said Loren Scott, a professor emeritus of economics at Louisiana State University.

Corporations are housing workers in barge dorms, cruise ships, warehouses and converted train cars. Those that can afford to do so are buying trailers for their employees, as Paul Prudhomme did for everyone from his chief operating officer to his line cooks.

Susan Rudolph, a waitress at Cafe du Monde, slept in her truck when she first returned to the city — her husband in the driver's seat, she in the passenger seat, and all they own packed tightly behind them.

Now, she begins her day at dawn inside her FEMA-funded motel room, scouring the classifieds for an affordable apartment. With one-bedrooms going for $1,500 and with landlords asking for first and last month's rent plus a security deposit, getting into an apartment is a $4,500 investment — a tall order for someone waiting tables.

After a morning spent looking, she puts on a brave face and her white Cafe du Monde cap and smiles sweetly as she serves the hot-and-sticky beignets to chattering visitors. "New Orleans has always been a tourist area, so we smile like clowns," Rudolph said. "I hope one day there won't be one tear in our eye."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060226...WtkBHNlYwM3MTg-

Jolie Rouge

02-25-2006, 10:46 PM

You do make a good point and make it sound so healthy and wealthy, but, then why can't they find the funds to clean up and start up again?

See the article I just posted. Can you see the problem - try and pony up $4k for an apartment that may or may not have hot water or phone service on a $5.35 PH job .... :eek:

TxGreek

02-26-2006, 01:00 AM

Omg, I haven't seen your list before, but those are too funny! I really liked these:

You wish that other people get hit by a hurricane and not feel the least bit guilty about it.

You can recite from memory whole portions of your homeowner's insurance policy.

*You know the difference between the "good side" of a storm and the "bad side."

I'm sure I'm not alone, but I'm really not looking forward to hurricane season. It's coming up so quickly. Didn't it just end?

Jolie Rouge

02-26-2006, 12:30 PM

I'm sure I'm not alone, but I'm really not looking forward to hurricane season. It's coming up so quickly. Didn't it just end?

Four months -- and the levees are not fixed.

The warm, mild winter does not bode well for a peaceful hurricane season.

msginna

02-26-2006, 02:14 PM

I voted no. take the leves down, give back the land and make it a protected national park. It is one big graveyard.

Jolie Rouge

02-26-2006, 10:29 PM

A gallery of Mr. McClosky's photographs is available for viewing on the WWL-TV web site. http://www.wwltv.com/cleanup/160.htm

Austin, Texas, resident Mike Collins has also put together some analysis and post-Katrina photographs of the area in which these pictures were taken. http://www.mgcollins.com/Katrina/MRGOPage.html

How Katrina affected Louisiana
Actually this just covers the Greater New Orleans Area
Published: Feb 26, 2006

A look at how Katrina affected Louisiana:

POPULATION: An estimated 189,000 New Orleans residents have returned, compared with around 500,000 pre-Katrina.

DEATHS: 1,080 in Louisiana.

MISSING: Nearly 2,000 listed as missing by the Find Family National Call Center.

DESTROYED HOUSES: More than 215,000. Total housing units lost, including apartments, is 1,847,181.

PROPERTY AND INFRASTRUCTURE LOSSES: $75 to $100 billion.

DEBRIS: Katrina created 60.3 million cubic yards; 32.1 million cubic yards had been removed as of February.

BUSINESSES: Of 81,000 impacted businesses, 42,000 have fully reopened; 18,700 were destroyed.

TAX REVENUE: $549 million lost (including gambling, sales and income taxes.)

SCHOOLS: More than 835 schools damaged statewide. Only 20 out of 128 public schools have reopened in New Orleans; 83,821 of 244,608 college students statewide were displaced. Of the displaced college students, only 16,480 have re-enrolled in state.

JOBS: More than 220,000 jobs lost.

WETLANDS: More than 100 square miles of wetland destroyed by storm surge.

HOSPITALS: Katrina closed eight of 16 hospitals in the New Orleans’ area, reducing the number of hospital beds from 4,083 to 1,760.

ELECTRICITY: A total of 189,000 households and businesses received electricity from Entergy New Orleans pre-Katrina, compared with between 65,000 to 70,000 today.

GAS: A total of 145,000 customers in New Orleans received natural gas service from Entergy New Orleans before Katrina. Between 40,000 to 45,000 are using the service today.

ESTIMATED DAMAGE TO POWER INFRASTRUCTURE: $275 million in infrastructure repairs in New Orleans.

Source: Louisiana Recovery Authority, Entergy New Orleans

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/2371596.html

Jolie Rouge

02-27-2006, 10:39 PM

Ursuline nuns home again in N.O.

Katrina does what wars, plagues and fires could not

By SHARON COHEN
Published: Feb 5, 2006

Ursuline Sisters Damian Aycock, front left, Joan Marie Aycock, center, and Nancy Fearon attend Mass at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Prompt Succor on Jan. 8 in New Orleans. The Ursuline Sisters, who have been in New Orleans for nearly 300 years, left their parish for four months after Hurricane Katrina struck Aug. 29. This service marked their return to the convent

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — They stayed through yellow fever epidemics that killed thousands. They hunkered down when cannons roared and blood flowed during the War of 1812. Through fire and flood, the Ursuline nuns endured in this city for nearly three centuries.

Then came Katrina.

The hurricane’s flood waters rose, the lights went out, and the nuns had no choice but to flee — but only after one sister solemnly blew out a perpetually burning candle. They left by boat, apparently the first time the Ursuline order had evacuated New Orleans since arriving from France, also by boat, one summer day in 1727.

Now they’re back home again.

Eight silver-haired Ursuline nuns — the junior member is 61 — recently returned to their dried-out convent to live, to pray and to rejoin a world some first entered as wide-eyed schoolgirls.

A four-month absence is a mere blink in a 278-year presence. And even then … .

“I don’t think that we really ever left in spirit — we were always here,” said Sister Magdalita Roussel, an Ursuline nun for 40 of her 61 years. “The fact that we were not here physically doesn’t bother me that much .... . We knew we’d be back one day when the city was ready.”

New Orleans has embraced the Ursulines ever since the French and Spanish ruled here, and for the nuns forced to make a hasty retreat it is far more than an address.

“You’re not just leaving a city, you’re leaving part of you,” said Sister Damian Aycock, who at age 83 traces her Ursuline pedigree to first grade in the order’s school, back in 1929. “It’s everything we’ve lived, everyone we’ve served.”

Sister Teresita Rivet agreed. “If you are born and raised here and educated here, you can’t forget that,” said the nun, who took her first Communion, her first vows and her final vows under the same roof. “Everything that was important to me in life has taken place in that chapel.”

Now that they’re back, there are routines to resume, and not much time for the rocking chair.

At 91, Sister Marie McCloskey does morning receptionist duty at the convent. Sister Joan Marie Aycock, the 81-year-old sibling of Sister Damian, is the archivist, tending to the Ursulines’ many historical treasures, including a letter from Thomas Jefferson, in a second-floor museum.

And Sister Teresita has her hands full teaching French to 2- and 3-year-olds. “They call me Soeur (sister in French) T,” boasted the 85-year-old nun, who has a fairy godmother’s beaming round face and fluff of cotton-candy white hair.

All the nuns have served in Ursuline convents across America as well as more distant spots, including Cameroon and Mexico. But many have deep roots and a special devotion to this city.

Among them is Sister Damian, who has a quick laugh and playful manner — “Where’d you blow in from?” she asked an out-of-town visitor — but a serious message about resilience.

“See,” she confided, “New Orleans has a soul. It’s not something that will come and go.”

And the Ursulines?

“I think our presence makes a difference — both as history and as a symbol,” she said. “It speaks to endurance, perseverance, support. We’re a bond between the past and the future. Our job now is to listen and help people get their lives back together.”

That’s already beginning.

The Ursuline Academy — believed to be the oldest, continually running all-girls school in the nation — has resumed elementary and high school classes along with its toddler program. Some 585 of 740 students are back. Over the centuries, the nuns have prided themselves on teaching the rich and poor, free women of color, slaves and American Indians.

The nuns celebrated their return in January with a feast day for their patroness, Our Lady of Prompt Succor, or quick help. For centuries, people have flocked to this shrine to pray before a gilded statue of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus.

On this occasion, both figures wore special crowns crafted with jewels — including wedding rings and family heirlooms — donated by community members in the 1890s.

Hundreds gathered beneath the iron chandeliers for prayers and hymns in the annual Mass of thanksgiving that marks the anniversary of the U.S. triumph over the British in the Battle of New Orleans.

Our Lady of Prompt Succor’s origins date back to France in the early 1800s.

That’s when an Ursuline nun in New Orleans, short of teachers, wrote a cousin who was at an Ursuline convent in France, seeking reinforcements. When the French nun was told she needed approval from the pope, it seemed unlikely since he was imprisoned by Napoleon.

Yet, amazingly, within weeks she had permission. She carried with her the wooden statue that generations of Ursuline students have prayed before with these words: “Our Lady of Prompt Succor, hasten to help us.”

A smaller statue of the Virgin Mary is an even older part of the Ursuline tradition.

This one was rescued from a convent attic in France in the 1780s and brought to New Orleans. Decades later, it received an enduring nickname after some Ursuline students and devotees reported that their prayers to the Virgin Mary before the statue had been answered. A nun, Mother St. Benoit, responded by saying: “Oh, she’s a sweetheart!”

“Sweetheart” is credited with saving the Ursulines’ former convent when fire swept through the French Quarter — some say in 1812, others think earlier. According to legend, when the statue was placed in the window, the wind changed direction and the building was spared.

Last September, as the nuns prepared to evacuate their current home, Sister Carolyn Brockland, the prioress, rolled “Sweetheart” in bubble wrap, cushioned it in a box with stuffed animals and stored it in a Baton Rouge home of a former Ursuline employee.

The foot-high plaster statue was returned to its glass case in the church. A pair of silver Air Force wings sits at its base — a token of thanks from a World War II pilot who’d asked to take “Sweetheart” off to battle but settled instead for some pictures.

It’s great to have “Sweetheart” back, Sister Carolyn said. “It’s a symbol of our presence in the house,” she said.

“Sweetheart” is just one of many Ursuline treasures. The sisters have a royal seal from Louis XV, who commissioned the nuns to venture here, and a handwritten letter from Jefferson.

The president, who had just completed the Louisiana Purchase, was responding to a missive from the nuns, who sought assurances about their property and privileges.

He assured them of the U.S. Constitution’s “guarantee ... that your institution will be permitted to govern itself according to its own voluntary rules, without interference from the civil authority.”

The Ursulines also have a bust of Andrew Jackson, who stopped by to thank the nuns for keeping vigil and praying for the success of his troops during the Battle of New Orleans.

These days, the nuns pray for calm waters, among other things.

During hurricane season, they say a special prayer daily at Mass to Our Lady of Prompt Succor for protection against the storms.

Which begs the ticklish question: Did it work with Katrina?

“Obviously, none of us believes prayers are magic,” Sister Carolyn said. “I believe that when we pray it helps us to be more accepting of what happens in life.”

But, she notes, New Orleans avoided a direct hit. “It is obvious to us the storm could have been worse,” she said.

Gretchen Kane, president of the Ursuline Academy, agreed. “Many of us were spared and kept safe from harm,” she said. “In that sense, our prayers were answered.”

But the 11-acre campus in the Uptown neighborhood — the Gothic church and cluster of brick buildings have been home to the Ursulines for almost a century — did suffer $5 million in damage.

The auditorium, the new gym and the two convent houses flooded. The electrical system had to be replaced. Tiles blew off the roof. And water was everywhere — from the mausoleum where nuns have been buried since the 1700s to the courtyard where goldfish floated out of their pond.
Even so, the nuns were determined to stay.

......

Jolie Rouge

02-27-2006, 10:40 PM

When Katrina hit, they huddled with about 30 neighbors in one building, watching the streets disappear under water, fires erupt and looters edge closer. Some guests took turns patrolling inside, watching for possible intruders.

One neighbor wanted to bring his guns. Sister Carolyn said no. “The people were too fragile,” she said.

One day, she and a neighbor took a frightening canoe trip, paddling past screaming people trapped in their homes and navigating their way over fallen trees and submerged cars as they tried to check on two Ursuline nuns in Memorial Hospital.

Sister Carolyn held up her crucifix as she approached the emergency entrance — but was turned away because patients were being evacuated, including, as it turned out, the two nuns.

After several days, the Ursuline provincial, the order’s regional leader, ordered the nuns out.

They gathered for a meeting during which Sister Carolyn praised the nuns and read from the writings of the 16th-century founder of the Ursuline order with a timely message: Don’t lose hope.

No one said much about ending their long, uninterrupted presence in New Orleans, but it clearly was on their minds.

“We all thought about what the original sisters had to contend with — the mosquitoes, the disease,” Sister Carolyn said. “There were sisters who went through the War of 1812 and the Civil War. There were epidemics of yellow fever. Their courage, their perseverance was an inspiration to all of us.”

The nuns left the Sunday after the storm. Most eventually took refuge at Ursuline convents in Dallas and Alton, Ill.

The eight nuns now home will soon be reunited with a 94-year-old sister, who is waiting for things to settle down before she returns. Three others won’t be back, either for health or personal reasons.

The smaller group of nuns doesn’t escape the notice of Sister Carolyn.

“At some point, there won’t be Ursuline sisters here,” she said. “That makes me sad.”

For now, though, the nuns are grateful to be starting over together.

“You have to move on,” said 91-year-old Sister Marie. “I feel sorry for so many people. They lost everything. But we came back to our home.”

Slowly, that home is taking shape.

Pots are out to start a new herb garden, the goldfish pond has been painted, a new magnolia tree has been planted to replace those that died. And that candle in the church that had to be blown out when the sisters fled — it’s flickering once again.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/2260006.html

Sister Magdalita Roussel, an Ursuline nun for 40 of her 61 years.

This is my cousin ....

DJ88GIRL

02-28-2006, 06:03 AM

I voted YES.I totally think they should rebuild NEW ORLEANS, but further in land. Where it would be on higher ground. That city is rich in history for its' people and our Nation.

msginna

02-28-2006, 12:25 PM

As I said before it is one big grave yard. It might have been haunted before but I think it is safe to assume if it is rebuilt it will be a giant haunted city! With 1,000 confirmed dead and 2,000 missing (most are prob dead), I think they should make it a national park,rebuild some buildings and have a tour go through it and give half to the people that lived there.

Jolie Rouge

02-28-2006, 09:19 PM

msginna

02-28-2006, 11:10 PM

your compassion is stunning

Last night I had said a bunch of things that made me feel good. Today I am just going to :rolleyes: because that kind of comment doesn't deserve my feedback.

Jolie Rouge

03-01-2006, 09:17 PM

Life six months after Katrina

By Kris Axtman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

NEW ORLEANS – Six months after hurricane Katrina drove them from their homes and destroyed their possessions, some still live in shelters, others in hotels and FEMA trailers. A few have begun to rebuild. The worst natural disaster in US history displaced some 770,000 residents - the most since the great Dust Bowl migrations of the 1930s. The storm destroyed or made uninhabitable some 300,000 homes.

Few have returned - no matter their desire. In the city's hardest-hit areas, such as the Ninth Ward, there is still no power or running water. In St. Bernard Parish, some utilities make it possible to return, but less than 10 percent of its residents have done so. Along Mississippi's Gulf Coast, few FEMA trailers appear.

Those who are here live on lonely streets, along barren, windswept shores, and in tiny trailers beside gutted homes.

Here are a few of their stories.

Cass Robinson

After graduating from high school in the Lower Ninth Ward, Mr. Robinson moved into a rental home here and began attending the University of New Orleans. Not long after, hurricane Katrina forced him to evacuate to Florida and then Georgia. He finally made his way back to the city and is working as a contractor, gutting houses and repairing roofs. He says he plans to reenroll in college this summer, but needs to make money first. "Katrina turned everything upside down," he says on a return trip to his home to salvage car parts. Everything inside was destroyed as the floodwaters rose above the roof. The teenager is currently living with family in the Gentilly area of New Orleans, using generators for power. "Going to college coming out of this neighborhood is really rare," he says, "so it's important I go back as soon as possible."

Chuck, Rene, and Justin Veazey

Chuck and Rene Veazey, along with their teenage son, Justin, had just moved into their West Pass Christian home along the Mississippi Gulf Coast last August. It had taken four years to clear the land and build the house. Then, with moving boxes still unpacked, Katrina threatened, and they fled to Picayune, Miss. They thought all would be well since the house had been built to sustain 155 m.p.h. winds and was raised 20 feet above ground. But the entire first floor was flooded as the waters rose to 27 feet, washing everything away. Intent to stay in this idyllic location, they signed with a builder in November and, just this week, a crew began putting up new sheetrock.

"We had all these things but, in the end, we learned that it was just stuff," says Mr. Veazey. "Katrina taught us a lot of good lessons."

Terry and Ed Held Jr.

Being the only ones back on a street can be lonely, but Terry and Ed Held Jr. are determined to remake their lives in the heavily damaged St. Bernard Parish. After evacuating and living in a Louisiana shelter until November, the mother and son bought their own trailer without FEMA's help and set it in their driveway. "At first it was scary here at night, but then a streetlight came on and lit the area up," says Mr. Held, who has worked in the movie industry most of his life. He says he will rebuild but is still fighting with the insurance company over his losses. He's also waiting for the new flood maps to determine how to rebuild. St. Bernard Parish doesn't even have 10 percent of its residents back yet.

Ann and George Yarbrough

This was the Yarbroughs' retirement home, a spot by the sea near their grandchildren. But Katrina wiped their two-story house off the face of the earth when the eye of the storm came through Waveland, Miss., on the Gulf Coast. While almost all of their possessions disappeared with the wind, they knew they would return and rebuild. They finally received a FEMA trailer in December and parked it on their daughter and son-in-law's lot, not far from their own. Just this week, the couple received the architectural plans for their new, smaller home - to be raised 24 feet above ground. They have a builder lined up, but have to wait until he is available. "Seeing these plans and knowing that we are going to be able to rebuild makes living in this trailer worthwhile," says Ms. Yarbrough, wiping back tears.

Jane Harding

She had wanted to buy a house in New Orleans for years but never could afford anything. She made trips here to visit her daughter and son-in-law whenever possible. After Katrina hit, she knew this was her opportunity to settle here for good. With so many residents looking to sell, she snapped up a small, still-intact cottage in the Garden District and moved all her possessions from Maryland in December. "I would really like to help New Orleans by buying houses and fixing them up," she says, decorating the outside of her new home with Mardi Gras beads. "There's no way this city is going to be allowed to just fade way; it's too special."

Debbie and Gene Bass

The Basses had never evacuated from their Slidell, La., home before, but Katrina sounded different. So the family packed up and headed to Pearl River, Miss. When they finally returned to their one-story home two months later, "it was a real mess," says Mr. Bass, cradling his granddaughter, Jennifer, in their front yard. The water had come in about six feet and nearly everything had to be thrown out. They quickly received two FEMA trailers for their family of five, and they have been parked outside the gutted house ever since. Mr. Bass wants to rebuild the house, originally built in 1921, but his insurance won't cover the cost.

Justin Lawrence and Jonathan Gilliam

The two half-brothers took different routes during hurricane Katrina: One rode it out while the other evacuated. Now they're reunited at a church in New Orleans. Mr. Lawrence was trapped in a Kenner, La., store for two weeks, surviving on sodas and hot dogs before being evacuated to Lafayette, La. Mr. Gilliam evacuated to his grandparents' house in Alabama, but returned to the city (sleeping in his car at one point) to make money after his daughter was born. Because both of their family homes are still unlivable, they are taking shelter at the Resurrection Missionary Baptist Church and working night security for $12.75 an hour. "That kind of money is all thanks to the storm. I never had a job like that before Katrina," says Lawrence.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0301/p14s01-ussc.html

Jolie Rouge

03-02-2006, 09:53 PM

I think ppl should live above sea level or be prepared for these things

I believe a city was built where the sea should be, and the sea is trying to reclaim what is rightfully its. Sometimes nature is stronger, and smarter. than man.

Plus, Why on earth should we rebuild a city in a bowl??[/quote]

Speaking of Cities Below Sea Level .....

Governor Pushing Forward with Levees without Washington
Written for the web by C. Johnson, Internet News Producer

Appearing upbeat despite returning from Washington with no promises of federal help to repair California's levees, Gov. Schwarzenegger talked exclusively with News10 about his plans to push forward.

In a one-on-one interview with reporter Marcey Brightwell, the governor said he viewed the annual governor's conference as a great opportunity to press his case for federal assistance for levees flood control experts say are in critical need of strenthening and repair, leaving California vulnerable to a flooding threat worse than what New Orleans experienced following Hurricane Katrina.

Schwarzenegger said he made the rounds of California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein as well as House representatives to ask for help. He talked to Michael Chertoff, the director of the Office of Homeland Security which oversees the Federal Emergency Management Administration. FEMA, Chertoff and the White House have been roundly criticized in Congressional hearings for what has been called a "disengaged" and slow response to Katrina.

Schwarzenegger suggested making California a priority to avoid a similar catastrophe would be good for Washington. "I think that they made the mistake once with Katrina and they did not respond quickly enough. Here is a chance for redemption," he said. "Here's a chance where they can actually be a step ahead, not wait for a disaster, to actually build and strengthen the levees, do the necessary work that needs to be done."

The governor is calling on federal sources to pay for half of the $6 billion he is calling for to fix levees. State coffers would pay for $2.5 billion and local governments would fund $500,000 of the cost. However, Schwarzenegger said he was told not to expect federal help.

With no promise of financial help, state Democrats said California has once again been snubbed. "I just thought that our governor was treated disrespectfully," said Senate president Pro Tempore Don Perata, D-Alameda. "He's the leader of the biggest state in the nation. He's a fellow Republican and I thought he was given short shrift."

The governor said Chertoff has promised to visit California on March 17 to survey the state of the levees. Last Friday, Schwarzenegger declared the levees a state of emergency and identified 24 levees, most of them along a 140 mile stretch of the Sacramento River, as in critical need of strengthening.

The governor says he will continue to pressure for federal help while going forward with his plans to make the state's levees stronger and safer. "It's basically the principle of the squeaky wheel gets the grease," he told News10. "So the more noise you make and the more you're out there. This is why I just went back there and started talking to everybody."

http://www.kxtv10.com/storyfull2.aspx?storyid=16244

To view a map of areas in Sacramento dependent on levees

To view a map of flood depths that show what the levels of flooding in the City of Sacramento would be if there were no levees to protect us, click here. This map shows the ultimate depth of water for areas within City limits if there were nothing to protect the area or if nothing was done to stop flooding.

To view a map of areas in Sacramento dependent on levees, click here. This map does not show depth of the flooding, but will show areas vulnerable to flooding because they rely on levees to protect them

www.cityofsacramento.org/utilities/flood/maps.html

Jolie Rouge

03-05-2006, 02:02 PM

Life on Mississippi Turned Upside Down
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
Sun Mar 5, 12:21 PM ET

AT THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER - Down where this great American river meets the Gulf of Mexico, river pilots negotiate a new reality as they steer oceangoing oil tankers, cruise ships and gigantic cargo carriers toward the warehouses, docks and rail yards of New Orleans.

Their world was turned upside down by Hurricane Katrina. With the roads down the river out of service, they had to hire helicopters to get to their posts in the days after the storm. With their pilot stations heavily damaged, members of this fraternity — many related by blood — have lived like sardines on barges.

And their working life on the Mississippi River is a lot less predictable and a lot more reminiscent of Mark Twain's daredevil tales — ever since Katrina knocked out navigational lights, jetties and other manmade structures like wing dams and rock jetties that tame the river and steer currents. And the channel bottom was clogged with mud and silt brought in by Katrina's storm surge.

"It all looks different to us," said river pilot Tony Vogt. "You're extra aware of the situation."

From the control tower at a hurricane-damaged pilot station at Southwest Pass, the primary channel from the Gulf to the main trunk of the river, Vogt's new reality comes into focus. A rock jetty that protects and demarcates the channel, like an airport runway, disappears under the water not far from shore. That line of rocks used to run farther out, and the pilots say it's trickier now to take ships into the pass.

Before Katrina, piloting a ship was like walking down the unlit hallway in your home at night, Vogt said. You do it without incident, he said, because you've done it so many times before. "But if you change a door frame or something, you'll bump into it until you learn it all over," the 45-year-old pilot said.

The same principle applies on the river, but the stakes are much, much higher.

A mistake doesn't result in a stubbed toe or knocking over a lantern. Instead, human and environmental catastrophes hang over their heads. "You take a tanker with 500,000 barrels of oil in it, each barrel is worth $60, and that's just the cargo — there's a lot of money involved," said Michael Lorino, the president of the Associated Branch Pilots.

By law, each deep-draft vessel that goes up the Mississippi must have a pilot at the helm familiar with the ways of the river.

Despite the new risks, pilots pushed the limits and remarkably got traffic flowing again five days after Katrina without any major mishaps being reported.

They were forced to: The pressure was too great. "Gas prices were rising," said Petty Officer Jesse Kavanaugh of the U.S. Coast Guard. "Our main objective was to get the oil tankers up the river, those were priority ships."

The port system on the lower Mississippi is one of the busiest in the world with about 6,000 ships a year docking there. Oil refineries, chemical plants and other industries line the banks from below New Orleans all the way to Baton Rouge, and about three quarters of U.S. grain exports pass down the river.

"You only realize the importance of this vital economic asset — this river artery that stretches from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico — when you lose it," said John Hyatt, a board member of the International Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers Association of New Orleans.

One of the biggest risks they took was to take ships up the river even though the channel was not as deep as it typically is. "Risky? There are always risks associated with this job," said pilot Stephen Post. "If you want guarantees, go to Sears."

For Hyatt, the risks they took were good for business. "They tell me time and again that they were taking chances," he said. "I don't have a problem with that, sometimes you have to take chances. You've got some soft bottoms, so you can drag bottom to some degree."

Dealing with new conditions on the river — stronger-than-usual currents, outdated radar on rusty liners, fog, sandy bottoms, river traffic, storms — is what the pilots are taught to expect. It's all part of the job.

What might take longer to adapt to are the changes to their way of life.

Katrina left Pilottown, a century-old clustering of homes built for pilots near the river's mouth, a jumble of ruin. "You hate to leave it, but we believe the time has come and gone," Lorino, the pilot president, said.

The Associated Branch Pilots, or Bar Pilots, voted not to rebuild their old pilot station, a West Indies-style cypress building, and to abandon the town's two dozen structures, all of which were badly damaged. The Bar Pilots bring ships across the mouth of the Mississippi before handing them over to other pilots who make the voyage north.

Months after Katrina hit, Lorino picked his way through the mess at Pilottown. "Look at that! That's a 2-by-4 stuck in the palm tree," he said. "Do you know how hard the wind had to be blowing to do that?"

Inside the pilot station, heaps of marsh grass, clothes, boots, papers, books, a boxing glove and an assortment of other belongings is an entanglement of loss. The flood waters and winds left little untouched.

"This was it," Lorino said. "This was the body and soul. Pilottown was the body and soul of the Bar Pilots."

Pilottown was built when pilots and their families lived as close as they could to the action. At one time, the town had a post office and its own ZIP code and a school.

"Pilottown even had a baseball team," recalled Paul Vogt, a 64-year-old pilot who's been guiding ships up the Mississippi since 1967.

He said he'll miss the place he remembers so vividly from his youth. "As a kid I used to fish for eel — people would use that for catfish bait, crawfish — and just hang out. Shoot fiddler crabs with BB guns, do the little boy things."

There is some hope for the town, however. Another group of pilots that also used Pilottown plans to keep a station on the same site and there is a chance that some pilots who owned structures there will want to keep hunting and fishing camps there.

But will it look, and feel, the same? Pilots said that's unlikely. While it may still retain the name Pilottown, it will likely not look much like a town. And that signals the end of an era: There may never be another full-scale town this far south where the river ends.

It's happened before many, many times. Hurricanes have torn apart the towns that sprung up over the centuries in the soft, marshy delta soil. They were places called Balize, Oysterville, Port Eads, Burrwood.

The towns always served economic ends — as stopovers for ships, or stations for pilots, or trappers' settlements.

They're all gone now, swallowed by the marsh, time and the Gulf.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060305/ap_on_re_us/katrina_the_river_story;_ylt=AnHpXiaKxS6tt4lQiA0Mt NRH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-

sadie01

03-09-2006, 02:19 PM

lawdy.. I say rebuld it and make it a bigger and better city.. I love NOLA!! It's one of the best cities in the world, IMO....

I used to visit 4 times a year almost, now it has been cut back but plan on resuming my quarterly vacations

Jolie Rouge

03-09-2006, 09:30 PM

Graham Speechless After New Orleans Tour
By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer
Thu Mar 9, 7:20 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - Evangelist Billy Graham, whose ministry has taken him to some of the world's least-developed countries, said Thursday that the scope of devastation he saw as he toured hurricane-ravaged New Orleans this week left him speechless.

"I cannot imagine what those people have been through," Graham said during an interview with The Associated Press, a day after he was shown some of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. "This is a far greater disaster than the average American understands."

Graham came to New Orleans for an event this weekend organized by local ministers and his son, Franklin Graham, now head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Billy Graham plans to preach Sunday, his first public sermon since June, when he led his final revival meeting in New York City.

The 87-year-old minister has preached to more than 210 million people in 185 countries and has counseled generations of U.S. presidents and world leaders. He has written 25 books, including "The Journey," which was released this week.

In more recent years, however, Graham has suffered from fluid on his brain, prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease. He has largely been confined to his home in Montreat, N.C., where his wife is now an invalid, he said Thursday.

"I'm 87 years old now, and I feel every day of it sometimes. Other times, I feel like a young man again," he said before addressing about 800 pastors and family members gathered at a New Orleans church.

He needed the aid of his son and others to shuffle to the pulpit — the same one he used during a 1954 revival meeting here. But once stood before the assembly, gripping the oak pulpit's sides, Graham was as generations of Christians remember him: His voice was clear and strong, he joked with the crowd and drew on biblical stories to encourage them.

He compared New Orleans to Job, the Old Testament figure who was stripped of his children and riches but refused to curse God for his undeserved suffering. Job was later given more than he lost.

"God restored him, and God is going to do that for you. I believe that," Graham said.

A disaster like Katrina, which hit Aug. 29 and broke the city's flood-control system, is a mystery, said Graham, whose own home suffered damage during Hurricane Ivan in 2004. God did not cause Katrina, he said.

Why did the storm strike? "I'll tell you the truth: I don't know. I don't know anybody who does know," he said.

Graham said during the interview he believes New Orleans has a foundation on which to build a spiritual revival. He noted the Roman Catholic Church's long presence here and the more recent work of Protestant denominations.

"There's a foundation here to build on, I think. That's encouraging to me," he said.

On Sunday, Graham said, he hoped to bring a simple message to New Orleans: "I just want people to know they're loved and they're prayed for."

___

On the Net:

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association: http://www.billygraham.org/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060310/ap_on_re_us/billy_graham_new_orleans;_ylt=Aou61HCgo4Z4dups3KwM A.VH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-

Jolie Rouge

03-12-2006, 04:31 PM

Reid 'Ashamed' Over Katrina Mobile Homes
By PEGGY HARRIS, Associated Press Writer

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Senate minority leader Harry Reid said Saturday he was "ashamed for our country" after visiting the thousands of FEMA-owned mobile homes lined up at Hope Airport that have yet to be used as shelters for hurricane victims on the Gulf Coast.

"I can't imagine that we could have a sea of 11,000 mobile homes sitting there, rotting, while people around the country can't find a place to live," the Nevada Democrat said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has said that it was unable to put the trailers to use because federal regulations prohibit placing them in flood plains, and many of those needing shelter after the hurricanes are in areas classified as flood-prone.

Cost estimates for the trailers have ranged from $350 million to $800 million. "I'm terribly mystified, disappointed and ashamed for our country," said Reid, who visited the site with Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.

The two senators said they wrote a letter to President Bush urging him to sign an executive order for a temporary exemption from the flood-plain regulations.

Reid said he was particularly appalled because he knows that, in Pass Christian, Miss., for example, more than 100 hurricane victims are living in a flood plain in tents.

"I ask you, are they better off?" he said.

Earlier, at Little Rock, Reid also said he was galled by Bush's suggestion last week during a visit to New Orleans, where many neighborhoods remain uninhabitable, that Congress was slowing down the recovery process.

Reid said that, if President Bush had presented a budget that included what would realistically be needed to bring Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama back from the disastrous conditions they were left in after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Congress would now be approving funding amounts that would meet those needs.

Bush has said Congress "shortchanged the process" by diverting $1.5 billion in levee-rebuilding money to non-New Orleans-related projects. He said Congress should rechannel that money to levee rebuilding and should approve a $4.2 billion allotment for housing in Louisiana, rather than spread that housing money among all the damaged states.

"I was kind of upset. He's blaming all this on Congress, and then he has the audacity to say what limited money he's helped us get, put it all on Louisiana. That's not fair," Reid said Saturday. "I'm very, very disappointed."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060312/ap_on_go_co/katrina_reid;_ylt=AgpZ2ZP37q8Fx25lYPwsWCqs0NUE;_yl u=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM-

Bush Shocked by Arrest of Former Adviser

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 11, 4:39 PM ET

WASHINGTON -

President Bush on Saturday said he was shocked and saddened to learn that former domestic policy adviser Claude Allen was charged with theft for allegedly receiving phony refunds at department stores.

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"When I heard the story last night, I was shocked, and my first reaction was one of disappointment, deep disappointment — if it's true — that we were not fully informed," Bush said. "Shortly thereafter, I felt really sad for the Allen family."

Allen, 45, was arrested Thursday by police in Montgomery County, Md., for allegedly claiming refunds for more than $5,000 worth of merchandise he did not buy, according to county and federal authorities. He had been under investigation since at least January for alleged thefts on 25 occasions at Target and Hecht's stores.

"If the allegations are true, Claude Allen did not tell my chief of staff and legal counsel the truth, and that's deeply disappointing" the president said at the White House following an event on

Iraq. "If the allegations are true, something went wrong in Claude Allen's life, and that is really sad."

Allen, who had been the No. 2 official at the Health and Human Services Department, was named as domestic policy adviser at the White House in early 2005. He resigned abruptly on Feb. 9, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.

The night of Jan. 2, after an alleged incident at the Target in Gaithersburg, Md., presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said Allen called White House chief of staff Andy Card to tell him what had happened. The next morning, Allen spoke in person with Card and White House counsel Harriet Miers.

McClellan said Allen told Card and Miers that it was all a misunderstanding and cited confusion with his credit card because he had moved several times. "He assured them that he had done nothing wrong and the matter would be cleared up," McClellan said.

The president first learned of Allen's planned departure and the January incident in early February. But since Allen had passed the usual background checks and had no other prior issues that White House officials were aware of, "he was given the benefit of the doubt," McClellan said.

Mallon Snyder, a Gaithersburg lawyer representing Allen, said his client was not improperly trying to take the items. Snyder said asked Target to produce videotape they said they have of Allen but that store representatives refused. He said he wants to meet with Target investigators to clear things up.

"It's a misunderstanding on their part," Snyder said, adding that the investigation had nothing to do with Allen's departure from the White House.

Allen has been released on his own recognizance. Calls to Allen's home in Gaithersburg, a Washington suburb, were not returned.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060311/ap_on_go_pr_wh/ex_bush_aide;_ylt=AqG8wdUbE5CRM4E597FaRjqMwfIE;_yl u=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM-

Jolie Rouge

03-17-2006, 09:52 PM

Schwarzenegger Asks for Levee Assistance
By SCOTT LINDLAW

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff pledged Friday that the government would help California patch its fragile levee system.

But he stopped short of the pre-emptive federal disaster declaration that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seeks to hasten repairs to weakened Central Valley levees. ``A disaster declaration always requires that the disaster have happened,'' Chertoff said in an interview with The Associated Press.

He held out the possibility of an emergency declaration that would allow up to $5 million ``urgently to address an imminent loss of life.''

The state needs a federal declaration to ease federal environmental reviews that could slow down the work. Without it, the governor said, repairs will take three years instead of one.

Schwarzenegger, who was accompanied by Chertoff on an aerial tour of the levees, has already declared a state emergency, suspending environmental and contracting rules.

Schwarzenegger has said billions of dollars are needed to shore up the levees. Largely because of weaknesses in the levees - some more than 100 years old - parts of the Sacramento region have less than 100-year flood protection, the lowest of any large urban area in the nation.

That's led to fears that an earthquake or flood could cause a Katrina-type catastrophe and jeopardize the water supply for 22 million people.

With Sen. Dianne Feinstein this month saying money is unlikely to materialize, the governor amended his public works proposal to seek an additional $3.5 billion in voter-approved bond money for the levee work. The bond fizzled when lawmakers failed to reach a compromise.

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=ne-main-9-l1&flok=FF-APO-1110&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20060317%2F2252133411.htm&sc=1110

03/17/06 22:52

So the previling sentiment here is that they should all hurry up and move ...

Merry99%

03-19-2006, 02:58 AM

Tornadoes and one earthquake where I live,I would hate for it to be a question as to whether I could rebuild asked to people who know NOTHING about me,my family,the issue at hand and how much money we have or don't or just assume this is usless southern slum:( land full of hicks that don't work.Also assuming that the goverment is paying for it all,no question.Poor people can be poor and be that way because they do have insuraunce,many old people this nation wide are poor not because their retirement was not enough,or paychecks small,but because we are all terrified at not having insuraunce,so we overbuy insuraunce and get by without much money.Poor is not only where most people think people are not working.You may have very poor people in your well to do neighborhoods,because they spend all they make and borrow the rest to keep looking well off.You just can't see them they are in credit card hiding.Sometimes they can be recognized,say if they get caught burning their home for insuraunce money :rolleyes:
So don't judge,leave that to God Almighty,who by the way knows what will happen or not.If he had not wanted it rebuilt it would have been not able to be repaired or rebuilt on.Yes it could happen,this year even,but it might not until 3050.
So our goverment can cut back ROFLMAO at myself....they could but they will not but they still have the money already allocated for the levees and I can see them taking credit when all is done,all rebuilt by the so called bums.Sorry i know some are,same as where you and I live,,,but don't forget your grandparents or your great grandparents who went thru the depression,,,you are a product of those poor,homeless,sometimes filthy and working for food,and you think you are doing good enough to say"Don't rebuild their homes" so that their families can be reunited and they can prosper and also live off the land cause its a way of life for them.If they were so offensive to people because they lived in poverty,its the people who need to rethink their values and this countries history and WHY we are here and how young this country is and not start trying to have any situation make pewople leave their home unwillingly and told you can't return.This was a good question with some scary answers:(

Jolie Rouge

03-20-2006, 10:05 PM

New Orleans Mayor OKs Rebuilding Plan
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - Mayor Ray Nagin finished work Monday on a plan to rebuild New Orleans, endorsing a proposal that would allow all residents to reconstruct their homes in neighborhoods shattered by Hurricane Katrina.

The mayor's advisory commission, formed after Katrina struck Aug. 29, recommended in January that some flooded neighborhoods be replaced with parks and that the city take a go-slow attitude in rebuilding low-lying areas. But that suggestion was greeted with jeers and outrage at public meetings.

Nagin, who is running for re-election April 22, distanced himself from that plan, which included a proposed moratorium on building permits in some areas.

On Monday, he offered to let residents rebuild anywhere, but warned that homeowners in flood-prone neighborhoods would do so at their own risk. "I'm confident that the citizens can decide intelligently for themselves," the mayor said.

The report also recommended a host of other ideas, from revamping schools to consolidating some city offices. The wish-list of projects included new light-rail systems, new riverfront development and better flood protection.

"We have worked tirelessly," Nagin told hundreds of residents who attended a meeting to hear about the plan. "It has been controversial in some respects, but I am pleased by the results."

Residents lined up to speak against the proposal during a public-comment period. One of them, an activist named Chui Clark, called the commission "a rotten, racist committee," echoing criticism by many black residents who say they are being discouraged from returning.

Babatunji Ahmed, a craftsman, charged that construction contracts were going to major corporations like the Halliburton Co. instead of to local workers.

"Somebody is trying to keep us away from this economic pie!" said Ahmed, who also spoke out against suggestions that the city reduce its size, or "footprint."

"The smaller footprint means you don't want my mamma back! You don't want my grandchildren back!" he said.

But the plan has been warmly received in many circles. Ron Forman, a strong mayoral candidate and prominent businessman, applauded the commission's work and the breadth of the report. But he said it is still short on specifics.

"The only problem I see with the plan is that I don't see an implementation plan, an action plan, based on dates on when we can expect to be done," Forman said.

Nagin turned the plan immediately into fodder for his re-election campaign, poking fun at a prominent opponent and using the spotlight to make light of missteps he's made.

"I'm going to do something I hate to do: I'm going to read from the script ... so that I don't get caught up in the moment," said Nagin, whose off-the-cuff remarks have drawn criticism, such as his infamous "chocolate city" speech in which he said God intended New Orleans to be a black-majority city.

The release of the report came hours after civil rights groups took aim at the state's plan for rebuilding, which includes spending billions of federal dollars to buy flood-damaged homes.

Groups including the NAACP, the Advancement Project and the New Orleans-based People's Hurricane Relief Fund complained that the plan gives short shrift to poor and low-income victims by focusing too much on bailing out homeowners and encouraging high-end development at the expense of low-income renters.

In a letter to Gov. Kathleen Blanco's administration, the groups cited government estimates showing that about 126,570 rental units without insurance were flooded last year. By contrast, they said, only about 25,180 uninsured homes were damaged, which is about 20 percent of all the ruined homes.

"This is really like the opening salvo, if you will, of attempts to get a fair share of that money for low- and moderate-income people," said Bill Quigley, a lawyer and civil rights activist.

The state plan still needs approval by the Legislature, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

State officials said they welcomed the groups' opinions. "We want to make sure that we get as much input from citizens as we can," said Suzie Elkins, director of the Office of Community Development, which will also review the rebuilding plan.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060321/ap_on_...WtkBHNlYwM3MTg-

Jolie Rouge

04-01-2006, 09:54 PM

Katrina survivors play defense against looting
By Patrik Jonsson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

LAKE CATHERINE, LA. – The two men poking through the wreckage that still litters Lake Catherine island looked pretty much like the local Katrina survivors, some of whom still scavenge for necessities. But islander Marty Mayeur had his suspicions - especially when he saw the men rolling up the expensive power cable laid down earlier by lineworkers down the road.

Mr. Mayeur urged a passing sheriff's deputy to check out their story that they were contractors working on the power lines. By the time the deputy came screaming back in her cruiser, Mayeur says, the would-be looters had fled, but without the cable.

The riotous looting that swept the area right after hurricane Katrina is long gone, but in its place is opportunistic - even organized - thievery of everything from construction tools to carved mantelpieces of damaged homes.

"We're still in early recovery, and this type of post- looting has become a real problem," says criminologist William Thornton of Loyola University in New Orleans, noting that many looters drive in from out of state. "All our small law-enforcement agencies are spread thin and really hurting because their tax base is no longer in existence."

The overall crime rate along the Louisiana-Mississippi border has doubled in recent months even as violent crime has dropped 80 percent since the storm, according to the New Orleans Police Department. Property crimes are a major part of that surge, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) told the Associated Press recently.

Some looting-prevention techniques

In response, police and area residents throughout the storm-damaged region are taking some unusual steps to prevent looting.

• In Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish, the sheriff department proposed hiring 100 private security guards from DynCorp, the same company that provides security in Iraq, to work alongside deputies.

• Here in the tightly knit Lake Catherine neighborhood of Orleans Parish, one determined resident tried setting up a roadblock to turn away vehicles driven by strangers - an illegal stunt that in ordinary times might have landed him in jail.

• Elsewhere, returning residents have marshalled neighborhood forces to look out for looters and marauders. Some have spray-painted dire warnings - such as "Looters will be drawn and quartered" - on the sides of garages and stranded boats. Along the Belle Chasse Highway in Plaquemines, one resident set out what might be called a "looter scarecrow": a bearded dummy with a fake rifle across his lap and a "No Trespassing" sign at his feet.

Sometimes, thieves depart as residents return. Tommy Ford, a resident of Chalmette, La., says the looters used to come at night on four-wheel all-terrain vehicles. When residents began to come back in January, turning on their front-porch lights as night fell, the activity moved away.

In early March, contractor Julius Williams watched as two men disassembled a stranded car in New Orleans' Ninth Ward. "It wasn't theirs, but they took it," he says.

In St. Bernard Parish, three members of a Latin American gang were recently arrested for stealing private property, though police did not say what they stole. Though most of the gang crime is in the form of graffiti, law officers worry that members of gangs such as MS-13 will be able to blend into the crowd of Hispanic construction rebuilding crews while trafficking in drugs and committing violent crime.

The sheriff department's plan to hire law-enforcement help from DynCorp would, presumably, help address that concern. Under the plan, FEMA would provide $70 million over three years to replace more than 200 parish deputies who were furloughed because of a budget crunch. Before the storm, DynCorp hired mainly ex-soldiers to guard civilians and property in Iraq. Its 100 guards would wear the sheriff department uniforms and work alongside deputies. FEMA has yet to approve the plan.

"This [plan] pretty much pokes a hole in any claim that the recovery is well in hand," says Peter Singer, author of "Corporate Warriors" about the rise of private security firms.

Hiring armed private contractors to do public police work "is a fine line," says Loyola's Mr. Thornton. "You can fall into a Rambo mentality if it's not done right, but at the same time, these kinds of people are perfect for guarding property, and that's what we need now: a zero-tolerance mentality for this sort of thing."

Scavengers vs. looters

In the meantime, here on Lake Catherine island dozens of cars with out-of-state license plates drive around, their occupants scoping out supplies such as wires and generators, even dishes and wrought-iron tables. Then, they strike at night. Nearly all of the 25 residents who had returned as of early March have their own stories about missing property or coming upon someone trespassing on their land.

For some, the focus on these scavengers can be misguided, says Erbert "Nails" Martin, a retired shrimper who rode out Katrina in his steel-reinforced island camp.

Many people who come along picking up plates, cups, and candleholders are simply trying to survive, he says. He sees the effort to root them out as another sign that poor people are no longer wanted in the area. "Authorities are pulling a power play, that's all," he says. "What would you do? I see people taking things, but they're taking [trash]. I'm glad they're taking it."

On this nine-mile-long eyebrow of sand on Lake Pontchartrain's eastern shore, resident Wayne Gagliano sees the situation differently. He recently set up an impromptu roadblock - and turned around dozens of cars he said had no business on the island.

Instead of jailing Mr. Gagliano for commandeering the law, New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley heeded the protest and assigned a car to patrol the island 24 hours a day.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0328/p01s02-ussc.html?s=u2

CajunBlu

04-02-2006, 12:25 AM

Harry Lee had the right idea years ago about "The Chocolate City" but people didn't listen then.

Jolie Rouge

04-03-2006, 09:04 PM

Compassion for Katrina victims Mon Apr 3, 6:53 AM ET

In January, I was one of 13 students from Santa Clara University in California who spent a week in New Orleans aiding the massive, post-Hurricane Katrina cleanup effort. It was the most eye-opening, humbling and personally challenging experience of my life.

Five months after the hurricane, I thought that I would witness the urgent and hopeful restoration of a devastated city. But nothing there was comforting, safe or reassuring. Progress was slower than imaginable; the destruction, overwhelming.

The daily barrage of images from news reports didn't prepare me for entering some sections of the city to find an unreal scene. It looked like a ghost town or nuclear wasteland: houses overturned in the road, clothes caught on trees, trees split down the center, se a shells where grass once was.

What we accomplished in six days seems so minute, so very little against the large-scale destruction. And yet, I feel fulfilled by what we've done here and the lives we've touched.

Our first day in New Orleans, we struck up a conversation with a man named Byron. He called us "angels." He said it was no coincidence that we were a group of 13 students because there were 12 disciples, and Jesus made 13. My heart skips a beat when I think of this; it would be easier not to hear such praise. I know it's good, though, that people found our work inspirational. That's how the fire spreads. In this case, that fire is love and compassion for people faced with tragedy.

I hope more people can be infused with the same passion and devotion to rebuild.

Erin Burns, Santa Clara, Calif.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060403/cm_usatoday/spreadlovecompassionforkatrinavictims;_ylt=AuABJ7S efHDve7PTwTVkC0qs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWF***A2BHNlYwM 3NDI-

After the deluge, creativity in the Gulf
The Monitor's View
Mon Apr 3, 4:00 AM ET

Still cleaning up tons of debris, the hurricane- battered Gulf Coast can hardly be called a clean slate. Yet it is just that in terms of innovative ideas taking shape - from the tiny "Katrina cottage" to a big-think reinvention of government.

Last week's news shocker about tripling New Orleans levee costs, as well as absentee voting issues in the April 22 mayoral election, certainly illustrate the demand for creative thinking. And still, the seven months since Katrina show the region is open to new and different solutions.

Let's start with the cottage - a brilliant alternative to the FEMA trailer. Built in a southern style with a sloping metal roof and a front porch, this one-bedroom modular home is less likely to blow away in another hurricane because it's built on a concrete foundation. It can also be added on to. Yet it costs about the same as a trailer and can be quickly produced. Most important, people like the cottages, while they're not wild about trailer "FEMAvilles."

From a bird's-eye view, urban planning is also proving innovative. This area hasn't paid much attention to planning, nor had much experience with zoning. From the neighborhoods of New Orleans to the state capitals of Baton Rouge and Jackson, the massive planning being undertaken is itself a new and necessary - if bumpy and slow - process.

Since Katrina, residents of 11 coastal Mississippi towns have taken part in charettes - intensive planning sessions. They were set up by the Congress for New Urbanism, a national group committed to building walkable, green (in both senses of the word), mixed-income neighborhoods that include commercial space.

Architecturally, "new urbanism" is criticized as a nostalgic throwback to main-street America. Admittedly, these projects have an artificial, cookie-cutter look to them. But one can change the architecture and still keep the mixed-use principles, and both the Louisiana and Mississippi governors have embraced the community-centric movement.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is putting some of these principles (if not specific plans) to work. His redevelopment ideas, unveiled last month, envision a city more friendly to mass transit, including a new light rail link to the airport and expanded free bus service to Baton Rouge - now a bedroom community due to the New Orleans housing shortage.

Tight finances and the new situation on the ground have pushed the mayor to reinvent city government. Like a Wall Street merger manager, he's consolidating city offices, including the "three-headed monster" of the school system, which is part state, part city, and part charter-school controlled. Pre-Katrina, New Orleans had one of the worst public school systems in the country. Now most of its schools are charters - an improvement.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has similar consolidation ideas about levee control, state higher education, and transport. It's a healthy shift toward accountability and cost savings in a state known for corruption.

Back to the Katrina cottages. Their funding needs an innovation impulse. FEMA won't pay for them because, unlike the trailers on wheels, the cottages are permanent. The solution seems easy enough, though: Change the rules, or the funding source.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20060403/cm_csm/egulfideas;_ylt=AgCsRdu_p1_YP7PMvyz31Bf8B2YD;_ylu= X3oDMTA3YWF***A2BHNlYwM3NDI-

Jolie Rouge

04-11-2006, 07:50 AM

Out of Katrina's wake arises an education in generosity
By DeWayne Wickham
Tue Apr 11, 6:56 AM ET

A not-so-funny thing happened to Bill Cosby when he arrived in New Orleans earlier this month to take part in a voting rights rally in the hurricane-battered city. He met Exodie Roe.

Cosby, a comedian who mines humor from many of life's most innocuous moments, came away from his encounter with the 21-year-old Dillard University senior talking more like a social anthropologist than like the legendary funnyman that he is.

"This is one of those stories that came out of the devastation of New Orleans that has not been widely told by the media," Cosby said of what happened to Roe and hundreds of other students from that historically black school after its campus was inundated by Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters.

At least 143 colleges and universities around the country offered to let Dillard students take classes on their campuses while the New Orleans school worked to reopen its doors. About half of Dillard's 2,200 students did just that. They went to schools such as Grambling State University (La.) and Franklin Pierce (N.H.) and Limestone (S.C.) colleges. Some spent the fall semester at big name schools such as Stanford (Calif.) and Baylor (Texas) universities. Others went to smaller schools such as Alcorn State University (Miss.) and Philander Smith College (Ark.).

A few schools waived all costs; most found a way around admission rules to allow Dillard students to continue to take classes. "Students simply had to demonstrate that they were registered here because we couldn't get transcripts to the schools on time," said Marvalene Hughes, Dillard's president.

This is a story that has been largely missed by journalists who have devoted a lot of attention to the political squabbling that has plagued New Orleans' recovery from Katrina - and the great human tragedies that storm produced. And it is this story that cries out for telling, Cosby told me.

"It's like what happens in a blizzard when strangers pull over to help you free your stuck car. Without fanfare they opened up their doors to Dillard's students," Cosby said that's what he learned from his chance encounter with Roe.

Roe spent the fall semester at Morehouse College, a historically black school in Atlanta that has a strong tradition of educating black men. "Morehouse opened up its doors to us. We didn't have to pay for housing, books or tuition," he said. "I now consider myself, partially, a Morehouse man."

As tens of thousands of people were evacuated from New Orleans after it flooded, many states offered them temporary refuge. In our democratic system, governments are expected to aid our neediest citizens, and many seemed to bend over backwards to help New Orleans' displaced residents.

But before Katrina's floodwaters breeched the levees around New Orleans, there was little expectation that higher education institutions would be able to do what so many did. They are, after all, steeped in rules that govern who gets in and how access is gained.

Offering people a place to live, as so many communities did after seeing the gut-wrenching televised images of evacuees living amid filth and anarchy in New Orleans' Superdome, was an expected human response. Time and again, this nation has shown the size of its heart in situations like this.

But the schools that aided Dillard did the unexpected. "I think, in moments of crises, even universities remove their shields of competitiveness and open their doors and their hearts," Hughes said.

Dillard's students are part of what W.E.B. DuBois called "the Talented Tenth" - members of the black intelligentsia that is so badly needed to fix what ails black America. "The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men," he wrote in 1903.

That important work - educating Dillard's exceptional young men and women - has gone on largely without interruption, thanks to the generosity of scores of schools that came to their aid.

DeWayne Wickham writes weekly for USA TODAY.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060411/cm_usatoday/outofkatrinaswakearisesaneducationingenerosity;_yl t=AhFupkBd0Ht_mfRZej9z1mr8B2YD;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWF*** A2BHNlYwM3NDI-

Jolie Rouge

04-13-2006, 09:21 PM

Hurricane Digital Memory Bank:
Preserving the Stories of Katrina, Rita, and Wilma

Last year's hurricane season was one of the most devastating in recent history, affecting several coastal areas of the United States, Mexico and Cuba. The Hurricane Digital Memory Bank is a project of 'The Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason University and the University of New Orleans . . . in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History and other partners;' the project's purpose – to 'collect and preserve history online', this section dedicated to the 2005 hurricanes.

First-hand accounts from people who 'rode out' one of these hurricanes are featured; the visitor has the opportunity by way of an interactive map to add his/her own story to the content. There is also a link to the archives of The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, archives that house multiple episodes of the news casts that featured the storms. Pictures and accounts cannot do justice to the loss and devastation but if you don't have the opportunity to view the area first-hand, this series is will give you an idea of the far-reaching effects of these storms.

http://hurricanearchive.org/

Jolie Rouge

04-13-2006, 09:35 PM

Watchdog: Katrina Criticism Deserved
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
17 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Widespread criticism of the government's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina was largely deserved, the Homeland Security Department's internal watchdog concludes in a report rapping the agency for focusing on terrorism at the expense of preparing for natural disasters.

The report by Inspector General Richard L. Skinner, to be released Friday, includes 38 recommendations for improving disaster response missions by the department and its Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The report's executive summary and the recommendations were obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

The federal government, and FEMA in particular, "received widespread criticism for a slow and ineffective response to Hurricane Katrina," the report concludes. "Much of the criticism is warranted."

"After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, DHS' prevention and preparedness for terrorism have overshadowed that for natural hazards, both in perception and in application," the report found.

Responding, Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said many of the recommendations already are being installed at FEMA — including revamping federal response plans and ensuring that state and local authorities are ready for the upcoming storm season that begins June 1.

"We'll apply these lessons learned from Katrina and these other various reviews to the way forward as we get ready for June," Knocke said.

Though FEMA provided "record levels of support" to storm victims, emergency responders and state authorities, investigators found it was hampered by untrained staff, unreliable communication systems and poor coordination in delivering aid. The report also called FEMA plans to assist overwhelmed states during disasters "insufficient for an event of Hurricane Katrina's magnitude."

It also found that confusing guidelines in the National Response Plan — issued in December 2004 as a blueprint for action the government is supposed to follow during emergencies — led to duplicated communication and efforts during Katrina.

The 38 recommendations call for better training, coordination, and systems for ensuring communications among local and state emergency responders and between federal agencies providing aid. They also call for more clearly defined roles and an established chain of command within the federal government.

One recommendation also urges stronger oversight of federal contracts before they are awarded. FEMA rebid $3.6 billion worth of storm-related contracts last month after lawmakers complained the money had been given to four firms that did not compete for the work.

FEMA and Homeland Security have promised that many reforms — including systems to track supplies, aid victims and deliver quick information to all levels of government during a disaster — will be ready by the June 1 start of the hurricane season.

Though pointed, the Homeland Security report's summary is far less harsh than a House inquiry in February that concluded that government indifference toward disaster preparations contributed to deaths and suffering that Katrina inflicted. The White House also cited numerous failures in federal disaster planning, communications and leadership in its own "lessons-learned" review issued later that month.

The Senate is preparing its own inquiry into the Katrina response. It was due in late March, but has been delayed by at least a month.

___

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060414/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/katrina_washington;_ylt=AjhRtxVkSxP56JcRgUhJUZKs0N UE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-

On the Net:

Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/

Federal Emergency Management Agency: http://www.fema.gov/

Jolie Rouge

04-21-2006, 09:14 PM

The Storm That Drowned a City

What gave rise to the devastating storm? What determined her path? How was Katrina categorized, and what did she look like as she struck the Gulf Coast? Satellite imagery and computer modeling have given hurricane researchers critical tools to answer such questions. Launch this interactive to explore striking images and animations that reveal details of the storm. —Susan K. Lewis

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/orleans/anatomy.html

(( Should read "Storm that drowned a state" - Katrina and Rita didn't just effect !@#$ New Orleans ! ))

How New Orleans Flooded
Examine a visual chronology of exactly where and how 85 percent of the city wound up underwater.

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded 85 percent of greater New Orleans, killing more than 1,000 people and leaving 100,000 homeless. Investigations into why this devastating tragedy happened have only just begun, though even a cursory examination shows that it was due in part to man-made engineering failures. For now, all we can do is explain how the deluge occurred, based on reconstructions of events made in the three months since Katrina struck. In this feature, follow the progression of flooding incidents that precipitated the worst natural disaster in American history. —Ivor van Heerden

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/orleans/how.html

1. Katrina makes landfall in Louisiana at 6:10 a.m., but the flooding of residential areas in greater New Orleans actually begins an hour and a half earlier. Between 4:30 and 5 a.m., levees located where the CSX Railroad crosses the northern arm of the Industrial Canal, in the eastern part of Orleans Parish, breach. With metal gates normally used at this spot not working following damage during a train derailment, engineers had used sandbags to seal the levee "I" walls where the railroad passed through the walls. The ever-growing storm surge, which at this time of the early morning is about nine feet above sea level, breaks through these sandbags and begins flooding the city both to the east and west.

2. Before the storm's landfall an 18-foot surge with huge waves develops in Lake Borgne, peaking between 7 and 8 a.m. About two hours earlier, however, the westward-directed waves on the lake rapidly start eroding the levees fronting the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet. (The MR-GO is a man-made waterway built to offer oceangoing ships a direct route between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico.) The MR-GO's levees, which make up the easternmost length of the ring of hurricane-protection levees surrounding St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward, are rapidly overwhelmed and in some places destroyed. The surge then roars westward into St. Bernard Parish, flooding all the lower areas of Chalmette, Meraux, and Violet, and reaching the Lower Ninth Ward by 6:30 a.m.

3. When Katrina makes landfall in Louisiana, it pushes a 14-to-17-foot surge of seawater up the Mississippi River as well as through the adjacent MR-GO and from Mississippi Sound through to Lake Borgne. The latter two surges coalesce in an area known as the "Funnel," so called because the levee systems go from being about nine miles apart to just several hundreds yards apart in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in the easternmost part of New Orleans. The loss over recent decades of nearby wetlands, which are natural absorbers of both wind energy and surge height during hurricanes, greatly exacerbates the surge now beginning to flood the city. In St. Bernard Parish, for instance, where marshes front levees, minimal erosion and breaches occur; where marshes are gone, the levees are wiped out.

4. At about 6:30 a.m., with the hurricane's eye still south of the city, the surge in the Funnel overtops the levees on its banks and starts to flood St. Bernard Parish on either side of the waterway. This exacerbates the flooding already coming from the MR-GO breaches. Floodwaters begin to rise even faster in the Lower Ninth Ward.

5. The surge flowing westwards through the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway races into both branches of the north-south-running Industrial Canal. Surge waters flowing south down the canal are stopped by the closed locks that separate the canal from the Mississippi River, while those flowing north pour into Lake Pontchartrain, which at this point in the early morning is still 10 feet lower in elevation. At about 6:50 a.m., the surge waters overtop levees all along the Industrial Canal, sending floodwater into the city to both the east and west of the canal. The Lower Ninth Ward takes a triple hit, having already been receiving floodwaters overtopping levees in the MR-GO to the east and Funnel to the north.

6. In the Industrial Canal, the floodwaters start to erode the earthen levee embankments and cause four sections of the concrete levee "I" walls to bulge outwards. Cracks appear on the concrete walls' canal-side bases. As the walls tilt or in some cases are even moved backwards, large cracks develop in the canal-side soil that underlies the concrete "I" walls. Water begins percolating down these cracks and under the pilings, weakening the soil foundation. The stage is now set for a major breach of the levee here and an even larger one a little farther down the canal.

7. Around 7:45 a.m., the levees along the eastern side of the Industrial Canal's southern arm breach explosively. A head of water almost 20 feet high destroys houses in the immediate vicinity of the breach and pushes others off their foundations. The Lower Ninth Ward begins flooding extremely rapidly, and a barge drifts through the major part of the breach, breaking the top nine inches off the already-failed concrete wall. All areas east of the breach flood to about 12 feet above sea level; since these areas lie below sea level, their houses are totally submerged.

8. Early in the morning surge waters cresting over the levee system in the northern arm of the Industrial Canal flood Orleans East. Later, around 10 a.m., floodwaters overtop levees along Lake Pontchartrain near the Lakefront Airport and gush for a few hours into Orleans East. The waters flow over a section of concrete levee that, strangely, lies almost two feet lower than the earthen walls to which it is attached. Also, a small portion of the earthen levee gives way here.

9. Once the eye of Katrina reaches the southern shore of Lake Pontchartrain, the surge in the Funnel and Industrial Canal levels off and begins to drain due to the storm's westerly winds. But the damage has been done. Besides the major breaches on the Industrial Canal, miles of levees along the MR-GO have been totally eroded, and St. Bernard Parish between the outlet and the Mississippi River has completely flooded.

10. As the eye of the storm starts to cross the Rigolets, a strait northeast of New Orleans that connects Lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne, the winds along the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain swing to the northwest. This drives highly turbulent surge water in the lake into canals opening onto the lake's south shore as well as against the levees lining those canals.

11. Surge waters from Lake Pontchartrain rush into the London Avenue Canal, continuing to rise until about 9 a.m. Far down the canal, near the Mirabeau Avenue bridge, the walls of the canal's levee, which consist of concrete walls atop earthen embankments, begin to swell outwards from the pressure. At appromixately 9:30 a.m., just after the peak of the surge, an eastern section of this levee fails catastrophically. Water drains into the city, lifting one home off its foundations and shoving it 40 yards across a road.

12. While the pressure on the levee walls in the southern portion of the London Avenue Canal eases after the breach, pressure farther north remains heavy. Levee walls just south of the Robert E. Lee Boulevard bridge begin to bulge outwards. About 10:30 a.m., the wall here fails on the west side of the canal, sending an eight-foot-high wall of water cascading into surrounding neighborhoods. This breach occurs even though the surge at the time is only seven feet above sea level, down three feet from the peak 90 minutes earlier.

13. Surge water floods into the 17th Street Canal at the same time as it does into the London Avenue Canal farther east. At the mouth of the 17th Street Canal, small homes and boathouses immediately west of the lake entrance to the canal fly apart, their debris blown into the waterway. Restaurants at the mouth of the canal along its eastern flank are also annihilated by the winds and waves, and some of this debris also enters the canal.

14. At about 10:30 a.m., the eastern levee of the 17th Street Canal bursts forth a few hundred yards south of the hurricane-proof bridge along the Metairie Hammond Highway. Eyewitnesses say the surge waters now flooding the western portion of Orleans Parish rise rapidly. As floodwaters continue to rush into the canal from Lake Pontchartrain, debris backs up against the low-slung Metairie Hammond Highway bridge.

15. The catastrophic failure of the levee walls seals New Orleans' fate. Designed to protect the city from a surge of at least 11.2 feet above sea level, the walls failed with a maximum surge of 10.5 feet—thus, before their design criteria were exceeded. It takes another two days for the floodwaters inside the city and in Lake Pontchartrain to equalize to about three feet above sea level. This leaves the average home in six to nine feet of standing water. Investigations into why the levees failed have only just begun.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/orleans/how-nf.html

Jolie Rouge

04-21-2006, 09:16 PM

Map the Flood
See how much of your city would have been submerged.

Most people are shocked at just how extensive the Katrina inundation of New Orleans was (see map below). In the second map offered, zoom in on your part of the U.S. to see how much of your area would have been flooded if it had a similar elevation. Note that the blue outline only shows flooding in New Orleans proper; additional flooding occurred in certain suburbs.

To see the flood extent in your area, click on the "Go Anywhere" link above the map, then click and drag on the U.S. map until your area is in the center of the image. Use the scale on the left side of the map to zoom in. The blue flood outline will remain in the center of the image.

If you have trouble loading this, see the NOVA tech page.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/orleans/map.html

Jolie Rouge

05-03-2006, 08:31 PM

72 Hours

http://www.72hours.org

April 17 was the 100th anniversary of the San Francisco earthquake, a 7.7 to 7.8 (Richter) magnitude blow to a teeming metropolis that also sparked a raging fire. Between the two, the vast majority of the city was destroyed. Could it happen again?

Oh yes.

And not just in San Francisco. But it's not just earthquakes: no matter where you live, something could happen: a mud slide, a fire, a tornado, a terrorist attack, a hurricane, a tsunami -- the list goes on.

"Are you prepared?" asks the web site 72 Hours. Created by (yep!) the San Francisco Office of Emergency Services, this site helps you prepare yourself and your family for an emergency, urging you to be able to take care of yourself for AT LEAST 72 hours. In a disaster YOU are the priority of ...no one. If you don't prepare, you can't expect anyone else to come to your aid, since everyone else has their own family to worry about. There's good information there; it's up to you to use it to prepare BEFORE the next disaster strikes.

Jolie Rouge

05-09-2006, 01:26 PM

Water Now Safe in Part of Lower Ninth Ward
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press Writer
Mon May 8, 10:46 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - The state Health Department cleared the way Monday for people to begin to return to the New Orleans neighborhood that faced Hurricane Katrina's worst fury, saying tap water in parts of the Lower Ninth Ward is safe. "Our displaced residents in some of the hardest-hit areas are now able to return to their homes and begin to rebuild their lives," Mayor Ray Nagin said Monday in a statement.

The area encompasses the 10 blocks or so closest to the Mississippi River, where the ground is higher.

In other parts of the neighborhood, people still must boil water before using it to drink, prepare food or bathe, Nagin noted. Officials said they do not know when they'll be able to open those areas.

About 30 to 50 trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been set up on lots where the city has certified that power and safe water were available, said Darryll J. Madden, an agency spokesman. Lack of power and water has kept FEMA from filling 350 other requests in the neighborhood.

The area's water system was badly damaged when houses were flattened or knocked from their foundations, leaving water pouring from pipes and uncoupling water and sewer lines. The stress added more cracks to a system that already needed repairs citywide. The floods also uprooted trees, breaking still more lines.

The announcement does not portend a rush of residents returning to the area. The Lower Ninth remains a wasteland of damaged or destroyed homes and piles of debris.

Moreover, many homeowners won't know for some time whether they'll be able to rebuild. The governor's $7.5 billion plan for helping homeowners affected by hurricanes Katrina or Rita rebuild or move is still in the Legislature. And more than half of that plan depends on $4.2 billion in a federal bill that hasn't cleared Congress yet.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060509/ap_on_...WtkBHNlYwM3MTg- (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060509/ap_on_re_us/katrina_ninth_ward;_ylt=AvJm0NtVMVrkjoTauBo4T7Ss0N UE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-)

It is still considered "unsafe" in other parts of New Orleans, Orleans, St. Bernard, Plaquemine, Camereon and a scattering of other places....

Jolie Rouge

05-10-2006, 08:35 PM

Home demolition begins in St. Bernard Parish
By CAIN BURDEAU
Associated Press Writer

MERAUX, La. (AP) -- The Herculean task of tearing down thousands of condemned homes started on Wednesday in St. Bernard Parish, a blue collar territory adjacent to New Orleans where Hurricane Katrina spared only four structures.

The first homes to be broken into pieces and tossed into dump trucks were in the Lexington Place subdivision in Meraux, a neighborhood that once looked like anywhere U.S.A. with its brick and frame homes, green lawns, barbecue pits and quiet streets.

Today, the Lexington Place subdivision is more akin to an abandoned war zone. Homes sit empty, their windows smashed and holes gaping in their sides. Few people other than workers navigate the streets, and only a handful of residents have returned to live in government travel trailers parked outside their houses. The subdivision, like much of St. Bernard, was flooded by 10 feet of water or more.

The demolitions are being carried out by the parish government, using federal funds. Owners of condemned homes who want to take advantage of the government-funded demolition have until May 31 to do so.

On Wednesday, crews demolished one home that was pushed into the middle of a street. "We're in the 3100 block. His address was in the 3500 block," Mike Pritchard, a contractor monitoring the demolitions, said about the house.

Most of the owners' possessions, he said, were still in the home and were trucked away to the landfill along with brick, mortar and beams. "Everything was there like they left it before the hurricane."

Getting the house out of the street will make life that much easier for Peter Guarino. He's repairing his home on the same block.

"It's been slow," Guarino, a carpenter, said about the reconstruction.

Despite the devastation, he said he wants to rebuild his home, which did not suffer structural damage, because St. Bernard is where his heart is.

"As bad as it looks, it's just home," he said. With a government loan and insurance money, he said he'd manage to rebuild.

On each side, though, Guarino's neighbors want their homes demolished, and they will be among those that crews tear down in the coming weeks. So far, about 2,900 owners have asked the parish to destroy their homes.

Charlie Reppel, a special assistant to the parish president, said up to 15,000 homes might end up being demolished, although he believes the eventual number will be closer to 8,000.

There are about 36,000 homes in the parish, which ranges over 465 square miles of wetlands, pastures and swamp land southeast of New Orleans. Before Katrina, the parish had a population of about 76,000 and about 20,000 people have returned.

Reppel said the demolition work may take until the end of the year, or longer, to finish.

He added that the demolitions marked a turning point. "We're starting on our way back."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/LA/LA_ST_BERNARD_DEMOLITIONS_LAOL-?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Precarious piece of land keeps Gulf at bay
Work continues to save Little Lake in Lafourche
By AMY WOLD -- Advocate staff writer
Published: May 10, 2006

Contractors are building the largest coastal restoration project of its kind in an attempt to save a precarious piece of land near Little Lake in eastern Lafourche Parish.

Soil dredged from the lake bottom is sent through almost three miles of pipe and deposited in the marsh that separates the lake from open water to the south.

In some areas the contractor is adding less than a foot of soil to raise and nourish the marsh, while in other spots four to five feet of what used to be water is being filled.

Called marsh nourishment or marsh creation, depending on how much soil is used, the work is designed to prevent some of the erosion that threatens to connect Little Lake with the Gulf of Mexico.

The strip being restored is one of the last pieces of solid land north of the Gulf in the area. If that land is destroyed, the loss of surrounding marsh could accelerate, removing more of the buffer that helps protect populated areas from hurricane storm surges.

The $36 million project, funded through the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act, is being managed by a partnership of federal and state government agencies.

About 2.5 million cubic feet of dirt will be used to create 550 acres of marsh and nourish about 450 more acres, said Cheryl Brodnax of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Restoration Center. Together with other work, the project encompasses 1,300 acres. “It’s the largest one we’ve done,” Brodnax said.

To help protect marsh rebuilt by the project, a five-mile rock wall will be installed to dampen the waves that come across the shallow lake and erode the shoreline.

Despite its wide scope, the project moved from the design phase to construction quickly — about a year and a half, Brodnax said.

Project designer Clark Allen of the state Department of Natural Resources and other planners started by looking for an area where they would deal with only one or two landowners and as few oil and gas pipeline companies as possible.

Also, Allen was asked to come up with new techniques for the project, such as limiting the need for containment levees, which keep the fill material in place.

Brodnax added that the work also went quickly because of studies done by the coast-wide planning process known as the Louisiana Coastal Area plan. “All things worked together to make it move quicker,” she said.

Even so, work was delayed for a month by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Employees for the contractor, Pine Bluff Sand and Gravel Co., were called to New Orleans to help with emergency repair work, she said.

The storms also forced the scientists to resurvey the area to check for any changes caused by the hurricanes, said Greg Grandy, project manager with DNR’s Coastal Restoration Division. “There was some change, but it was within the normal erosion rate we’d seen out there,” Grandy said.

Mark Lemoine, project engineer for Pine Bluff Sand and Gravel, said 45 to 50 people work at the site. He said the company did a similar job in Texas, but that was an inland project, meaning they didn’t have to worry as much about the weather.

During a recent storm the workers simply had to shut things down and hold on for the ride, he said.

With hurricane season approaching, he wants to get the work done as quickly as possible.

Brodnax and Grandy share that sense of urgency. “We’re hoping to reduce the background marsh breakup by 50%,” Brodnax said. “Time is of the essence with these projects. We can’t afford to go through another storm without having this significantly built.”

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/2775221.html

Jolie Rouge

05-11-2006, 09:22 PM

Katrina Helps New Orleans Fight Fire Ants
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
Thu May 11, 8:45 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - Entomologists believe that Hurricane Katrina provided them with a golden opportunity to knock out, or at least squash, the fire ant population in this city.

Flood waters rid many neighborhoods of the stinging ants and on Thursday crews began spreading deadly bait in parks and along levees to kill the ant colonies and nests that did survive.

The citywide eradication plan, backed by large donations of bait by pesticide companies, also seeks to engage neighborhood groups and homeowners in the fight.

"Ants are the No. 1 pest right now — nationwide," said Claudia Riegel, an entomologist with the Mosquito and Termite Control Board, the agency that fights the swarms of bugs that find balmy New Orleans a perfect breeding ground.

In the coming weeks, workers will scatter granular bait over about 2,500 acres of parks, levees and other public green spaces in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish, a neighboring parish hit hard by Katrina. Ants forage when temperatures get hotter, and officials expect them to pick up the bait and take it back to their colonies.

The ants are mainly a nuisance because they can deliver a powerful stinging jolt — about 1 percent of people are highly allergic to the venom — but they can also cause other damage.

For instance, they can short-circuit electrical systems. "They're bad at airports with the runway lights, and with traffic lights, air conditioning," said Dale Pollet, a Louisiana State University AgCenter entomologist.

The fight is targeting nonnative species of fire ants, which have taken over large sections of the city, and the nation.

Entomologists are upbeat about the possibility of taking a big bite out of the red ant population in the region for at least the next six months, and longer if neighborhoods and homeowners participate in great numbers. In about six weeks, homeowners will be able to get the bait for free.

Officials said the bait is environmentally safe and poses little risk to pets if people follow the directions on the pesticides' labels.

The hope is that residents returning to their formerly flooded neighborhoods to rebuild will also tackle the pest problem.

The two biggest threats are the insatiable Formosan termite and mosquito.

With many neighborhoods still largely void of people, Riegel said Formosan termites are probably thriving with the lack of exterminators and the abundance of vacant homes for the termites to feast on.

"The termites are still here," she said. "There was talk that they might have died, but they're still here."

This year, like every year, Formosan termites are swarming with the approach of Mother's Day, and they can be seen gathering in great frenetic hordes in the glow of street lamps at dusk.

"All they need is a leaky roof and a bit of water, and we have plenty of that," Riegel said about what triggers termite infestations.

Meanwhile, pest control workers are vexed by the 6,000-plus unattended swimming pools throughout the city. The murky pools are breeding grounds for mosquitos, and where possible officials are dumping guppylike fish which eat mosquito larvae into the pools. So far, the fish, which are called mosquitofish, have been placed in about 2,000 pools.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060512/ap_on_sc/katrina_fighting_ants;_ylt=AqF62ewsK_ZPP8VmSkCF9xe s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MzV0MTdmBHNlYwM3NTM-

YNKYH8R

05-13-2006, 12:02 PM

I'll be curious to see what this hurricane season brings.

hotwheelstx

05-13-2006, 12:40 PM

I voted yes. I have been to New Orleans several times. It's a great place, friendly people. We're talking about people who lost everything. Some have moved here to Houston. However, I've heard more than one say they want to go back. Back to what???? Yes, they should rebuild.

I do think that some that have moved here are whiney. They complain about our weather, grocery stores, how Houston owes them something. I think not. We opened up our entire city when the hurricane hit. I've never once heard a "thank you" from any of these people. They may appriciate it but they certainly don't show it.....this applies to some, not all.

Example: last year when the hurricane hit my mother was in the hospital. The hurricane happened. Here comes hundreds or people from New Orleans into our local hospitals. One guy that I met while my mother was hospitalized told me that FEMA, Houston, country OWED IT TO HIM to help support, take care of him. He had no problem calling FEMA everyday and asking for a check. Then, was highly ticked when he found out FEMA would only give him $1,000 a month to live on. I was totally shocked when he started to complain. He didn't have a job in the first place, had relatives in Ca. and Red Cross, Salvation Army here were willing to pay for a plane ticket for him. Instead, he wanted to complain about our food, driving, surroundings, living arrangements.

Houston has opened every church, shelter for these people to stay at. On the news the other day there was a woman (from New Orleans) complaining that she's now going to start paying for her apt. FEMA has been paying for it from the beginning. Gallery Furniture has donated thousands of dollars worth of furniture to the ones that have been relocated to apts. ALL FOR FREE.....NO ONE HAS TO PAY BACK ANYTHING.

Here there's been free food, hotels, apts., money, bus tokens, transportation, furniture, clothing donated to the cause.

Houston has opened up it's homes, shelters, churches, wallets to help those that needed it. Yes, I think they should rebuild. If they don't like it here they'll have somewhere to go...........back to New Orleans.

This doesn't apply to all from Lousiana....but some.

Jolie Rouge

05-13-2006, 08:26 PM

I'll be curious to see what this hurricane season brings.

LOL - you ain't the only one ....

Jolie Rouge

05-16-2006, 09:38 PM

Or maybe not ...

Let me tell you, we are ready to flee....

Poll: Most on Coast Unready for Hurricanes
By KELLI KENNEDY

MIAMI (AP) - Despite Hurricane Katrina's devastation of Louisiana and Mississippi, coastal residents have not taken steps to protect their families if a hurricane were to threaten their homes, according to a poll released Tuesday.

Sixty percent of those questioned have no disaster plan, 68 percent don't have a hurricane survival kit and 83 percent have not taken steps to make their homes stronger, the poll said.

Also, 48 percent of people living within 30 miles of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts said they don't feel vulnerable to a hurricane, according to the survey by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research Inc.

National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield said he is baffled by the apparent lack of concern. ``I honestly don't understand,'' said Mayfield, who announced a plan to combat the lack of preparedness. ``For whatever reason, some people are reacting to the hurricane threat by sticking their heads in the sand.''

Florida residents are better prepared than those in other coastal states. Seventy-four percent have a disaster plan, and 70 percent have a hurricane survival kit, the poll said.

Since 2004, Florida has been hit by eight hurricanes. But 34 percent of Floridians said they don't think they'll be affected by one, the survey said.

Thirteen percent of residents in coastal states said they might not or would not evacuate even if ordered to leave.

From April 26 to May 2, Mason-Dixon interviewed 1,100 coastal residents by phone and conducted a separate survey of 625 Florida residents. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Mayfield announced the launch of the National Hurricane Survival Initiative, a campaign to prepare residents in vulnerable areas. The initiative has a Web site and produced two television programs that will be broadcast next month.

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?flok=FF-APO-1110&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20060516%2F2126194491.htm&sc=1110

On the Net:

National Hurricane Survival Initiative: http://www.hurricanesafety.org

Jolie Rouge

05-29-2006, 08:37 PM

Opinions :

In Katrina disaster, human error claimed heavy toll
5/23/2006

Last summer's death and destruction in New Orleans were as much a man-made disaster as a natural one.

Human failures — many of them by the federal agency that built the levees meant to protect the city — allowed catastrophic floods to destroy it in Hurricane Katrina's wake.

That is the key finding in an independent report released Monday that punctured conventional wisdom and conclusions of other experts about what caused last August's catastrophe.

"People didn't die because the storm was bigger than the system could handle, and people didn't die because the levees were overtopped," said Raymond Seed, an engineering professor at the University of California at Berkeley and lead author of the study.

No, people died because government agencies, from the Army Corps of Engineers to local levee boards, failed to do their jobs properly. Safety was trumped by a desire for efficiency and saving money. Infighting among local agencies and failures in funding by Congress caused years-long delays and left life-threatening holes in the levees. Forty years after Hurricane Betsy caused major flooding in New Orleans and spurred levee construction, the project was unfinished when Katrina struck.

The new report concludes that the Army Corps made errors in the basic design and construction of New Orleans' levees. It built many of them atop sand and shell-like materials that easily eroded, letting foundations wash away. Interlocking steel curtains that might have helped stabilize levees were not sunk deep enough. The Corps' safety targets were "inappropriately low" for a system protecting a major city.

With another active hurricane season forecast this year, these failings are troubling not only to New Orleans, but to communities across the USA. The Corps, a federal agency with a construction budget of nearly $2 billion a year, is responsible for flood control projects from Sacramento to Grand Forks, N.D., to south Florida.

For years, the Corps has wasted money on projects of dubious utility, often ones that encourage development in dangerous, flood-prone areas. Congress is equally at fault: Lawmakers earmark money in the Corps budget for local pet projects, instead of setting national priorities for flood control.

Louisiana, for example, got $1.9 billion for water projects in the five years preceding Katrina but spent most of it on projects that had nothing to do with New Orleans' levees, according to a separate report by environmental and taxpayer advocacy groups.

Those decisions and errors came home with terrible result last August. About 1,100 people lost their lives in Louisiana.

The report calls for systemic changes in the Corps and in flood control planning. Given the agency's troubled history, an overhaul is in order. One sound and urgent recommendation: new federal and state authorities to oversee projects. Another priority: upgrading the Corps' technical capabilities. Perhaps more could be done to tap engineering expertise in the private sector.

Policymakers can't tame nature, but they can prevent the kind of human errors that helped sink a great city.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-05-23-our-view_x.htm?csp=34

Corps' goal is safety
5/23/2006
By Don T. Riley

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is examining the levee analysis report by the University of California at Berkeley-led investigation team. While the report is solid, it contains several conclusions we're concerned about, including references to our work to rebuild the levees and to our organizational processes.

The Berkeley team drew conclusions about the decision-making processes of the Corps and other involved agencies and organizations by relying on a field review only. The team did not engage leadership at all levels of those organizations to seek insight into those processes.

The Corps-commissioned Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET) — 150 experts from government, academia and industry — has studied the hurricane protection system's performance since shortly after Hurricane Katrina's landfall. This team, the most extensive assemblage of expertise ever for an effort like this, will release its comprehensive 7,000-plus page final draft report on June 1. The findings, reviewed by the American Society of Civil Engineers and further reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences, have been incorporated into the rebuilding mission.

Additionally, the Corps has commissioned a study of the organizational aspects in the history of the hurricane protection system's development. This study will be released this summer after external review.

Where the UC-Berkeley engineering analysis differs from IPET's, we invite experts from both teams to meet and discuss their findings and determine what must be done to ensure the safety of our fellow citizens in New Orleans.

Before Katrina, the Corps had initiated action on all recommendations in the report that are within our purview to strengthen processes of collaboration, external review, project planning and technical expertise.

We are receptive to any information that contributes to the understanding of what happened, and we look forward to working with the professionals on the UC-Berkeley and other investigative bodies to ensure the future effectiveness of the New Orleans-area hurricane protection system.

Finally, we remain committed to open, public dialogue about our findings and conclusions, and the steps we will take to ensure protection of the public.

Maj. Gen. Don T. Riley is director of civil works for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-05-23-oppose_x.htm

Rocket Cowgirl

05-31-2006, 03:28 AM

It just ticks me off that the people demanding money to replace what they lost didn't have anything to begin with. Yet the people who actually had jobs and homes and lost it all didn't get the help they needed. :rolleyes:

Jolie Rouge

05-31-2006, 09:30 PM

ARE WE READY?
At the start of hurricane season 2006, find out the status of levees and pumps, evacuation plans, resources and more ....

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/areweready2006/

Jolie Rouge

06-05-2006, 09:57 PM

Even New Orleans' luckiest worried after Katrina
Mon Jun 5, 6:56 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Even New Orleans residents who fared the best in Hurricane Katrina are losing sleep and worried about the future, a survey presented on Monday showed.

About two-thirds of those contacted in Orleans parish, the district around New Orleans, were somewhat or very worried about their future over the next five years and 38 percent were sleeping worse than before the storm hit last August 29, the University of New Orleans study found. "These are indicators of stress that, without improvement, may cause some people to leave the area," the researchers concluded.

Only about half the pre-storm population has returned to New Orleans, and many of those back are in temporary trailers.

Thus researchers calling landline phones only spoke with those who had been least affected by the storm, which killed more than 1,500 and swamped 80 percent of the city last year.

The 2006 hurricane season began on June 1.

The survey also found many in the city still were displaced from pre-Katrina homes and that a large number found it difficult to move around the city.

It also found a statistically significant greater degree of loss among blacks than whites, with blacks reporting more problems with flooding, loss of possessions and jobs and difficulty getting medical care.

But blacks and whites had equal trouble sleeping and worrying about the future, the study led by researcher Susan Howell showed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060605/us_nm/weather_hurricanes_worry_dc;_ylt=AjXyEjQ6K.IxJ4CVN 5ffgnRxieAA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MzV0MTdmBHNlYwM3NTM-

I would like to note that my cousin still has no phone service although they finally got power on two weeks ago. My great aunt whose home was destroyed is in a travel trailer ( supplied by her nephew - my uncle - NOT FEMA ) which is parked in what was her driveway. We have yet to be "allowed" to clear the debris that remains - can you imagine she has "depressive issues" :rolleyes: We have still not heard from our cousins in MS ( Pass Christian & Bay St. Louis )

Jolie Rouge

06-05-2006, 10:18 PM

Angry New Orleanians start public housing cleanup
By Peter Henderson
Sat Jun 3, 6:24 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Angry New Orleans public-housing residents on Saturday took charge of the recovery and cleanup of homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina and vandals, blaming the government for failing to act.

Acting without the approval of housing authorities, some residents took their first look at their homes since fleeing Katrina nine months ago. Many found criminals had done as much damage as the storm.

At three-year-old pastel-colored townhouses where families fled flooding by jumping from upper-story windows into boats, and at older brick units left last year by parents and children wading a mile to evacuation buses, residents and helpers began pitching lifetimes of memories into the trash.

Federal housing authorities who manage New Orleans units say 64 percent of the city's public housing base has mold and must be inspected. Former tenants are offered vouchers to pay rent elsewhere temporarily. But many residents said have they found it difficult to find decent places to stay in the torn-up city.

Moreover, they say the time since Hurricane Katrina hit last August 29, flooding about 80 percent of the city, is more than enough for inspection and cleanup to have started.

Silvia James, 37, walked into a three-bedroom apartment she last saw when she and one of her sons waded away. Water had reached part way up the steps of the CJ Peete complex, and the storm damaged the roof and blew in some windows.

The exterior of the James apartment was generally intact, but inside furniture was strewn all about, and a television and bedroom set were gone. Other residents said thieves had stolen the complex's copper plumbing pipes.

"We could have been back here in October or November," James said, blaming the delay for the thefts. "People taken the little valuables we do have," she said. "I'm not willing to wait no more."

LOW-END HOUSING SHORTAGE ACUTE

Residents of other complexes which were flooded said upper floors could be inhabited and lower floors could be gutted and fixed, just as private homeowners are doing.

Housing police watched the activity at the Peete complex and others without interfering. Housing and Urban Development spokeswoman Donna White said by phone that residents were being allowed to go into units but not to stay. She added that the agency was committed to letting residents return when it was safe and had set up the voucher program for the mean time.

The agency has set aside $154 million for rebuilding public housing in the city. About 5,000 families had lived in New Orleans units before Katrina and about 1,000 have returned.

Louisiana State University real estate professor Kelley Pace said that sum should be enough to do at least half, and potentially all, the rebuilding. Major complexes could not be just "thrown up," he added, but also pointed out the housing shortage was most acute at the low end.

Some residents say they feel they are being kept out by officials who want to build more expensive housing or by those who blame public housing for crime. With about half the population before the storm, the city has seen 44 murders so far this year, versus 109 last year, police say, but many residents have a growing sense of increasing crime.

Organizer and complex manager Cynthia Wiggins said the situation proved her groups were not to blame. "Public housing is closed. Last week we had five murders. The drug dealers lived in other parts," she said.

But the housing problem is going to get worse, with families returning to New Orleans now that school has ended. "We are not going to sit on the sidelines," she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060603/us_nm/weather_hurricanes_housing_dc_1;_ylt=AnEuRDGdb6xd4 4ryUCT8V.ZH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTA2ZGZwam4yBHNlYwNmYw--

Residents of other complexes which were flooded said upper floors could be inhabited and lower floors could be gutted and fixed, just as private homeowners are doing.

But they are not willing to do the WORK that the private homeowners are doing - they want it done FOR them.

The homeowners who are doing it themselves are doing so because they really have no choice ... and most of them are dealing with allergies and respertory problems due to the mold that permates eveything. ( Humdidty is awful here - I have hung freshly washed clothes to on the line go to mildew before they could dry.)

YNKYH8R

06-07-2006, 06:04 PM

LOL - you ain't the only one ....
What amazes me is all the people who claim they aren't ready. Or the ones who decide ahead of time they won't leave.

Jolie Rouge

06-07-2006, 09:08 PM

What amazes me is all the people who claim they aren't ready. Or the ones who decide ahead of time they won't leave.

Well, you have to understand how many times we have been "by-passed" to understand the mindset. How may times have we heard that LA is going to be hit by "The Big One" - don't see a exodus from Orange County ? People in the Florida Keys who refused to evacuate for Wilma or Ophelia immediately after Katrina. Let me tell you - when Rita targeted the LA coast - people left ! The only reason that we had so few storm related causulites for Rita.

People left in 01 for Lili - which targeted the LA coast - and she stalled in the Gulf and against all science and natural law; she dropped from a Cat 5 to a Cat three in a matter of hours. That just doesn't happen.

People evacuated New Orleans last year for Ivan - and many returned to find that their homes and businesses had been robbered and vandalized ( by the same people who stayed behind this time ). Ivan turned and didn't hit LA ( Sorry MS ) and some people returned to find they had lost their jobs because they were not there to report to work due to the evacuations.

It has been 40 years since we had a major hurricane and people just got complacent. :shake head:

That being said - we have an evacuation plan. I have copies of all "Important Papers" in a waterproof, fireproof box. We have decieded what to pack and where we are headed. Most hurricane supplies can be readily converted to "Camping supplies" - since we are in Scouts it will get used sooner or later.

Jolie Rouge

06-08-2006, 01:51 PM

Gulf Coast moves close to home
Thu Jun 8, 7:11 AM ET

Thank you, USA TODAY, for keeping the impact and ongoing effects of Hurricane Katrina in the news. I am not from New Orleans or the Gulf Coast and, until this year, had never been to those areas. So it was with a degree of detachment that I watched the unfolding disaster of Katrina from the comfort of Southern California.

In the days that followed the storm, as I saw the many pictures and heard the stories of lives lost or changed forever, I became less detached. My wife and I made donations to several charities involved in the storm recovery. But as USA TODAY and other news media sources reported the magnitude of the disaster, our contributions seemed stingy as I realized our comfort level. The need to become more involved was clear.

When our church, Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village, Calif., asked for volunteers to go to Biloxi, Miss., for one-week disaster relief trips, I immediately signed up for two trips. All volunteers paid their own way and contributed toward materials and other essentials needed in the relief effort. We worked under the leadership of Project Teamwork, a faith-based relief organization based in Miami. I spent two weeks in Biloxi working on the recovery effort. While we did work in a couple of salvageable homes, much of our time was spent completing the creation of a "volunteer village" in the Biloxi Yankee Stadium. The Salvation Army, in an unrelated transaction, accepted ownership of the stadium just four days before Katrina struck.

Immediately after the storm, the stadium was used for food and medical relief in the immediate area.

After the storm, Project Teamwork and the Salvation Army teamed up and began work on the volunteer village in the stadium. The driving concept was that if volunteers had a clean, comfortable place to eat, sleep, shower, etc., they would continue to come. As Katrina drifted out of the headlines, celebrity appearances and major charities began to melt away, and the places for volunteers to stay on the Gulf Coast - even those barely livable - began to close. But once the village was completed, it slept and fed 120 comfortably.

I have a new appreciation for the Salvation Army and Project Teamwork, their commitment to the biblical command that we love and care for one another without bias, and their wisdom in designing a tool that will support years of relief efforts on the Gulf Coast.

I am returning to Biloxi this fall and am looking forward to it.

Edwin Sloan
Thousand Oaks, Calif.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060608/cm_usatoday/gulfcoastmovesclosetohome;_ylt=AoGOuPcQH9bC65lznHX WRQCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWF***A2BHNlYwM3NDI-

Lori63

06-08-2006, 02:03 PM

I was in the 9th ward in April-I just don't see how it can be rebuilt. They were working on the levees-they looked pretty small to me.

Jolie Rouge

06-11-2006, 08:49 PM

Insurance limbo delays Gulf rebuilding
By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - The owners of the sagging, flood-stained home aren't in. Above the front door, a banner explains their absence, and the lack of progress: "Allstate paid $10,113.34 on this house for storm damage."

Like the home next to it and the one after that, the house was disemboweled nine months ago by Hurricane Katrina. The force of the gushing water punched the refrigerator into the kitchen wall, and it still sits leaning through the house's broken ribcage. Inside, mud has hardened into a crusty carpet, covering a designer sofa and a leather swivel chair.

"I want people to drive by my home and decide for themselves: Could I repair this for $10,000?" asks Eric Moskau, the home's exiled owner who had over $1.2 million in coverage on his 3,000-square-foot home.

Behind the sign he hung from his porch is a story all-too-common in this once-posh neighborhood of pummeled homes: Even New Orleans' affluent homeowners, who thought they had done the right thing by properly insuring their investment, are finding that technicalities are keeping them from securing enough from their insurers to rebuild.

The insurance industry says it has settled over 90 percent of its Hurricane Katrina claims, proving it's meeting its obligations to policyholders. But consumer advocates say insurers settled numerous claims for only a fraction of the actual damages, using numerous exclusions to reduce payouts. Insurance modeling firm ISO estimates Louisiana had $24.3 billion in insured losses, but the state department of insurance says only $12.5 billion had been paid out as of the end of April, the last month for which figures were available.

Without enough money from their insurers to rebuild, homeowners are left with two choices: Give up and leave, or else rebuild by hand, using their savings to pay for labor and materials. "It's basically self-insurance," said Moskau, who had what he thought was plenty of coverage on his $600,000 two-story house and now counts himself among those who have abandoned their homes on once-stylish Bellaire Avenue.

Exactly 63 buckled, warped and mud-filled homes separate Moskau from the nearest neighbor who is now repairing his home. "With this," says 79-year-old Pascal Warner, holding up his large, lined hands, as the light streams in through the ribs of his still unfinished walls.

He and his 71-year-old wife, Irma, have dragged their sopping furniture to the curb, ripped the wet wallboard off the walls and stripped the house to the studs. With only a pittance from their homeowner's insurance, they had just enough money for supplies, not labor.

After last year's floodwaters receded, politicians initially blamed the residents of this below-sea-level city, claiming too few had purchased federal flood insurance on top of their homeowners policies, which cover only wind damage.

Yet an analysis by the office of Donald Powell, the Bush administration's Gulf Coast recovery czar, found few communities were better insured against flooding than New Orleans: Two out of three homes had flood insurance, 13 times more than the national average of 5 percent. It's also far more than in many other communities historically prone to flooding. For example, Harris County, Texas, has one of the highest rates of repetitive flooding in the nation and yet only a quarter of homeowners have flood coverage.

Moskau, a well-to-do real estate appraiser, thought he had taken every precaution: He had the maximum federal flood insurance of $250,000. But when the government issued that check, it was issued in two names: Moskau's and his bank's. His bank applied the check to his $600,000 mortgage, leaving him with an outstanding note of $350,000 and no money for repairs.

According to a spokesman at Freddie Mac, which over the last five years has bought over $7.5 billion in mortgages in Louisiana, banks are required to put insurance checks into an escrow account, disbursing the funds as repairs are completed. An exception is allowed if the home is in an area where rebuilding has been prohibited. In that case, the insurance check can be applied to the outstanding mortgage, said spokesman Brad German.

Flanking one of the city's buckled levees, portions of Bellaire Avenue are still in rebuilding limbo.

Warner, who has lived in the same ranch-style house for 40 years, had just $3,000 after his flood insurance settlement was used to pay off his remaining mortgage. He also received around $18,000 from his homeowners for wind damage, enough for construction materials but not labor.

Moskau's house, like most on Bellaire, swallowed less than 6 feet of water. It was enough to destroy the first floor, but not the second. The second floor, however, got wet, too. Water seeped in through the vents, pushed in by the hurricane's 140 mile-per-hour winds, he said. The roof was damaged and windows were punched out — damage, says Moskau, which should be covered under the wind-only policy. Allstate told him it was all due to flooding. "I agree that the first floor flooded. I used to be an insurance adjuster and I know the rules, so I didn't expect Allstate to pay me for that. But the second floor clearly didn't. So shouldn't I at least get 50 percent of my policy?" asked Moskau. He said that would be enough to pay off the mortgage and cover much of the rebuilding cost.

The CEOs of the State Farm Insurance Co. and Allstate Corp., the nation's No. 1 and No. 2 insurers, declined to discuss specific claims. Together, they control half the insurance market in Louisiana. "When you track our claim satisfaction, it is very high in those areas. Ninety-three to 94 percent of our Katrina claims have been settled," said Allstate CEO Edward M. Liddy.

That hasn't stopped critical reviews by insurance regulators and lawsuits by policyholders.

Louisiana's top insurance regulator recently ordered reviews of consumer complaints regarding Allstate and St. Paul Travelers Cos. In District Court in New Orleans, a class action lawsuit was filed last month against 15 insurers, claiming they capriciously denied claims.

In Mississippi, U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, whose Pascagoula home was torn off its foundation, is joining hundreds of his constituents in suing State Farm for unpaid wind damage.

Part of what really rankles consumers is the record profits property-and-casualty insurers are posting despite the unprecedented losses inflicted by Katrina. The industry cleared a $43 billion profit in 2005, an 11.7 percent increase over the previous year and a 15-year high, according to the trade group, the Insurance Information Institute.

"I would say it's definitely good times in the property-and-casualty insurance industry," said Donald Light, a senior analyst at Celent LLC, a research and consulting firm.

But insurers say the profit numbers are only half the story: Nearly half the $58 billion in insured losses along the Gulf Coast resulting from last year's hurricanes were absorbed by reinsurers, companies that insure insurance companies.

Those same reinsurers are now jacking the rates they charge insurance companies by an average 80 percent in coastal regions, according to an analysis by Guy Carpenter & Co., a division of insurance-brokerage firm Marsh & McLennan Cos.

For some companies, the price has tripled: Allstate will spend $600 million on reinsurance this year, compared to under $200 million in 2005. To offset that cost, Allstate announced plans to seek premium increases in a majority of the 49 states in which it operates. It also canceled 30,000 policies in coastal counties of New York, including Brooklyn, even though a major hurricane has not hit there since 1938.

In the past year in Florida, insurers have left the state by the dozen, while those that are staying are seeking steep rate increases. State Farm is seeking a 70 percent hike in premiums.

"We're paying the price for hurricanes that hit thousands of miles away from New England," said George A. Cole III, Senior Vice President of Massachusetts-based Hingham Mutual. Cole explained that the company had no choice but to cancel 6,500 of their customers, most on Cape Cod, after being hit with a 50 percent rate increase from their own reinsurer.

Back in New Orleans, homeowners fight over money and the fret over deep financial losses is taking an emotional toll.

Moskau, who is living in Idaho with his wife and two boys, literally hasn't been able to sit still since Allstate cut him the check for $10,113.34 several months ago. He still does not know what to do with his buckled home, for which he is still paying a $3,500-a-month mortgage, and is instead making plans to build a new house an hour's drive outside New Orleans.

"My wife is always telling me, 'Will you please stop moving your foot?' We'll be sitting at the lunch table and the whole thing is moving," he said. "All from the anxiety."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060612/ap_on_bi_ge/katrina_insurance;_ylt=AmUbp0yly_B1tbvdMstyA7wXIr0 F;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-

Jolie Rouge

06-27-2006, 01:39 PM

Sunken ships eyed for storm barriers
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - Marine scientists and Louisiana officials are floating the idea of sinking some of Uncle Sam's cast-off ships along the water's edge to create a steel barrier against hurricane flooding.

The barrier would be made up of aging and obsolete tankers, research vessels and cargo ships.

Since Hurricane Katrina hit, Louisiana is looking at every option for shoring up its storm defenses — especially quick fixes. Levees take years to build, and restoring lost marshes and cypress forests even longer.

"When you're in this desperate state, we can't afford to laugh at anything," said Paul Kemp with Louisiana State University's School of the Coast and the Environment. Sinking ships could be done in a way that is safe for the environment, he said.

In recent days, state Sen. Walter Boasso has been talking up the idea on radio and at forums.

"What I don't want to see happen is we have more studies and wait 20 years to have something done," Boasso said. "I want to see something happen."

Boasso represents St. Bernard Parish, 486 square miles of swamp, pasture and towns southeast of New Orleans. Nearly every square foot of the parish was inundated by Katrina, which broke levees.

The catastrophic flooding, St. Bernard officials say, was due in large part to a navigation channel that runs through the parish. Boasso said planting ships in the channel would go a long way to plugging what has been dubbed a "hurricane superhighway."

The channel, called the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, was dug in the 1960s as a shortcut between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico, but it soon turned into an environmental horror story. The waterway tripled in width as tides and ship wakes eroded its banks. The gulf's salt water encroached on cypress forest, swamp and marsh, killing an estimated 18,000 acres of marsh and 1,500 acres of cypress.

The channel did not spur much economic development, and today few ships use it.

John Laguens, a St. Bernard community activist who has sought an end to the channel for years, said closing the channel is "just as important as building a levee system to protect St. Bernard."

Shannon Russell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Maritime Administration, said there are about 125 ships on the government disposal list. Most often, ships are bought by scrap metal companies. But recently, a retired Navy warship was sunk off the coast of Florida to create an artificial reef.

It can take years to get approval to sink a ship in open waters, Russell said. But Boasso's proposal takes a different approach and seeks to use the ships as levees, something the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would have authority over, she said.

Dan Hitchings, a top U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official in New Orleans, said the agency has not evaluated the idea.

Boasso said ships would be cheap to acquire, and the government might even give them to the state. He added that draining ships' engines of oil and other contaminants to make them environmentally safe to sink could cost up to $300,000 each.

"You can make big mounds out of them," Boasso said. "Plant some trees on it, and cosmetically make it look nice."

Some coastal advocates, though, think seeding the coast with ships is a poor substitute for more comprehensive restoration measures.

"Personally, I don't want to settle for a bunch of hulking, rusty ships. I'd rather see a more natural solution," said Kerry St. Pe', executive director of Barataria Terrebonne National Estuary Program. "Our marshes aren't made of rusting ships."

For years, Louisiana has been trying to restore its dying wetlands with river diversions, marsh grass and other shoreline work. But that work has done little to stop the loss of wetlands — about 2,000 square miles of it since the 1930s.

LSU's Kemp said he was unaware of ships ever being used as storm barriers.

Louisiana is looking at many options for saving its coast and blocking the gulf. Some are conventional, such as the construction of floodgates and levees.

Others are more obscure. For example, some scientists want to barge mud from the Midwest and dump it on southern Louisiana's sinking land.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060627/ap_on_sc/katrina_barrier_ships;_ylt=Am30YyQU5v6xY2S8ufV4kxG s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

Jolie Rouge

06-28-2006, 12:54 PM

Dispute delays federal Gulf Coast cleanup
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Massive amounts of hurricane wreckage — if piled atop a football field it would reach almost two miles into the air — remain on the Gulf Coast. Yet the Bush administration says it can't clear it quickly without trampling private property rights.

Local officials say that, with hurricane season under way, the delay could hamper another government duty: public safety.

Ten months after Hurricane Katrina, about one-sixth of the debris that littered Gulf Coast communities remains — an estimated 20 million cubic yards. Much of the rubble is from damaged homes and businesses that the Federal Emergency Management Agency says it cannot clear away without first getting approval from property owners and insurers.

"We're in hurricane season now and the stuff is going to go flying all over if we have another storm," said Marnie Winter, environmental director in Jefferson Parish, La., which borders New Orleans and extends to the Gulf of Mexico. "We need to get this up and stop quibbling over whether it's eligible."

The controversy comes as FEMA considers whether to continue paying the full cost of removing debris in the hurricane disaster area, a program slated to end Friday.

Local officials in New Orleans and surrounding parishes called Tuesday for extending the deadline, calling themselves cash-strapped as they try to manage other priorities. Without the extra aid, Washington will pay for 90 percent of debris removal cost, with local governments picking up the remaining 10 percent.

FEMA estimates it has so far paid $3.6 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers and private contractors to remove about 98.6 million cubic yards of debris from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Most of it has been on streets, sidewalks, curbs and other public property.

Nearly all the remaining wreckage is in Louisiana and Mississippi, said James Walke, who oversees debris issues for FEMA's public assistance division. The agency is waiting for local officials to clear building demolitions with property owners — what Walke called "a slow process."

"It's private property," Walke said. "We can't go on folks' property without their permission — that's one of the values that we hold dear in our democracy. There are due process considerations."

Asked about safety concerns the remaining rubble poses, Walke said, "I think any imminent threats that requires swift action — that time has long passed."

Both sides agree the problem largely stems from thousands of hurricane evacuees who have yet to return to their abandoned homes and approve demolition.

As many as 15,000 buildings are slated for demolition once local authorities gain property owners' permission, Corps officials said. The removal will all but certainly be "a long, drawn-out affair," said Allen Morse, the Corps' debris removal expert.

"People are coming back slowly and spottily when demolition decisions need to be made," Morse said.

FEMA expects the process to pick up this summer, when displaced evacuees who were waiting for their children's' school years to end can make their way back home. Walke also noted that state and local laws may allow demolitions or debris removal from private property.

But legal and political science scholars said FEMA at least should use its records of evacuees' disaster benefits to more actively seek their approval, since the agency can locate them more easily than local officials.

Daniel Aldrich, a political science professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, said the federal government has constitutional authority to operate on private property in extreme cases.

"If there were debris on someone's private property and the individual didn't want to deal with it or couldn't be reached, it certainly would be in the purview of the federal government to overrule private property rights for the sake of the public good," Aldrich said.

Local officials say they, too, are trying to wait for property owners to return before plowing ahead with demolitions. But the safety concerns are pressing.

In Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish, which also borders New Orleans, the process of contacting and gaining permission from property owners and insurers generally takes two months to complete, said emergency director Larry Ingargiola. He estimated that 15,000 of the nearly 70,000 people who lived the parish before Katrina hit have returned.

"If we get a tropical storm with all of this lying around we're going to have rockets all over the place," Ingargiola said. "If it hits anything, it's going to cause serious damage. Injuries too."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060628/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/hurricane_debris;_ylt=ArlKfuhr1yaip8pReqIT4r6s0NUE ;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--
___

On the Net:

Federal Emergency Management Agency: http://www.fema.gov/

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: http://www.usace.army.mil/

Jolie Rouge

07-03-2006, 08:34 PM

It's Now Embedded as MSM Wisdom....
Harry Shearer
Mon Jul 3, 11:23 AM ET

It's Now Embedded as MSM Wisdom the notion that what happened to New Orleans almost a year ago was a hit from a hurricane, as opposed to the fact: that what almost destroyed the city was a set of levee breaches caused by the design and construction flaws of the levees and floodwalls, courtesy of the US Army Corps of Engineers. The latter fact, documented by a team from UC Berkeley and a team from LSU, and acknowledged by the Corps' own mea culpa-lite report, has been buried by the conventional media, and now the alternate version--that somehow a hurricane that brushed by New Orleans actually succeeded in flooding 80% of it--has become the conventional un-wisdom.

Latest examples: this Reuters story carried on the NYT website, and, more egregriously (because it's more well-intended), this long takeout on New Orleans culture in Sunday's Chicago Trib. Starting with the subhed--"battered by Katrina"--and continuing through the entire article, you are continually exposed to the myth and protected from the reality. The myth has won, the reality has lost, and so has the city.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20060703/cm_huffpost/024263;_ylt=AsF150OTyXQDZXGmbGLPeJP9wxIF;_ylu=X3oD MTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-

Katrina Shocks New Orleans Visitors 10 Months On
July 2, 2006

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Bill Friend thought he was ready to go home again. He had read the newspapers, watched TV and talked with friends about the devastation wreaked on New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.

Still, he was shocked.

``You go down street after street after street and see nothing -- wreckage,'' said Friend, 80, who grew up in New Orleans and now lives in the Washington area. ``The overall impression of it is how much of it there is.''

Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, flooding 80 percent of the city and killing more than 1,500 from Louisiana in one of the worst natural disasters the country has seen. So far, only about half the population has returned and vast stretches of the city are nearly deserted and still full of debris. ``Ten months later, you come away with the impression that the cleanup is only beginning,'' said Friend's wife, Louise. ``Oh my goodness, where does anyone start?''

For visitors new to New Orleans, the storm appears to have just passed.

Residents see changes every day -- a store opens, stoplights work at an intersection with temporary stop signs, a government trailer shows up in the front yard of a damaged home in a sign that it will be reclaimed and rebuilt.

But visitors see other things -- such as the word ``Baghdad'' scrawled in black spray paint across a broken house in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, where it has been for months.

There is the roughly 6-foot-high (2-meter) dirty bathtub ring around miles of houses in areas flooded for weeks.

And many houses remain barely standing, twisted by the force of the storm in areas where Katrina broke through levees and saturated the city with putrid water. ``The devastation, the totality and the enormity of it is just so heartbreaking. If this were hit in a carpet-bombing of a war you couldn't have more devastation,'' U.S. Sen. George Allen of Virginia said during a visit just over a week ago.

BEYOND THE FRENCH QUARTER

Many believe they have seen great progress when they arrive, since the tourist centers of the airport, the French Quarter and the Garden District of old mansions survived relatively well. The most historic sections of the city are on the highest ground.

Walter Dupart, 53, remembers when his son's father-in-law arrived. ``He said, man, looks like New Orleans is coming back, and I kind of chuckled,'' Dupart said.

So they got in the car and began what has become the city's unofficial tour, viewing the Lower Ninth Ward, where a barge floated through a canal breach and houses still lie smashed.

The tour continued through St. Bernard Parish, which includes more than 30 miles of shopping malls, restaurants and houses, almost every one a deserted hulk that was flooded.

Up toward Lake Pontchartrain, where other levees breached, gutted houses await repair next to wrecks moved off their foundations. An ancient oak tree sprawled onto one yard and house does not appear to have been touched by cleanup crews.

Dupart, who lives in the once-flooded Gentilly neighborhood, remembers the reaction of his friend, a soldier on leave from Iraq. ``'The only way I can describe it is this is like the war zone I just left,''' the visitor had said.

Some are puzzled, angry or indignant at the lack of progress. Insurance money has begun flowing but direct aid to homeowners is not expected before the fall, and views of government's leadership vary sharply among residents.

Thailand-based relief worker Tom Kerr recalled tsunami devastation in Aceh, Indonesia, when he saw the Ninth Ward. ``It looked a lot like Aceh when we visited six months after the storm,'' he said, asking why the United States had not done more. ``Most of the area could be improved very quickly, but it is deserted,'' said Somsook Boonyabancha, a colleague who is director of the Thai relief group. ``If I was the government, I couldn't sleep at night.''

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-weather-hurricanes-visitors.html?ex=1152504000&en=f98cad9934586b36&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Jolie Rouge

07-03-2006, 08:36 PM

Crisis of culture in New Orleans
Battered by Katrina, the cradle of America's artistic identity might never recover its vitality
By Howard Reich -- Tribune arts critic
July 2, 2006

One more hurricane could wipe away the remnants of the city's artistic life, residents said. "If we get a hit this summer, then that's going to be very alarming because then [New Orleans artists] are going to be very leery of returning and making a real commitment to this town," said Jason Patterson, a longtime jazz advocate.

"Everybody is terrified," said Aiges, the Louisiana talent promoter. "If we get clobbered over the head, the carpet will be pulled up over us."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-060702nocrisis-story,0,7357738,print.story

Jolie Rouge

07-07-2006, 08:41 PM

The culture and the economy

The multi-generational commercial fishers are among Louisiana’s more distinct cultural treasures. the shrimp boats, trawl nets, and white boots adorned by the working men and women of the bayous have become synonymous with Louisiana itself.
Prior to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the commercial fishing industry supported some 15,000 fishing families with an estimated total impact of $2.8 billion, 31,400 jobs and $107 million in state sales an income tax revenue. One commercial fisher generated roughly $169,000 in economic impact per year for the state of Louisiana.

Despite these impressive figures, all has not been well in the industry for some time. The prices at the docks (determined by competition with foreign imports at processing factories) have been falling for years. In fact, the entire food chain has been designed for a robust 20th century economy built on domestic production. Times have changed. Just as the hurricanes have wreaked havoc upon the fishing communities and their fragile economic infrastructure, they have also created the kind of chaos that leads to innovation. The White Boot Brigade is at the head of the pack marching into new territory for Louisian shrimpers. For the following White Boot Brigade participants, the future of fishing will revolve around high quality product and seamless service instead of the benchmarks of the past: high volume.

Ray and Kay Brandhurst
Four Winds Seafood 504.228.8038

Ray Brandhurst has only wanted to be a shrimper his whole life. He grew up in Orleans Parish and spent his childhood around the Rigolets (French for gutter or trench) on shrimp docks. Perhaps it’s in his blood. Shrimping stretches back over seven generations in his family. In the 1700s, his ancestors were fishermen in the Basque region of Spain.

For over five-years, his wife and business partner Kay has been a star vendor at the Crescent City Farmers Market. Prior to each Market day, she meets Ray at the dock where he unloads fresh and IQF (Individual Quick Frozen) shrimp and bycatch (the calamari and finfish that also get scooped up by the trauling nets). With ice chests loaded onto their delivery truck, Kay heads to the farmers market with products to dazzle the food-obsessed shoppers.

Prior to Katrina, the Brandhursts lived just down-river from New Orleans in Chalmette with the family of four kids, near where Ray docked his 50-foot trawler named “Four Seasons.” He built it by hand. After the storm did its damage, the boat sat in eight feet of water for weeks at the bottom of Bayou Bienvenue. It was retrieved from the water by a crane. Between trawling on smaller boats and in cooperation with fishermen who used to be his competition, Ray has been repairing the damage himself, everything from puttying the haul to rewiring his control panel.

Living in a cramped apartment upriver from New Orleans in the community of Metairie, the Brandhursts continue to trawl for shrimp, IQF on board, handle and grade the sizes, and ship amazing product on demand. Having lost their house, processing facility and shop in Chalmette, they spend much of their time “negotiating” with insurance companies.

Pete and Clara Gerica
Gerica Seafood 504.669.4379

Clara Gerica, her husband Pete and her daughter Christine rode out Hurricane Katrina in their home in New Orleans East with Pet’s mother and dog. They remained to protect their investments from the severe effects of the storm — boats and gear. When Katrina’s eye wall traveled over their property, the roof of their two-story house blew off. The floors collapsed and their daughter was sucked out of the window. Soon, all family members were separated and floating in tumultuous high water for nearly 12 hours.

One by one, Pete was able to put his survival skills to work and find his mother, her dog, his daughter, and then finally his wife Clara. They lost nearly everything, including a waterproof safe containing a signficant sum of cash, important documents and family jewelry. Their home was destroyed, as were two of their three boats and their processing facility – something Clara used every week to clean fish and peel shrimp for her customers at the Crescent City Farmers Market.

She, like Kay Brandhurst, had found innovative ways to add value to the husband’s harvest by processing the product and selling it directly to consumers.
Born into a Croatian oyster family, husband Pete has been shrimping, fishing, and crabbing for 37 years. Croatian immigrants have dominated the Louisiana oyster industry since the 1880s. When he was fifteen, Pete bought his first 14-foot Ciscraft boat. In 1979 he built “Ms. Lucy” a Lafitte skiff by hand. The same year he married Clara (both in formal dress and white boots) and they settled in New Orleans East on Bayou Sauvage. A rugged fighter for fishermen’s rights, Pete split his time as a member of several important organizations (president of the Lake Pontchartrain Commercial Fishermen’s Association and vice-president of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board). These days, he spends much of his time fighting insurance companies who representatives balk at paying to repair the Gericas’ home. Add insult to injury, he severely damaged his hand while restoring Ms. Lucy. He will not be shrimping this season; however, Clara has traveled up to New York City to lend her moral support to the Brigade. Pete and Clara Gerica can be reached via telephone at 504.669.4379.

http://www.whitebootbrigade.org/

Jolie Rouge

07-10-2006, 08:20 AM

Support can revitalize New Orleans
Mon Jul 10, 6:57 AM ET

More than 16,000 librarians, publishers, authors and vendors just wrapped up a successful conference in New Orleans, with more than 900 volunteering to help damaged libraries and homes ("Gulf Coast libraries bursting with donated books," Life, June 15).

The spirit, hospitality and creativity of New Orleans are alive and well. Volunteers traveled from all over the globe to clear debris, restock library shelves, rebuild homes and bring hope to many people who feel abandoned and forgotten.

We witnessed mile after mile of destruction. We spoke with residents who lost their homes and whose families and neighbors are lost or scattered across the land. We heard fears expressed that New Orleans will become an amusement-park version of its former self, and that many minority and poor people will never return home.

Only a federally funded, corruption-free rebuilding effort that invites the Hurricane Katrina diaspora to return, plan and rebuild will renew the land and heal the people harmed by the forces of nature, indifference and human greed.

The organizational effort and can-do spirit that pulled this country out of the Great Depression is needed now to repair this mutilated region. The greatness of the United States lies not in its military power, mammoth bank accounts, mighty corporations or culture of consumption, but rather in the simple humanity, generous hearts and helping hands of the ordinary people who can heal this region.

The library community bears witness to these truths. We continue to support the wonderful people of the greater Crescent City.

Elaine Harger
Snoqualmie, Wash.

Young volunteers inspire

I had been retired for about a year when Hurricane Katrina hit. After watching report after report of the incredible devastation, I thought maybe I could help out in some small way, so I sent a résumé to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

When FEMA called, I anticipated spending a few months in New Orleans, living out of a tent, eating "meals ready to eat" and seeing if my aging body could take the punishment. Imagine my surprise when I was sent to West Palm Beach, Fla., to live in a hotel, eat restaurant meals and work on hazard mitigation for Hurricane Wilma. After three months in Florida, I was headed home, having enjoyed the challenge of 12-hour days, six days a week, assisting local agencies in rebuilding their infrastructure to withstand the next hurricane. My only regret was not having been able to help in the Gulf Coast, where Katrina had wreaked havoc.

I was home about a week when I got the opportunity to see up close just how bad Katrina had been. My daughter was heading to Pascagoula, Miss., with about 50 college students on their spring break and she asked me to join them. We spent our week roofing, dry-walling and demolishing, while meeting some incredible people who have been through so much.

There was a grandma who waded through rapidly rising flood waters holding the hands of her young grandchildren, praying to be strong so they wouldn't be afraid. There was a couple from Michigan on the eve of their retirements who had a vacation home for years in Gulfport, Miss., and had spent time and money fixing it up only to see it destroyed by the tidal surge. And there was a mother and son who had climbed on furniture they piled higher and higher in their living room as the flood waters rose, only to stop a foot from the ceiling.

It felt good to be able to help in this very small way, but what really warmed my heart was watching the incredible group of young people working around me. These young men and women, gathered together by Forward Edge International from four different colleges in four different states, showed such love and respect for each other and for the people of Pascagoula.

Every one of them was a walking, talking advertisement for what it means to be a Christian.

I may have been the old, experienced guy in the group, but they taught me a lot about what's important in life, and left me feeling pretty optimistic about the future of our country.

Brian Drost
University Place, Wash.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060710/cm_usatoday/supportcanrevitalizeneworleans;_ylt=AiwHgPl775p9b6 ZzLpSmvmus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWF***A2BHNlYwM3NDI-

Jolie Rouge

07-11-2006, 11:59 AM

HUD OKs $4.2B for La. rebuilding program
By BRETT MARTEL, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - The federal government will pay $4.2 billion into a program to help Louisiana residents rebuild or sell houses severely damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, officials said Tuesday.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development also announced it would provide $1 billion for hurricane-related housing needs in Mississippi, Texas, Alabama and Florida, and called on those states to apply for the additional money.

Louisiana's $4.2 billion will be added to federal allocations the state had already received to fully fund its more-than-$9 billion "Road Home" program for hurricane recovery.

"It was clear to me that Louisiana desperately needs this additional funding to implement its plans to bring its citizens back home," Deputy Secretary Roy A. Bernardi said in a joint federal and state press release. "HUD will work very closely with Gov. Blanco and the Louisiana Recovery Authority to help pave the road home for thousands of residents desperate to rebuild their own lives."

Bernardi planned to announced the grants at an afternoon briefing with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco in New Orleans.

The "Road Home" program is intended to provide Louisiana residents up to $150,000 to rebuild or sell houses severely damaged by the storms, using grants to cover repair costs above what was covered by insurance policies and FEMA grants.

About 123,000 home owners and owners of about 80,000 apartments are eligible for the program, state officials have said. About 90,000 have already signed up, officials said.

Blanco has said that the Louisiana Recovery Authority, which oversees the program, expects eligible homeowners to begin getting checks by late summer.

"Never before in American history has any state been forced to rebuild so many homes so quickly," Blanco said. "This $4.2 billion means homeowners have real options — options to repair, rebuild or sell their homes."

Apartment shortages, combined with increasing insurance premiums for people who own buildings in areas hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29 or Rita on Sept. 24, have also created hardships with rents rising 20 percent or more in many cases.

For people who sell their property and can demonstrate continued permanent residence in the state, the grants cover the difference between a home's pre-storm value and post-storm insurance settlements and FEMA grants.

Owners who take the "sell" option and have moved out of Louisiana state can only get 60 percent of their home's pre-storm value.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060711/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/katrina_housing;_ylt=Aj9r2i_7MLPKFcU2t4osEJ8EtbAF; _ylu=X3oDMTBhZDJjOXUyBHNlYwNtdm5ld3M-

Jolie Rouge

07-13-2006, 08:36 PM

Church leaders quit Bush-Clinton Katrina aid panel
Interfaith advisory committee members say advice was ignored
Thursday, July 13, 2006

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Nearly all the religious leaders serving on a committee created by the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund to disburse money to churches destroyed by Hurricane Katrina have quit their posts, claiming their advice was ignored.

Four of nine board members confirmed their resignations on Thursday. Last week, two others -- Bishop T.D. Jakes, the prominent Dallas megachurch pastor, and the Rev. William H. Gray III, former president of the United Negro College Fund -- resigned as co-chairs.

And Gray and Jakes say they have received the resignation letter of a seventh board member, the Rev. William Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA. He did not immediately return a phone call Thursday night.

Departing members of the interfaith advisory committee say the fund's Washington staff disregarded their advice, cutting checks for Gulf Coast churches without properly investigating the institutions.

"I've learned in life that if people say they want your advice and then they change it, ignore it, or undermine it, then they really don't want it," said Gray, also a former congressman.

The fund's co-chairs, former Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans and former Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman, issued a statement thanking Jakes and Gray for their leadership. A fund spokesman declined to comment on the resignations of the others or discuss their allegations.

The fund, created in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, has so far raised more than $125 million, of which approximately $20 million was earmarked for rebuilding faith-based organizations along the Gulf Coast. The interfaith advisory committee was charged with determining which churches, synagogues and mosques were in greatest need.

Initially, Gray said, the committee assumed it would make around 500 awards, each for $35,000. But as the applications began trickling in, staff members in New Orleans realized there were far fewer applicants than they had initially assumed. That meant they could increase the award amount, and the board agreed in consultation with the co-chairs of the fund that the grant ceiling would be increased to $100,000, Gray said. They also agreed each of the churches or religious institutions receiving the charity's money would first be inspected, he said.

Numerous disagreements ensued, but Jakes and Gray said the last straw was the fund's decision to cut checks to 38 houses of worship, each for $35,000, without first conducting an audit to ensure the church exists.

Imam Abdelhafiz Bensrieti, another committee member who resigned, said the Washington staff wanted the religious leaders to "rubber stamp" their decisions. "They had their agenda and that's unacceptable," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/13/katrina.church.leaders.ap/index.html

Jolie Rouge

07-13-2006, 08:58 PM

Thursday, July 13, 2006
Mr. T Sheds Gold After Katrina Destruction

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - Mr. T has given himself a makeover. The
former television action star shed the piles of gold chains that
were his signature look after witnessing the destruction from
Hurricane Katrina. `As a spiritual man, I felt it would be a sin against my God
for me to wear all that gold again because I spent a lot of time with the less fortunate,'' the actor said Thursday at the Television Critics Association's summer meeting.

``I saw some, I call it `sorry celebrities.' They'll go down
there and hook up with the people to take a photo-op. I said, `How
disgusting.' If you're not going to go down there with a check and
a hammer and a nail to help the people, don't go down there.''
Mr. T, whose real name is Lawrence Tero, stars in ``I Pity the
Fool'' debuting in October on TV Land. He dispenses advice to
viewers who are struggling with life's problems.

The former star of ``The A-Team'' said he's about more than his
rough-and-tough image. ``Yes, I am qualified to beat people up. But I am pretty intelligent,'' he said. ``That's what throws people off. If you've been through something, that gives you an authority that you can speak on certain things. That's why people relate to me. I pull no punches.''

http://my.netscape.com/corewidgets/news/story.psp?cat=50880&id=2006071323160001718532

Jolie Rouge

07-17-2006, 09:50 PM

Topsy-turvy rides paint memorable view of Crescent City
Mon Jul 17, 6:35 AM ET

Not a naturally adventurous child, I would never have taken my first ride on a roller coaster had my father not made it financially rewarding. Each summer, the only obstacle standing between me and extra spending money was "The Zephyr," a wooden roller coaster at Pontchartrain Beach on New Orleans' lakefront.

To encourage me to take the risk, my father promised me 10 cents each time I rode the Zephyr and 25 cents if I made it through the entire ride without holding onto the safety bar. I always garnered more than enough dimes and quarters to keep me well supplied with spearmint candies and pre-teen magazines.

Although I never came to cherish the ride, I eagerly anticipated the one point in the journey that made it all worthwhile: the view from the top of the highest peak, when the entire city of New Orleans spread out before me like a vast, glittering kingdom. I knew I had only one halting split-second to enjoy the view before being plunged into a heart-in-your-throat earthward plummet. I also knew that after a scary series of breathless highs, sinking lows and violent twists left and right, I would end up back at the station on solid ground - and 25 cents richer.

When I think of my life since Hurricane Katrina, I think of the now-defunct Zephyr. In the daily struggle to climb hill after daunting hill, I'm finally making progress. (My house has walls now!) But just when I'm sure the frightening, exhausting series of highs and lows is over, I suddenly find myself blindsided by a potent trigger - the sound of a helicopter overhead, a whiff of rotted meat, the sight of brown water lines at roof level. I'm sent plummeting back into a mind-numbing, spirit-breaking depth - a depth that lasts much longer than the quick troughs of the Zephyr. And before I can struggle back up, I am jerked to the left by news that my sister will not be returning to the city, and then slammed to the right by a report of yet another body found in mid-city. And nowhere among the scarred landscapes and lost lives is there a safety bar to hold onto.

Still, I know that eventually this car will turn skyward again, climbing toward the summit where I will be able to take in the view of my city, my life and my family made whole again. For now, it is only an imagined vision, but one I am committed to and working toward every day. Buoyed by the prayers and works of countless good Samaritans, this city will get there, and this terrifying ride will finally grind to a halt back at the station. And, hey, just keep the quarter this time.

Yvonne Perret, Metairie, La.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060717/cm_usatoday/topsyturvyridespaintmemorableviewofcrescentcity;_y lt=AgGlChX175U_WvG.HFJAKgGs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWF** *A2BHNlYwM3NDI-

Jolie Rouge

07-17-2006, 09:55 PM

You're probably from Louisiana if...

The crawdad mounds in your front yard have overtaken the grass.

You greet people with "Howzyamomma'an'dem?" and hear back "Dey fine!"

Every so often, you have waterfront property.

When giving directions you use words like "uptown", "downtown", "backatown", "riverside", "lakeside",
"other side of the bayou" or "other side of the levee.

When you refer to a geographical location "way up North", you are referring to places like Shreveport, Little Rock or Memphis, "where it gets real cold " !

When you have to count back years since the last snow.

Your burial plot is six feet over rather than six feet under.

You've ever had Community Coffee

You can pronounce and properly spell Tchoupitoulas (also, Thibideaux, Opelousas, Ponchartrain, Ouachita, Atchafalaya,)

You don't worry when you see ships riding higher in the river than the top of your house.

You judge a po-boy by the number of napkins used. (Amen)

The waitress at your local sandwich shop tells you a fried oyster po-boy "dressed" is healthier than a Caesar salad.

**You know the definition of "dressed".**

You can eat Popeye's, Haydel's and Zapp's for lunch and wash it down with Barq's and several Abitas, without losing it all on your stoop.

The four seasons in your year are: crawfish, shrimp, Crab and King Cake.

The smell of a crawfish boil turns you on more than HBO.

You "wrench" your hands in the sink with an onion bar to get the crawfish smell off.

You go by "ya-mom-en-`dems" on Good Friday for family supper.

You don't learn until high school that Mardi Gras is not a national holiday.

You don't realize until high school what a "county" is.

You go to buy a new winter coat ( what most people refer to as windbreakers) and throw your arms up in the air to make sure it allows enough room to catch Mardi Gras beads.

Your last name isn't pronounced the way it's spelled.

You know what a nutria is but you still pick it to represent your baseball team.

You have spent a summer afternoon on the Lake Pontchartrain seawall catching blue crabs.

You like your rice and politics dirty.

You worry about a deceased family member returning in spring floods.
(Scary, but true )

You don't think twice about getting on a bus desgination : "Cemetaries".

You pronounce the largest city in the state as "Nawlins".

A friend gets in trouble for roaches in his car and you wonder if it was palmettos or those little ones that go after the French Fries that fell under the seat.

You know those big roaches can fly, but you're able to sleep at night anyway.

You prefer skiing on the bayou.

You assume everyone has mosquito swarms in their backyard.

You realize the rainforest is less humid than Louisiana.

You realise that to live anywhere else must be very sad.

YOU MIGHT BE FROM ACADIANA

[This is true Louisiana]

1.. Your sunglasses fog up when you step outside.

2.. The only four seasons you refer to are crab, crawfish, shrimp, and
oyster.

3.. Sons and husbands think the seasons are duck, dove, deer and squirrel.

4.. You consider reinforcing your attic to store more Mardi Gras beads.

5.. You were in high school before you realized that Catholic and Public were not the two major religions.

6.. You've heard LSU fans scream louder for the band when it comes on the field than when the team enters the field.

7.. You think that purple, gold, and green look good together and will even eat foods with those colors.

8.. Your baby's first words are "boudin" and "beer".

9.. You are at Downtown Alive or Mamou Mardi Gras when it starts to rain and you cover your drink rather than your head.

10. You take Community coffee and Tabasco Sauce with you when you go on vacation.

11. You don't bat an eye when someone says they want to "axe" you
something, get down, or blow your horn, or make groceries (grind meat).

12. You do not look confused when they say they are going to "save"
their dishes.

13. You are not alarmed at finding toy dolls in your pastry.

14. You don't keep newspapers for recycling but for tablecloths at crawfish boils.

15. You exhibit "doubloon reflex" by stomping on runaway quarters with your foot.

16. You know that the best doughnuts are square and have no holes, or if they do have holes, they are from Meches

17. You don't giggle when you refer to your ex-mayor as Dud, Moon,
Cat, Duffy, Koyo, or Dutch, Puggy or LaLa.

18. You refer to places in the area by bodies of water and not compass directions.

19. You've been known to wear a paper bag on your head when attending
Pro Football games.

20. You complain about the six months of summer but smile when you think of Northerners shoveling snow.

21. You describe Festival Acadiens in Lafayette's Girard Park as either dusty or muddy.

22. You buy mosquito repellent in Jumbo size.

23. You can spell Atchafalaya.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE A NATIVE NEW ORLEANIAN IF:

No matter where else you go in the world, you are always disappointed in the food.

You get up in the morning and start a pot of rice to cooking before you give any thought to what you'll fix for dinner.

Your loved one dies and you book a jazz band before you call the coroner.

You think the breeze from a flying roach feels good on a hot summer night.

Your accent sounds nothing like Harry Connick,Jr's.

You can sing these jingles by heart: "Rosenberg's, Rosenberg's, 1825 Tulane" & [/I]"At the beach, at the beach, the Ponchartrain Beach...."[/I]

You were a high school graduate before you realized that Catholic and Public were not two major religions.

Your baby's first words are "long beads."

You ask, "How they running?" and "Are dey fat?", but you're inquiring about seafood quality and not the Crescent City Classic.

When a hurricane is imminent, you have a lot more faith in Nash Roberts than Super Doppler 6000.

Nothing shocks you. Period. Ever - not politics, hurricanes, red lights, parking tickets, the Saints, Mardi Gras.....

Your one-martini lunch becomes a five-bloody mary afternoon.......and
you keep your job.

Being in a jam at Tulane and Broad isn't the same as being stuck in traffic.

You're walking in the French Quarter with a plastic cup of beer. When it starts to rain, you cover you beer instead of your head.

Your idea of health food is a baked potato instead of fries with your seafood platter.

You have to take your coffee and favorite coffeemaker with you on a three-day trip.

You have sno-ball stains on your shoes.

You call tomato sauce "red gravy."

Your middle name is your mother's maiden name or your father's mother's maiden name or your mother's mother's maiden name or your grandmother's mother's maiden name or your grandfather's mother's maiden name.

You know you recycled too much newspaper when there isn't enough for the dinner (or crawfish) table.

You are going through customs and the agent asks you where you're from and you answer, "Gentilly."

On certain spring days, crawfish monica is your breakfast.

You eat sno-balls instead of throwing them.

Your house payment is less than your utility bill.

You've done your laundry in a bar.

You push little old ladies out of the way to catch Mardi Gras throws.

You have been pushedout of the way by little old ladies catching Mardi Gras throws.

You look forward to being smashed by a hurricane.

You don't show your "pretties" during Mardi Gras.

Catching "crabs" makes you smile.

You write "crookedpolitician" as all one word.

You know it's "ask" but you purposely say "ax".

You understand it when someone describes their favorite color as K&B purple.

You know how to mispronounce street names correctly.
(Melpomene, Terpsichore, Chartes, etc...)

You know that Tchoupitoulas is a street and not a disease.

You can "boo" the mayor on national television.

Beignets are the major cause of your gallstones.

You wear sweaters in October because it "ought to be cold".

Someone asks you "Where you at?" and you tell them how you are.

You are left behind at an out-of-town bar searching for a "go cup".

You think of potholes as naturally occurring speed bumps.

Your grandparents are called "Maw Maw" and "Paw Paw".

You shake out your shoes before putting them on.

You're afraid to move away because you won't be able to make Sugar-
Busters!

You don't go buy groceries, you make groceries.

You know that "super doppler" does not refer to a generously endowed woman's chest.

You know why you should never, ever swim by the Lake Pontchartrain steps(for more than one reason).

You cringe every time you hear an actor with a "Southern" or "Cajun" accent in a "New Orleans-based" movie or TV show.

You have to reset your clocks after every thunderstorm.

You waste more time navigating back streets than you would if you just sat in traffic.

You still call the Fairmont Hotel the Roosevelt.

You consider garbage cans a legal step to protecting your parking space on a public street.

You fall asleep to the soothing sounds of four box fans.

You ignore cockroaches because you know the only ones you could kill are the weak or infirmed, and it would only serve to strengthen the breed.

You suck the heads, sing the blues and you actually know where you got them shoes.

Jolie Rouge

07-18-2006, 12:29 PM

3 arrested in Katrina hospital deaths
7/18/2006
By Alex Brandon, AP

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A doctor and two nurses arrested in the deaths of patients at a New Orleans hospital are accused of giving four patients lethal doses of morphine and a sedative known as Versed in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina. The three were arrested late Monday on charges of being "principals to second-degree murder."

"We're not calling this euthanasia. We're not calling this mercy killings. This is second-degree murder," said Kris Wartelle, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Charles Foti.

The arrest warrants say Dr. Anna Pou and the two nurses intentionally killed four patients at Memorial Medical Center ''by administering or causing to be administered lethal doses of morphine sulphate (morphine) and midazolam (Versed).''

Foti had subpoenaed more than 70 people last fall in an investigation into rumors that medical personnel at Memorial Medical Center had euthanized patients who were in pain after the hurricane as they waited in miserable conditions for rescue.

"She is innocent. This whole thing is unfair," said Pou's lawyer, Rick Simmons.

Her mother, Jeanette Pou, said she was distressed by her daughter's arrest. "Medicine was the most important thing in her life and I know she never ever did anything deliberately to hurt anyone," she said in a telephone interview.

Memorial Medical Center had been cut off by flooding after the Aug. 29 hurricane swamped New Orleans. Power was out in the 317-bed hospital and the temperatures inside rose over 100 degrees as the staff tried to tend to patients who waited four days to be evacuated.

At least 34 patients died there during that period, 10 of them patients of the hospital's owner Dallas-based Tenet health care Corp. and 24 patients in a facility run by LifeCare Holdings Inc., a separate company.

After the bodies were recovered, Orleans Parish coroner Frank Minyard said they were so decomposed the deaths could only be listed as "Katrina-related."

He later said samples had been taken from dozens of patients who died at various hospitals and nursing homes to test for potentially lethal doses of drugs such as morphine.

In a December interview, Dr. Pou had told Baton Rouge television station WBRZ: "There were some patients there who were critically ill who, regardless of the storm, had the orders of do not resuscitate. In other words, if they died, to allow them to die naturally, and to not use heroic methods to resuscitate them."

"We all did everything in our power to give the best treatment that we could to the patients in the hospital to make them comfortable," Pou said then.

Tammie Holley, an attorney representing about a dozen families whose relatives died at Memorial, says the presence of the sedative in addition to morphine is important in determining whether hospital staff intended to kill a patient. "If it was only morphine, there would be no way to know if they were administering it to control their pain," Holley said.

Harry Anderson, a spokesman for Dallas-based Tenet health care Corp., said the allegations against the doctor and nurses, if proven true, were disturbing. "Euthanasia is repugnant to everything we believe as ethical health care providers, and it violates every precept of ethical behavior and the law. It is never permissible under any circumstances," Anderson said.

In addition to Pou, nurses Cheri Landry and Lori Budo were arrested and later released on personal recognizance bonds, officials said.

It wasn't immediately clear if Landry and Budo had attorneys who could comment.

Simmons said Pou was arrested and handcuffed at her house late Monday night. "I told them that she is not a flight risk. I told them that she would surrender herself. Instead, they chose to arrest her in her scrubs so that they could present her scalp to the media," he said.

Angela McManus said Tuesday that her 70-year-old mother was among the patients who died at Memorial. Her mother had been recovering from a blood infection but seemed fine and was still able to speak when police demanded relatives of the ill evacuate. She died later that day, McManus said. "At least now I'll be able to get some answers. For months, I haven't known what happened to my mom. I need some answers just to be able to function."

Tenet said Tuesday it is selling the now-closed Memorial Medical Center and two other area hospitals to Ochsner Health System, a sale expected to be completed by Aug. 31.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-07-18-katrina-deaths_x.htm?csp=24

Background :

LA Attorney General Subpoenas 73 in Hospital Deaths
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp...780.htm&sc=1110
10/26/05 22:35

Nurse recounts rapidly worsening situation at hospital
She says no one abandoned by staff

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/ind...2005_09_14.html

New Orleans hospital staff subpoenaed
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051027/ts_nm/...m4yBHNlYwNmYw--

Jolie Rouge

07-27-2006, 09:00 PM

INSURANCE COMMISSIONER: "IT LOOKS LIKE BLACKMAIL"
Allstate Threatens to Pull Out of Louisiana, State Says
July 25, 2006 09:14 AM CDT

Allstate Insurance has informed the Louisiana Department of Insurance that it plans to pull out of the Louisiana homeowners insurance market unless the company is allowed to -exclude- wind and hail damage coverage from policies in 18 coastal parishes, the Department of Insurance reported.

The move would affect an estimated 30,000 homeowners insurance policies in Louisiana, the state said.

Allstate did not leave a map of the 18 parishes that would be affected but indicated they are "coastal" parishes, said Department of Insurance spokeswoman Amy Whittington.

Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon held a late afternoon news conference to state he was completely against the move and is preparing to take legal action against Allstate. "It looks like blackmail," Donelon said.

Donelon said Allstate wants to be exempted from a Louisiana law that prohibits companies from reducing coverage, without policyholder approval, on policies held for more than three years.

Donelon says Allstate wanted -- and he refused to provide -- a waiver that would allow the company to sidestep that law and drop wind and hail coverage for about 30-thousand of its customers in 18 coastal parishes. "The company's management needs to reevaluate its position in favor of policyholders rather than corporate profits," Donelon added. "This action is reprehensible. On the one hand, Allstate is dragging its feet paying (hurricane related) claims, and on the other hand, they want me to sanction a move that could help them make higher profits."

Donelon says he finds the company's timing disturbing considering, he says, Allstate recently announced second-quarter profits of $1.21 billion.

An Allstate spokesman says the company has made no public statements regarding the matter and would not elaborate. As for hurricane claims, the spokesman says Allstate has closed close to 97 percent of last year's hurricane claims.

http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=5182682

Allstate May Drop Wind, Hail Coverage On Louisiana Coast
July 24, 2006: 12:34 a.m. EST

CHICAGO -(Dow Jones)- Nearly a year after a record hurricane season devastated the Gulf Coast, Allstate Corp. is considering dropping hail and wind damage coverage for coastal homeowners in Louisiana.

On Friday, Louisiana's top insurance regulator threatened legal action against the Northbrook, Ill., insurer, saying such an action would violate the state's consumer protection statute.

In a Friday press release, Louisiana Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon said he is preparing to take legal action against Allstate if the company follows through on a threat he says the state received from the company: "Either ignore the state's consumer protection statute and allow the company to exclude wind and hail coverage on policies in 18 parishes, or the company will totally withdraw from the Louisiana homeowners market."

A spokeswoman for Donelon said Monday she did not know what type of legal action was contemplated. "It is my contention that such actions are prohibited by Louisiana law," said the Commissioner. "Allstate's trying to kick policyholders when they're already down."

An Allstate withdrawal from the state could leave 20% of Louisiana homeowners scrambling for coverage. Allstate is the second largest homeowners insurer in the state with approximately 220,000 policy holders.

Michael J. Trevino, an Allstate spokesman, confirmed Monday that staff from the insurer's regional office did meet with the commissioner Friday and that the insurer is considering dropping wind and hail coverage for around 30,000 policies in the state. "It is not unusual for companies to have conversations with regulators about potential ideas to get a sense of how the regulator might react to it," he said, but said he had no knowledge of any threat to pull out of the state entirely, calling that an "extraordinary step."

"The big picture is to continue to reduce our exposure to catastrophic loss," he said. He pointed out that Allstate has taken steps to reduce potential catastrophe losses in Texas, Florida and in eight New York coastal counties. In Louisiana, Allstate would remit a portion of homeowner's premiums to the state- run insurer to cover wind and hail damage.

In Mississippi, another hard-hit state, Allstate has not yet made any changes to its insurance coverage, Trevino said.

Mississippi's Attorney General has filed suit against several insurance companies, including Allstate, over coverage for storm surge damage to policy- holders in that state.

In a civil suit, two Mississippi homeowners are suing Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. over coverage for water damage after Katrina. A federal judge is expected to issue a decision in that case later this week or next. The closely watched suit is considered a bellwether for how other such suits might be decided.

At issue in Louisiana are 18 coastal parishes, similar to counties, that were hit by hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year. Donelon said in the press release that Allstate has 1,287 hurricane-related consumer complaints in the state, the highest number of the top 10 property insurers in Louisiana following the hurricanes.

Donelon also made reference to Allstate's second-quarter profit of $1.21 billion, and called the company's timing in demanding a change in coverage " disturbing."

Allstate's Trevino criticized the reference to earnings. "Any attempt to link our second-quarter financial performance to business actions in the state is tantamount to suggesting that auto and life insurance customers from all across the country should somehow subsidize our homeowners business in Louisiana," he said. "We hardly think that's fair and I'm quite sure the good people of Iowa and Kansas would agree."

-By Lavonne Kuykendall, Dow Jones Newswires

http://money.cnn.com/services/tickerheadlines/for5/200607241234DOWJONESDJONLINE000593_FORTUNE5.htm

Jolie Rouge

08-09-2006, 11:19 AM

Katrina : One Year Later
In August 2005 Hurricane Katrina became one of the costliest storms
in US history. Today, with changes to codes and regulations, disputes
over funding, and the sheer scope of the damage, much of the
restoration has yet to begin.

Schedule of Topics :

August 4: The Damage
Katrina's Damage: A Tale of Two Disasters
Damaged Goods: A Breakdown of the Devastation

August 11: The Clean-Up
Fighting Off Vultures in Hurricane Katrina's Wake
Nothing's Normal in Rebuilding New Orleans

Upcoming Topics

August 18: Being There
August 25: Far-Reaching Effect
August 31: Rebuilding Now, Building for the Future

http://www.hgtvpro.com/hpro/pac_ctnt/text/0,2595,HPRO_20196_49957,00.html?nl=v076c

Jolie Rouge

08-16-2006, 09:50 PM

Spike Lee's Katrina documentary opens
By STACEY PLAISANCE, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 48 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Flashbulbs, bright lights and video cameras lined the red carpet outside the New Orleans Arena, where thousands sought to get the first look Wednesday at director Spike Lee's documentary on Hurricane Katrina.

One evacuee, back in the New Orleans area to find a home after evacuating to Cleveland, said she felt "spiritually drawn" to attend.

"I wanted to come to this so bad. I needed to come," said Mildred White, 59. "I feel like I haven't had a good cleansing. I feel like this will be cleansing for me, like going to a funeral."

Lee has not tried to hide his anger about New Orleans' devastation by levee breaks and the government's slow response. He hopes his documentary on the subject will bring attention back to the region, where it's needed, he said Wednesday.

"People are still in dire straits. We want to put the focus back here," Lee said at a news conference with historian Douglas Brinkley and HBO officials.

Titled "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," the film had its premiere Wednesday night. Organizers expected 8,000 to 12,000 people to attend.

The film will air in two two-hour segments on HBO on Monday and Tuesday nights. It also will be shown in its entirety Aug. 29, the one-year anniversary of Katrina's landfall.

Lee admitted he was a bit uneasy about Wednesday's first public showing, but his anxiety is not for himself. It's for the thousands who experienced unfathomable loss.

A woman whose 5-year-old daughter drowned in the flood told Lee she planned to drive from Fort Worth, Texas, to see his film. So did the son of a woman who died in her wheelchair at the city's convention center. He told Lee he was driving from Alabama.

"I told them not to come," Lee said Tuesday night. "I'm really worried about them. This is not going to be easy."

Lee has been criticized by some who got an early look for not including more representation from Mississippi Gulf Coast residents and New Orleans' white population. Lee said Wednesday there is diversity in the film, but "because of the historical significance ... we chose to focus here. That was my vision. I wanted to concentrate on New Orleans."

In New Orleans, much of the city's poor black population did not evacuate ahead of the storm and had to be rescued later.

Though he didn't point fingers, Lee described what happened as "a criminal act."

"The devastation here was not brought on solely by Mother Nature. People in charge were not doing their job."

Lee said he included in the documentary theories of an intentional bombing of the levees, but he stopped short of saying he believed them.

"I don't know if it happened," he said. "All I know is, I talked to the people who were there, and they said they heard what sounded like an explosion, something blew up."

Lee said the project was originally going to be about two hours long. Even at four hours, he said, "It's incomplete. You can't tell a story like this in four hours."

Lee said he is considering another Katrina documentary that picks up where this one left off.

Though graphic, Lee said this documentary captures the spirit of New Orleans through individuals sharing their stories. It contains footage supplemented by interviews, though at least one scene, a jazz funeral procession, was staged, Lee said. He interviewed more than 100 people, including Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Mayor Ray Nagin, musicians and residents.

Among them was Gralen B. Banks, who was working security detail at the Hyatt Regency when Katrina hit. Banks was laid off in June and is living in a federally issued trailer while renovating his New Orleans home.

Despite the hardships of the last year, Banks, who planned to attend the Wednesday-night premiere with family and friends, said he intends to stay in New Orleans.

"I just don't fit nowhere else," he said. "I just don't."

Dr. Louis Cataldie, the state medical examiner, said the movie could be therapeutic, particularly for the poor, who may not have access to mental health services.

"People need an outlet and need to grieve," he said.

Nagin said he didn't know how he would respond emotionally to the documentary.

"The power of film will allow some people to heal," he said. "I'm going to see a lot tonight. It's going to be almost like living through it again. I have plenty of tissue in my pocket."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060817/ap_en_mo/katrina_spike_lee

Jolie Rouge

08-22-2006, 09:21 PM

Worst is yet to come, hurricane chief says
By Jim Loney
Tue Aug 22, 8:27 AM ET

MIAMI (Reuters) - If you thought the sight of the great American jazz city New Orleans flooded to the eaves -- its people trapped in attics or cowering on rooftops -- was the nightmare hurricane scenario, think again.

Max Mayfield, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center, says there's plenty of potential for a storm worse than Hurricane Katrina which killed 1,339 people along the U.S. Gulf coast and caused some $80 billion in damage last August.

"People think we have seen the worst. We haven't," Mayfield told Reuters in an interview at the fortress-like hurricane center in Florida.

"I think the day is coming. I think eventually we're going to have a very powerful hurricane in a major metropolitan area worse than what we saw in Katrina and it's going to be a mega-disaster. With lots of lost lives," Mayfield said.

"I don't know whether that's going to be this year or five years from now or a hundred years from now. But as long as we continue to develop the coastline like we are, we're setting up for disaster."

Looking back nearly a year to the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, and the third-worst hurricane in terms of American lives lost, Mayfield said Katrina itself could have been a greater disaster.

By Friday night, more than two days before the storm struck the Gulf coast on August 29, the hurricane center had predicted its future track accurately and also warned it could become a powerful Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.

New Orleans was squarely in the danger zone, and emergency managers and residents had plenty of time to prepare. "One of my greatest fears is having people go to bed at night prepared for a Category 1 and waking up to a Katrina or Andrew. One of these days, that's going to happen," Mayfield said.

Katrina went just to the east of New Orleans, sparing the city the worst of a massive storm surge and the strongest winds. But still the city's protective levees failed.

VULNERABLE CITIES

The worst-case hurricane scenario? Mayfield has many in mind. A stronger hurricane closer to New Orleans. A direct hit on the vulnerable Galveston-Houston area, the fragile Florida Keys or heavily populated Miami-Fort Lauderdale.

Or how about a major hurricane racing up the east coast to the New York-New Jersey area, with its millions of people and billions of dollars of pricey real estate? "One of the highest storm surges possible anywhere in the country is where Long Island juts out at nearly right angles to the New Jersey coast. They could get 25 to 30 feet (7.6 to 9.1 meters) of storm surge ... even going up the Hudson River," Mayfield said.

"The subways are going to flood. Some people might think 'Hey, I'll go into the subways and I'll be safe.' No, they are going to flood."

Mayfield, a silver-haired, 34-year veteran of the hurricane center who became its public face in 2000, is a tireless campaigner for hurricane preparation, warning the 50 million people who live in U.S. coastal counties from Maine to Texas that they are all in the path of a future storm.

He is mystified by a study that found 60 percent of people in hurricane-prone U.S. coastal areas have no hurricane plan -- which to disaster managers means up to a week's worth of food and water squirreled away, a kit with flashlights and other gear and an established evacuation route to higher ground. "After Katrina and after the last two hurricane seasons you can't understand why more people are not taking hurricanes seriously," Mayfield said.

Katrina, he says, killed people who stayed in their homes with confidence because they had lived through 1969's Hurricane Camille. Camille was a much stronger storm than Katrina when it crashed ashore in Louisiana and Mississippi as one of only three Category 5s to hit the United States in recorded history. "There were a lot of people who lost their lives because they thought that they had already lived through the worst they could possibly live through," Mayfield said.

"Experience isn't always a good teacher."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060822/us_nm/...es_nightmare_dc

Or how about a major hurricane racing up the east coast to the New York-New Jersey area, with its millions of people and billions of dollars of pricey real estate? "One of the highest storm surges possible anywhere in the country is where Long Island juts out at nearly right angles to the New Jersey coast. They could get 25 to 30 feet (7.6 to 9.1 meters) of storm surge ... even going up the Hudson River," Mayfield said.

How many of *these* people have checked their insurance coverage for wind and flood damage ?

Jolie Rouge

11-08-2006, 10:36 PM

Mental health crisis strains New Orleans
By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer
Nov 8, 2006

NEW ORLEANS - Mental health problems soared after Hurricane Katrina, just as the city's ability to handle them plummeted, creating a crisis so acute that police officers say they take some disturbed people to a destination of last resort — jail.

Because of the storm damage, only two of New Orleans' 11 hospitals are fully functioning. What's more, one of the closed facilities is the sprawling Charity Hospital, which police officers had relied on to drop off people at any hour. "You knew they were safe. You knew they would get the care they needed. You don't know either of those things now," said James Arey, a psychologist who commands the police crisis negotiation team.

People who need medication can't find it or can't afford it, and the storm's aftermath has made life more stressful, as well, Arey said. "Life is hard in this town now," he said.

A federally funded study published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization found that mental health problems in the region roughly doubled in the months after Katrina, to 11.3 percent.

Take Kenneth Breaux, who said he was diagnosed with a form of schizophrenia years ago. Breaux, 44, was jailed in June 2005 but got caught in the judicial vacuum following Katrina and languished behind bars until last April, when he pleaded guilty to simple criminal damage and was released for time served.

Advocates say Breaux hasn't been able to get the medication he's taken for years because he's been homeless and unemployed since the storm, and he cannot find family members. "He's getting no help," said Katie Schwartzman, an attorney for the Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union who spoke with Breaux after his release in April. Today, he's back in jail on a theft charge.

Getting help has perhaps never been more challenging. Before Katrina there were 480 psychiatric beds in the New Orleans area. Now there are perhaps 200, said Dr. Jeffery Rouse, deputy psychiatric coroner for Orleans Parish. Arey said police officers typically become involved if a person is disabled, suicidal or homicidal. "I'd say most of those are going right back onto the streets with no help," he said.

Police are answering an average of 185 mental-health calls a month, Arey said. That's down from a pre-Katrina monthly average of 350. But before the storm, the city's population was 454,000 compared to fewer than 190,000 now.

The downsized police force finds itself shopping for hospitals willing to accept the mentally distressed among five area hospitals with working emergency rooms, one in New Orleans and four in neighboring Jefferson Parish. None specializes in mental crisis, and officers say most appear hesitant to deal with mental cases.

Although federal law requires hospitals to examine and stabilize people regardless of ability to pay, Arey said it's frequently ignored. "We routinely have officers sitting in these hospitals two, four, six, eight hours trying to talk some nurse — with her arms folded — into taking this patient," Arey said.

Complicating the problem, Arey said, is that many people handled by police, especially the poor, do not have health insurance. Often, he said, they are discharged by hospitals without long-term treatment.

The problem for emergency rooms is just as tough, said Dr. Richard Manthey, an emergency room doctor at Ochsner Hospital in Jefferson Parish. Before Katrina, his emergency room examined about one patient a day undergoing a psychiatric crisis, Manthey said. Now, it frequently sees 12 a day. "The amount of upheaval it causes is pretty dramatic," Manthey said. "These are disruptive patients, often violent, usually loud, yelling, not wanting to stay in a room."

Without Charity Hospital, police can book a psychiatric suspect into Orleans Parish Prison. While it keeps someone who is potentially harmful to themselves or others off the street, it doesn't guarantee they'll get the proper treatment.

A prison spokeswoman said the jail spends $10,000 to $12,000 a month on psychiatric medication — 21 percent of the total it spends on pharmaceuticals. There are one full-time, board certified psychiatrist, and two part-time psychiatrists to treat 2,000 inmates.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061109/ap_on_...sychiatric_care

Jolie Rouge

11-28-2006, 09:58 PM

Judge rules insurance covers New Orleans homeowners
By Jeffrey Jones

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A Louisiana federal judge has ruled many New Orleans homeowners whose houses sustained water damage after Hurricane Katrina are not excluded from coverage under their insurance policies, a judgment that represents a loss for the insurance industry.

In an 85-page judgment, U.S. District Court Judge Stanwood Duval denied motions by some insurers seeking to stop policyholders from receiving claims they said were prevented by exclusion language spelled out in the policies.

The insurance companies argued the industry standard wording for what constitutes a flood covers any inundation of dry land by water.

But in his decision, which insurers are expected to appeal, Duval drew a distinction between flooding that occurs naturally and the destructive force of the water that rushed into the city when the levees gave way.

He also said insurers' definitions of the word "flood" were ambiguous and did not necessarily include man-made causes, such as levee failures. "It is the considered opinion of the Court that because the policies are all-risk, and because 'flood' has numerous definitions, it reasonably could be limited to natural occurrences," Duval wrote.

One exception was State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., whose policy language specifically spelled out exclusion of flood coverage regardless of the cause.

Several levees and footwalls in and around New Orleans breached after the deadly August 29, 2005 storm, submerging 80 percent of the city and causing severe damage to more than 150,000 homes. Some studies have blamed the failures on poor design and maintenance of the flood barriers.

The judgment covers four separate cases under an umbrella for levee and canal failure proceedings and involved State Farm, Travelers Property Casualty Co. of America, Encompass Insurance Co. and a host of others. "In the New Orleans area, everyone who bought insurance from a company other than State Farm at the moment now stands the prospect of getting full coverage under their homeowners policy for their damages, to the extent those damages were the result of water being released from the levee," John Ellison, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said on Tuesday.

The decision runs counter to that of a judge in Mississippi, who ruled in August that a couple from that state, whose home was hit with $130,000 of damage from Katrina, was not covered by their policy due to the exclusion of flood coverage.

One insurance industry official said he believed the ruling will be overturned on appeal, as it appears to ignore that companies are using the well-established standards accepted by federal regulators.

If it stands, it will force insurers to restrict coverage and raise rates in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast and slow the recovery, said Robert Hartwig, chief economist with the Insurance Information Institute. However, companies have already raised rates even without paying the water damage claims yet, Ellison said.

Katrina cost insurers about $41 billion in claims, the largest event in the history of the industry, with homes accounting for nearly half of the total.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061129/ts_nm/katrina_insurance_dc_4

Jolie Rouge

01-02-2007, 10:37 PM

Sugar Bowl's sweet return to Big Easy
By PAUL NEWBERRY, AP National Writer
Tue Jan 2, 8:53 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - The day before the Sugar Bowl, it seemed like ol' times in the heart of the French Quarter.

Street dancers performed for a large gathering in Jackson Square, getting big cheers when they pulled a young LSU fan into their act. Aspiring artists stood ready to churn out a caricature for anyone passing by. Ominous-looking psychics hovered over candles and Ouija boards, prepared to deliver some eery premonition. And, of course, the bartenders doled out plenty of Abitas (that's a local beer), Hurricanes and Bloody Marys.

With thousands of people milling about the narrow streets, celebrating the return of the Sugar Bowl to its native city, the Big Easy is back in business, right?

Not so fast.

Just a few miles away from the party, there was another set of rituals Tuesday that have become all too familiar for those who live in this still-devastated city. Construction workers hammered away at flooded-out homes. People tossed out the water-logged remnants of their shattered lives for garbage trucks to haul away. Thousands prepared to spend another night living in trailers, wondering when they might actually have a place to call home that doesn't have wheels.

"If you live in Idaho or Montana or Wyoming," Curtis Click said, "you just can't understand the extent of the damage."

Click and his family are fully aware that New Orleans is still struggling to get back on its feet, a striking contrast to the revelry on Bourbon Street. Sixteen months after Hurricane Katrina sent 2 feet of water pouring into the Lake Terrace neighborhood, their home remains nothing more than a shell — wood framing where walls should be, wires and ductwork dangling from the exposed ceiling. One of those omnipresent FEMA trailers is camped out on the front lawn, a temporary home with an increasingly permanent feel; they've been using it since the first of July, after returning from the sanctuary of San Antonio.

Click and his 20-year-old son will be in that trailer Wednesday night, watching No. 4 LSU take on 11th-ranked Notre Dame in what figures to be the most poignant of Sugar Bowls. Last year, the game shifted to Atlanta because the Superdome was in no shape to host a football game. This year, it's back home, another cornerstone in the tedious rebuilding of an irreplaceable American city.

"I've got a front-row seat," Click said with a giddy fist pump, unconcerned that he'll have to watch the game on a tiny television in a cramped seat with barely enough room to turn around.

Click and his wife, Nancy, are thrilled to have the Sugar Bowl back where it belongs — if for no other reason than to let people know there's so much work left to be done.

"People think we're finished, but it's going to take years to rebuild," she said. "If more people come to town, maybe it will get the word out that we're still struggling big time."

Amid all the political infighting, the government inefficiency, the miles of red tape that have slowed parts of the recovery to a glacier-like pace, a silly sport — football — has helped lift the spirits of New Orleans in particular and Louisiana as a whole, giving its beaten-down populace a sense that everything will turn out OK.

After going 3-13 last season, the Saints won their division and earned a bye into the second round of the NFL playoffs. LSU (10-2) closed the regular season with a six-game winning streak to claim a spot in the Bowl Championship Series.

That the Tigers were invited to the Sugar Bowl after a wild final weekend only adds to the sense that some sort of destiny is at work.

"As we've been going around the city, all the people have been coming up and telling us their Katrina stories," LSU coach Les Miles said. "There could be no other bowl game for this year's LSU team than the Sugar Bowl.

"It's perfect."

Of course, the city is far from perfect. Heading north or east from the French Quarter, it doesn't take long to come face-to-face with Katrina's devastating impact. The Clicks actually got off a bit lucky — their home could be repaired, as opposed to plenty all around them that were simply leveled. But they scuttled most of their household furnishings, not to mention such heart-wrenching items as videos of Nancy as a young girl.

"That's all gone," she said. "I lost my childhood."

Nancy pulls out a picture album that she's compiled, documenting their inviting, two-story home before the storm and what was left after the water receded.

"My wedding ring is somewhere in that pile," she said, pointing to a picture that shows a pile of garbage stacked on the front lawn, about all that was left from the bottom floor. "There's a $5,000 sofa right there."

The players have certainly grasped that they're part of something bigger than just a football game. A few days ago, Notre Dame (10-2) sent its players to help remove debris from a flooded-out school.

"That was pretty eye-opening," quarterback Brady Quinn said. "You hear about Hurricane Katrina, but you don't understand what it's truly like until you see it. The walls were caved in. We saw a chalkboard with the date 'August 25, 2005' written on it. You could tell that no one had been in there since then."

One of his teammates, defensive tackle Derek Landri, was taken aback at the slowness of the recovery. Maybe that's only natural. The rest of the country seems to have moved on, burned out by all the Katrina coverage or simply distracted by other news.

"We still saw homes with their doors wide open," Landri said. "We still saw water lines in the homes. A year and a half later, that's kind of surprising."

Even in the French Quarter and other areas that weren't hit as hard, this isn't the same city. While tens of thousands gathered on the banks of the Mississippi River to ring in the new year and the city is now bustling with LSU and Notre Dame fans, there are times when the streets are barren of tourists. Those who do visit find businesses with reduced hours and restaurants that shut down a couple of days each week, simply because there aren't enough workers.

But the cruise ships have returned, some major conventions are booked and Mardi Gras is right around the corner. Next football season, New Orleans will get a nice one-two punch by hosting the Sugar Bowl and the BCS championship game a week apart.

"I hate to say it, but we need the tourists," said Nancy Click, fighting off the pre-Katrina inclination of those who call this place home. "We really need them to come back. I hope they will."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070103/ap_on_sp_co_ne/fbc_t25_sugar_bowl

Jolie Rouge

01-07-2007, 09:20 PM

9th Ward can be rebuilt, planners say
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 52 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - The predominantly black neighborhoods known as the 9th Ward can be brought back largely as they existed before Hurricane Katrina flooded them, a survey contends.

The finding contradicts the common perception that the neighborhoods are so damaged that they need to be rebuilt from scratch, said urban planners who conducted the survey. "The structural integrity of many of the buildings, even in the most devastated areas, are in much better condition than has been reported," said Kenneth Reardon, chair of Cornell University's city and regional planning department.

Urban planners and students at Cornell, Columbia University and the University of Illinois carried out the survey, which was sponsored by ACORN, a national group that works to improve poor and moderate-income neighborhoods. The findings were released Saturday.

The only section needing to be rebuilt lies directly next to the levee breach on the Industrial Canal, an area that covers less than 1 square mile in the Lower 9th Ward, the survey found. Homes there were battered by flood waters of Katrina and later from Hurricane Rita.

The survey found that more than 80 percent of the 9th Ward structures "suffered no terminal structural damage" and that the majority of those structures were built atop piers, making it easier to raise them to meet new flood zone requirements.

Researchers and structural engineers based their assessment on the inspection of about 3,000 buildings.

Yet, the neighborhoods are being repopulated very slowly because of the bureaucratic and financial hurdles residents face, the survey concluded after interviewing hundreds of residents. Only about 20 percent of the residents have returned home, the survey found.

"That data shows that it can be rebuilt, and rebuilt in a cost effective way. What is lacking are the resources," said Andrew Rumbach, a Cornell planner.

Many people in the 9th Ward did not have flood insurance, and government rebuilding aid has been slow. A lack of schools, day-care centers, businesses and public services, as well as high rents, also are keeping people away.

Vanessa Gueringer, the chairwoman of ACORN's Lower 9th Ward chapter, said it may take "shaming, embarrassing" public officials to get the necessary resources to rebuild. "It may even take marching on the Capitol, and on state government."

Ceeon Quiett, a spokeswoman for Mayor Ray Nagin, said the mayor's office has not reviewed the ACORN report but will.

"We encourage and are glad the citizens are taking part," she said, adding that the mayor is interested in rebuilding the 9th Ward, a central part of the city.

John Beckman, an urban planner who has worked on rebuilding plans for Mayor Ray Nagin, said a host of factors should be considered before declaring an area ready to be rebuilt, such as an area's history of flooding and the cash-strapped city's ability to provide essential services.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070108/ap_on_re_us/katrina9th_ward

evrita

01-07-2007, 11:55 PM

Worst is yet to come, hurricane chief says
By Jim Loney
Tue Aug 22, 8:27 AM ET

MIAMI (Reuters) - If you thought the sight of the great American jazz city New Orleans flooded to the eaves -- its people trapped in attics or cowering on rooftops -- was the nightmare hurricane scenario, think again.

Max Mayfield, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center, says there's plenty of potential for a storm worse than Hurricane Katrina which killed 1,339 people along the U.S. Gulf coast and caused some $80 billion in damage last August.

"People think we have seen the worst. We haven't," Mayfield told Reuters in an interview at the fortress-like hurricane center in Florida.

"I think the day is coming. I think eventually we're going to have a very powerful hurricane in a major metropolitan area worse than what we saw in Katrina and it's going to be a mega-disaster. With lots of lost lives," Mayfield said.

"I don't know whether that's going to be this year or five years from now or a hundred years from now. But as long as we continue to develop the coastline like we are, we're setting up for disaster."

Looking back nearly a year to the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, and the third-worst hurricane in terms of American lives lost, Mayfield said Katrina itself could have been a greater disaster.

By Friday night, more than two days before the storm struck the Gulf coast on August 29, the hurricane center had predicted its future track accurately and also warned it could become a powerful Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.

New Orleans was squarely in the danger zone, and emergency managers and residents had plenty of time to prepare. "One of my greatest fears is having people go to bed at night prepared for a Category 1 and waking up to a Katrina or Andrew. One of these days, that's going to happen," Mayfield said.

Katrina went just to the east of New Orleans, sparing the city the worst of a massive storm surge and the strongest winds. But still the city's protective levees failed.

VULNERABLE CITIES

The worst-case hurricane scenario? Mayfield has many in mind. A stronger hurricane closer to New Orleans. A direct hit on the vulnerable Galveston-Houston area, the fragile Florida Keys or heavily populated Miami-Fort Lauderdale.

Or how about a major hurricane racing up the east coast to the New York-New Jersey area, with its millions of people and billions of dollars of pricey real estate? "One of the highest storm surges possible anywhere in the country is where Long Island juts out at nearly right angles to the New Jersey coast. They could get 25 to 30 feet (7.6 to 9.1 meters) of storm surge ... even going up the Hudson River," Mayfield said.

"The subways are going to flood. Some people might think 'Hey, I'll go into the subways and I'll be safe.' No, they are going to flood."

Mayfield, a silver-haired, 34-year veteran of the hurricane center who became its public face in 2000, is a tireless campaigner for hurricane preparation, warning the 50 million people who live in U.S. coastal counties from Maine to Texas that they are all in the path of a future storm.

He is mystified by a study that found 60 percent of people in hurricane-prone U.S. coastal areas have no hurricane plan -- which to disaster managers means up to a week's worth of food and water squirreled away, a kit with flashlights and other gear and an established evacuation route to higher ground. "After Katrina and after the last two hurricane seasons you can't understand why more people are not taking hurricanes seriously," Mayfield said.

Katrina, he says, killed people who stayed in their homes with confidence because they had lived through 1969's Hurricane Camille. Camille was a much stronger storm than Katrina when it crashed ashore in Louisiana and Mississippi as one of only three Category 5s to hit the United States in recorded history. "There were a lot of people who lost their lives because they thought that they had already lived through the worst they could possibly live through," Mayfield said.

"Experience isn't always a good teacher."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060822/us_nm/...es_nightmare_dc

How many of *these* people have checked their insurance coverage for wind and flood damage ?

Guess what in New England if you buy or rent land near water the insurance company require you to have flood insurance. The only way I could buy my home is if they determined if I was in a flood zone or not.

Jolie Rouge

01-08-2007, 03:18 PM

How many of *these* people have checked their insurance coverage for wind and flood damage ?
Guess what in New England if you buy or rent land near water the insurance company require you to have flood insurance. The only way I could buy my home is if they determined if I was in a flood zone or not.

Insurance limbo delays Gulf rebuilding
By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - The owners of the sagging, flood-stained home aren't in. Above the front door, a banner explains their absence, and the lack of progress: "Allstate paid $10,113.34 on this house for storm damage."

Like the home next to it and the one after that, the house was disemboweled nine months ago by Hurricane Katrina. The force of the gushing water punched the refrigerator into the kitchen wall, and it still sits leaning through the house's broken ribcage. Inside, mud has hardened into a crusty carpet, covering a designer sofa and a leather swivel chair.

"I want people to drive by my home and decide for themselves: Could I repair this for $10,000?" asks Eric Moskau, the home's exiled owner who had over $1.2 million in coverage on his 3,000-square-foot home.

Behind the sign he hung from his porch is a story all-too-common in this once-posh neighborhood of pummeled homes: Even New Orleans' affluent homeowners, who thought they had done the right thing by properly insuring their investment, are finding that technicalities are keeping them from securing enough from their insurers to rebuild.

The insurance industry says it has settled over 90 percent of its Hurricane Katrina claims, proving it's meeting its obligations to policyholders. But consumer advocates say insurers settled numerous claims for only a fraction of the actual damages, using numerous exclusions to reduce payouts. Insurance modeling firm ISO estimates Louisiana had $24.3 billion in insured losses, but the state department of insurance says only $12.5 billion had been paid out as of the end of April, the last month for which figures were available.

Without enough money from their insurers to rebuild, homeowners are left with two choices: Give up and leave, or else rebuild by hand, using their savings to pay for labor and materials. "It's basically self-insurance," said Moskau, who had what he thought was plenty of coverage on his $600,000 two-story house and now counts himself among those who have abandoned their homes on once-stylish Bellaire Avenue.

Exactly 63 buckled, warped and mud-filled homes separate Moskau from the nearest neighbor who is now repairing his home. "With this," says 79-year-old Pascal Warner, holding up his large, lined hands, as the light streams in through the ribs of his still unfinished walls.

He and his 71-year-old wife, Irma, have dragged their sopping furniture to the curb, ripped the wet wallboard off the walls and stripped the house to the studs. With only a pittance from their homeowner's insurance, they had just enough money for supplies, not labor.

After last year's floodwaters receded, politicians initially blamed the residents of this below-sea-level city, claiming too few had purchased federal flood insurance on top of their homeowners policies, which cover only wind damage.

Yet an analysis by the office of Donald Powell, the Bush administration's Gulf Coast recovery czar, found few communities were better insured against flooding than New Orleans: Two out of three homes had flood insurance, 13 times more than the national average of 5 percent. It's also far more than in many other communities historically prone to flooding. For example, Harris County, Texas, has one of the highest rates of repetitive flooding in the nation and yet only a quarter of homeowners have flood coverage.

Moskau, a well-to-do real estate appraiser, thought he had taken every precaution: He had the maximum federal flood insurance of $250,000. But when the government issued that check, it was issued in two names: Moskau's and his bank's. His bank applied the check to his $600,000 mortgage, leaving him with an outstanding note of $350,000 and no money for repairs.

According to a spokesman at Freddie Mac, which over the last five years has bought over $7.5 billion in mortgages in Louisiana, banks are required to put insurance checks into an escrow account, disbursing the funds as repairs are completed. An exception is allowed if the home is in an area where rebuilding has been prohibited. In that case, the insurance check can be applied to the outstanding mortgage, said spokesman Brad German.

Flanking one of the city's buckled levees, portions of Bellaire Avenue are still in rebuilding limbo.

Warner, who has lived in the same ranch-style house for 40 years, had just $3,000 after his flood insurance settlement was used to pay off his remaining mortgage. He also received around $18,000 from his homeowners for wind damage, enough for construction materials but not labor.

Moskau's house, like most on Bellaire, swallowed less than 6 feet of water. It was enough to destroy the first floor, but not the second. The second floor, however, got wet, too. Water seeped in through the vents, pushed in by the hurricane's 140 mile-per-hour winds, he said. The roof was damaged and windows were punched out — damage, says Moskau, which should be covered under the wind-only policy. Allstate told him it was all due to flooding. "I agree that the first floor flooded. I used to be an insurance adjuster and I know the rules, so I didn't expect Allstate to pay me for that. But the second floor clearly didn't. So shouldn't I at least get 50 percent of my policy?" asked Moskau. He said that would be enough to pay off the mortgage and cover much of the rebuilding cost.

The CEOs of the State Farm Insurance Co. and Allstate Corp., the nation's No. 1 and No. 2 insurers, declined to discuss specific claims. Together, they control half the insurance market in Louisiana. "When you track our claim satisfaction, it is very high in those areas. Ninety-three to 94 percent of our Katrina claims have been settled," said Allstate CEO Edward M. Liddy.

That hasn't stopped critical reviews by insurance regulators and lawsuits by policyholders.

Louisiana's top insurance regulator recently ordered reviews of consumer complaints regarding Allstate and St. Paul Travelers Cos. In District Court in New Orleans, a class action lawsuit was filed last month against 15 insurers, claiming they capriciously denied claims.

In Mississippi, U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, whose Pascagoula home was torn off its foundation, is joining hundreds of his constituents in suing State Farm for unpaid wind damage. (continues ... )

Jolie Rouge

01-08-2007, 03:19 PM

Part of what really rankles consumers is the record profits property-and-casualty insurers are posting despite the unprecedented losses inflicted by Katrina. The industry cleared a $43 billion profit in 2005, an 11.7 percent increase over the previous year and a 15-year high, according to the trade group, the Insurance Information Institute.

"I would say it's definitely good times in the property-and-casualty insurance industry," said Donald Light, a senior analyst at Celent LLC, a research and consulting firm.

But insurers say the profit numbers are only half the story: Nearly half the $58 billion in insured losses along the Gulf Coast resulting from last year's hurricanes were absorbed by reinsurers, companies that insure insurance companies.

Those same reinsurers are now jacking the rates they charge insurance companies by an average 80 percent in coastal regions, according to an analysis by Guy Carpenter & Co., a division of insurance-brokerage firm Marsh & McLennan Cos.

For some companies, the price has tripled: Allstate will spend $600 million on reinsurance this year, compared to under $200 million in 2005. To offset that cost, Allstate announced plans to seek premium increases in a majority of the 49 states in which it operates. It also canceled 30,000 policies in coastal counties of New York, including Brooklyn, even though a major hurricane has not hit there since 1938.

In the past year in Florida, insurers have left the state by the dozen, while those that are staying are seeking steep rate increases. State Farm is seeking a 70 percent hike in premiums. "We're paying the price for hurricanes that hit thousands of miles away from New England," said George A. Cole III, Senior Vice President of Massachusetts-based Hingham Mutual. Cole explained that the company had no choice but to cancel 6,500 of their customers, most on Cape Cod, after being hit with a 50 percent rate increase from their own reinsurer.

Back in New Orleans, homeowners fight over money and the fret over deep financial losses is taking an emotional toll.

Moskau, who is living in Idaho with his wife and two boys, literally hasn't been able to sit still since Allstate cut him the check for $10,113.34 several months ago. He still does not know what to do with his buckled home, for which he is still paying a $3,500-a-month mortgage, and is instead making plans to build a new house an hour's drive outside New Orleans.

"My wife is always telling me, 'Will you please stop moving your foot?' We'll be sitting at the lunch table and the whole thing is moving," he said. "All from the anxiety."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060612/ap_on_...WtkBHNlYwM3MTg- (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060612/ap_on_bi_ge/katrina_insurance;_ylt=AmUbp0yly_B1tbvdMstyA7wXIr0 F;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-)

]Understand how this works ? The insurance company sends their own employee to deceide how much or even *if* the insurance company will pay on the damages. If you don't like the result you can appeal to another employee of the same insurance company for a revue of the claim. Hmmmmmm.....

As I understand it ( I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong ) you can't purchase flood insurnace if you fall outside certain federally mandated "flood plains". The idea was to keep unscupulous salesmen from scamming people into buying flood insurance is places where it NEVER FLOODS ( say - Utah ). These were not normal flood waters - in most cases it was STORM SURGE. Remember the tsunami last year - ours was two feet shorter. How can you call it a flood when it placed an 18 wheeler or sea going tug boat ON TOP of your house - if it doesn't just wash the whole darn house out into the Gulf ?

Jolie Rouge

01-08-2007, 03:19 PM

Sisters blew whistle on Katrina claims
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Aug 26, 8:36 PM ET

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. - Who are the moles? The question was like a parlor game for employees of State Farm Insurance Co. after Hurricane Katrina, one they nervously played during coffee breaks or in the parking lot after work.

Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, a prominent lawyer of tobacco litigation fame, created a stir by announcing in March that two "insiders" were helping him build cases against insurers for denying claims for Hurricane Katrina losses. Their identities remained a mystery until the day in early June when Cori and Kerri Rigsby — employees of a company that contracted with State Farm — told a supervisor they were cooperating with Scruggs.

That startling admission — and their subsequent resignations — ended a risky charade. The Rigsbys say they spent months collecting reams of internal State Farm reports, memos, e-mails and claims records before they gave them to Scruggs and state and federal authorities.

The sisters, who managed teams of State Farm adjusters, say the documents show that the insurer defrauded policyholders by manipulating engineers' reports so that claims could be denied.

"I think we've given him the smoking gun," Cori Rigsby, 38, told The Associated Press during a recent interview at the home she shares with her sister near Ocean Springs.

State Farm spokesman Phil Supple said the Bloomington, Ill.-based company is reviewing the sisters' allegations but hasn't been allowed to question them. "State Farm's employees are committed to conducting themselves in an ethical and appropriate manner," Supple said. "Any suggestions to the contrary are simply wrong."

Hundreds of homeowners on Mississippi's Gulf Coast have sued their insurance companies for refusing to pay for millions of dollars of damage from Katrina. A judge who presided over the first Katrina insurance trial ruled this month that Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. must pay for damage caused by wind but not from flooding, including storm surges.

The first of Scruggs' cases against State Farm is scheduled to be tried early next year, and he said the Rigsbys' cooperation has been invaluable in building his case.

Scruggs is no stranger to whistleblowers: Jeffrey Wigand, a former Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. executive, helped Scruggs and other lawyers secure a multibillion-dollar settlement with tobacco companies in late 1990s. The case was portrayed in the 1999 movie "The Insider," starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe.

The Rigsby sisters were both eight-year employees of E.A. Renfroe, a firm that helps State Farm and other insurers adjust disaster claims. Although they weren't State Farm employees, the company issued them computers and business cards that identified them as State Farm representatives. They also had confidentiality agreements with State Farm. "We have always been proud to work with State Farm," Cori Rigsby said.

The sisters say that pride faded, however, as they began to suspect the company was pressuring engineers to alter their conclusions about storm damage so claims could be denied.

Kerri Rigsby says her suspicions grew in November after finding a handwritten note attached to an engineer's report that read: "Put in Wind file — DO NOT pay bill. DO NOT discuss."

She said the engineer's report, dated Oct. 12, concluded that Katrina's wind caused most of the damage to a Biloxi policyholder's home. That should have been good news for the policyholder, she noted, since State Farm's policies cover damage from wind but not water.

But when Kerri Rigsby pulled the policyholder's file, she said she found a subsequent report based on a second inspection of the home Oct. 18. This time, the same engineering firm concluded that water caused most of the damage, according to the report, which the AP reviewed. "The policyholder did not get a copy of the one that said wind," said Kerri, 35. "He should have gotten lots more money."

It wasn't the only case in which State Farm's engineers drafted conflicting reports on storm damage, according to the Rigsbys. They say managers were surprised and disappointed that many initial engineering reports blamed damage on wind. "That's when they went into a frenzy and started mass-canceling all these engineering reports," Cori said.

Kerri says "the bible" for State Farm adjusters was a "cookie-cutter" report, prepared by Haag Engineering Co. of Dallas, which concluded that rising water, or wind-driven storm surge, was responsible for most of Katrina's damage in Mississippi. "If it didn't match the Haag report, then it wasn't accurate," Kerri said.

Supple, the spokesman for the insurance company, said State Farm ordered engineering reports for less than 2 percent of the more than 100,000 claims it received in Mississippi after Katrina. State Farm also says it made payments on more than 60 percent of the claims involving engineers. Supple rejected the allegation the company pressured engineers to change their conclusions. "State Farm's claims-handling practices have been in a public fishbowl," he said. "With the world watching, we've done what we do every day, and that's be fully up front in all aspects of our claims work."

The Rigsbys say they didn't know what to do with the information they had gathered until their mother, Pat Lobrano, arranged a meeting with longtime friend Scruggs in February.

The sisters say they ultimately printed out and copied roughly 15,000 pages of claims records. In addition to providing the material to Scruggs, they say they gave copies to Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton's offices on June 5, the same day they told a supervisor they were cooperating with Scruggs.

Hood, whose office is investigating whether State Farm fraudulently denied claims, declined to comment on the Rigsbys' allegations. A spokeswoman for Lampton also would not discuss the matter.

In March, a state judge ordered State Farm to turn over copies of its Katrina engineering reports to Hood.

After the sisters resigned, Scruggs hired them to help his legal team with lawsuits filed on behalf of hundreds of policyholders. The Rigsbys wouldn't say how much Scruggs is paying them, but they say it's less than what they earned from their insurance jobs. "Our whole lives are upside down," Kerri said.

Why would they do it? They say they wanted to help their neighbors get their claims reopened and paid. "We don't know what the future is going to hold," Cori added, "but we sleep a little better."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060827/ap_on_...DNqBHNlYwM3NDk- (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060827/ap_on_re_us/katrina_whistleblowing_sisters;_ylt=ApiIdIEjgMll48 LPqmP6kh2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3bGI2aDNqBHNlYwM3NDk-)

evrita

01-08-2007, 03:57 PM

My house is covered for the Covered price of my house and they will also house me for however long it takes to rebuild a new one.

Jolie Rouge

01-08-2007, 08:05 PM

I hope you never have to find out.

I know quite a few people in Louisiana,Mississippi and Texas would have said the same thing about August 2005....

evrita

01-09-2007, 06:37 AM

tngirl

01-09-2007, 07:03 AM

PrincessArky

01-09-2007, 07:07 AM

When we bought this house we were joking about the insurance. We have earthquake insurance but, do not have flood insurance because we are not in a flood plain and cannot get it even though we only live a couple of miles from the river.

I told my sister that if an earthquake happens here that the most likely thing to happen is that the Mississippi will back up and flood us out. If that happens then we won't get anything because they will turn around and say the house was destroyed by the flood and not the earthquake.

Yeah I hear ya seems like when water is involved the insurance companies want to split hairs and blame in on "flood" I felt badly watching the stories about ppl in path of Katrina their houses were flooded BECAUSE the wind blew off their roofs but yet the insurance companies blame it on flood only :(

Jolie Rouge

01-09-2007, 02:27 PM

You must take me for an idiot really? We have blizzards hurricanes floods and tornadoes I have lived thru a flood I was 10 our beloved home was flooded and so was all of our property. Do you hear me crying about it NO we lived thru it.

Do you think because I live where I do that we get nothing ??? My mother lives in a flood zone if anything happens to her home she cant rebuild her land is useless to her, if it floods out agan she cant make repairs thats it she takes her flood money and finds a new place to live she pays taxes on her land that is usless to rebuild on.

They did reappraisals they appraised her home for 149.900 because of her land she said make a nice garden wouldnt it they are grandfathered to live there I am all to firmilar with flooding we do get it here it wiped out whole towns people still dont have roads houses and lives have been lost.

Do you reallly think you are the only ones??? I really think you do so we have a blizzrd stay warm with a blanket oh that works well with no power and wells froze up and no water to drink and people freezing to death.

I dont think you understand I have seen flooding so bad it wipes out homes farms bridges my own husband went out risking his life to save people durning these floods. You pray I never have to find out well huney I have I lived thru 2 of them and my mother has lived thru more then she can count but they are big enough to make the nightly news.

Well, first off, I don't even know where you live so I would not have made any assumptions on what weather conditions you have to deal with.

Second, you are the one copping a major attitude with anything and everything I say on this topic. It is a proven FACT that four out ten of the worse natural disasters to it to hit the continental US in the last dozen years were here in the Gulf Coast. ( Katrina, Rita, Andrew and Allison ) It didn't just effect me as you seem to think ( or you seem to think I think ) but several million other people. I never said that no one else was effected by disasters. I never said the media coverage was fair. I have not even come on here and belly ached about my personal trials and tribulations. So why are you taking all this out on me ??

All I meant was I hope you never get screwed by your insurance company like me, mine and several hundred thousand people are;some people who were not even in the area. Somehow you even manage to take offense at that.

I am not going to play "Top That Trauma" with you.

tngirl

01-09-2007, 04:24 PM

I am not going to play "Top That Trauma" with you.
Come on Jolie!! Let's play!!:D

evrita

01-09-2007, 08:06 PM

Come on Jolie!! Let's play!!:D

You know I expected it from her but not from you.. Hvae fun C\P Queen and Princess cause life is too short for you guys. :rolleyes:

tngirl

01-09-2007, 08:12 PM

You know I expected it from her but not from you.. Hvae fun C\P Queen and Princess cause life is too short for you guys. :rolleyes:

Now I am really hurt:( ..not! If you wan't to take issue with me making a joke...so be it. Not my fault you are having a bad day.

I actually can't believe your attitude evrita. You came into this thread out of the blue and start a scrap with Jolie. She has been updating this thread for over a year now and you are just now going to take issue with it? The problem with the insurance companies screwing the policy holders is an old problem. After Hurricane Andrew people ran into the same problems.

Jolie Rouge

01-11-2007, 02:08 PM

State Farm held liable in Katrina case
By GARRY MITCHELL, Associated Press Writer
43 minutes ago

GULFPORT, Miss. - A federal judge ruled against an insurance company Thursday in a Hurricane Katrina damage case that could give a boost to hundreds of other homeowner lawsuits against insurers for refusing to cover billions of dollars in storm damage.

U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter Jr. ruled that State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. is liable for $223,292 in damage caused by Hurricane Katrina to a Biloxi couple's home, but left it to a jury to decide whether to award millions of dollars more in punitive damages.

The verdict appeared to surprise everyone in the courtroom. After his directed verdict on the property claim, Senter order a recess, saying it would give attorneys time to get over the shock.

The jury began deliberating the punitive damages Thursday afternoon.

Some of Senter's earlier rulings in other Katrina cases have favored the insurance industry, but his decision Thursday calls into question the companies' refusal to cover billions of dollars in damage from Katrina's storm surge.

Norman and Genevieve Broussard sued State Farm for refusing to pay for any damage to their home, which Katrina reduced to a slab. The couple, who want State Farm to pay for the full insured value of their home plus $5 million in punitive damages, claim that a tornado during the hurricane destroyed their home. State Farm blamed all the damage on Katrina's storm surge.

State Farm and other insurers say their homeowner policies cover damage from wind but not from water, and that the policies exclude damage that could have been caused by a combination of both, even if hurricane-force winds preceded a storm's rising water.

In his closing argument Thursday, one of the Broussards' attorneys, William Walker, said State Farm had breached their contract "in a bad way" by denying their claim. State Farm "acted like a chiseler," he said, adding, "The pocketbook is what they listen to."

State Farm attorney John Banahan urged jurors to "use your head and your heart" in deciding on punitive damages and to reject an attempt by the Broussards' attorney to demonize the company as an "evil empire."

Earlier, Senter ruled that State Farm couldn't prove that Katrina's storm surge was responsible for all of the damage to the Broussards' home. "We are surprised and disappointed by the court's ruling," said State Farm spokesman Phil Supple. "The expert testimony supported a different result. After the conclusion of this case, we will evaluate our next steps in this lawsuit."

Robert Hartwig, chief economist for the Insurance Information Institute in New York, said a punitive damage award would be "distressing" for insurers. "It adds even more cost and more uncertainty to the other problems that already exist in the Mississippi homeowners insurance market," he said.

The Broussards' case isn't directly involved in recent settlement talks between State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and policyholders' lawyers.

People with direct knowledge of the settlement talks told The Associated Press this week that State Farm, Mississippi's largest home insurer, is considering paying hundreds of millions of dollars to settle more than 600 lawsuits and resolve thousands of other disputed claims.

Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, an attorney who represents 639 State Farm policyholders in the settlement talks, said he doesn't know how the judge's ruling on Thursday will affect the negotiations.

Randy Maniloff, a Philadelphia-based lawyer who represents insurers and has closely followed the Katrina litigation, said Senter's ruling is a "huge verdict" for homeowners even if the jury doesn't award punitive damages. "That settlement is looking awfully good for State Farm now," he added.

___

Associated Press writer Michael Kunzelman contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070111/ap_on_bi_ge/katrina_insurance

Jolie Rouge

01-11-2007, 02:22 PM

Zagat releases first post-Katrina survey
By STACEY PLAISANCE, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jan 10, 5:09 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - There are fewer restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions, but there's still much to love about New Orleans, a leading surveyor of leisure and entertainment providers nationwide says.

Tim Zagat, chief executive of the nationally recognized Zagat Survey, LLC, on Wednesday released the results of his first survey of the city since Hurricane Katrina.

This year's guide, based on responses from 3,637 New Orleans area residents, includes reviews of 390 restaurants, 94 night clubs and bars, 29 other tourist attractions and 18 leading hotels.

The businesses that have reopened since Katrina primarily are located in the city's French Quarter, downtown and the historic Garden District, Zagat said. "I was very pleased to see how almost all the major places are back," he said Tuesday just after arriving in New Orleans from his home in New York.

Zagat planned to join restaurant, hospitality and tourism officials at Commander's Palace on Wednesday to formally announce the 2007 Best of New Orleans survey results.

Commander's, which has topped Zagat's "Most Popular" restaurant list for the past 17 years, did not reopen in time for this year's survey.

Restaurant August was ranked No. 1 for food and service, while Galatoire's was voted most popular in the 2007 list. Pat O'Brien's was named most popular nightspot, the Aquarium of the Americas was the most popular attraction and The Windsor Court was the top hotel.

Zagat said that while there are many restaurants to mourn — Bella Luna, Cobalt, Louis XVI and Sid-Mar, to name a few — he's pleased that so many places voted the best in previous surveys are back in business and still doing well. "That's more important than anything else we can say," he said.

Zagat said that because tourism is so important to New Orleans' economy, the best way the nation can contribute to the city's recovery is to visit. "Coming here is vital for two reasons: It's good for the city and it educates America," he said.

More than 80 percent of those surveyed are eating out as much or more than they were before Katrina, the survey results show. Only 17 percent are eating out less. And, the survey said, almost 80 percent of the respondents said their favorite New Orleans restaurant has reopened since Katrina. "The side of the city that people know and love is almost entirely back. But there's another side of the city, which is the traditional housing pool, which is still devastated. People need to come see that too," Zagat said.

Zagat said he's traveled to New Orleans several times since Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005, and cannot believe the amount of devastation and slow pace of recovery. "When it comes to the big areas where people lived and the problem of housing people, it's amazing how little it seems has happened," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20070110/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_zagat_new_orleans

Jolie Rouge

01-11-2007, 02:57 PM

Jury rules State Farm owes damages
By GARRY MITCHELL, Associated Press Writer
7 minutes ago

GULFPORT, Miss. - A jury on Thursday awarded $2.5 million in punitive damages to a couple who sued State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. for denying their claim after Hurricane Katrina, a decision that could benefit hundreds of other homeowners challenging insurers for refusing to cover billions of dollars in storm damage.

A federal judge only hours earlier had taken part of the case out of jurors' hands before they awarded punitive damages to State Farm policyholders Norman and Genevieve Broussard.

U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter Jr. ruled Thursday morning that State Farm is liable for $223,292 in damage caused by Hurricane Katrina to the Broussards' home. Senter left it to a jury to decide whether to award punitive damages.

Senter's decision to make a directed verdict rather than let the jury decide the entire case appeared to surprise everyone in the courtroom. After he explained his ruling, Senter ordered a recess to give attorneys time "to get over the shock."

After the jury announced its award, the Broussards left the courthouse arm in arm. "It's a great day for South Mississippi," Norman Broussard said.

Some of Senter's earlier rulings in other Katrina cases have favored the insurance industry, but his decision Thursday calls into question the companies' refusal to cover billions of dollars in damage from Katrina's storm surge.

The Broussards sued State Farm for refusing to pay for any damage to their home, which Katrina reduced to a slab. The couple, who wanted State Farm to pay for the full insured value of their home plus $5 million in punitive damages, claimed that a tornado during the hurricane destroyed their home. State Farm blamed all the damage on Katrina's storm surge.

State Farm and other insurers say their homeowner policies cover damage from wind but not from water, and that the policies exclude damage that could have been caused by a combination of both, even if hurricane-force winds preceded a storm's rising water.

Senter, however, ruled that State Farm couldn't prove that Katrina's storm surge was responsible for all of the damage to the Broussards' home. The judge also said the testimony failed to establish how much damage was caused by wind and how much resulted from storm surge.

State Farm spokesman Phil Supple said after the jury's verdict that the company is likely to appeal the decision. "We are surprised and disappointed by both the judge's ruling on the coverage issues and the amount awarded by the jury for punitive damages," he said in a written statement. "We believe the expert testimony supported a different result."

Jack Denton, one of the couple's attorneys, said they are "very pleased" with the jury's verdict but declined further comment. "Obviously we have other trials coming up and don't want to jeopardize those cases," he added.

In his closing argument Thursday, one of the Broussards' attorneys, William Walker, said State Farm had breached their contract "in a bad way" by denying their claim. State Farm "acted like a chiseler," he said, adding, "The pocketbook is what they listen to."

State Farm attorney John Banahan urged jurors to "use your head and your heart" in deciding on punitive damages and to reject an attempt by the Broussards' attorney to demonize the company as an "evil empire."

Robert Hartwig, chief economist for the Insurance Information Institute in New York, said before the jury announced its decision that a punitive damage award would be "distressing" for insurers.

"It adds even more cost and more uncertainty to the other problems that already exist in the Mississippi homeowners insurance market," he said.

The Broussards' case isn't directly involved in recent settlement talks between State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and policyholders' lawyers.

People with direct knowledge of the settlement talks told The Associated Press this week that State Farm, Mississippi's largest home insurer, is considering paying hundreds of millions of dollars to settle more than 600 lawsuits and resolve thousands of other disputed claims.

Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, an attorney who represents 639 State Farm policyholders in the settlement talks, said he doesn't know how the judge's ruling on Thursday will affect the negotiations.

Randy Maniloff, a Philadelphia-based lawyer who represents insurers and has closely followed the Katrina litigation, said Senter's ruling is a "huge verdict" for homeowners even if the jury didn't award punitive damages.

"That settlement is looking awfully good for State Farm now," he added.

___

Associated Press writer Michael Kunzelman contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070111/ap_on_bi_ge/katrina_insurance

Jolie Rouge

01-24-2007, 05:38 PM

New Orleans struggles to find teachers
By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 41 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Wanted: Idealistic teachers looking for a Peace Corps-style adventure in a city in distress.

Some of New Orleans' most desperate, run-down schools are beset with a severe shortage of teachers, and they are struggling mightily to attract candidates by appealing to their sense of adventure and desire to make a difference. Education officials are even offering to help new teachers find housing. "There's been an incredible outpouring of sympathy toward New Orleans. We feel we're trying to say, `Here's a clear path to go down if you want to act on that emotion,'" said Matthew Candler, chief executive of the nonprofit New Schools for New Orleans, which is trying to recruit teachers.

The school system in New Orleans was in desperate condition even before Hurricane Katrina struck 17 months ago, with crumbling buildings, low test scores and high dropout rates.

After the storm, some of the worst of the worst public schools were put under state control, and those are the ones finding it particularly hard to attract teachers. The 19 schools in the state-run Recovery School District have 8,580 students and about 540 teachers, or about 50 fewer than they need — a shortage so severe that about 300 students who want to enroll have been put on a waiting list.

"Recruiting is a challenge," said Kevin George, principal of Rabouin High School in downtown New Orleans. "The housing market is terrible. The area has a poor image due to the violence. ... And then there's just coming into a place that historically had just a terrible track record of education."

In hopes of finding at least 150 new teachers for the state-run district in the 2007-08 school year, when more schools are expected to open, education officials are trying to recruit candidates at job fairs, on the Web or through newspaper ads that show the raised hands of students and read plaintively: "We need you ... so do they."

The Recovery School District is also working with a real estate agent to help candidates find affordable housing. In addition, it plans to collaborate with Teach for America, which pairs college graduates with a school-in-need for two years.

Norman Smith III, recruited to Rabouin High, said he wanted to make a difference in the lives of kids wary of authority and uncertain of their potential. It has been tough at times, he said. "I wasn't used to proving myself to kids. But before you teach kids, they have to trust you," said Smith, an English teacher who writes lessons in dusty chalk in his stuffy, second-floor classroom while wearing a pinstriped suit and cufflinks.

"I think the kids are starting to realize, `I can learn,'" he said. "They're looking at the reality, which is, they have something to believe in: themselves."

The state-run district is faced not only with a shortage of teachers, but with a shortage of well-qualified teachers. The district requires prospective teachers to pass a basic skills exam. But over the past two months, half the test-takers have failed. About one-third of the district's teachers are not certified.

Salaries for elementary and high school teachers in the Recovery School District begin at $36,900 a year.

In a reorganization that followed Katrina, the New Orleans school board got to keep a few of the city's best-performing public schools, while those that did relatively poorly academically went to the state or to private groups that turned them into charter schools.

In all, 55 public schools are now open in the city, with about 27,400 students, or less than half the pre-Katrina enrollment. But a group that monitors the charter schools said it was unaware of any widespread teaching vacancies among the charters. And the superintendent of the Orleans Parish schools recently reported only one teaching vacancy.

Many of the schools inherited by the state were run down even before Katrina, plagued by leaky roofs, lead paint or poor heating systems. Many of the students are indifferent to learning or are far behind, with some freshmen unable to read and some teenagers disappearing for days. Some have been arrested for fighting with each other or beating up security guards. Some schools lack classroom supplies. "This is inexcusable," said Brenda Mitchell, president of the United Teachers of New Orleans. "The persons being hurt the most are the children of the city of New Orleans. I am appalled."

At Rabouin High, which has about 600 students, the halls echo with the shouts of teenagers who should be in class. Doors lack knobs or, in the case of a girls' bathroom, don't close completely. Students have to pass through a metal detector to get inside, and guards patrol the halls.

About half of Rabouin's 34 teachers are first-year educators or new to Louisiana. Some, like David Sneed, 46, commute an hour or more to work each day. The principal said he praises his teachers constantly for fear some will leave.

Sneed, a first-year teacher and former restaurant manager, said he is committed to Rabouin for at least four years. "The future of our state lies in the education of our students," he said. "I don't want to leave. You'd have to pry me out."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070124/ap_on_re_us/katrina_finding_teachers
___

On the Net:

http://www.teachnola.org

http://www.nolapublicschools.net

You know your'e in Post-Katrina New Orleans when ....

McDonald's and every other fast food place closes at 3, while people are still in line from breakfast.

There is no such thing as a "quick" grocery trip anymore;no more express lines, and 2 registers for 50 customers. But somehow, you don't mind the crabby teenagers scanning your groceries anymore.

There are 2 gas stations open on Vets from Cleary all the way down to the parish line. It doesn't matter who has the cheapest gas anymore, it's who's got the shortest line.

Lakeside is the only mall open for 30 miles...

You swap horror stories with complete strangers while in line for groceries, gas, dinner, etc...

When you tell people you are from Chalmette, they just go "ooooh" like someone just died.

It's not "How's ya mama and dem?" anymore, it's "How ya'll made out?"

Chalmette has more kids in school than new orleans.

Nobody speaks English anymore.

You are starting to learn some Spanish words so you know what people are talking about around you.

You actually know the words to a few spanish songs 'cause that's all you hear!

Your mayor is proud to be the owner of the only chocolate factory in the country that brings in more debt than income.

Trailers aren't just for the poor folks anymore, and some have gone to great lengths to hire decorators to make them feel like home.

The water line in your house is like your badge of honor now.

Everyone in the nation knows where and what the 9th Ward is, but still has no idea where Chalmette and Slidell are. But they all know who Junior Rodriguez is.

FEMA is a four letter word now. Who would have thought a government agency would be more messed up than the New Orleans School Board?

Jolie Rouge

01-24-2007, 06:02 PM

La. gov.: Bush forgetting Katrina & Rita
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jan 24, 3:16 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - Gov. Kathleen Blanco angrily criticized President Bush on Wednesday for not mentioning 2005's destructive hurricanes in his State of the Union speech, and said Louisiana is being shortchanged in federal recovery funding for political reasons. "I guess the pains of the hurricane are yesterday's news in Washington," Blanco said. "But for us it's still very real, very real, and it's something that we live every single day," the governor said. "But we will continue to fight, and we will continue to come on, and we will effect a recovery."

Mayor Ray Nagin echoed Blanco's disappointment at Bush's omission of New Orleans' recovery from Hurricane Katrina, but he cautioned against reopening political rifts that developed after the storm. "We're 18 months into this thing. I'm tired of complaining and bellyaching," the mayor said. "We're going to take whatever nickels we have, whatever pennies we have, whatever dollars we have, and we're going to stretch it, and we're going to make this recovery work."

The White House had no immediate comment on Blanco's remarks.

Blanco accused the White House of repeatedly delivering less money than Louisiana has needed to repair the damage to housing, schools and hospitals. She said Mississippi has received much more help. "I just want an end to the disparities, once and for all," the governor said.

She said Louisiana's unfair treatment set the state's recovery back by six months.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070124/ap_on_re_us/hurricanes_bush

Jolie Rouge

01-25-2007, 02:37 PM

Crazy-quilt insurance system delays Katrina recovery
Thu Jan 25, 8:22 AM ET

Seventeen months after Katrina surged through coastal Mississippi, miles of waterfront are barren, and thousands of residents have been victimized twice. First by the hurricane. And then by a war over insurance.

The point of contention? Whether homes were destroyed by Katrina's brutal winds or its surging waters. As absurd as it may sound, private homeowners' policies typically cover wind damage, but not flood damage, even if the water was driven by hurricane-force winds.

Tuesday, some of the litigants called a truce. State Farm, the USA's largest home insurer, agreed to settle hundreds of homeowner lawsuits and reopen 35,000 previous insurance settlements, fronting $130 million to pay off claims.

That will help some people make decisions about whether, where and how to rebuild. But it doesn't apply to other insurers or other states - even neighboring Louisiana, where uncertainty over insurance claims has bogged down the rebuilding of storm-ravaged New Orleans. And it doesn't resolve the exasperating wind-or-water argument.

The flood exclusion has been standard in insurance policies since the late 1960s, when the federal flood insurance program was created. Homeowners in coastal areas are encouraged to carry that insurance, and the flood exclusion in their homeowners' policies usually is plainly spelled out.

But when houses are torn from their foundations, as in Katrina, the precise cause can be difficult to pinpoint, inviting dispute, delaying recovery and leaving people stranded in uncertainty - not to mention living in FEMA trailers. When there's reasonable doubt, insurers should bear the burden of proof and resolve claims in the homeowners' favor. On Jan. 11, a federal judge and jury in Mississippi drove home that point. The judge ordered State Farm to pay more than $230,000, the full policy limit, for a home lost to Katrina. Then, the jury slapped State Farm with $2.5 million in punitive damages.

State Farm's decision Tuesday to settle other claims makes sense from a humanitarian and public relations standpoint. But that may not be the end of the story. State Farm's hand was forced through a lawsuit filed by Mississippi's attorney general. The cost may prompt insurers to flee the state or raise premiums to unaffordable levels. Along the Mississippi coast, rising premiums have already made some housing unaffordable and businesses unprofitable.

A more rational insurance system is needed for floods and hurricanes. The current system is split ineffectively between federal and private insurance. The national flood insurance program encourages people to build homes in dangerous, flood-prone areas and let taxpayers bail them out. Private insurance policies, with their wind vs. water distinction, lull homeowners into a false sense of security and embroil them in long disputes.

Judy Dutruch, who lost her Diamondhead, Miss., home in Katrina and has been battling State Farm, asked the right question in an e-mail to the state insurance commissioner: "Would someone please tell me what in the world 'Hurricane Coverage' covers?"

Congress and state legislatures should answer with serious proposals before the next hurricane season rolls around.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070125/cm_usatoday/crazyquiltinsurancesystemdelayskatrinarecovery;_yl t=Al2PbsdSqfez7uFy.pwJaK38B2YD;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWFzYn A2BHNlYwM3NDI-

Jolie Rouge

01-28-2007, 04:34 PM

Is the Gulf Coast not part of our union?
Fri Jan 26, 8:21 AM ET

President Bush's State of the Union address Tuesday included few surprises. He opened up with domestic policy and was predictably myopic about our quagmire in Iraq, seemingly immune to the pressure coming from both parties to get out of the ill-advised war. The president gets points for talking about immigration policy and for putting new ideas for health care reform on the table. But how dare he talk of the State of the Union without mentioning the Gulf Coast, and especially New Orleans. Has our president decided that one of our nation's greatest devastations does not merit a mention?

To be sure, the federal government has set aside billions of dollars for the region's recovery. But 15 months after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and the levees broke in New Orleans, tens of thousands of people still are displaced.

Some people are desperately trying to get home, but Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco's "Road Home" program has been paved with good intentions and poor delivery - just a fraction of the thousands who have applied for relief have received it. Habitable housing is being torn down to make way for "mixed-use" housing, and no provisions have been made for the poor who used to live in those projects. Children are being turned away from schools because there are too few to accommodate them. Citizens want to "stop the violence," but the social infrastructure to deter crime is essentially non-existent.

Granted, all of the challenges in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast can't be solved by federal government action alone. But a more sensitive president might at least acknowledge the slow pace of recovery and pledge to do whatever he can to help its citizens. A more sensitive president might acknowledge the pain that people still feel, but then again, this is a president whose mother observed that the Houston Astrodome, where people fled, was "working very well for them."

After the levees broke, wealthy New Orleaneans openly said that the city's footprint needed to shrink and that it should look different demographically, geographically and politically. At least one member of Congress said Katrina had done what public policy could not do. And Loyola Law School professor Bill Quigley, who is litigating on behalf of New Orleans' poor, has said recovery policies have been so biased that "you might as well put up a sign that says, 'Poor people, do not enter.' "

How could President Bush say that the state of our union is "good" when New Orleans has not yet recovered? If we can attempt to rebuild Baghdad but not New Orleans, what does that say about this country? And if Bush can spend so much of his address talking about Iraq, while Katrina recovery doesn't merit a mention, what does this say about his priorities?

Julianne Malveaux is an economist and author.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070126/cm_usatoday/isthegulfcoastnotpartofourunion;_ylt=Ap0vovnpmbAkI Kv2LOMrLEis0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWFzYnA2BHNlYwM3NDI-

April

01-28-2007, 05:50 PM

Good Grief......enough with the C/P's.

Jolie Rouge

01-28-2007, 08:49 PM

Hundreds wait for free care in La
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press Writer
16 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Hundreds of people still without health insurance in areas hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina lined up before dawn Sunday for the start of a weeklong event offering free medical care.

Bundled up against the chilly wind, people began arriving at 2 a.m. outside the tents and doublewide trailers offering free care in eastern New Orleans. By the time the first 50 had been called into the registration tent, they numbered in the hundreds.

Penny Anderson, her daughter, and three small grandchildren came to see a dentist. "My daughter went online to try to get health insurance for me and my husband," she said. "It was $799 a month! That's a house note!"

The health fair is open to anyone from the greater New Orleans area, but is specifically aimed at those who no longer have insurance, are unemployed or who otherwise cannot pay for regular health care. By the end of the week, 10,000 patients are expected to be seen.

The project is a collaboration by Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing International and Remote Area Medical, which organizes volunteer medical treatment in remote parts of the United States and the world.

While most people wouldn't consider New Orleans remote, the city is, "since Hurricane Katrina, extremely remote from a medical and health care infrastructure," said Karen Wilson, executive director of the Remote Area Medical Foundation.

More than 400 health care workers have volunteered for the health fair, including doctors, dentists and specialists. Services include free prescriptions; dental fillings and teeth cleanings; eye exams and glasses; and specialized care, including pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, diabetic care and cardiology.

Claudette Stone, 52, of Chalmette, was first in line for most of the morning. She had tried several times to see doctors brought by the same groups about a year ago for her diabetes, high blood pressure and other problems. But she arrived after 8 a.m., and couldn't get in.

Though daily clinics are available, she's had trouble getting into those, too, even though she arrived at 4 a.m.

"Some days, they'll see 15 people, some days 10. There would already be that many people lined up," she said.

Farther back in line, Zachary Jackson, 54, and Ray Stringer, 60, said they had come to New Orleans for demolition and rebuilding jobs. Neither had insurance through his employer.

"You can't put a price on this," Jackson said.

"There's no way," Stringer agreed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070129/ap_on_re_us/new_orleans_free_care;_ylt=Av8Vpy4lmP45KwqsVP6dvM2 s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3czJjNGZoBHNlYwM3NTE-

Jolie Rouge

01-29-2007, 09:53 PM

Louisiana residents pull back from coast
By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer
19 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - More than 16 months after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita forced an unprecedented exodus from the Louisiana Gulf Coast, tens of thousands of homeowners have decided not to rebuild or have yet to make up their minds, an Associated Press analysis found.

The AP looked at applications to the federally funded Louisiana Road Home program, which dispenses up to $150,000 per homeowner to rebuild or sell out to the state. Nearly 98,000 people have applied so far. Two-thirds of all applicants said they want to rebuild their damaged properties, while more than a quarter have indicated they want out or can't decide what to do.

But in dozens of towns and neighborhoods, particularly those closest to the coast, the percentages of homeowners on the fence or on the way out are higher than average, with as many as two out of three homeowners not committed to rebuilding. The areas, 31 ZIP codes in all, include several heavily damaged New Orleans neighborhoods such as Lakeview and the Ninth Ward.

Michael Kurth, a McNeese State University economics professor who has done research for the Louisiana Recovery Authority, said he is not surprised. "With the scale of destruction that occurred in those coastal areas, it wasn't a matter of `Let's return in a month or in two months,'" Kurth said. "In a lot of cases, you couldn't go back to what was there before. It's just not there."

Homeowners who remain undecided could still rebuild their destroyed homes. But by now, many are resettled in new homes, schools and jobs. Louisiana demographer Elliott Stonecipher said it is safe to assume that those who were going to commit themselves to rebuilding would have done so by now.

As many as 123,000 homeowners may be eligible for Louisiana Road Home aid. Applicants must indicate whether they want to rebuild; sell and move in-state; sell and leave the state; or are undecided. Thousands of homeowners can still apply for assistance, and those who have already applied can change their minds on whether to rebuild or leave. "The folks in south Louisiana whose houses were flooded by Katrina and Rita are necessarily going to be a little gun-shy," LRA executive director Andy Kopplin said. "There are some areas that are more vulnerable than others."

In Arabi, Chalmette and Meraux — all in hard-hit St. Bernard Parish, downriver from New Orleans — roughly two-thirds of applicants want to move out or are still uncertain about whether to rebuild. "My old neighbors won't be back. She went to Covington. This one went to Tennessee," said Gerald Perry, a 59-year-old Chalmette man, pointing to the abandoned properties on either side of his newly fixed home. "They let a little water scare them."

In some cases, there is nothing to go back to.

Karen Ritter, 45, said the home she shares with her 80-year-old mother in Arabi is on the verge of collapse. Other homeowners are old and have "lived here all their lives. They had everything they lived for in their houses. If they don't have children to help them, there's nothing for them to do" but give up and move out, Ritter said.

St. Bernard Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez called the pullback from coastal areas a "knee-jerk reaction." He predicted residents eventually will be lured back: "People are infatuated with water. They love to be near water."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070130/ap_on_re_us/katrina_coastal_pullback;_ylt=AnuEfmz8CI19yh8n_WFq SeKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-

Jolie Rouge

01-30-2007, 02:47 PM

Congressional Hearing Begins in N.O. on Government Response to 2005 Hurricanes
Jan 29, 2007 05:05 PM CST

Federal, state and local officials met in New Orleans on Monday to take part in a government hearing on the recovery following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Senator Barack Obama was among the many senators to testify before the committee Monday, saying Katrina victims have been "shortchanged." New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin told the committee that he doesn't see the recovery as very high on the priority list when as he looks at the billions of dollars spent on the war in Iraq.

Mayor Nagin says, "This recovery is not moving as fast as it needs to move. And you're going to hear lots of justifications for why it's not happening. But from my perspective, not having resources at the local level is the absolute killer of this recovery."

Just as the hearing got started Monday morning, something happened.

A protester yelled, "Stand up for justice! We want somebody to stand up for justice!"

The protester was quickly escorted out of the building, but Senator Joseph Lieberman says things like that interruption make coming back to New Orleans, more than a year later, very emotional.

Senator Lieberman, (D) Connecticut, says, "I know a lot of people in New Orleans and the gulf coast were disappointed that President Bush did not speak of Hurricane Katrina in his State of the Union. I was disappointed by that as well. But this committee is here this morning and we brought some leaders who are working to bring New Orleans and the gulf coast back to as normal as possible."

The hearing is part of a federal investigation on what can be learned from the 2005 hurricane's aftermath.

http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=6004963

Waterways to be cleared by May
By JOE GYAN JR. - Advocate New Orleans bureau
Published: Jan 25, 2007

Photo provided by U.S. Coast Guard - A home sits in a canal about 75 feet from Bayou Liberty in St. Tammany Parish.

http://media.2theadvocate.com/images/clear+waterways+012507.jpg

NEW ORLEANS — Commercially trafficked waterways in several south Louisiana parishes should be cleared of hurricane debris by May, 2007 the U.S. Coast Guard official in charge of the mission said Wednesday.

The three-part operation began in early August, with Coast Guard personnel working alongside Federal Emergency Management Agency subcontractors.

Brian Lincoln, the Coast Guard incident commander for the cleanup operations, said the mission has gone “surprisingly well’’ in light of the fact that many waterways were “completely clogged and plugged’’ by vegetation and other storm debris, including hazardous materials. “It’s been a huge undertaking,’’ he said.

The first phase of the debris-removal operation targeted 254 miles of waterway on 38 waterways in the hard-hit parishes of Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, Plaquemines and St. Tammany. That phase is “pretty much complete,’’ Lincoln said.

Nearly 60,000 cubic yards of debris were removed from those waterways, enough to cover an entire football field roughly 12 yards deep in compressed debris, he said.

The second phase of the operation, which began shortly before Christmas and is scheduled to wrap up by the end of March, is focusing on 184 miles of waterway on 19 waterways in Jefferson, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, St. Tammany and Terrebonne parishes.

Some 8,000 cubic yards of debris have been cleared in that phase so far, Lincoln said.

The final phase of the operation involves 453 miles of waterway on 38 waterways in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, St. Tammany, Terrebonne, Vermilion and Iberia parishes.

The contract for that work should be awarded early next month, he said, and the work should be finished in early or mid-May.

All debris is taken to approved disposal facilities, Lincoln said.

FEMA is picking up 90 percent of the cost of the debris removal and the parishes, or state, are responsible for the other 10 percent, Lincoln said.

Phase I waterways include the Intracoastal Waterway and Inner Harbor Navigation Canal in Orleans; the Barataria Waterway in Jefferson; the Empire Canal, Grand Bay, Southwest Pass and Main Pass in Plaquemines; Bayou Bienvenue and the Violet Canal in St. Bernard; and the Oyster Factory and East Diversion canals in St. Tammany.

Phase II waterways include the Barataria Waterway and Harvey Canal in Jefferson; Grand Pass and Wilkinson Canal in Plaquemines; the Caernarvon Canal in St. Bernard; Bayous Liberty and Bonfouca in St. Tammany; and the Houma Navigation Channel and Bayou Grand Caillou in Terrebonne.

Phase III waterways will include the Mississippi River in Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines and St. Bernard; Lake Salvador, Turtle Bay, Little Lake and Bayou Rigolettes in Jefferson; the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet in St. Bernard; Salt Bayou in St. Tammany; Bayous Terrebonne, Petite Caillou, Pointe aux Chien and Dularge in Terrebonne; and the Intracoastal Waterway in Vermilion and Iberia.

The Coast Guard plucked some 1,900 boats from watery graves before the debris-removal operation began. The boats are delivered to owners who want them back, Lincoln said. Otherwise, the state auctions the boats or the Coast Guard destroys them, he said.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/storms/5352541.html

Jolie Rouge

01-30-2007, 09:17 PM

Clause stirs storm
'Anti-concurrent' clause at heart of controversy
By MARK BALLARD -- Advocate Capitol News Bureau
Published: Jan 29, 2007

Enrique Cerda, now of Denham Springs, lost everything in Hurricane Katrina. A clause in his homeowners’ policy limited what insurance paid for him to restart. About 900,000 insurance claims and thousands of lawsuits revolve around the same clause.

During Hurricane Katrina, the roof of Enrique Cerda’s Chalmette home blew off, causing considerable damage hours before the flooding from breached levees flooded his home. His homeowners’ insurance has paid only a few thousand dollars because of a clause the company claims allows it to limit hurricane coverage when there is flood damage.

The roof on Enrique Cerda’s Chalmette house blew off during the early morning hours of Aug. 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina came ashore.

A few hours later, the Florida Walk Canal levee breached, and water covered his one-story house on Benjamin Street. He lost everything, but his insurance company, Liberty Mutual Group, paid only $14,840.

Company officials wrote four letters to Cerda pointing to a clause deep in the small print of his homeowners’ insurance policy. The clause says they don’t cover losses involving water, “regardless of any other cause or event contributing concurrently or in any sequence to the loss.”

It’s called the “anti-concurrent causation clause,” and it means that 900,000 property owners seeking payment for hurricane damage may find little help from their hurricane insurance policies.

The clause is the focus of tens of thousands of lawsuits in Louisiana and Mississippi.

It is the first line of defense for insurance companies. How the meaning of the clause is interpreted will determine whether insurance companies or individual property owners will have to pay tens of billions of dollars for damage caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. “The insurance industry, and I don’t mind saying this on the record, flat out lies about what that provision does,” said Sen. Julie Quinn, R-Metairie, who chairs a state Senate task force aimed at developing insurance legislation.

“It’s a pretty major, but almost covert, component to insurance policies and they protect it like the golden egg,” she said.

“I don’t think it’s ambiguous at all,” said Jeff Albright, chief executive officer of Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of Louisiana.

“What it is, is sometimes difficult to factually establish,” the damage caused by wind versus the damage caused by water, he said. “We have statutes that are ambiguous, leave it open and allow the insurance companies to walk around it,” said retired lawyer Bernard Smith of Mandeville.

“The last thing they want to do is to have clarity because as long as it’s confusing, it benefits the insurance companies and hurts consumers.”

Smith’s home was the only one on his Lakeshore Drive block that was destroyed. He hired experts who tracked the destruction a tornado caused through woods to his house. But State Farm Insurance experts disagreed, saying the house was destroyed by water from Lake Ponchartrain. Under the clause, they paid $7,500 for the roof.

Insurers started adding “anti-concurrent causation” wording to policies in the 1990s to counteract court rulings that found that, under some circumstances, hurricane insurance should pay for water damage the industry had felt since the 1970s should be excluded.

A number of judges have followed the reasoning of U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter Jr. of Gulfport, Miss. In May 2006 he found that the clause was “ambiguous in light of other policy provisions granting coverage for wind and rain damage.”

In other words, Senter wrote that it was unclear to him how a policy that purports to pay for hurricane damage can exclude damage caused by hurricanes.

Other judges have not followed his lead.

Should the higher courts find the clause ambiguous, then insurance companies could be on the hook for far more damage than they originally anticipated, said Terry Lisotta, chief executive officer for Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

Calculating the numbers for Sen. Quinn’s committee, Lisotta said hurricanes caused about $3.9 billion in damage to Citizens-covered structures in Orleans, St. Bernard, Plaquemines and Vermilion parishes.

If half the flood damage is allowed by the court, then Citizens would pay an additional $2 billion to the $1 billion already paid, he said.

Citizens doesn’t have the money, which means that, because it is a state-run agency, all policyholders in the state would be assessed a surcharge, Lisotta said.

Albright argues that those provisions have been upheld by many courts across the country prior to hurricanes Katrina and Rita. “We’ve always known that floodwater damages are not covered under property policies. And for the courts to now create a cause where none has existed is not appropriate,” he said

Ultimately, such rulings hurt consumers because they prompt insurance companies to either stop covering hurricane damage altogether or to significantly increase the costs of those policies, Albright said. “The Legislature, if they chose to, could come in and change the language to make it more clear to the courts that property policies pay wind damage and flood policies pay water damage. And that would be a very positive thing,” Albright said.

But the Legislature is wary about going down that road, largely because of what happened before, said Quinn, who as a lawyer once defended insurance companies. Her earlier attempts at clarifying the clause’s meaning were swamped with opposition orchestrated by insurance lobbyists who misrepresented her intentions, she said.

“What I learned is you’re not going to get anything done in Baton Rouge, particularly on the House side, if you are really fighting the insurance industry,” Quinn said. “There’s almost zero chance there’s going to be any legislation that eliminates” the anti-concurrent causation clause, she said.

Instead, Quinn said, she wants the task force to focus on the possible: addressing problems with solutions the insurance industry won’t fight during the eight-week legislative session scheduled to start April 30.

Rep. Troy Hebert, D-Jeanerette, agreed with Quinn, saying the House Insurance Committee, which he chaired under Gov. Mike Foster, “is where insurance reform goes to die.”

“A lot of the members on that committee are afraid of keeping that open mind for consumers. They’re so afraid to vote against industry and have industry tag them as anti-industry,” Hebert said. “Insurance is very, very strong in the Legislature. They get pretty much whatever they want,” said Senate Insurance Committee Chairman James David Cain, R-Dry Creek.

But, he said, the climate brought on in large part by the “anti-concurrent causation” has left many consumers angry and uninterested in helping the insurance industry get what it needs to operate more efficiently in this state.
“They’re going to have to step up and meet us halfway,” Cain said.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/5393886.html?showAll=y&c=y

Would *you* want say, Earthquake Insurance that doesn't pay for anything broken if it fell and hit the ground ? Would you pay for Tornando Insurance that didn't pay for damage caused by high winds ??

Jolie Rouge

01-30-2007, 09:38 PM

Many find storm insurance gone
By MARK BALLARD - Advocate Capitol News Bureau
Published: Jan 30, 2007

Jodie Carte of New Iberia sold Farm Bureau insurance and had been a customer for years.

But within two weeks of transferring her homeowners’ policy to a house she had just finished building on family property, Louisiana Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co. canceled her hurricane coverage.

Carte is among the first of 70,000 property owners in Louisiana who likely will have to search for hurricane coverage this year. It is Carte’s experience that some legislators hope to relieve. Though three months away from April 30, its scheduled start date, the Legislature is studying different ideas to change the way property insurance is bought and sold in this state.

Shortly after Carte’s hurricane coverage — called wind and hail — was canceled, the mortgage company that financed the building of her new home threatened to make her return the loan money unless she bought a new hurricane policy.

That left her scrambling.

“I know who writes homeowners’ (insurance) in this state, and I called each one of them,” the insurance agent said. “We couldn’t find anybody.”

Carte ended up with the state-run insurer of last resort: Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Her premiums increased from $900 to $3,000 a year for the same coverage she had bought two weeks before.

Carte was among the first policyholders looking for hurricane coverage because Farm Bureau’s financial situation was so precarious it was allowed in June to drop “wind and hail” coverage from about 7,500 of its homeowners’ policies. Changes in different rules now give other insurance companies the option of dropping hurricane coverage from about 40 percent of the state’s homeowners’ policies. “This will be the biggest problem of 2007; being nonrenewed,” said M. Paige Freeman Rosato, a Mandeville lawyer who represents the local chapter of the national consumer group United Policy Holders.

During the next year, roughly four policyholders in every 10 might have to find insurance that covers hurricane damages, Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon said.

The remaining 60 percent of homeowners policies in Louisiana are owned by clients who bought their insurance more than three years ago. Under state law, those policies cannot be changed under most scenarios.

Insurance companies, for the most part, have not been selling new policies to protect against wind and hail damage since the 2005 hurricanes. And on Jan. 1 post-hurricane restrictions were lifted, allowing insurance companies to start the process of canceling wind and hail coverages in policies less than three years old.

Donelon said he postponed lifting the restrictions to give Citizens time to hire enough employees to handle people seeking hurricane coverage from the state agency.

The exact number of homeowners affected is hard to predict. The decisions of individual insurance companies will not be known until an affected policy is up for renewal, which happens daily throughout the year.

But the state-owned Citizens is preparing to handle about 200,000 policies — up 70,000 — by the time the dust settles in a year or so, according to Insurance Department statistics. Citizens must sell coverage private companies refuse.

Donelon said he is hoping that legislation aimed at changing the way insurance is handled in this state will attract more private insurers, thereby providing consumers with more and affordable choices.

Traditional homeowners’ insurance generally is a series of coverages that pay for damages caused by specific catastrophes, such as fires, knitted together into a single policy. “Wind and hail” is the portion that reimburses losses caused by hurricanes. “I am convinced that I am not going to get State Farm and Allstate to write additional homeowners insurance in south Louisiana any time in the near future,” Donelon said of the two largest companies that sell about half the homeowners’ policies in Louisiana.

An Allstate Insurance Co. spokesman promised comment, then did not return calls Monday.

But that company, which accounts for 20 percent of all the homeowners’ policies in the state, has filed for permission to increase its rates and deductibles statewide. Allstate plans not to write new hurricane protection in much of Louisiana.

State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. does not plan to cancel policies but will not write new wind and hail insurance policies in south Louisiana, said Morris Anderson, State Farm’s Louisiana spokesman.

He refused to say specifically where State Farm would no longer sell wind and hail coverage. “But I can tell you that when we get south Interstate 10 and 12, that’s where we have the greatest exposure. And those are the areas that give us have the greatest concern,” Anderson said. Otherwise, the company would inspect properties in south Louisiana and decide individually based on a number of factors, he said.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/5407851.html?showAll=y&c=y

Now - make sure that you understand how this works. You have to pay thru the nose for Hurricane Coverage Insurance that is not going to pay for damages cause by wind *AND* water damage.

Jolie Rouge

01-31-2007, 02:52 PM

Levee list dribbles out
Wed Jan 31, 10:02 AM ET

After Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed weak levees and destroyed much of New Orleans 18 months ago, the federal government finally got aggressive about inspecting thousands of miles of levees that are supposed to protect cities from Sacramento to Hartford.

It quickly found deficiencies. On Monday, USA TODAY's Peter Eisler reported that the Army Corps of Engineers had identified 146 levees in 28 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico that pose an unacceptable risk of failing in a major flood, inundating people who live behind them.

There was just one hitch. The corps wouldn't say where those levees are. That's right. A public agency, using tax dollars to inspect levees, refused to share with the public critical information it discovered. The corps hasn't put the information on its website, and it refused to release a list to USA TODAY - both easy routes to get the message out. The corps would only reveal the number of faulty levees in each state, including 42 in California, 14 in Oregon, 13 in Arkansas and 6 in Louisiana, where the pain inflicted by failed levees is still palpable.

Has the agency learned anything from the New Orleans catastrophe?

Hundreds of people died because government agencies, from local levee boards to the Army Corps of Engineers, had failed to do their jobs properly. The corps made errors in the basic design and construction of the New Orleans levees, according to an independent report last year by a panel led by engineers from the University of California, Berkeley. Residents of New Orleans relied on those levees for protection.

The corps' rationale for its silence? A spokesman said the agency wouldn't reveal the locations until all communities with faulty levees are notified. But by late Tuesday, after being bombarded with demands for the locations and asked to write an opposing view to this editorial, the corps relented, promising to release a list on Thursday.

Good. But the corps' first response, and its method of communicating with local officials, point to serious flaws in this new attempt to ensure better flood control.

Hartford officials say they were informed verbally at a meeting Nov. 8, that the city's levees were deficient and they risked serious consequences if repairs weren't completed by year's end - less than eight weeks later. A similar ultimatum was issued to three other Connecticut communities, state officials say. Hartford had already begun a $5 million repair project and met the corps' deadline. After the governor intervened, other communities got a one-year reprieve, and the corps says it will give all localities a year for repairs.

The corps' findings carry serious consequences. If levees aren't fixed, the federal government could determine that property owners behind them must buy flood insurance, costing hundreds of dollars a year. More important, they could be in harm's way. Residents have a right to know how safe or unsafe they are, information their government should be eager to provide.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070131/cm_usatoday/leveelistdribblesout;_ylt=AsdFdxu9HvpcLkR4Kz.KKees 0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWFzYnA2BHNlYwM3NDI-

So if you live *anywhere* near a levee or dam be sure and check your home owners policy and pay close attention to the teeny tiny fine print for a 'Anti-concurrent' clause ...

There have also been almost 100 new views on this thread in the last 24 hours, so someone is reading the articles as they have been posted. I still think it is more courteous to put the Katrina/Rita related articles here then 'flood' the forums especially scince so many of them refeerence each other....

Jolie Rouge

02-02-2007, 04:01 PM

Judge OKs Katrina flood suit vs. Corps
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
Fri Feb 2, 2:36 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - Residents whose homes were flooded during Hurricane Katrina can sue the Army Corps of Engineers over claims the agency ignored warnings about defects in a nearby navigation channel, a federal judge ruled Friday.

The ruling, one of the first significant decisions in a set of cases over what caused the flooding, may force the Corps to hand over documents about the management of the channel. "Now we will have an opportunity to see what goes on behind closed doors," said Joe Bruno, a trial lawyer for the plaintiffs.

Eugene Pawlik, a Corps spokesman in Washington, said the agency's lawyers are reviewing the ruling but did not have any immediate comment. The Corps and federal government had argued they were immune to legal challenges because decisions about the waterway were based in policy.

But U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval said there is no way to know that at this point, and said plaintiffs should get a hearing for their allegations.

At issue is a 76-mile shipping channel built in the early 1960s as a shortcut to New Orleans. For years, environmentalists and others have criticized the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet because it has eroded enormous tracts of wetlands and increased the threat of flooding.

During Katrina, storm surge traveled up the channel and overwhelmed levees protecting St. Bernard Parish and eastern New Orleans, according to scientists. The Corps of Engineers has acknowledged that the channel contributed to the region's flooding and the agency wants to guard against future flooding by building flood gates.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070202/ap_on_re_us/corps_of_engineers_sued;_ylt=AttGCmtR73lv9wO4ydSFH SBH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTA4dW1uZXIwBHNlYwMyNzQ3
___

Associated Press Writer Janet McConnaughey contributed to this report.

Jolie Rouge

02-08-2007, 10:37 PM

New Orleans residents are bailing out
By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans is a city on a knife's edge. A year and a half after Hurricane Katrina, an alarming number of residents are leaving or seriously thinking of getting out for good. They have become fed up with the violence, the bureaucracy, the political finger-pointing, the sluggish rebuilding and the doubts about the safety of the levees.

"The mayor says, `Come back home. Every area should come back.' For what?" said Genevieve Bellow, who rebuilt her home in heavily damaged eastern New Orleans but has been unable to get anything done about the trash and abandoned apartment buildings in her neighborhood and may leave town. "I have no confidence in anything or anybody."

A survey released in November found that 32 percent of city residents polled may leave within two years. University of New Orleans political scientist Susan Howell, who did the survey, said more will give up if the recovery does not pick up speed.

In fact, figures from the nation's top three moving companies suggest more people left the area than moved into it last year.

"People are in a state of limbo. They're asking, `Is it worth it for me to stay? Is it worth it to invest?' If you don't feel safe, from crime or the levees, and you see destruction every day when you drive, it becomes discouraging," Howell said.

If there is an exodus, it could mean more than just a shrunken New Orleans. It could mean a poorer city, financially and culturally, and a more desperate one, too, since the people likely to leave are the most highly educated and younger.

Mayor Ray Nagin and Gov. Kathleen Blanco have urged residents to return under rebuilding plans with names like Bring New Orleans Back and Road Home. The mayor has warned that the recovery will take a decade and has urged people not to give up hope.

But New Orleans' population appears to have plateaued at about half the pre-storm level of 455,000, well short of Nagin's prediction of 300,000 by the end of 2006. And in many ways, it is a meaner city than it was before the hurricane.

New Orleans ended 2006 with 161 homicides, for a murder rate higher than it was before Katrina and more than 4 1/2 times the national average for cities its size. After starting 2007 with practically one killing a day, the city has at least 19 slayings so far this year.

The criminal justice system is in disarray, with public defenders so overworked and witnesses so reluctant to testify that the courts are revolving doors, putting criminals back on the street. Nagin and Police Chief Warren Riley announced a plan last month to crack down on crime with checkpoints and the putting of more police on the beat.

For Jennifer Johansen, it is too little, too late. Johansen's neat yellow house in New Orleans Irish Channel is for sale, and the nurse, who returned to the city after Katrina, hopes to be in Seattle before spring.

The gunfire she used to hear until about a month ago made her uneasy about watching TV in her living room, and she yearns to live in a vibrant, safe city."I kept thinking, things would get better. But it just took too long for a response from the city, the mayor, the police chief, to address the increased crime," she said.

Louisiana demographer Elliott Stonecipher said: "You get the sense talking to people on the ground in New Orleans that a lot of people are right on the edge. They're just about to the point where they believe they have to decide."

Blanco's Road Home program, born 10 months after the storm, has been vilified by politicians and civic leaders as too slow to distribute $7.5 billion in federal aid to buy out homeowners or help them rebuild. As of Feb. 5, Road Home had taken 105,739 applications and resolved only 532 cases, granting $33.8 million. At the current rate, Road Home would take more than 13 years to complete.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., called Road Home a debacle. In hopes of jump-starting the neighborhood rebuildings, the mayor has put in place a gap-loan program to let homeowners borrow on their promised Road Home grants. City, state and federal officials have traded the blame over the slow distribution of relief aid. So far, the federal government has earmarked about $750 million for infrastructure projects. The state homeland security department, charged with distributing the money, has given out only about half that. The governor said the city has been slow to complete the paperwork.

It was that kind of back-and-forth that prompted Ken White and his wife, Kathy, to give up and move to New York last year. "We came back a month after the flood and thought about what we could do to stay and rebuild, but it became apparent to us it would take a long time and be very difficult," said White, who was director of emergency psychiatry at Charity Hospital when Katrina hit. "We were appalled by the ineptitude of government on all levels."

Gregory Hamilton, a longtime resident of eastern New Orleans, said he plans to stay, but is frustrated, too. "Everybody wants to follow the recovery. Nobody wants to lead the recovery," he said.

Some frustrations are rooted in the persistent widespread damage as well as the lack of a comprehensive rebuilding plan. On many streets, newly rebuilt houses stand amid empty, decaying ones. In many neighborhoods, there are still heaps of smelly debris and FEMA trailers in front yards. "Literally, if you want an aspirin in those neighborhoods, you have to go across the parish line or to an unflooded area," said Al Palumbo, a real estate agent.

A $14 billion rebuilding proposal is making its way through city government, and Nagin has appointed a recovery czar, Ed Blakely. But there is no timetable for implementation of a master plan, and no assurances the money will be there for it. Blakely said he believes it will cost at least three times the $14 billion estimate to restore the city.

Brian Nolan, a photographer who moved to South Carolina after the city's failed levees left his home in Lakeview under 11 feet of water, said he did not believe the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' assurances that floodwalls have been improved. "After the storm, we were all pumped up to build a new house, but we lost that dream," he said.

Blanco, on a lobbying trip to Washington, said Thursday that she has received commitments from Democratic leaders that the recovery of the Gulf Coast will be a "front-burner" issue. Blanco also said that she, the mayor and several parish leaders have agreed to work together to break the "bureaucratic nightmare."

Demographer Greg Rigamer said that pressure on Road Home and the appointment of a recovery czar are positive steps, but that city must do more to rebuild schools, its health care system and housing to keep people here and bring others back. "With every passing month," said UNO sociologist Rachel E. Luft, "it's less likely people will come back."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070209/ap_on_re_us/katrina_on_edge

Jolie Rouge

02-08-2007, 10:38 PM

Army Corps hit with new Katrina lawsuit
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
Thu Feb 8, 7:12 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - A group of residents whose neighborhood was flooded during Hurricane Katrina added a lawsuit Thursday to the mounting case against the Army Corps of Engineers, saying the agency knew flood walls were unstable.

The suit, which seeks class-action status and unspecified damages, was filed in federal court on behalf of seven residents of the Lakeview area near the 17th Street Canal. The suit alleges that dredging approved by the Corps weakened the soil that supported the canal's levees.

If class-action status is granted, tens of thousands of New Orleans residents could be included, and claims in the tens of billions of dollars could be involved.

A decision last week bolstered the suit's basic premise — the liability of the Corps.

In that ruling, a federal judge allowed a suit to proceed charging the Corps was liable for the flooding of eastern New Orleans and suburban St. Bernard Parish by waters from the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, a navigation channel known locally as Mr. Go.

Thursday's suit was filed by a team of trial lawyers led by Joseph Bruno, who has made a name for himself as a go-to attorney in the mounting case against the Corps. He is also involved in the Mr. Go lawsuit.

"That decision is a clear blueprint on the court's thinking," Bruno said at a news conference at his law office downtown. "We have asked for every damage that could possibly be sustained by anyone in this horrible catastrophe."

The Corps, which typically does not speak about pending litigation, declined to comment.

The viability of Thursday's suit hinges on whether the 17th Street Canal should be considered a navigable waterway or a flood-control project. The canal is one of three main arteries that serve as corridors to pump water out of the city, which sits below sea level, during heavy rainfall. Levees on two of the canals broke during Katrina and caused widespread flooding.

If the court determines that the 17th Street Canal was a flood control project, then the 1928 Flood Control Act would shield the Corps from liability. But if a judge decides it is a navigable waterway, then the Corps, and by extension the federal government, may have to defend their actions at trial.

Though primarily a drainage waterway, fishing boats and other small vessels were tied up along the canal near its mouth for years before Katrina.

The lawsuit's claim is rooted in a permit the Corps issued in 1984 allowing the city to dredge and deepen the canal, increasing its volume. That action, the suit claims, caused "subsurface destabilization of the levee" and led to its collapse under the pressure of Katrina's storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain in August 2005.

The plaintiffs argue that the Corps knew about the weak soil and that academic studies and maps dating to the mid-1800s showed that the ground under the canal walls comprised unstable soil.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070209/ap_on_re_us/katrina_flood_lawsuit_1

Jolie Rouge

02-12-2007, 03:47 PM

La. Katrina insurance suit begins
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 5 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - A couple whose home was devastated when Hurricane Katrina ripped holes in its roof paid their premiums on time, but their insurance company failed to properly or promptly pay their claim for damages, a lawyer for the couple said on Monday.

In opening arguments for a trial that could set the tone for several thousand other cases against insurers, Christy Howley said Lawrence Tomlinson and his wife Elizabeth paid their premiums in a timely manner but didn't get paid for their Katrina claims until after they sued in January 2006.

"And the one time they needed Allstate to step up to the plate, it didn't happen," Howley said.

The Tomlinsons, accuse Northbrook, Ill.-based Allstate Indemnity Co., a unit of Allstate Corp., of bad faith and say the company underpaid them for wind damage that tore holes in their roof and let rainwater pour into their home in the New Orleans suburb of Marrero.

The Tomlinsons also say Allstate didn't start adjusting their claim after the Aug. 29, 2005, storm until Nov. 28 — more than the 30 days allowed by law. "The whole house was a mess," Tomlinson said, describing how water had pooled inside the home.

Allstate disputes the extent of the wind damage to the Tomlinsons' home and accuses the couple of misrepresenting parts of their claim.

Jury selection was completed quickly Monday morning, despite U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman's early fears that there were potential problems in finding an unbiased panel in southeast Louisiana, where Katrina caused widespread death and destruction.

Howley said Allstate ignored evidence of widespread damage to the Tomlinson home. She denied Allstate's allegations that the couple tried to bill Allstate for renovation work not related to the storm.

Allstate attorney Judy Barrasso said Allstate already has paid $151,133 to the couple. "You're going to see that Allstate has paid them more than enough, but they want more," Barrasso said. She said the Tomlinsons misrepresented parts of their claim and that Allstate paid them more than $33,000 for additional living expenses after they moved to office property that they already owned.

Tomlinson said they notified the company when they moved into his office building and misrepresented nothing.

Tulane Law School professor Ed Sherman said a victory for the Tomlinsons could embolden other homeowners to sue their insurers, but he downplayed the possible legal implications for the roughly 4,000 other Katrina lawsuits awaiting trials here in federal court. "These are very personal, individual issues," he said.

The Tomlinsons are challenging the manner in which Allstate adjusted and paid their claim, but not how the company interpreted its policy terms. In Mississippi, meanwhile, hundreds of homeowners have filed similar lawsuits challenging the insurance companies' refusal to pay for damage from Katrina's storm surge.

The companies say their policies cover damage from a hurricane's wind but not rising water, including wind-driven surge. This wind versus water debate — a central issue for many of the roughly 350 federal lawsuits still pending in Mississippi — isn't a factor in the Tomlinsons' case because their home didn't flood.

A recent string of legal milestones for Katrina insurance cases in Mississippi has largely overshadowed the court battles between homeowners and insurers in Louisiana.

A jury last month awarded $2.5 million in punitive damages to a Biloxi, Miss., couple who sued State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. for denying their claim. A judge later reduced that award to $1 million but concluded the company acted in a "grossly negligent way."

State Farm also agreed last month to pay about $80 million to settle lawsuits by 640 policyholders in Mississippi and pay at least an additional $50 million to thousands of policyholders who didn't sue the company.

The latter "class action" portion of the settlement calls for State Farm to reopen, review and possibly pay up to 35,000 disputed claims. A judge has refused to approve this part of the deal without knowing more details, however.

Damages in the Louisiana cases are likely to be less than in Mississippi because Louisiana does not have unlimited punitive damages. It does have potential "bad faith" damages, but such awards are capped under a complicated formula.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070212/ap_on_bi_ge/katrina_insurance;_ylt=AnCNvM5TfXmdum7.0z__uz9H2oc A

Jolie Rouge

03-01-2007, 03:18 PM

Bush vows to speed Gulf Coast recovery
By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer
49 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - President Bush acknowledged Thursday that the people of the Gulf Coast are angered by the slow pace of recovery from Hurricane Katrina and he promised to help pick up the pace. "I fully understand that there are frustrations, and I want to know the frustrations," Bush said while sitting down to lunch with city leaders. "To the extent we can help, we'll help."

In his first visit to the region in six months, Bush sought to fight the perception that he has forgotten about those hard-hit by the August 2005 storm. Much of the city outside the tourist areas remains in ruins. "I committed to the people of this part of the world and the Gulf Coast that the federal government would fund recovery — and stay committed to the recovery," Bush said during his 14th trip to the region. It was his first visit since he toured the area on the one-year anniversary of the storm.

The Bush administration's initial response to the most destructive natural disaster in U.S. history was widely seen as a failure. The White House has since sought to reassure residents — and the nation — that it is committed to recovery. Still, the president is dogged by criticism.

The White House says Bush has helped make $110 billion in aid available for rebuilding, education and rental assistance. Bush's aides say Cabinet officials have visited the region dozens of times, and that state and local leaders must share responsibility for delays.

Bush's message of the day was that Washington has provided money and wants to get in people's hands.

On the outskirts of the French Quarter, Bush had lunch at Li'l Dizzy's Cafe with Louisiana officials. Sitting next to him was New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who has been outspoken in demanding a better federal response.

Exasperated officials from the region said it was telling that Katrina did not get a mention in Bush's State of the Union speech in January. "If you don't get New Orleans straight, the United States will never be the same," said Wayne Baquet, whose restaurant was flooded and looted during Katrina's worst days.

Baquet said he worried the nation no longer was paying attention to the Gulf Coast. "Everybody ought to be on the bandwagon trying to get Louisiana back," he said. "Everybody."

In Washington, some Democrats criticized Bush for not intervening more often. "Long-term recovery for the Gulf Coast requires a whole lot more than 18 months of empty promises," said Sen.

John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. "Businesses that were once the heart of the Gulf Coast economy are now hanging on by a thread."

Kerry said legislation offering tax breaks to encourage businesses to build or expand in areas hit by hurricane was a good first step. But, he said, the government's disaster loan program needs to be overhauled, fixing problems that have prevented businesses from getting timely financial assistance.

Bush began his trip in Mississippi by touring five homes in a Long Beach neighborhood. He gave an American flag to Ernie and Cheryl Woodward, who rebuilt their home with the help of a federal grant. "People's lives are improving, and there is hope," he said.

The sentiment is not shared by many who live along the storm's brutal path — particularly in New Orleans. Crime has soared and health care is limited. Large numbers of residents are so frustrated they are thinking of getting out for good.

Bush got a friendly reception, though, as he walked from house to house in the southern Mississippi neighborhood. "Staying busy?" he asked a construction crew. One of the workers told him the crew was still working on the same block of the neighborhood a year and a half after the storm.

The federal official overseeing recovery efforts said Katrina's damage was so vast that it was hard to estimate when the recovery will be completed. "We all have a sense of urgency," Don Powell, Bush's coordinator for the Gulf Coast recovery, told reporters. "But I think it's important to put it in perspective about the size of the storm, and how overwhelming this storm was," Powell said. "I think there's been some good progress."

"American taxpayers have poured a lot of money in that area," Powell said. "It's important that the locals — that local people — begin to push a process" to get the money where it is needed.

Of $110 billion in relief aid that Congress has approved, $86 billion has been committed to projects, and $53 billion has been spent, Powell told reporters aboard Air Force One.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070301/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush;_ylt=AlEwwZHkh9L1HxYqkjayVAqs0NUE

Jolie Rouge

03-15-2007, 08:12 PM

New Orleans pumps were faulty
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer 52 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - The Army Corps of Engineers, rushing to meet President Bush's promise to protect New Orleans by the start of the 2006 hurricane season, installed defective flood-control pumps last year despite warnings from its own expert that the equipment would fail during a storm, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The 2006 hurricane season turned out to be mild, and the new pumps were never pressed into action. But the Corps and the politically connected manufacturer of the equipment are still struggling to get the 34 heavy-duty pumps working properly.

The pumps are now being pulled out and overhauled because of excessive vibration, Corps officials said. Other problems have included overheated engines, broken hoses and blown gaskets, according to the documents obtained by the AP.

Col. Jeffrey Bedey, who is overseeing levee reconstruction, insisted the pumps would have worked last year and the city was never in danger. Bedey gave assurances that the pumps should be ready for the coming hurricane season, which begins June 1.

The Corps said it decided to press ahead with installation, and then fix the machinery while it was in place, on the theory that some pumping capacity was better than none. And it defended the manufacturer, which was under time pressure.

"Let me give you the scenario: You have four months to build something that nobody has ever built before, and if you don't, the city floods and the Corps, which already has a black eye, could basically be dissolved. How many people would put up with a second flooding?" said Randy Persica, the Corps' resident engineer for New Orleans' three major drainage canals.

The 34 pumps — installed in the drainage canals that take water from this bowl-shaped, below-sea-level city and deposit it in Lake Pontchartrain — represented a new ring of protection that was added to New Orleans' flood defenses after Katrina. The city also relies on miles of levees and hundreds of other pumps in various locations.

The drainage-canal pumps were custom-designed and built under a $26.6 million contract awarded after competitive bidding to Moving Water Industries Corp. of Deerfield Beach, Fla. It was founded in 1926 and supplies flood-control and irrigation pumps all over the world.

MWI is owned by J. David Eller and his sons. Eller was once a business partner of former Florida Gov Jeb Bush in a venture called Bush-El that marketed MWI pumps. And Eller has donated about $128,000 to politicians, the vast majority of it to the Republican Party, since 1996, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

MWI has run into trouble before. The U.S. Justice Department sued the company in 2002, accusing it of fraudulently helping Nigeria obtain $74 million in taxpayer-backed loans for overpriced and unnecessary water-pump equipment. The case has yet to be resolved.

Because of the trouble with the New Orleans pumps, the Corps has withheld 20 percent of the MWI contract, including an incentive of up to $4 million that the company could have collected if it delivered the equipment in time for the 2006 hurricane season.

Misgivings about the pumps were chronicled in a May 2006 memo provided to the AP by Matt McBride, a mechanical engineer and flooded-out Katrina victim who, like many in New Orleans, has been closely watching the rebuilding of the city's flood defenses.

The memo was written by Maria Garzino, a Corps mechanical engineer overseeing quality assurance at an MWI test site in Florida. The Corps confirmed the authenticity of the 72-page memo, which details many of the mechanical problems and criticizes the testing procedures used.

About a dozen of the 34 pumps on order were already in place in New Orleans when Garzino wrote her report, according to Bedey.

In her memo, Garzino told corps officials that the equipment being installed was defective. She warned that the pumps would break down "should they be tasked to run, under normal use, as would be required in the event of a hurricane."

The pumps failed less-strenuous testing than the original contract called for, according to the memo. Originally, each of the 34 pumps was to be "load tested" — made to pump water — but that requirement for all the pumps was dropped, the memo said.

Of eight pumps that were load tested, one was turned on for a few minutes and another was run at one-third of operating pressure, the memo said. Three of the other load-tested pumps "experienced catastrophic failure," Garzino wrote.

The memo does not spell out what would have happened if the pumps had failed in a storm. But the Corps has acknowledged that parts of New Orleans could be hit with serious flooding if the floodgate pumps could not keep up.

Garzino, a Corps employee with the agency's Los Angeles district, was one of many personnel brought in after Katrina. Her memo was sent to Col. Lewis Setliff III, head of a task force assigned to rebuild the flood defenses.

Setliff did not return a call for comment. Garzino declined to discuss the memo.

MWI vice president Dana Eller said Garzino's conclusions about the pumps were premature. "She was there when we turned on the switch," he said. "If you put your garden hose on and it's leaking a bit, you'd tighten the garden hose. So that's what we did."

Bedey said some of what Garzino wrote was alarming and "caused me to ask a series of questions" about the reliability of the pumps. But he said they would have pumped water if they had been needed last hurricane season.

Just in case, the Corps brought in numerous portable pumps last year and plans to do the same thing this year, officials said.

In the meantime, the Corps has paid MWI $4.5 million for six additional pumps, and will use them to troubleshoot the defective ones, Bedey said.

The Corps said MWI has paid for all other expenses incurred in fixing the pumps — shipping them back and forth from a facility in Gray, La., and installing and reinstalling them.

After Katrina, Congress gave the corps $5.7 billion to make New Orleans safe from hurricanes. The Corps rushed to fix broken levees and floodwalls and make good on Bush's promise that the city would be protected "better than pre-Katrina by June 1."

Katrina's storm surge caused water on Lake Pontchartrain to back up into the city's drainage canals. The canal walls gave way, and about 80 percent of New Orleans flooded. Nearly 1,600 people in Louisiana died in the storm and its aftermath.

After the storm, the Corps decided to install floodgates at the mouths of the major canals. While that would keep water from Lake Pontchartrain from backing up in the canals, it would also prevent water pumped out of the city from flowing into the lake.

So the Corps installed pumps behind the floodgates to move water into the lake when the gates were closed. Each pump is designed to push about 200 cubic feet of water a second.

"We didn't have the luxury to go through a two-, three-year design and planning phase," Bedey said. "We had to get closure structures in place."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070313/ap_on_re_us/katrina_faulty_pumps;_ylt=Ao6V.jgcqRJior6OrSCwDPas 0NUE

Jolie Rouge

03-29-2007, 09:07 PM

Google goes back to pre-Katrina maps
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 46 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Google's popular map portal has replaced post-Hurricane Katrina satellite imagery with pictures taken before the storm, leaving locals feeling like they're in a time loop and even fueling suspicions of a conspiracy.

Scroll across the city and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and everything is back to normal: Marinas are filled with boats, bridges are intact and parks are filled with healthy, full-bodied trees. "Come on," said an incredulous Ruston Henry, president of the economic development association in New Orleans' devastated Lower 9th Ward. "Just put in big bold this: 'Google, don't pull the wool over the world's eyes. Let the truth shine.'"

Chikai Ohazama, a Google Inc. product manager for satellite imagery, said the maps now available are the best the company can offer. Numerous factors decide what goes into the databases, "everything from resolution, to quality, to when the actual imagery was acquired."

He said he was not sure when the current images replaced views of the city taken after Katrina struck Aug. 29, 2005, flooding an estimated 80 percent of New Orleans.

In the images available Thursday, the cranes working to fix the breach of the 17th Street Canal are gone. Blue tarps that covered roofless homes are replaced by shingles. Homes wiped off their foundations are miraculously back in place in the Lower 9th. So, too, is the historic lighthouse on Lake Pontchartrain.

But in the Lower 9th Ward, the truth isn't as pretty, 19 months after Katrina. "Everything is missing. The people are missing. Nobody is there," Henry said.

After Katrina, Google's satellite images were in high demand among exiles and hurricane victims anxious to see whether their homes were damaged.

The new, virtual Potemkin village is fueling the imagination of locals frustrated with the slow pace of recovery and what they see as attempts by political leaders to paint a rosier picture.

Pete Gerica, a fisherman who lives in eastern New Orleans, said he printed pictures of his waterside homestead from Google to use in his arguments with insurance adjusters. "I think a lot of stuff they're doing right now is smoke and mirrors because tourism is so off," Gerica said. "It might be somebody's weird spin on things looking better."

Henry also wondered whether Google's motives might be less than pure. "Is Google part of the conspiracy?" he said. "Why these images of pre-Katrina? Seems mighty curious."

Ceeon Quiett, spokeswoman for Mayor Ray Nagin, said that as far as she knew, the city did not request the map change. "My first reaction was, that's a bit problematic," she said.

Ohazama, the Google product manager, said he "personally" was not asked by city or state officials to change the imagery, but he added that Google gets many requests from users and governments to update and change its imagery. Google has become a go-to service for people looking for up-close satellite imagery. "I use it on a regular basis in my class," said Craig Colten, a geographer at Louisiana State University who has written extensively on New Orleans. He called Google's switch "unbelievable."

"I'm sure the mayor is thrilled," he quipped.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070330/ap_on_re_us/katrina_google_maps;_ylt=AgRRhVuz2dwdH7CfRYEB0Oes0 NUE
___

On the Net:

Google Maps: http://maps.google.com

It is one thing to "update" material; but what they are doing is "back-dating" .... which makes no sense.

mirage7000

03-30-2007, 12:24 AM

Flying in a plane going to visit my daughter in Florida was shocking enough. That was all I seen was flat land with swamps and an ocean. From the planes view it was scarey. I really hate to think of any disaster there too. No I can't vote because I haven't been there!

TxGreek

03-30-2007, 10:29 AM

It is one thing to "update" material; but what they are doing is "back-dating" .... which makes no sense.

I don't think it's a big enough deal to call it a conspiracy, but that is really strange. I wonder what prompted that?

Jolie Rouge

03-30-2007, 12:16 PM

the ones calling it a "conspiracy" are the same people who believe that the CIA planted bombs on the levees to flood the city so they could claim the damaged properties under the cloak of imminent domain.

tough guy

03-30-2007, 02:09 PM

I didnt vote b/c my anwser is yes and no...
i lived there for 1 year and loved it!! There is NO city like new orleans and there will never be a place with as much excitement, spiritual powers, and history. Also, there is alot of people who have lived there for years and dont wanna go anywhere else. So, for that i vote yes.

But...the place is continuously being washed away and people are dying because of it. It seems like they can not get their heads above water (not literally) And can you think of all the diseases being thrown around on a daily basis (ie. decaying, rotting animal corpses, etc) and mosquitoes and flies carrying around their share? So, for that I say no.

Jolie Rouge

03-30-2007, 02:20 PM

Jolie Rouge

03-30-2007, 09:24 PM

Google goes back to pre-Katrina maps
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer

Congress questions Google's Katrina maps
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 2 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - A congressional subcommittee accused Google on Friday of "airbrushing history" by replacing post-Hurricane Katrina satellite imagery on its popular map portal with images of the region taken before the storm's devastation.

Citing an Associated Press report from Thursday, the House Committee on Science and Technology's subcommittee on investigations and oversight asked Google Inc. Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt to explain why his company is using the outdated imagery. "Google's use of old imagery appears to be doing the victims of Hurricane Katrina a great injustice by airbrushing history," subcommittee chairman Brad Miller, D-N.C., wrote Friday in a letter to Schmidt.

Swapping the post-Katrina images and the ruin they revealed for others showing an idyllic city dumbfounded many locals and even sparked suspicions that the company and civic leaders were conspiring to portray the area's recovery progressing better than it is.

Andrew Kovacs, a Google spokesman, said the company had received the letter but Schmidt had no immediate response.

After Katrina, Google's satellite images were in high demand among exiles and hurricane victims anxious to see whether their homes were damaged.

Now, though, a virtual trip through New Orleans is a surreal experience of scrolling across a landscape of packed parking lots and marinas full of boats.

Reality, of course, is very different: Entire neighborhoods are now slab mosaics where houses once stood and shopping malls, churches and marinas are empty of life, many gone altogether.

John Hanke, Google's director for maps and satellite imagery, said "a combination of factors including imagery date, resolution, and clarity" go into deciding what imagery to provide. "The latest update from one of our information providers substantially improved the imagery detail of the New Orleans area," Hanke said in a news release about the switch.

Kovacs said efforts are under way to use more current imagery.

It was not clear when the current images replaced views of the city taken after Katrina struck Aug. 29, 2005, flooding an estimated 80 percent of New Orleans.

Miller asked Google to brief his staff by April 6 on who made the decision to replace the imagery with pre-Katrina images, and to disclose if Google was contacted by the city, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey or any other government entity about changing the imagery. "To use older, pre-Katrina imagery when more recent images are available without some explanation as to why appears to be fundamentally dishonest," Miller said.

Edith Holleman, staff counsel for the House subcommittee, said it would be useful to understand how Google acquires and manages its imagery because "people see Google and other Internet engines and it's almost like the official word."

Google does provide imagery of New Orleans and the region following Katrina through its more specialized service called Google Earth.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070331/ap_on_re_us/katrina_google_maps;_ylt=AgiTYi3MUK6poGnP4RbrEnGs0 NUE

___

On the Net:

Google Maps: http://maps.google.com

Images of Hurricane Katrina damage from Google: http://earth.google.com/katrina.html

tough guy

03-31-2007, 08:20 PM

[quote]And can you think of all the diseases being thrown around on a daily basis (ie. decaying, rotting animal corpses, etc) and mosquitoes and flies carrying around their share? So, for that I say no.[quote]

You haven't been back lately, have you ?

Most of that has been tended to ... although mosquitos and flies are always a problem when the humidity averages 90%

No i havent, but I have friends there still and they said (it was after it happened, not recently) but it was very "unsanitary"...I was just adding my opinion, not facts

Jolie Rouge

03-31-2007, 09:20 PM

Just clarifying that although that was the case in the weeks after the Storm, they have managed to clear most of the "biological" debris. What you see now are the trash pile of people gutting and clearing their homes and businesses to rebuild or sell.

I was going to make a joke about opinions unfettered by facts, but it just comes across as snarky. ;)

tough guy

04-02-2007, 06:37 AM

I was going to make a joke about opinions unfettered by facts, but it just comes across as snarky. ;)

thats ok, thats why i try and stay out of posting remarks too!:p
i'd rather read what everyone else says:D

Jolie Rouge

04-02-2007, 07:47 AM

LOL - I like you ! If everyone had the same opinions it would be too too dull.

Jolie Rouge

04-02-2007, 08:50 AM

It was a good joke if I could get the image to work ....

like hildy says ..."Never Mind..."

Jolie Rouge

04-30-2007, 02:51 PM

Gulf Coast drowns again, this time in red tape
Mon Apr 30, 6:36 AM ET

Randy Harvison thought the worst was over after Hurricane Rita swept through Louisiana's Iberia Parish in September 2005 and the waters began to recede. That was before Harvison tangled with the federal system designed to help rescue and rebuild the ravaged Gulf Coast after the one-two punch of Katrina and Rita.

In the 19 months since, Harvison, Iberia's assistant school superintendent, and other officials have labored to relocate the heavily damaged Peebles Elementary School from a flood-prone site to higher, safer ground.

The officials have suffered through four "public assistance coordinators" sent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, so many "project officers" that they've lost count, two sets of project work sheets and months of on-and-off approvals from FEMA.

Last April, they thought they had the go-ahead for a $3.2 million relocation and bought land for the new school. But on Nov. 11, despite the best efforts of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., to save the project, FEMA pulled the plug. When school officials looked back at Project Worksheet #3644 - the key approval document - they couldn't even tell which federal official had OK'd it. An indecipherable signature was scrawled in the margin.

Last week, Gil Jamieson, FEMA's associate deputy administrator for Gulf Coast recovery, told USA TODAY that the initial federal inspectors "were either purposely making an error or just inexperienced."

Iberia's saga, outrageous as it sounds, is emblematic of the inefficiency, inexperience and interminable delays that have stalled recovery all along the Gulf Coast:

• Hurricane victims still reside in more than 82,000 trailers and mobile homes. They've languished there, in part, because so little rental housing has been rebuilt.

• Louisiana's $7.5 billion program to help homeowners rebuild or relocate has finalized payments for only 10,793 of more than 89,000 applicants. The program was slowed by an overwhelmed contractor and excessive layers of state-mandated verifications.

• More than 20,000 public works projects - schools, roads and government buildings - are mired in a paperwork nightmare of federal making that requires state and local authorities to meet two sets of regulations for every project. One is for FEMA, the other for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The dual approvals stem from a federal mandate that local governments put up 10% of the rebuilding costs. Because many localities are broke, they're using HUD funds for that 10%, triggering a second set of regulations.

Federal and state authorities have been battling over this for months. The state wants the 10% match waived, as has been done after previous disasters. At the least, FEMA should allow the state to bundle projects to ease paperwork. President Bush and FEMA have denied both requests.

Officials all have explanations for their positions - statutes, regulations, the need for a local stake in projects, and so on. Much of this would be reasonable if these were ordinary times. But they are not.

The Gulf Coast suffered an extraordinary disaster. Rebuilding, Bush said in his post-storm speech in New Orleans' Jackson Square, "will require the creative skill and generosity of a united country."

It's long past time to substitute creativity for the intransigence that has stalled projects such as Iberia Parish's school. The president should demonstrate how that's done by slashing through the federal red tape, or empowering people who can do it for him.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070430/cm_usatoday/gulfcoastdrownsagainthistimeinredtape;_ylt=AjJgVPg Dz5zUpqlS.iHcwOms0NUE

Doctors sue La. over care for poor
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer
44 minutes ago

MARRERO, La. - Doctors at a hospital outside New Orleans sued the state Monday, seeking $100 million they say they are owed for providing free care to poor and uninsured patients following Hurricane Katrina.

The lawsuit, brought by 381 physicians at West Jefferson Medical Center, says the state failed to reimburse them for treating indigent patients since the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane closed the state-funded Charity Hospital in New Orleans. "This is severely straining our area emergency rooms, and the lack of proper outpatient care is harming these patients," said K. Barton Farris, medical director of the Jefferson Parish hospital's laboratory.

The state Department of Health and Hospitals set aside about $120 million last year to care for indigent and uninsured patients statewide, but that money goes to hospitals and not to physicians' private practices, Farris said.

Farris estimates that 30 percent of the patients admitted to the medical center's emergency room after the hurricane were poor or uninsured. Outside the emergency room, the uninsured account for 13 percent of the hospital's patients, up from 5.4 percent before Katrina, he said.

He said the hospital's increased workload is driving away many young physicians and making it difficult for the medical center to recruit new doctors. "Without this funding, our health care system is at risk, putting our whole community at risk," Farris said.

The medical center itself is not a party in the lawsuit.

Department spokesman Robert Johannessen said the state can reimburse hospitals, but not private physicians, for treating indigent patients. However, he said, the state helped secure $8 million in federal money for private physicians who provided care to the poor after Katrina. "We have gone to bat for them in the past," Johannessen said. "We have been working to secure additional funding for the doctors."

This month, a consultant hired by the state recommended replacing Charity Hospital with a new $1.2 billion, 484-bed hospital in New Orleans. Federal funding would account for about $400 million of the cost.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070430/ap_on_he_me/charity_hospital;_ylt=AqoYgkWPUNCzLaNxQXBF6mys0NUE

Jolie Rouge

05-17-2007, 05:04 PM

Ground Zero and Gulf Coast suffer government's dead hand

Two days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, I went to the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, 70 miles farther east along the coast. New Orleans was merely flooded; Biloxi, in the eye of the hurricane, was obliterated by 140mph winds, and its casinos took the brunt of them. Mississippi casinos have to dip their toes in running water to obey laws that date back to the old gambling riverboats, so they're ranged along the seashore.

The winds flung casino barges 150 yards inland and tore a 100ft gash in the hull of the pirate-themed galleon casino 10 yards out to sea. Cash registers were scattered along the shoreline, spitting quarters as they rolled along the spongy earth. The floodwaters sucked children's coffins from their mausoleums, and dead alligators, washed out of the bayous, were tossed into seaside Baptist churches. Next Tuesday, on the first anniversary of Katrina flattening the Gulf Coast, the Beau Rivage will reopen. The same goes for all the major private businesses along that coast - Harrah's Casino by the Mississippi in New Orleans has been open for months. The local Wal-Mart - the New Orleans outlet of the much maligned hypermarket chain - opened within weeks of the hurricane.

But while private business has flourished, public works have failed miserably. Schools are only just opening. University departments have been closed for good. Courtrooms don't have enough judges to deal with the renaissance of America's murder capital.

The city's narrow "shotgun" houses - their rooms open into each other in a long line from the front door, so that the winds off the Mississippi, and bullets, can pass through unimpeded - remain ripped from their moorings, squashed alongside or on top of each other. Their innards - sofas, photo albums, prom dresses - rot away on the kerb. The scent of mildew is overpowering.

This mismatch between private and public has nothing to do with shortage of public money; after Katrina, President Bush promised £58 billion in federal aid for the victims. New Orleans and its crooked ways are partly to blame. Only this weekend, a pair of Bobcat excavators worth £50,000 were stolen from the Lower Ninth Ward, one of the hardest-hit areas of the city, where they were being used to build a memorial to the victims of Katrina.

But the chief culprit is a federal government clogged with bureaucracy and indecision, incapable of spending money even when it's got tons of the stuff.

The American government can just about arrange an orgy in a brothel - fraudulent applications for Katrina aid were spent on champagne and prostitutes - but it is hopeless when it comes to large-scale federal construction projects.

The same mismatch can be seen at the World Trade Centre. In the five years since September 11, one building, 7 World Trade Centre, the third and least-known skyscraper to collapse that day, is the only one to have been rebuilt.

At 7 WTC, the site's leaseholder, Larry Silverstein, worked unencumbered by the attentions of government. As a result, the £350 million, 52-storey tower went up this May without a hitch.

A couple of hundred yards from 7 WTC, Ground Zero is still a great big empty concrete tub.

Mr Silverstein owns the lease to the Ground Zero pit and the rights to rebuild all the space lost within it. But, while 7 World Trade Centre is outside the pit and entirely under his control, construction inside the pit is run by government, principally George Pataki, the outgoing governor of New York State.

Mr Pataki is keen to run for president in 2008 and the new World Trade Centre was supposed to be his calling card. It should be his knell.

Inside the pit, building has been subject to a lethal combination of government bureaucracy and rows between designers.

The first plan for the Freedom Tower, the replacement for the Twin Towers, was discarded because government security advisers thought that it was not robust enough.

Then Mr Pataki and several other politicians got into a long, unappetising row with Mr Silverstein over the building's financial terms, which delayed construction for several months.

At the same time, the plans for the ultra-simple memorial to the dead of Ground Zero spiralled to an unfeasible £500 million. And that was only after another row over the arts centre on the site, which some thought might show anti-American works.

All the while, the biggest bronze bas-relief in America was erected to the 343 firemen who died that day, at the nearest fire station to the World Trade Centre.

No fuss and no committees were needed to create the stirring sculpture of firemen heading into the burning towers. It cost only £275,000 to build. And who paid for it? The 1,200 lawyers of a nearby law firm, Holland & Knight. One of the firm's partners, Glenn Winuk, was a volunteer fireman who died that day.

If lawyers can spend money sparingly, and to beautiful effect, it's a shame the government can't emulate them.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/08/23/do2304.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2006/08/23/ixopinion.html

Jolie Rouge

05-17-2007, 05:06 PM

Comments
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/m...ixopinion.html

Amen. The Bush administration has proved over and over again that it can't handle any situation without making a literal mess. New Orleans is a monument to the Bush ineptitude. So is the Twin Towers area.This is what happens when you gather together greedy hacks and turn them loose. The lack of care for people as well as the monumental waste of money and time has just proven to the world that this administration is in no way qualified to run a country.

Posted by Barbara A. Parks on August 23, 2006 1:39 PM

It probably isn't quite fair to blame the Federal government for all of the failures mentioned. The President couldn't compel the state and local
authorities to act in ways they did not want to do, and even if federal money is available the State and local authorities will control how it is
spent. Non-American commentators frequently fall inti the trap of assuming that the federal government has much more power than it actually is able to wield in the emergency reconstruction field. States' rights are very important in the US political structure and these effects should be more widely recognised..

Posted by Colin McCleery on August 23, 2006 12:35 PM

New Orleans, now largely ignored by the "if it's in the public interest, we'll print it" media, is a national disgrace. I guess the hope is that if everybody ignores it, it'll go away.

In the meantime, the poor, the dispossessed, the victims of petty crime, the no-hopers, and the racially ignored, can all live safe in the knowledge that their government is busy protecting them terrorism.

Posted by Mark M Newdick on August 23, 2006 11:04 AM

A good piece. Just think of this: as bad as that sounds, that is what it is like in the world's worst places where the UN and its agencies are given money to help. I worked for the UN for almost ten years. The UN always had plenty of money, yet year after year they had a 'programme delivery problem'. This meant they couldn't find a way to spend all the money they had. The red tape was so horrendous, the corruption endemic, the opportunity to put off real decisions and go whoring so tempting. It didn't have to be this way. But unfortunately the whole ethos of public service these days, the endless demands on the process (that it must serve the race and gender agenda, pay lip service to 'competition' etc.), means nothing happens on time or quickly. Until this is addressed, public projects around the world will be as slow as molasses.

Posted by Bob Macdonald on August 23, 2006 10:00 AM

58 billion pounds is a staggering amount of money - if the Federal government has actually found it after President Bush promised it all.

Public works are often slowed by administrative intertia - but this is not something you associate with the US.

In the immediate aftermath of Katrina I remember thinking that US disaster plans appeared very inadequate - yet this is the most powerful nation on earth with a huge standing military capability widely deployed.

In contrast to the oft-made comment that America is inwards-looking and engages only with the world in her pure interests - it would seem that the latter capacity is far greater in practice than the internal reach of the federal government.

I don't know about the voting propensities of New Orleans and the surrounding state, but suspect it is not a wealthy area.

One wonders how the President would have supervised repair programmes had the disaster been in his home state of Texas - in contrast wealthy and a big supporter of the present regime.

I am wary of telling other nations how to run matters on their own hearth - before we attack the US I doubt aid has been managed well in hundreds of other locations around the world after disasters like the tsunami.

What seems to emerge from these situations is the stark incompetence of appointed regional officials to conduct their duties. They try an micro-manage disaster recovery - rather than take a hands-off stance to allow faster progress.

It would be better - even in the US - for the regime to contract everything out to private sector infrastructure firms at high level.

The key is to write a clear brief - then NOT to interfere, paralysing progress. This means accepting the results may not be 100% as you would have liked. This is the compromise for not micro-managing - which would make repairs take far too long.

In the US this would work well - private enterprise thrives once briefed and is always held to account when government dollars are spent - so good value will also be obtained.

Tax dollars should be thrown about as seed-corn attached to a set of clear infrastructure repair briefs and timescales including penalties. That will produce excellent results.

Posted by simon coulter on August 23, 2006 9:48 AM

America has to square the circle to achieve public good though private concern for efficent use of capital good luck

Posted by robin d watkinson on August 23, 2006 8:39 AM

"By Harry Mount in New York" is not such an honest piece of commentary. The "Government" he faults is, with inspection, primarily mayoral and the problem is not logistics but political infighting. The local governments (city & state) are ALWAYS the FIRST obligated to provide for health and safety and the Federal is only a backup. New Orleans and Louisiana failed their obligation. Federal employees were on site before the flood, but the local governments would not cooperate. Crime has always been the trademark of New Orleans citizens and has been exported to the host cities who have sheltered flood victims.

Posted by John McShane on August 23, 2006 8:14 AM

I found the above article very interesting. Every couple of months or so New Orleans is briefly mentioned in the newspapers. The last thing I read was that the levees, partly rebuilt, are still no safer than before Katrina. I am sure many readers would be interested to know exactly what has been done to rehabilitate New Orleans, particularly if it will ever be a fully habitable city again.

Posted by Robin Paine on August 23, 2006 6:47 AM

So, September 11th and Hurricane Katrina have exposed President Bush's administration as a government crippled by indecisive bureaucracy, argues Harry Mount.

Well, Harry Mount, whoever you may be, if you think that the federal government was super efficient before 2001, and only became "crippled by indecisive bureaucracy" under George Bush, which is what you seem to imply, then you are living in a dream world.

Do you really think, as you seem to suggest, that if 9/11 or Hurricance Katrina had hit when Bill Clinton was President, that the outcome would have been substantially different?

You must be joking! The fact is that Big Government bureacracy is a major problem not just for this Administration, but for most Administrations before it, and the same can be said for Big Government everywhere. Look at Great Britain right now under Tony Blair; Government has become bigger and bigger, and are you all better off? Is your money being well spent, Mr Mount?

If you are looking for efficiency, responsiveness, initiative, innovative thinking and decisiveness, you are not going to find it in Big Government, no matter how much money you throw at the problem.

Newt Gingrich, a prominent conservative thinker, and someone you would do well to listen to, has called the response to Hurricane Katrina a massive failure of Government at all levels, Federal, State and Local, and it is no good trying to blaim George Bush's White House for this; the failure and the blame goes much deeper and wider, starting with the ineptness and corruption that pervades Louisiana State and New Orleans city governments.
As for 9/11, it is now well established that a major source of the problem was that the FBI and the CIA weren't allowed to talk to each other. And whose fault is that? Look back to the Democtratic controlled Congress that, back in the 1970's, in the aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate, imposed strict and over burdensome restrictions on the ability of the CIA and the FBI to do their jobs properly. It took 9/11 to wake everyone up. And even now, there are so many people that don't get it, and think that the solution to every problem is for the government to step and take control and spend more money.

Get real, Mr Mount.

Posted by Graham Chadwick on August 23, 2006 12:41 AM

Jolie Rouge

05-18-2007, 08:45 PM

Louisiana homeowner aid program cash-strapped
By MELINDA DESLATTE, Associated Press Writer
18 minutes ago

BATON ROUGE, La. - Louisiana may have to draw from other hurricane aid programs to cover a projected $3 billion shortfall in the program that provides rebuilding grants to homeowners, the head of the Louisiana Recovery Authority said Friday.

State officials earmarked $7.5 billion in federal hurricane relief to pay for grants under the Road Home program for homeowners with severe damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. But more people applied than were expected and they are receiving bigger awards than projected, some as much as $150,000. Officials say that without the additional money, nearly 17,700 applicants may not receive grants.

Andy Kopplin, executive director of the LRA, said the agency may ask state lawmakers to approve a temporary shuffling of other federal recovery dollars to Road Home to keep grants flowing while officials look for other ways to keep the program from going broke.

Congress sent Louisiana $10.4 billion in flexible recovery aid dollars, called Community Development Block Grant money, after Katrina and Rita devastated New Orleans and the state's coast in August and September 2005.

Most of the money was set aside for homeowner aid, but some has been targeted for business loans and grants, rental property repair, work force training, college education and research programs, and state and local building repairs.

More than 137,000 people have applied for aid through Road Home, and about 17,600 have received grants, according to latest available statistics.

Kopplin told the Legislature's joint budget committee that storm damage was worse than federal estimates suggested, more people were eligible for Road Home than expected and insurance proceeds covered less of the damage than projected.

Some lawmakers want to use part of the $2 billion in unspent state general funds to help cover the Road Home shortfall. Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter said the state must use some of its own money to solve "a sizable percentage" of the problem. "If leaders at the federal level are going to be any part of the solution, they absolutely want to see leadership and action at the state level first," Vitter wrote in a letter this week to Gov. Kathleen Blanco and state legislative leaders.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070519/ap_on_re_us/hurricanes_housing_aid;_ylt=AuMj4jGF1wF_0QJs37cO.f ys0NUE

New Orleans neighborhood rescues itself
By JOHN MORENO GONZALES, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 1 minute ago

NEW ORLEANS - Paul Pablovich was the very picture of a good neighbor as he shoveled debris off the curb and mowed other people's lawns in Lakeview, a middle-class section of town that was swamped with 15 feet of water during Hurricane Katrina and is now a patchwork of gutted and newly built homes. But he wasn't doing it entirely out of the goodness of his heart. He was protecting his investment.

Pablovich, an entrepreneur who lived in a different part of New Orleans before Katrina, bought a bungalow on the street from an elderly resident after the storm, renovated it and plans to live there with his fiancee. He purchased a second abandoned house for $107,000, fixed it up and hopes to resell it for $214,000. He would like to "flip" several other properties on the block, too.

The way he sees it, capitalism is the road to recovery for Lakeview. "It's how the country was built," Pablovich, 38, said of the $600,000 he has pumped into the real estate market. "Free-market economics will kick in."

Lakeview, a 7,000-home mostly white enclave in a city that is predominantly black, has emerged as a success story in the reconstruction of New Orleans through entrepreneurs like Pablovich and strong civic organization that existed long before the storm.

In contrast, hard-hit black middle-class neighborhoods in eastern New Orleans do not have the same financial means and civic organization, and are not drawing nearly as much private investment. As a result, their recovery is crawling. "If you're going to speculate, you're much more likely to speculate in Lakeview than you would in the east," said Louisiana State University sociology professor Jeanne Hulbert. "But you could end up, potentially, with a social and economic structure in the city that really carves out the black middle class."

Nearly 21 months after Katrina, Lakeview has lights and other utilities, but still has no firehouse and no public school. But it is a community so fiercely independent it tried in the 1990s to secede from the city. And its residents — who include business executives and other professionals — have considerable organizational skills.

Lakeview's churches arranged for volunteers around the country to plant trees along Canal Boulevard, the main drag. And recently, nearly 1,000 original and potential new residents came to a civic association tutorial on how to navigate the city's bureaucracy and find a reputable contractor.

In fact, the civic association drew up a list of recommended contractors by running credit checks on them and consulting the Better Business Bureau.

The group is so organized it has compiled its own data on rebuilding, finding in a February survey that 67 percent of Lakeview's lots were in some stage of transformation. Seventeen percent were newly inhabited, just over 26 percent were under repair, and 23 percent had been demolished to pave the way for rebuilding.

In contrast, neighborhood leaders in eastern New Orleans, which encompasses four ZIP codes to Lakeview's one, are just now undertaking a house-to-house count.

Independent research, at first glance, suggests Lakeview and eastern New Orleans have rebuilt at similar rates. GCR and Associates Inc. found last week that based on utility hookups, close to 36 percent of residents in the Lakeview ZIP code were back, versus 33 percent in the eastern New Orleans ZIP codes.

However, Richard Campanella, associate director of Tulane and Xavier universities' Center for Biomedical Research, found that the flooding in Lakeview was, by some measures, far more severe. For example, nearly 22 percent of homes in Lakeview got more than 8 feet of water, compared with 3.5 percent in eastern New Orleans.

Lakeview has eclipsed eastern New Orleans in real estate sales since Katrina. Sixty-nine houses were sold there nine months before the disaster, compared with 147 during the past nine months of recovery, a 113 percent jump. In eastern New Orleans, 215 single-family homes were sold in the nine months before Katrina, and 287 during the past nine months, a 33 percent increase.

As he painted over the rust on an iron fence that ringed his family's home in eastern New Orleans, Hank Long said it was obvious to him that his part of town was rebuilding with sweat equity more often than financial equity. "In Lakeview, many of those houses were already paid for. A lot of people are still paying their mortgages here," said Long, a 60-year-old black man. "Nobody has big money here. They gutted out their house, and that's as far as they got. Whatever they could do, they did on their own."

Hulbert of LSU said: "You have to remember the black middle class only took hold in the 1960s. That is different from several generations of middle-class life. Many middle-class blacks in New Orleans were the first in their families to go to college, and it appears many had their entire savings tied up in their homes."

David Bell, president of the East New Orleans Neighborhood Advisory Commission, which formed in March to bind together 15 area groups, said a lack of private investment means eastern New Orleans is much more dependent on government recovery aid, with all the bureaucracy and politics that entails.

For example, a centerpiece of the eastern New Orleans redevelopment plan is a proposed $100 million shopping strip. But federal grants for the project will not be fully released until the city comes up with 10 percent.

Back in Lakeview, residents like to say that they ask mostly one thing of the city: for it to get out of the way.

TKTMJ Inc., a builder that is selling modular homes in the neighborhood, found the area so profitable that it established an office in Lakeview and has dubbed one of its designs "The Lakeview."

Tommy Callia, a sales representative with the company, noted that most of those able to rebuild are middle class and white. "I think we're not going to be as diverse as we once were, and that's going to be sad," he said. "You can say it's a little like a gumbo: If you don't have all the ingredients, something is missing in the taste."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070515/ap_on_re_us/katrina_opportunity;_ylt=AvsaBkFcFdNTXk1SZolu2ohH2 ocA

Jolie Rouge

06-07-2007, 10:30 AM

Sinking in New Orleans
By Marc Siegel
Thu Jun 7, 6:51 AM ET

We're about to head full-force into the hurricane season, and invariably the country will spend a few moments revisiting the stricken Gulf Coast region, but particularly New Orleans. It's the city's biannual checkup (the other being on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina). We'll hear questions about levies, rebuilding and the city's economy.

What you're unlikely to hear about, though, is the mental health of the city's residents and the treatment crisis still brewing nearly two years after Katrina.

I visited the Big Easy recently and came across a tour guide who seemed to be in a particular funk. A destroyed home we passed on the tour had once been his. You could see the weight of this once-great city resting on his shoulders. He told me, matter-of-factly, that he was depressed. Whether he was merely despondent or clinically depressed, I'll never know, but the sad thing is, he may never know either. You see, his city is not equipped to handle basic psychiatric needs such as his and won't have these services established anytime soon. For him, it was a matter of cost and access. For the city, the problem is much more insidious.

Starting over

Kathleen Crapanzano, medical director for the Office of Mental Health for Louisiana, acknowledges that the state has primary responsibility for helping to restore mental health care to New Orleans. But she also recognizes that the city is virtually starting over. "We lost the whole mental health infrastructure in the storm," she says. "It was inadequate before. Then we lost the clinics, the hospitals, the staff and the administration."

Compounding the problem: More people are suffering from mental ailments. The city has seen a dramatic increase in depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress.

What the city is facing:

•The two major hospital centers, Louisiana State University and Tulane, lost their inpatient psych units in the storm.

•The state mental health facility, which is run by LSU, had more than 100 beds before the storm and was where police brought suspects who appeared to have mental issues. It was severely damaged and remains closed.

•The Tulane Behavioral Health Center, which included a 110-bed psych hospital, was damaged and has been transformed to an outpatient clinic at the university. Each doctor has a full panel of patients.

•Tulane's emergency room has only one psychiatrist on duty, yet the facility is overrun with patients in the midst of psychiatric crises. The average stay is two to three days, thus interfering with other medical services. Psychiatric inpatients are being sent to Baton Rouge - 100 miles away.

•New Orleans doesn't have enough trained psychiatric nurses, aides or security personnel.

•Not enough buildings are available to house psychiatric facilities. Rebuilding is complicated by a methodical bidding process in place before the storm.

With the city's psychiatric care structure still in shambles, it would be tempting to blame the government for not taking the issue seriously. But that's not quite the story. The government - local, state and federal - is doing a good bit.

After Katrina, the Louisiana Recovery Authority received $80 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to help restore core social services. HHS provided an additional $55 million to the Louisiana state Office of Mental Health and is spending $15 million to lure back health care workers. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was maligned for its slow-moving response before Katrina, granted $50 million toward crisis counseling and outreach under the Louisiana Spirit program. Six outpatient clinics have opened, with more on the horizon.

The list goes on. What's needed, though, is a full-scale all-hands-on-board effort that recognizes this not as a problem, but as a crisis. "Some progress is being made," says Fred Cerise, secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals in Louisiana. But "some," in this case, won't do. Many good people are working to heal this wounded city, but the problems are too pervasive and too dangerous to allow for gradual solutions.

Jack Finn, president of the Metropolitan Hospital Council of New Orleans, is not exaggerating when he says a state of psychiatric emergency still exists. Government leaders must treat the mental health crisis like a fire engulfing the city. A fire house here and a garden hose there will help, but many many lives will be left in the ashes unless drastic action is taken.

A quick fix
What can be done now?

Temporary facilities need to be built. More grant money should be used to lure mental health providers. State laws and regulations should be amended or suspended so that the rebuilding can speed along. (Psych beds require less equipment than medical beds and can be outfitted quickly.) The American Psychiatric Association, which is having a "recovery" conference here in October, can urge residency programs across the country to send in rotating doctors.

Until New Orleans redevelops its psychiatric services to the point where it can properly triage most of its mentally ill patients, the entire city will suffer - and we as a society will suffer for allowing the problem to fester. After all, rebuilding this city's psyche is at least as important as rebuilding its homes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070607/cm_usatoday/sinkinginneworleans;_ylt=AoqaVJkOmy6nehgWKKi37Jus0 NUE

Jolie Rouge

07-01-2007, 10:21 PM

Levee work might imperil French Quarter
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jul 1, 1:41 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - The government's repairs to New Orleans' hurricane-damaged levees may put the French Quarter in greater danger than it was before Hurricane Katrina, a weakness planners said couldn't be helped, at least for now.

Experts say the stronger levees and flood walls could funnel storm water into the cul-de-sac of the Industrial Canal, only 2 miles from Bourbon Street, and overwhelm the waterway's 12-foot-high concrete flood walls that shield some of the city's most cherished neighborhoods.

The only things separating Creole bungalows and St. Louis Cathedral from a hurricane's storm surge are those barriers, similar in design to the walls that broke during Katrina.

"A system is much like a chain. We have strengthened some of the lengths, and those areas are now better protected," said Robert Bea, a lead investigator of an independent National Science Foundation team that examined Katrina's levee failures.

"When the chain is challenged by high water again, it will break at those weak links, and they are now next to some of the oldest neighborhoods, including the French Quarter, Marigny, and all of those areas west of the cul-de-sac."

J. David Rogers, another engineer with the National Science Foundation team, concurred with Bea's assessment that the French Quarter may now be in more peril than before Katrina.

Officials from the Army Corps of Engineers knew the levee repairs would heighten the risk to the French Quarter. One commander even called it the system's "Achilles' heel."

To curb the danger, the corps reinforced the existing barriers. But engineers didn't have enough time or money to entirely replace the flood walls with higher, stronger ones.

Bea and other independent experts say those steps were insufficient.

"It wasn't, 'Get all the repairs done and then look at the rest of the system,'" said Ed Link, a University of Maryland engineer and a top adviser on the reconstruction work. "It was all being done in parallel."

The system, he said, is stronger now, but "it's misinformation to infer that it's an unintended consequence."

The possibility of a heightened risk came as a surprise to many residents of the French Quarter and districts such as New Marigny, where jazz great Jelly Roll Morton once lived.

"Is that what they're saying? Oh, boy, that's not good," said Nathan Chapman, president of Vieux Carre Property Owners, Residents and Associates Inc., an advocacy group that defends the quality of life in the French Quarter. "It's not on enough people's radar."

Adolph Bynum was unconvinced about the potential new threat to his restoration of an 1840 Creole cottage damaged by Katrina's winds in Treme, a charming neighborhood next to the French Quarter where plantation owners once housed their black mistresses.

"If the cottage floods or Treme floods, so will the French Quarter. If that happens, everything is flooded," Bynum said.

The city's oldest neighborhoods were settled long ago because they were the only dry ground in a wilderness of swamp. When Katrina struck, flooding only reached the outer limit of the French Quarter, creeping into places such as St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, the site of voodoo priestess Marie Laveau's tomb.

With their open-air markets, flamboyant artists, baroque churches and carefree lifestyle, the neighborhoods next to the Industrial Canal are some of the city's most prized real estate and give New Orleans its old-world soul. "If we lose them, gosh, New Orleans would no longer be New Orleans," Chapman said.

As for the new threat posed by the Industrial Canal, corps officials argue that there are other low and weak spots along the channel that might be the first to go, taking pressure off of the section near the French Quarter.

But Bea cautioned that a set of navigational locks on the French Quarter side would likely cause water to accumulate and even create a whirlpool effect. He said there is evidence the locks were a factor in the collapse of the flood wall next to the Lower 9th Ward during Katrina. The Lower 9th Ward sits on the other side of the canal from the French Quarter.

Corps officials also say that if water spilled over the walls near the Quarter, or even breached them, low-lying neighborhoods would flood first. But Army engineers don't plan on taking any chances. They may eventually add steel plates to raise and armor the walls, block storm surge with sunken barges, and install flood gates.

However, there is no plan to beef up the protection for this year's hurricane season.

Cecil Soileau, a corps consultant and former corps engineer who designed many of the levees, said alarm over the threat to the Quarter is overblown. "We've had people in the past saying Jackson Square would be inundated with 26 feet of water and only the steeple of the cathedral would be sticking up," Soileau said. "And I don't think that's a realistic situation."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070701/ap_on_re_us/katrina_french_quarter;_ylt=AmjXQZ78dooiUXOXi69rF2 us0NUE

Jolie Rouge

07-03-2007, 04:16 PM

Some oil firms leave New Orleans - but others stay
By Bruce Nichols
Thu Jun 28, 5:20 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - The boom in Gulf of Mexico oil exploration since the 1970s made New Orleans a hub of the U.S. energy industry, but the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 has led some oil companies to move out, a mini-exodus that could grow.

A recent survey by New Orleans CityBusiness magazine found that 12 of 23 publicly traded companies headquartered in New Orleans had left since Katrina, including four energy-related firms.

Tidewater Inc., the world's largest operator of oil industry service vessels, recently became the latest to say it is considering moving its headquarters to Houston, the U.S. capital of oil and gas.

Others are moving but staying closer. Chevron Corp. is leaving its downtown tower for offices in Covington, 26 miles north, across Lake Pontchartrain. Louisiana Offshore Oil Port also plans to relocate its offices to the north shore.

An important player, Shell Oil Co., is still downtown and insists it will stay. "We extended our lease ... for another 10 years, until 2017," spokesman Fred Palmer said.

Others departing are leaving some operations. Deepwater U.S. Gulf activity near New Orleans is, after all, increasing. "They keep whatever minimal stuff they need to keep here," said Eric Smith, an energy industry expert at Tulane University.

The exodus is not entirely a post-Katrina trend.

Mining employment, the relevant U.S. federally defined category, fell from 16,000 to 8,000 between 1990 and August 2005, before Katrina struck, said Janet Speyrer, associate dean of business research at the University of New Orleans.

It has held close to 8,000 since operations resumed after Katrina, she said. And oil refining in greater New Orleans, a different U.S. federal employment category, is expected to remain strong.

Still, "it's not a good thing for New Orleans" that top executives are leaving, Speyrer said. "They have a very big secondary impact because of who they are."

More non-energy firms than energy firms appear to be leaving, according to the CityBusiness survey. Energy companies are more accustomed to difficult environments and less dependent on local markets than restaurant chains or banks. But among energy companies, Newpark Resources, a small exploration and production company, and McDermott International, an energy-oriented engineering and construction firm, also relocated, both to the Houston area.

Sandra Gunner, CEO of the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, said she tries to keep companies but is realistic. "If you look at the aftermath of any storm, it's just a practical reality," she said. "That's not something you can fix overnight."

Tidewater, which has 8,000 employees worldwide and a total of 75 in New Orleans, has made no final decision, spokesman Joe Bennett said. "We are still assessing the possibility of moving maybe five to eight people to Houston," he said.

Chevron spokeswoman Qiana Wilson said "some safety issues related to the next storm" drove that company's move to higher ground after Katrina, but Chevron had reasons to stay close. "We just couldn't leave south Louisiana because of those great opportunities we have in deepwater operations," Wilson said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070628/us_nm/katrina_oil_new_orleans_dc;_ylt=AomN3qV_Y1XrbMbVTY DOBOcPLBIF

Jolie Rouge

07-08-2007, 08:38 PM

NAACP chief compares Hurricane Katrina aftermath to “lynching” :rolleyes:

NAACP chief Julian Bond capped off a Bush-bashing convention address with a rather unhinged comparison: http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/business/index.ssf?/base/news-45/1183943658143450.xml&storylist=mibusiness

NAACP National Board Chair Julian Bond said Sunday that the civil rights organization is needed now more than ever because the Bush Administration has done little to support blacks.

From the administration’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina to the war in Iraq and immigration issues, Bush has seen his presidency questioned, Bond told an estimated 3,000 people during a public meeting in Detroit. “The extent of the repudiation, it was evident late last month when the immigration reform bill, the centerpiece of the administration’s domestic legislative hopes, died in the Senate,” Bond said during a nearly 47-minute speech. “On the procedural vote that determined the bill’s fate, only 12 of the Senate’s 49 Republicans stood with the President. When Bush came to shove, his own party members shoved back.”

Bond’s speech was the opening address of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s 98th Annual Convention, which ends Thursday…

…Bond said the possibility that New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward, ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, will never be rebuilt is comparable to a “lynching.”

“It can be said that Katrina, like lynching, not only destroyed the work of generations in a single day, but is resulting in a deliberate effort to dispossess black landholders.”

The mostly black 9th Ward was one of the city’s most heavily damaged areas. Bond said that nearly 60 percent of its residents owned their homes compared to 47 percent of all of New Orleans.

Detroit resident Akindele Akinyemi, 32, of Detroit, said before the speech that he was curious about the direction the NAACP is taking during the next year. “I want to find out what strategies they would use to bring younger members on board, and what issues are relevant to young adults,” he said.

New strategies? Same as the old ones: Racial demagoguery, blame deflection, and pandering to the lowest common denominator. You’d think with the NAACP in disarray, Bond might want to clean his own house first before lashing out.

--

Tinfoil rattler Spike Lee is smiling.
http://newsbusters.org/node/6735

NY Times Shields Readers from Spike Lee's Katrina Conspiracy Allegation
by Chris Judd
August 3, 2006 - 12:21.

“From the beginning Spike Lee knew that Hurricane Katrina was a story he had to tell.”

That’s how The New York Times begins Agony of New Orleans, Through Spike Lee’s Eyes, on the director’s upcoming Katrina documentary.
Times reporter Felicia R. Lee doesn’t tell readers of one of the reasons Lee was drawn to the story: he thinks the government may have deliberately flooded New Orleans.

That’s right. HBO wanted to make “the film of record” on America’s worst natural disaster, and entrusted the task to a man who thinks it may actually have been a government conspiracy. And it gave him $2 million to do it.

Could reporter Lee (no relation, I hope) simply have not been aware of director Lee’s conspiracy theories? They’re not hard to find. The director went on CNN and said: “I don't put anything past the United States government. I don't find it too far-fetched that they tried to displace all the black people out of New Orleans.” http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051016/ENTERTAINMENT03/510160345/1005/ENTERTAINMENT

He told Reuters the government could have deliberately flooded the city: “There is too much history ... going back to when the U.S. army gave smallpox-infested blankets to Native Americans." As with the Reuters interview, here he says that after the hurricane, “what I thought about automatically was Chinatown,” the 1974 film about high-level government corruption. http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2005/10/13/katrinafilm_051013.html?print

So it’s hard to believe reporter Lee didn’t know about the director’s conspiracy musings. She, and her editors, must simply have decided keep it out of the 1,438-word article. As for the film itself -- “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” to be shown on HBO this month -- there is no narration, so any conspiracy theories will have to be espoused by the people director Lee interviews. Of course, he could coach them. The article notes that:

On the set Mr. Lee asked all the questions from a typed list. (“You have to say the question in the answer,” he said to those he interviewed…)

Slick. So if a subject says, “Republicans tried to drown me,” it may be the person’s view. Or, the subject may have been asked, “Do you think Republicans tried to drown me?” with orders to repeat the question in the answer.

While the article makes several references to Malcolm X (the man and the movie) its subject sounds more like Louis Farrakhan, who also believes the levees “may have been blown up to destroy the black part of town and keep the white part dry.”

The article quotes Douglas Brinkley, author of a book on the hurricane, who says Lee is “grappling with the larger question of why so many African-Americans distrust government.” Maybe, just maybe, the lack of trust has something to do with the fact that one of the nation’s most influential directors -- with the implied support of two of the nation’s most influential media outlets -- is telling them their government is trying to kill them. Just a thought.

Jolie Rouge

07-08-2007, 08:48 PM

You’d think with the NAACP in disarray, Bond might want to clean his own house first before lashing out.

NAACP President Steps Down; Cites Discord With The Board
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-03-04-naacp_N.htm

Jolie Rouge

07-19-2007, 08:40 PM

Katrina volunteers feel unwanted
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jul 19, 1:47 PM ET

GULFPORT, Miss. - They gave Greg Porter the key to the city for his volunteer work after Hurricane Katrina. Then, he says, they showed him the door.

Porter received widespread acclaim — including an award from the White House — for founding God's Katrina Kitchen, a faith-based relief operation that has served more than 1 million meals to the storm's victims and the volunteers who helped them. But the roadside-tent operation has been forced to move for the second time since September, because of what officials say were neighborhood complaints. Unable to find a new home, Porter expects to close God's Katrina Kitchen at the end of the month.

With the government overwhelmed in Katrina's immediate aftermath, tens of thousands of volunteers from across the country poured into Mississippi and Louisiana and performed heroic service. But now, some are finding their help is no longer welcome.

Porter said he suspects officials in this casino resort town regard his soup kitchen as an eyesore and an uncomfortable reminder that the Gulf Coast is far from whole nearly two years after the storm. "I think it bothers them to face the fact that for a lot of people, it's not over yet," he said.

Mark Weiner, executive director of Emergency Communities, said the organization served meals to Katrina victims in Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish until local officials raised objections. Feeling unwelcome, the group moved to the devastated Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans in January.

Weiner blames the group's departure on a culture clash between parish officials and the many "hippie-type" volunteers. "I think they had an easier time working with Christian organizations than secular groups," he said.

Similarly, free medical clinics staffed by volunteer doctors have run into resistance from local physicians struggling to resuscitate their practices. Jennifer Knight operated a clinic in Long Beach, Miss., that treated more than 22,000 patients with the assistance of roughly 500 volunteer doctors before she closed it last year. Knight worried about siphoning away patients from local doctors. "We've got to figure out how the community can help itself," she said.

Last week, the state Medical Licensure Board's executive committee voted to allow Mississippi's two remaining volunteer clinics staffed by out-of-state doctors to remain open as long as Mississippi remains under a state of emergency.

Many volunteers say they have met with nothing but gratitude from those they have helped. Mark Jones, director of Biloxi operations for Urban Life Ministries Relief, said he has not heard complaints from neighbors. But his group is feeding only volunteers at its camp in a sparsely populated neighborhood.

God's Katrina Kitchen is one of the few still regularly serving free meals to residents. Porter, 48, of Penrod, Ky., drove to Mississippi after the storm hit, and started grilling hamburgers in Pass Christian. The one-man operation quickly grew into a bustling food distribution center. At its peak, in March 2006, the kitchen was serving 3,500 meals a day.

Before long, however, neighbors started to complain about noise from the group's religious services, while restaurant owners saw it as competition for their customer-starved businesses.

Last year, Porter had to move from Pass Christian to nearby Gulfport to make room for a condominium project. Pass Christian gave him a symbolic key to the city but made only a "halfhearted" effort to keep him, Porter aid.

Then, Gulfport officials recently denied the group's request to stay at its current site for another year, citing complaints that the free meals were attracting vagrants. Porter must move by the end of July.

Jesse Lewis, 81, of Gulfport, eats there several times a week on the folding tables set up under a red-and-white striped tent. The retired Los Angeles Police Department employee owes $287 a month on a federal disaster loan. "I could probably still make it" without the kitchen, he said, "but it's a really big help."

Some of the kitchen's visitors were not directly affected by Katrina and were just looking for handouts, Porter conceded. Now, he says, the kitchen serve meals only to residents who can prove they registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

That hasn't satisfied his neighbors. "The kitchen brought nothing but trashy people from across the tracks," said James Hebert, 68. "We need to get these people out of here so we can get back to normal."

City Councilman Neil Resh said: "They're doing fine work, and I appreciate what they do, but they had a year to find somewhere else to relocate."

Porter thought he found a new home for his operation, at a church in Long Beach, but city officials rejected that plan on Tuesday, citing complaints from residents who didn't want the food kitchen near a day-care center. "The disappointment for me is that so many families still need our help and we're not going to be able to give it to them," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070719/ap_on_re_us/katrina_volunteer_backlash;_ylt=AgSQPwFjGA3lbPISJt 8agAJH2ocA

Jolie Rouge

08-02-2007, 07:43 AM

Our view on disaster relief: Toxic trailers for hurricane victims?
Heckuva job, FEMA
Thu Aug 2, 12:22 AM ET

Paul Stewart and his wife, Melody, lost "everything we owned in the span of a couple of hours," when Hurricane Katrina swept through their home in Bay St. Louis, Miss., nearly two years ago.

In December 2005, they were relieved when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) delivered a new travel trailer that would become their temporary home.

That relief, however, was short-lived. Within days, Paul's eyes and throat got scratchy. He started coughing. Melody awoke with a bloody nose. One morning, they found their pet cockatiel barely able to move.

Last month, in testimony before a House committee, Paul credited the bird, Cici, with saving their lives. Their veterinarian guessed the problem might be fumes from formaldehyde, a chemical common in particle board used in trailers — and one that can be toxic.

When Paul reported the problem to FEMA, the government's lead disaster agency, he says he was ignored, patronized, and given another trailer with formaldehyde fumes and a third with bed bugs. He finally used $50,000 of his insurance settlement to buy his own camper.

The Stewarts' story would be disturbing enough were it unique, but by the spring of 2006 FEMA was aware of broader formaldehyde problems in its trailers, which today still house more than 60,000 families who lost their homes to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

That so many families remain in temporary housing is itself scandalous and underscores the slow pace of recovery on the Gulf Coast. That's not the fault of FEMA alone. Complex forces — from lack of insurance to lumbering local planning to cumbersome bureaucracies — have held back recovery.

The toxic trailers are another matter. They are the kind of problem that should have been tackled quickly, deliberately and effectively. Instead, FEMA's dithering, indifferent response is reminiscent of its ineptitude after Katrina. Well into the second hurricane season since that tragedy, FEMA is still too slow and too willing to put its bureaucratic self-interest above the needs of victims — the precise problems it exhibited after Katrina.

Even after FEMA's test of an occupied trailer, in April 2006, found what congressional investigators called "excessive levels" of formaldehyde — 75 times the federal limit for workplaces — the agency failed to move decisively. Two months later, a FEMA lawyer advised against more testing, according to e-mails obtained by the House panel. "Once you get results the clock is running on our duty to respond to them," the lawyer wrote.

In July 2006, FEMA responded — with a brochure that warned about formaldehyde (but provided no phone numbers) and told occupants to open their windows.

With the congressional investigators bearing down this spring, FEMA finally started a new assessment of trailer conditions by federal experts. And, on Wednesday, FEMA announced it won't deploy more trailers or sell any used trailers until testing is done.

Better late than never, but given the reflexive incompetence of FEMA's response, you have to wonder whether the agency has yet learned that its job is to relieve human distress. Paul Stewart and thousands of other Katrina survivors have suffered enough; they needn't be victimized again.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070802/cm_usatoday/ourviewondisasterrelieftoxictrailersforhurricanevi ctimsheckuvajobfema;_ylt=AhvnhbnXQKsXezrv0LuuaL6s0 NUE

Opposing view: 'We are acting quickly'
Thu Aug 2, 12:21 AM ET
[/i]

By David Paulison

The Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) response to recent formaldehyde complaints could have been better, but only part of the story has been told. Following the unprecedented deployment of more than 100,000 housing units after the 2005 hurricane season, a relatively small number of occupants expressed concern about air quality in their travel trailers.

Last year, we became concerned that complaints from trailer occupants were growing in number, so FEMA consulted with a diverse group of health and environmental experts. These officials helped FEMA address many of the concerns raised by occupants experiencing symptoms associated with exposure to elevated levels of formaldehyde.

Last summer, FEMA notified trailer residents about the issue, provided mitigation tips and, in some cases, provided occupants with a different trailer. Additional steps to respond to formaldehyde-related concerns continue. FEMA has distributed more than 70,000 flyers to occupants describing the potential risks of exposure to formaldehyde and created a toll-free number for trailer occupants with questions or concerns. FEMA has also temporarily suspended the installation, sale, transfer or donation of travel trailers in its inventory.

FEMA has reached out to several federal agencies that specialize in health and environmental issues to study this situation further. Industrial hygienists, epidemiologists, medical toxicologists and environmental health scientists are now in Louisiana and Mississippi to analyze potential contributing factors, such as relative humidity, trailer design and usage.

Because formaldehyde is so prevalent in our environment, especially in building construction, we have asked health and safety experts for scientific guidance on formaldehyde exposure and effective mitigation tools to reduce exposure. Today, there are no regulatory standards in our country for indoor air quality in travel trailers. Future tests will consider air quality conditions in travel trailers when they are used for prolonged periods.

Nothing is more important to FEMA than the well-being of the disaster victims we serve. We are acting quickly and responsibly to address complaints, and we are demonstrating leadership by improving our ability to more rapidly identify and address future concerns.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070802/cm_usatoday/opposingviewweareactingquickly;_ylt=AmjP4_ROMgZYbE fzD27pncn8B2YD

crystal_19

08-02-2007, 11:39 AM

I was really surprised at the number of people that have voted no. Living in Mississippi we dealt with the hurricane first hand. We helped the people that had to evacuate, that had to leave their homes and their memories. Several homes here were distroyed as well. Obviously we were not in New Orleans where the floods took place or on the coast of Mississippi where the eye hit but we did have hurricane force winds and we will again I'm sure. I certainly wouldn't want someone in DC or any other part of the country who has no idea what their talking about to tell us not to rebuild. We had alot of people here that had their homes destroyed. Would you tell them not to rebuild? If your home was struck, God forbid, by a natural disasture would you want people from other areas to tell you not to rebuild? Where would you go? The people in Kansas or other parts of tornado alley, if their homes were destroyed would you tell them not to rebuild? Home is more than just bricks and mortar to most people, its about family and heritage. I certainly am glad they have started to rebuild just as I am happy the coast of Mississippi has started to rebuild. Natural disasters are just that DISASTURES but we shouldn't give up on a city just because of it.

Before you knock it, come down and visit the coast or New Orleans. I think, hope, you would rethink your position.

Just my 2 cents, don't flame me...lol.

Jolie Rouge

08-02-2007, 01:23 PM

Katrina victims lose in appeals court
By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press Writer
39 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Katrina victims whose homes and businesses were destroyed when floodwaters breached levees in the 2005 storm cannot recover money from their insurance companies for the damages, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The case could affect thousands of rebuilding residents and business owners in Louisiana. Robert Hartwig, chief economist at the industry-funded Insurance Information Institute in New York, said in June that a ruling against the industry could have cost insurers $1 billion.

"This event was excluded from coverage under the plaintiffs' insurance policies, and under Louisiana law, we are bound to enforce the unambiguous terms of their insurance contracts as written," Judge Carolyn King wrote for a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

As a result, the panel found those who filed the suit "are not entitled to recover under their policies," she said.

More than a dozen insurance companies, including Allstate and Travelers, were defendants.

The decision overturns a ruling by U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr., who in November sided with policyholders arguing that language excluding water damage from some of their insurance policies was ambiguous.

Duval said the policies did not distinguish between floods caused by an act of God — such as excessive rainfall — and floods caused by an act of man, which would include the levee breaches following Katrina's landfall.

But the appeals panel concluded that "even if the plaintiffs can prove that the levees were negligently designed, constructed, or maintained and that the breaches were due to this negligence, the flood exclusions in the plaintiffs' policies unambiguously preclude their recovery."

"Regardless of what caused the failure of the flood-control structures that were put in place to prevent such a catastrophe, their failure resulted in a widespread flood that damaged the plaintiffs' property," and policies clearly excluded water damage caused by floods, King wrote.

This was a consolidated case, including about 40 named plaintiffs, including Xavier University, and more than a dozen insurance companies. It is just one of the cases pending in federal court over Katrina damage. The Army Corps of Engineers faces thousands of claims for damage resulting after the levees breached; King noted in her opinion that dozens more cases, some consolidated and involving property owners suing insurers, are pending in federal court in New Orleans.

Allstate spokesman Mike Siemienas said the Illinois-based company is pleased with the court's findings. Several other attorneys, on both sides of the case, did not immediately return telephone messages or declined comment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_insurance;_ylt=Agb35Cko469.sXUuEjy8SUWs0NU E

So regardless that your agent sold you FLOOD insurance and HURRICANE insurance ... they write it up in such a way that they do not have to pay if it is an inconvience to the Insurance Company.

Jolie Rouge

08-05-2007, 09:50 PM

Village rises for New Orleans' musicians
By SHARON COHEN, AP National Writer
Sun Aug 5, 5:51 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - Standing outside his new mint-green house, Fredy Omar hears the rumble of construction trucks, the buzz of drills and the thud of hammers. It's all an overture for something far sweeter — the sound of music.

Maybe it'll come from Omar, himself, rehearsing a soaring Latin love song on the piano in his living room.

Or Michael Harris, his neighbor across the street, plucking his bass, humming a hopeful tune he wrote about unity.

Or Dan Oestreicher, who lives just around the corner, improvising on his saxophone from his porch.

This is not a band, but a community in the making, a community mostly of musicians — a jambalaya of singers, drummers, and trumpet, piano, guitar, harmonica and even washboard players who'll be living along the same streets, practicing and maybe even performing together a few blocks away.

It's the new Musicians' Village, the inspiration of two New Orleans-born luminaries — singer-pianist Harry Connick Jr. and saxophonist Branford Marsalis — who decided in the post-Katrina ferment that something was needed to help musicians stay and play in the city.

Two years after the hurricane, their vision is quickly turning into a rainbow-colored reality. The village — a tidy cluster of about 80 brightly painted homes — is just a small glimmer of hope in a scarred city, but it already has given Omar and others a roof over their heads and a chance to make music once again. "If I can have another round of New Orleans, give it to me," Omar says, his arms outstretched as if to embrace all of North Roman Street. "I feel at home here."

Omar, a native Honduran, came to New Orleans 15 years ago to sing at a festival and decided to stay. His pulsating Latin rhythms have won him fans in local haunts such as Tipitina's and Cafe Brasil. When Katrina roared in, he fled to California, then to Texas, but was eager to return to a city where a club is always open and a band is always playing. "As a musician, it's like a kid being in Disneyland," says Omar, wearing an infectious grin and wraparound shades. "Every night of the week, you can go and find music. There's always something new. ... You never know what you're going to get but whatever you get, you know it's going to be good — or different, at least."

Omar is resigned to his storm losses — his treasured musical compositions, masters of his recordings, awards and other possessions ended being dumped on the street, he says, after a long-distance dispute with his landlord. "As a musician, you just create new things," he says with a shrug. "It's an opportunity to start from scratch."

As one of the first new homeowners, Omar has seen a parade of politicians, presidential contenders and other dignitaries make a beeline to the Upper 9th Ward to put on a tool belt, pick up a paint brush and be photographed among the orange, blue, green, pink and purple homes. The village, which is being developed by the local branch of Habitat for Humanity, depends heavily on volunteers.

Omar also was photographed with President Bush and first lady Laura Bush when they visited last summer. The American flag he was given at the time now flutters outside his home.

But what Omar really looks forward to is seeing new neighbors move in, such as Michael Harris, a bass player whose lists among his credits performances or recordings with musicians including Dr. John, Buddy Guy, Art Neville and Leon Russell.

Harris, now 53, is a two-time hurricane survivor. His rented house in the Lower 9th Ward was submerged in Katrina's floodwaters. He was on tour in Brazil as the storm approached and didn't get back in time to salvage anything. Forty years earlier, he was a kid when his family's home was severely damaged by Hurricane Betsy.

It's not the past, though, but the future that's on Harris' mind as he sits on his unfinished porch steps, clutching a wooden cross signed by Habitat volunteers who wanted to bless his gray-frame house. "This is going to be really, really sweet," he says, a row of identical houses reflected on his oval sunglasses. The chance to be a homeowner with everything new, inside and out, Harris says, instills a communal pride.

"Everybody out here is watching everybody else's back," he explains. "Everybody had a vested interest, so everybody only wants the best."

Harris, who'll share his house with his teenage son, also says being able to perform again is therapeutic. "Music is my tonic," he says. "It's my medication, my release."

He's already anticipating porch jam sessions with Omar and other neighbors. "I just hope there's no noise ordinance," he says with a sly smile.

Like most residents here, Harris helped build his 1,100-square-foot house. Habitat requires 350 hours of sweat equity; those who aren't physically able can do office work or have friends or families help.

Thousands of volunteers, including faith-based groups, college kids and music students from across the country, have journeyed to the village to pound nails, paint and do other work. Professionals handle the electricity, plumbing and sheetrock.

Musicians make up more than 70 percent of the village. But not everyone who wants to can live here. Only 10 percent of the applicants meet the requirement that residents have an income of at least $18,620 a year and have good credit or no credit history.

Those rules have upset musicians who've been rejected, but Habitat officials say they don't want to set up anyone to fail.

Each home has a financial sponsor — a corporation or family — donating $75,000 to build the house. The new owner gets an interest-free loan and makes monthly mortgage payments of about $550. That money is then funneled into building other Habitat homes in the area.

The centerpiece of the village will be the $6 million Ellis Marsalis Music Center, — named after the jazz pianist and patriarch of the Marsalis family — that will include a performance hall and practice rooms. It will also serve as a place for musicians of different ages and genres to mingle.

Jim Pate, head of the New Orleans area branch of Habitat for Humanity, said performers in the Musicians' Village are already sharing stories, offering advice and calling on their neighbors to fill in for each other on gigs. "This sort of symbiotic vision that Harry and Branford had is actually coming together," he says.

Both Connick and Branford Marsalis have helped raise funds.

So far, more than half the homes are occupied, with four generations of musicians. At the senior end is Peter "Chuck" Badie, a bassist who played with legends including Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie. At age 81, he still performs regularly. There also are several twentysomethings, some with deep roots in New Orleans, such as Troy Sawyer, a trumpeter whose great-grandfather played double bass with Louis Armstrong. "There's so much history that lies within New Orleans and now I'm ... carrying on in the tradition and the music of my people and my ancestors," says Sawyer, a 27-year-old who says he enjoys hearing both the wild stories and sensible tips from older musicians.

Sawyer, who has played venues from New York to Spain, hopes his music will contribute to the renaissance here. "People around the world are going to be looking for something new to come out of New Orleans," he says. "It's going to be a rebirth."

That's what Dan Oestreicher, a 24-year-old saxophonist from Pittsburgh, is counting on as he settles into his new house.

Oestreicher says having an affordable place to live is a tremendous boon to him and other lower-income musicians, though he still is adjusting to the post-Katrina landscape. "I had to reconcile myself to the fact that old New Orleans was dead and it's not coming back," he says. "The new New Orleans can be a positive experience for me, but I have to figure out what that is. I can't go back to my old life. I can't go back to my house. I can't hang out with my same friends."

But Oestreicher, who performs with several acts, including Irving Mayfield & the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, can go back to the music scene. And that, he says, is reason enough to give the city another shot — though he does have some trepidation. "I'm aware that it's a risk to be a homeowner in New Orleans and I'm aware that to stake your life on it yet again is a risk," he says. "But no risk, no reward, I guess."

He then hoists his saxophone above the knee-high weeds in his backyard and the hot summer air fills with cool jazz.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070805/ap_en_mu/new_orleans_music_village;_ylt=AjW795E6VjkaIK3xTpY cnGOs0NUE

Jolie Rouge

08-05-2007, 09:51 PM

Louisiana celebrates Louis Armstrong
By STACEY PLAISANCE, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 3, 1:05 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - This weekend New Orleans is celebrating the birth of one of the founding fathers of jazz — Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong.

The celebration, touted as Satchmo Summerfest, will include three stages of traditional and contemporary jazz performances honoring Armstrong, who was born in New Orleans more than a century ago.

Events are being held at the Old U.S. Mint and other French Quarter locales through Sunday. A birthday celebration was slated for Armstrong Park on Friday. Besides a host of seminars on Armstrong's life and legacy, the festival will include two days of live music.

Saturday's performers include the Storyville Stompers and the Louis Armstrong Society jazz band, featuring Charmaine Neville. The Treme brass band plans to hold a children's workshop, where kids will be invited to bring their instruments on stage and perform with the band.

On Sunday, Rebirth brass band performs, along with Trombone Shorty and his Orleans Avenue band and Kermit Ruffins and his Barbecue Swingers. Neville and others are holding a "Props for Pops" session that will include songs by and about Armstrong, whose many nicknames included "Pops."

Also Sunday, there will be a jazz Mass at St. Augustine Church, one of the nation's oldest historically black Catholic churches, followed by a second-line parade — a traditional New Orleans foot parade where watchers often fall in to form a second line of paraders.

Friday's birthday party was to be followed by a red beans and rice luncheon at a downtown New Orleans hotel and seminars about the life of Armstrong.

The first Satchmo Summerfest was held in 2001 to honor what would have been Armstrong's 100th birthday. Though there's dispute over the exact date of the jazz man's birth, festival organizers recognize it on Aug. 4, 1901.

By the time of Armstrong's death in 1971, he was widely recognized as a founding father of jazz. He had a number of nicknames, including "Satch" or "Satchmo," short for Satchelmouth, to describe the way Armstrong shaped his lips to the mouthpiece of his trumpet.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20070803/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_satchmo_summerfest;_ylt=Am71YFwRc0Wfu wCzygAAHxqs0NUE

On the Net:

Satchmo Summerfest, http://www.fqfi.org

Jolie Rouge

08-12-2007, 10:12 PM

Razing angers New Orleans homeowners
By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 11 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - While Willie Ann Williams waited for federal aid to rebuild her home in the hurricane flooded 9th Ward, it was demolished.

There was nothing left but bare dirt.

She says a city official told her family the wood-frame house should not have been torn down, but no one has told them why it happened or what happens next.

Williams had a building permit and wanted to fix up her house once she received money from the federally funded, state-run Road Home grant program. Now, with no house to repair, she's living in Franklinton, 70 miles away, and doesn't know whether she'll be able to come back, said Williams' daughter, Vonder McNeil.

Confusion reigns with the approach of an Aug. 29 deadline — the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina — for the city to tell federal authorities which properties it wants demolished. Homes that were only damaged have wound up on a list of 1,700 condemned properties. Some houses on the list have been gutted for rebuilding or are in move-in condition.

Angry homeowners are besieging City Council members and camping out at city offices. "Do Not Demolish" signs are posted on porches, and some owners are hiring lawyers for a possible legal fight.

Homeowner Brick Mason posted his lawyer's telephone number on his house along with the "Do Not Demolish" sign.

The process of finding and condemning unsafe homes is "not perfect, but it's working," city spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett said.

The city says some houses must be torn down to ensure public safety. Some houses still contain moldy debris, the city says. Residents have complained about rats, trash piles and unkempt, overgrown yards in slow-to-rebound neighborhoods. Some houses look like they might collapse at any time.

The city says candidates for demolition include buildings deemed substantially damaged and structurally unsound; those poorly constructed, built to minimum building codes and not able to withstand a hurricane's effects, as well as "quality constructed homes"; substantially damaged homes built on slabs, below base flood elevations and not able to be safely raised; and those would that would be "structurally compromised" by gutting.

Quiett said the city's only intent is to "get consumers to act as quickly as possible so neighborhoods can come back."

But wide differences in the appearance of condemned properties on the list of 1,700, published in local newspapers, has fueled suspicion.

Karen Gadbois, an advocate with the community group Common Knowledge, said the process goes "beyond the boundaries of reason." Driving past a row of 10 similar-looking houses along Bayou St. John in the Mid-City neighborhood, she tries to pick out the five that are on the tear-down list, but says there is little to distinguish them from the others.

Since April 2006, about 3,800 properties have been bulldozed by contractors hired by the Army Corps of Engineers under an agreement with the city and Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA will pay for work to tear down storm-damaged properties deemed imminent threats, but the city has until Aug. 29 to tell the Corps which properties it wants demolished.

The Corps will not contract to tear down houses after Sept. 30, so the cash-strapped city will have to pay for demolition after that, then apply to FEMA for reimbursement.

Quiett said the city feels no pressure to have houses demolished before the deadline.

Michael Logue, a spokesman for the Corps, said federal contractors won't tear down a house if it bears a "Do Not Demolish" sign. "We're not the big bad guys," he said. "Our job down here is to help the victim."

Quiett said she's not aware of homes being torn down mistakenly. But Logue said there have been cases in which the corps has received a "do not demolish" notice from the city after a property has been razed.

In Williams' case, her daughter says she wanted to rebuild once she got money from the federally funded, state-run Road Home grant program.

City spokesman David Robinson-Morris said he could not confirm or deny McNeil's claim that Williams family was told the demolition was a mistake.

However, he said the case file included an inspector's recommendation the building be demolished due to "irreparable structural damage" to the back, and that the property was deemed in imminent danger of collapse. She said a notification letter was sent, but McNeil claims none was received and disputes the characterization of the property as an imminent danger. She said a rear addition was damaged in Katrina, but had long since been torn down.

Quiett said the city is setting aside four days this month for homeowners with properties facing demolition to show proof that they've remediated their homes or otherwise addressed health and safety concerns.

"We have compassion in everything we do. Every act of this recovery has been an act of compassion," she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070813/ap_on_re_us/new_orleans_demolitions;_ylt=AvLEcEQzpsw1v5J4Y4x4o l2s0NUE

On the Net:

City: http://www.cityofno.com/

Advocacy group: http://www.squanderedheritage.com/

Corps of Engineers, New Orleans Recovery: http://www.mvm.usace.army.mil/RFO/index.html

Trial to open for owners of nursing home
By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer
Sun Aug 12, 4:28 PM ET

ST. FRANCISVILLE, La. - The owners of a nursing home where 35 patients died amid flash flooding during Hurricane Katrina are set to stand trial on Monday on negligent homicide charges.

A torrent of water poured through ruptured levees, filling the one-story St. Rita's Nursing Home almost to the ceiling in about 20 minutes after the storm roared ashore on Aug. 29, 2005.

Salvador and Mabel Mangano are the only individuals charged with the responsibility of deaths from the storm. More than 1,400 deaths were blamed on Katrina.

Prosecutors charge the Manganos' decision not to evacuate St. Rita's residents before the storm was a criminal act. The Manganos face 35 counts of negligent homicide and 24 counts of cruelty to the elderly or infirm.

The combined maximum sentence for each defendant would be 415 years in prison. The trial is expected to last at least three weeks.

The defense contends that because of government negligence, including faulty levees that broke during Katrina, the Manganos could not have known about the potential for flooding.

A mandatory evacuation order was issued the day before Katrina hit as meteorologists predicted a 21-foot storm surge would hit St. Bernard. Of five nursing homes in the parish, only St. Rita's was not evacuated.

Speaking before a judge imposed a gag order, defense attorney Jim Cobb said state law did not require nursing homes to comply with mandatory evacuation orders. A report by the Louisiana Nursing Home Association, a trade group, showed 36 of 57 nursing homes in the New Orleans area were not evacuated.

The Manganos said the area had never flooded in the 20 years St. Rita's was in operation, and Cobb said that was the basis for their decision to ride out the storm.

"We're talking frail people, people with special needs, people who would be at risk during an evacuation," Cobb said. "The Manganos thought they were saving lives by sheltering in place."

The couple, in their 60s, were so certain St. Rita's was safe that they invited relatives, staffers and others to shelter there. About 30 people, including the Mangano's children, accepted the offer, the Manganos say.

No one other than patients died at St. Rita's.

The Manganos and staff rescued about 28 patients, floating some out windows to safety. It was 10 days before the victims' bodies could be removed.

Among the witnesses subpoenaed by the defense are Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, head of the Army Corps of Engineers, which was responsible for the levees. Strock has since retired.

The defense wants Strock to repeat his statement at a news conference in June 2006 that defective levee design was the corps' fault and caused most of the flooding. The federal government is fighting his subpoena.

The defense says Blanco and other public officials failed to organize an effective evacuation and help transport "at risk" people to high ground as required by state law.

At least 34 people died at Memorial Medical Center in Uptown New Orleans after the hurricane, but three women arrested by the attorney general's office will not stand trial. A grand jury refused to indict Dr. Anna Pou and charges against nurses Lori Budo and Cheri Landry were dropped.

Twenty-two people died at Lafon Nursing Home in New Orleans. Residents were moved to the second floor as flooding began, but the home lost electricity. Rescuers did not reach Lafon until Sept. 1. A spokesman for District Attorney Eddie Jordan said the case remains under investigation.

Their nursing home was in St. Bernard Parish, a suburb of New Orleans, but the trial was moved to St. Francisville, about 100 miles to the northwest. Prosecutors, defense lawyers and state District Judge Jerome Winsberg agreed that assembling a six-member jury would be difficult in St. Bernard because its population has been slow to return since Katrina struck.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070812/ap_on_re_us/katrina_nursing_home_deaths_1;_ylt=AqL0YLw.w.AFBi9 1Jbr2NU1H2ocA

Jolie Rouge

08-12-2007, 10:13 PM

Setting the Stage for More Katrinas
By MICHAEL GRUNWALD
Fri Aug 3, 5:45 PM ET

Once again, it's President Bush against just about everyone else. This time, he's vowing to veto the Water Resources Development Act, a wildly popular collection of 940 Army Corps of Engineers projects, including $3.5 billion for post-Katrina Louisiana and $2 billion for the Florida Everglades. The House passed it Wednesday night in a 381-40 squeaker, and the Senate vote should be similar; archliberal Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer of California and archconservative ranking Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma can't agree on the color of the sky, but they're both pledging to override a veto.

But this time, Bush is right.

WRDA is a lousy bill, stuffed with more pork than Sonny's Barbecue, coddling a dysfunctional agency, perpetuating a dysfunctional system. Louisiana and the Everglades need help, but they won't get it until Congress fixes the Corps. This bill just sets the stage for future Katrinas.

The last President to threaten to veto a water bill was Ronald Reagan, and the result was the last meaningful reforms of the Corps. But the Corps is still responsible for reviewing its own projects, which is kind of like having Keanu Reeves responsible for reviewing his own movies. So the Corps is still approving and building economically indefensible and environmentally destructive projects - manhandling rivers for nonexistent barges, deepening ports for nonexistent ships, pouring sand onto beaches, and generally moving dirt and pouring concrete wherever its congressional patrons want.

As I explain this week in TIME, Hurricane Katrina was a manmade disaster, attributable almost entirely to the Corps. It should have been a teachable moment. But in Congress there's still rabid bipartisan support for the status quo - as long as all 535 members can bring home their pet water projects. President Bush has not usually distinguished himself as a tightwad, but when it comes to the Corps - an agency he doesn't control as much as he'd like - his budgets have been consistently stingy.

And Congress has consistently ignored them. This time, the House initially passed a $14 billion version of the bill, the Senate a $15 billion version. Somehow, the two chambers compromised on a $20 billion bill - even though the Corps already has a $58 billion backlog of unfinished projects. The House and Senate versions both had $31 million for a marine terminal in Portsmouth, Virginia, but the final version had $356 million, because Senator John Warner of Virginia served on the House-Senate committee that drafted it. Who said compromise was dead?

The Bush Administration's veto message called the bill "unaffordable," but there are deeper problems with the bill that reflect deeper problems with the Corps and its enablers in Congress. The Corps is funded almost entirely by "earmarks," specific projects requested by specific Congressmen, so there's no way to prioritize between national emergencies (such as stronger levees to prevent a Katrina-style catastrophe in Sacramento) and preposterous pork (such as a notorious $459 million flood-control scheme for Dallas, a study of a $3 billion dam on the Susitna River that Representative Don Young wants in Alaska, or the seven water and sewage treatment projects that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tucked into the bill for Nevada.) The Senate considered an amendment that would have required prioritization of Corps projects according to national need, but it was overwhelmingly rejected. That's because the Corps is essentially a Congressional agency, and Corps projects are a form of currency on Capitol Hill; members use them to steer jobs and money to their districts and donors.

Usually, Congress passes a water bill every two years. But in 2000, the Corps got caught skewing an economic analysis to justify a $1 billion expansion of navigation locks on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers; its leaders even launched a secret "Program Growth Initiative" designed to lard their budget with big projects. Several independent investigations found evidence of deep systemic problems at the agency, and Senators Russell Feingold and John McCain have held up WRDA ever since, vowing not to let any more water pork through the Senate unless Congress agreed to allow independent reviews of Corps projects.

Congress finally considered some modest reforms this year, but ultimately watered them down; the reviews aren't really independent, and the Corps can avoid them or ignore them. But the bill does revive the scandalous lock expansions - except they're now up to $2 billion. Senator Christopher Bond of Missouri wants them, and the Corps figured out a new way to approve them, so they're good to go unless Bush can stop them.

Democratic Senator Feingold was one of the President's only defenders on the Hill yesterday. On the other hand, Republican Senator David Vitter emerged from semi-seclusion to say he was "stunned" by Bush's veto threat, and accuse the President of abandoning Louisiana. It's true that the bill includes some projects to help restore Louisiana's vanishing coastal marshes and cypress swamps, which provide natural protection for New Orleans. (It's also true that Vitter had pushed to help timber firms to log those cypress swamps.) But as I explain in TIMR, the bill's main Louisiana project - a 72-mile levee for some bayou towns - is a giant step in the wrong direction, accelerating the wetlands losses that left New Orleans exposed to Katrina.

Ultimately, it's up to the Corps to reverse those losses - and to undo the damage it's done to the Everglades as well. But that will require a different Corps. And there's only one way to get Congress to reform its favorite agency: hold up its pork until it squeals.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20070803/us_time/settingthestageformorekatrinas

Jolie Rouge

08-13-2007, 02:52 PM

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Katrina aid goes toward football condos
By JAY REEVES, Associated Press Writer
56 minutes ago

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - With large swaths of the Gulf Coast still in ruins from Hurricane Katrina, rich federal tax breaks designed to spur rebuilding are flowing hundreds of miles inland to investors who are buying up luxury condos near the University of Alabama's football stadium.

About 10 condominium projects are going up in and around Tuscaloosa, and builders are asking up to $1 million for units with granite countertops, king-size bathtubs and 'Bama decor, including crimson couches and Bear Bryant wall art.

While many of the buyers are Crimson Tide alumni or ardent football fans not entitled to any special Katrina-related tax breaks, many others are real estate investors who are purchasing the condos with plans to rent them out.

And they intend to take full advantage of the generous tax benefits available to investors under the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005, or GO Zone, according to Associated Press interviews with buyers and real estate officials.

The GO Zone contains a variety of tax breaks designed to stimulate construction in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. It offers tax-free bonds to developers to finance big commercial projects like shopping centers or hotels. It also allows real estate investors who buy condos or other properties in the GO Zone to take accelerated depreciation on their purchases when they file their taxes.

The GO Zone was drawn to include the Tuscaloosa area even though it is about 200 miles from the coast and got only heavy rain and scattered wind damage from Katrina.

The condo deals are perfectly legal, and the tax breaks do not take money away from Katrina victims closer to the coast because the depreciation is wide open, with no limits per state.

But the tax breaks are galling to some community leaders, especially when red tape and disorganization have stymied the rebuilding in some of the devastated coastal areas.

"The GO Zone extends so damn far, but the people who need it the most can't take advantage of it," said John Harral, a lawyer in hard-hit Gulfport, Miss.

"It is a joke," said Tuscaloosa developer Stan Pate, who has nevertheless used GO Zone tax breaks on projects that include a new hotel and a restaurant. "It was supposed to be about getting people ... to put housing in New Orleans, Louisiana, or Biloxi, Mississippi. It was not about condos in Tuscaloosa."

Locals say Tuscaloosa was included in the GO Zone through the efforts of Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, who is from Tuscaloosa, graduated from Alabama and sits on the powerful Appropriations Committee. But Shelby aides said Tuscaloosa made the cut because it was classified as a disaster area by the government after Katrina, not because of the senator's influence.

Defenders of the GO Zone said the Tuscaloosa area needed the aid because of the hundreds of evacuees who remained here for weeks after the hurricane.

"The senator believes that the GO Zone program, and others enacted since then to assist with the rebuilding efforts following the devastating 2005 hurricane season, have been extremely successful in accomplishing their goal," said Shelby spokeswoman Laura Henderson.

The GO Zone investor tax breaks are credited with contributing to the condo boom in Tuscaloosa.

Dave Toombs, a real estate investor from Irvine, Calif., with no connection to Alabama, bought two new, upscale townhouses at The Traditions, just minutes from campus, as investment properties. He said he hopes to use GO Zone tax benefits when he files his taxes.

"If we qualify for the GO Zone it will be icing on the cake," said Toombs, who is consulting with an accountant because the rules are complicated. "It's another plus check to put in the column."

An investor could write off more than $155,000 of the cost of a $300,000 condo in the first year and use the savings to lower his taxes on other rental income, according to Kelly Hayes, a tax attorney who advises investors in Southfield, Mich. Without the GO Zone tax break, the depreciation benefit from a single year on such a property would typically be just $10,909.

(The tax break is not available to people who buy a home for their own use.)

Andy Turner, a real estate agent who specializes in condominium sales in Tuscaloosa, estimates the GO Zone depreciation benefit has helped spur 10 percent of all recent condo sales in the city.

Tuscaloosa real estate broker Richard Ellis said an investor from Birmingham contacted him about GO Zone property and wound up buying 30 condo units for about $180,000 each.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the GO Zone bonds and accelerated depreciation would cost the government $3.5 billion in revenue from 2006 to 2015.

President Bush signed the GO Zone bill less than four months after Katrina struck. It was sponsored by GOP Sen. Trent Lott, who lost his beachfront home in Pascagoula, Miss., and was modeled after the legislation passed to stimulate the recovery of lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The GO Zone covers 49 counties in Mississippi, 31 parishes in Louisiana and 11 counties in western Alabama.

Originally set to expire next year, key benefits under the bill were extended to 2010 in the hardest-hit areas of Mississippi and Louisiana as the recovery lagged. Many of the benefits expire next year in Alabama, and that prospect has helped spur the construction surge.

The White House and state officials say the economic package has been vital to helping with the cleanup and rebuilding after Katrina and Hurricane Rita. Tens of millions in tax-free bonds have gone for affordable housing for hurricane victims, officials say.

In hard-hit Slidell, La., not far from New Orleans, officials said a shopping center is being built using $8 million in tax-free GO Zone bonds.

"The GO Zone has helped. If someone is looking to come to this area, it's a good tool for them to use," said Brenda Reine, executive director of the St. Tammany Economic Development Foundation.

Yet state reports reviewed by the AP and interviews show that the most ballyhooed part of the GO Zone bill — $15 billion in tax-exempt bonds — has had relatively little effect so far.

The three states have approved nearly $10 billion in bond sales to spur investment, the AP found. But only a fraction of that — $2.8 billion — has actually been issued in bonds, meaning most projects are still on the drawing board nearly two years after the storm.

Mayor Chipper McDermott of Pass Christian, Miss., yearns for a GO Zone boost in his hard-hit Gulf Coast town.

"Everybody here is fighting every day just to get the life back in their towns," he said. "We're not looking at the rosebuds. We're in the thorns."

On the storm-raked shores of Lake Pontchartrain in Slidell, Chad Mayo, a pawn shop operator whose business was flooded by Katrina, asked: "The GO Zone? What's that? We're in the dead zone."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070813/ap_on_re_us/katrina_luxury_condos;_ylt=AvT3cOF2oczpwqogxj6HZc. s0NUE

Jolie Rouge

08-22-2007, 01:51 PM

Survey: Post-storm mental health worsens
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 21, 9:06 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - More Gulf Coast residents are thinking seriously about suicide or showing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder as the recovery from Hurricane Katrina inches along, a new survey finds.

The survey is a follow-up to one done six months after the hurricane, which found that few people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama — about 3 percent — had contemplated suicide in the storm's aftermath.

That figure has now doubled in the three-state area and is up to 8 percent in the New Orleans area, according to Ronald Kessler of Harvard Medical School, lead researcher for the Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group.

More people also showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, 21 percent of those interviewed this year compared to 16 percent in the earlier survey.

It's not surprising, said Karen Binder-Brynes, a New York psychologist who specializes in PTSD.

"It's a community that's in terrible distress. It's not like other things where, once everything's over, everything's getting rebuilt," she said.

Kessler team interviewed 1,000 people last year and was able to track down 800 of them for this year's survey. The latest survey is not yet ready for publication, but Kessler said the preliminary results for suicide and PTSD were striking.

Kessler said that in the months after the Aug. 29, 2005 hurricane, an underlying optimism protected many people from suicidal thoughts. Now, that optimism has worn thin — something the earlier report warned could happen if rebuilding didn't keep pace with expectations.

The recovery from Katrina has been slow in some areas, especially in New Orleans. In addition to losses due directly to the storm, violent crime, poor schools and other problems have piled trauma atop trauma.

Kessler, whose study is supported by the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization, said most disasters have relatively rapid recoveries, so rates for such ailments as depression and PTSD usually improve after a year.

The results of the New Orleans survey are more like those of people who lost their jobs in Detroit during the 1980s and couldn't find new work, he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070822/ap_on_he_me/katrina_mental_health;_ylt=ApWjwi8wUnHimDFb2OzQrum s0NUE

Starlady01

08-22-2007, 02:27 PM

New Orleans should not be rebuild until the levee is safe. Why risk any more life's.

Jolie Rouge

08-23-2007, 08:19 PM

Plea to come in levee bribery scheme
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 42 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - A former Army Corps of Engineers contractor accused of giving confidential information to a company seeking work on a levee reconstruction project has agreed to plead guilty to bribery, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Since Hurricane Katrina hit two years ago, federal and state investigators have looked into widespread allegations of corruption and misuse of funds, but Raul Jorge Miranda's case was the first involving Corps levee work.

In August 2006, Miranda was on a panel handling bids to reconstruct a pivotal levee on Lake Cataouatche, which is southwest of New Orleans and protects an area of suburbs and small towns on the western side of the Mississippi River, officials said.

Prosecutors allege Miranda provided confidential information to an unidentified sand and gravel subcontractor seeking a piece of the $16 million levee project. In exchange, Miranda sought kickbacks of 25 cents per cubic yard of sand and gravel the company sold. Prosecutors declined to say whether Miranda actually received any bribe money.

Vic Harris, a Corps spokesman in New Orleans, said the Corps alerted the Army's Criminal Investigation Division to the bribery scheme. "In this case," Harris said, "the Army Corps of Engineers did in fact do the right thing. We suspected some activity that was not right and we immediately turned it over to the proper authorities to investigate."

Attempts to reach Miranda were unsuccessful and it could not be determined who is representing him.

Miranda was a construction manager for Integrated Logistical Support Inc., also known as Ilsi Engineering, a New Orleans civil engineering firm hired to help the Corps manage some of its projects.

Leslie Tabony, Ilsi's senior vice president of operations, said she was unaware of an investigation into Miranda's work in New Orleans.

"He was with us for a few months and left our employment abruptly with no notice," Tabony said. "We're shocked."

After he left, she said, the Corps actually contacted Ilsi to look for him because they thought he was doing such a good job.

Prosecutors characterized their case against Miranda as another example of a reprehensible attempt to profit at a time of tragedy.

"The critically important task of rebuilding the levee system in the New Orleans area must not be vulnerable to corrupt contractors," said Assistant U.S. Attorney General Alice S. Fisher. "The Department of Justice will continue to protect the money that goes into rebuilding New Orleans from fraud and corruption."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070824/ap_on_re_us/katrina_levee_bribery;_ylt=AoMnC1YdLZsbhyQXrm3SzmR H2ocA

Jolie Rouge

08-23-2007, 08:19 PM

Louisiana: Out $34 billion to hurricanes
By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 40 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were a roughly $100 billion blow to Louisiana buildings and infrastructure, and federal rebuilding aid and insurance payments fall about $34 billion short of making up for the losses, a state agency says.

The $100 billion estimate, in a Louisiana Recovery Authority report set to be released Friday, includes levees, public buildings and infrastructure, businesses, houses and personal property lost or damaged in the 2005 hurricanes. Of that, insurance has covered $40 billion and federal aid $26 billion, the report says.

The damage estimate was compiled using property loss estimates from various sectors, LRA spokeswoman Melissa Landry said.

Andy Kopplin, executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, said he isn't suggesting that the federal government or insurers write a $34 billion check. But he said people shouldn't be surprised if Louisiana continues to ask Congress for help rebuilding, something he expects to happen over the next decade.

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office noted the difficulty in assessing damages from the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes, saying the exact costs may never be known but that overall they would likely "far surpass" those of the three other costliest disasters in recent memory — the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks; Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and California's Northridge earthquake in 1994.

Since the 2005 hurricanes, the federal government has committed more than $110 billion in grants, loans and other aid toward Gulf Coast recovery. Much of that has been for short-term or emergency projects, such as debris removal, levee work and housing assistance, not long-term rebuilding.

Louisiana's share was about $60 billion but only $26 billion of that was for permanent, long-term rebuilding, Kopplin said.

Louisiana's most pressing needs include federal help filling a projected $5 billion shortfall in the state-run Road Home program, which is designed to help victims rebuild or relocate, and full funding of levee work in the New Orleans area, Kopplin said.

He is among state and local officials pushing reforms to the law governing disaster recovery, the Stafford Act, which he said is not amenable to creating a "safer, stronger, smarter" state. Kopplin said the recovery has been mired in bureaucracy.

Gil Jamieson, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's associate deputy administrator for Gulf Coast recovery, said that while sections of the law could be streamlined, Stafford itself isn't standing in the way of Louisiana rebuilding. "I think Andy needs to focus on the Road Home program and making it more efficient," Jamieson said of Kopplin. The state program has been criticized as being too slow to compensate homeowners, and there's disagreement between state and federal officials over how awards were calculated.

Under federal law, FEMA says it only has to pay to bring infrastructure to pre-storm "function and capacity" — not cover wholesale replacement of buildings that may have been old or in prior need of improvements.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070824/ap_on_re_us/katrina_unrecovered_losses;_ylt=AkR4C7oV_bMzU_uRTt pouSWs0NUE

Jolie Rouge

08-25-2007, 04:07 PM

Gulf Coast cities draw up new blueprints
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Aug 25, 2:59 PM ET

PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss. - Hurricane Katrina erased much of the Mississippi Gulf Coast's past, but the deadly storm also created a blank canvas and a historic opportunity for reinventing cities like this once-quaint beach community.

Two years after Katrina claimed more than 200 lives in Mississippi and left behind billions of dollars in damage, teams of visionary urban planners are embedded in Pass Christian and other coastal cities, helping them draft ambitious blueprints for rebuilding the "New Urbanism" way.

New Urbanism — an architectural movement to transform sprawling city blocks into compact, walkable neighborhoods with old-fashioned features — is only one of the dynamics that could define Mississippi's coastline.

Traditionalists are pursuing a competing vision: Rebuilding the coast largely the way it was before the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane. Part of what has been called the Redneck Riviera, it was an eclectic assembly of glitzy casino barges, brightly painted beach shops and aging motels occasionally broken by stretches of stately old homes with oak shaded lawns overlooking the sandy, manmade beach.

Which vision will the coast resemble in 2015, when Katrina is just a painful, 10-year-old memory?

Questions like that loomed over a recent planning workshop in Pass Christian. Dozens of home and business owners gathered at dusk in a storm-ravaged library to hear city planner Jeff Bounds illustrate his vision for rebuilding Pass Christian's devastated downtown.

Smaller city blocks with narrower, pedestrian-friendly streets. Buildings that yield better views of the harbor. "Pocket parks" for more green space. Those were some of his ideas for turning the crippled city center into a thriving commercial district.

"You may not agree with us. You may say, 'No, no, don't change that. Leave it like it is.' And we'll live with it, and that's fine," Bounds told the audience. "We're basically here to point out from a planning perspective what we see as the shortcomings, things that can be improved."

Bounds ended his presentation with a caveat: "Obviously, money is not growing on trees."

"Amen!" a voice from the back of the room shouted. Bounds paused a beat, then grinned when he realized the voice belonged to Mayor Leo "Chipper" McDermott, who leaned back in his chair and propped a foot up on a folding table.

Many cities along Mississippi's 70-mile coastline are grappling with the same dilemma as Pass Christian.

Two years after the storm, harsh economic realities are tempering the pace of rebuilding. Many projects are hamstrung by the soaring costs of construction and insurance in Katrina's aftermath, while federal funding has been slow to flow to cities. Some other economic indicators are down — population and employment in the coastline region are both still below pre-Katrina levels, and a housing shortage is stunting the region's recovery.

Economics aren't the only concern. Some local officials are reluctant to experiment with new zoning and planning codes — and that's exactly what New Urbanism's adherents are asking cities like Pass Christian to do.

Andres Duany, a Miami-based architect and New Urbanism pioneer, convened a gathering of like-minded planners in Biloxi less than two months after Katrina made landfall.

Some of the experts who attended that forum are now paid consultants for coastal cities, helping them draft rebuilding plans directly influenced by New Urbanism's anti-sprawl principles.

Robert Alminana, a San Francisco-based city planner, is helping Gulfport implement new zoning codes. His office, a motel room overlooking Mississippi Sound, is littered with blueprints and sketches for how the city could look a decade after Katrina. "The choice was to rebuild the way it was or say, 'Let's be bold and do it better than it was before,'" Alminana said.

Many people prefer the former option, he conceded: "People hate change. They would rather go with what they're used to rather than throwing everything out the window and starting from scratch."

Duany, whose design for Seaside, Fla., in the 1980s is arguably the first and most famous New Urbanism development, said his colleagues have helped bring sweeping reforms to communities that had "nonexistent to primitive" zoning and planning laws before Katrina. "They have gone from zero to some of the most advanced planning and zoning in the country," he said.

Duany's ambassadors also have introduced a new vocabulary to go along with the new concepts. Public planning forums are called "charrettes" (or derided by skeptics as "charades" or "bull charrettes"), while some cities have adopted "SmartCode" zoning plans that govern development with New Urbanism's sprawl-fighting principles.

In Gulfport, a proposal to build a 17-lot subdivision of bungalow cottages is on hold while the city irons out its SmartCode plans. After Katrina, the project's developers tinkered with the design, shrinking yards and moving homes closer to the street to encourage more interaction among neighbors — a New Urbanism ideal.

"The financing is there," said the project's real estate agent, Melissa Warren. "We're just waiting for a set of rules to be adopted that we know we can go by."

It will take years for many SmartCode-inspired ideas to yield tangible results. For now, casinos bathed in neon and a smattering of glossy condominium developments dominate the coast's storm-scarred landscape at Katrina's second anniversary.

Some cities have set limits on the height of construction projects so the coastline isn't crowded by rows of high-rise condos. At the same time, the state is clearly banking on casino resorts to fuel the region's economic recovery.

After Katrina, Mississippi enacted a law allowing floating casinos to move ashore. Today, 11 casinos are open on the Coast and are raking in more revenue than the 12 that operated before the storm.

Eight of those casinos are in Biloxi — the same number operating in the city before Katrina — and more are on the way. It may not be a coincidence, then, that New Urbanism has gained less traction in Biloxi than in neighboring cities.

Duany said Biloxi wanted to "clear the deck" for gaming and didn't want to impose any limits on casino operators' plans. Jerry Creel, Biloxi's director of community development, said the city balked at adopting a SmartCode because it wants to review projects on a "case-by-case basis."

"There's an outside perception that the only thing in Biloxi is condos and casinos, and that's not true," Creel said. "We're looking at better development in Biloxi with a variety of structures and a variety of uses."

The outlook is much different in Ocean Springs, which shared a bridge with Biloxi before Katrina washed it away. Ocean Springs Mayor Connie Moran said SmartCode-inspired changes in the city's planning and zoning laws "can't come soon enough."

"Some people are afraid we'll have 'Hooters at the harbor,' or they'll wake up one morning and see a gas station next door to their home. That's not what SmartCode is about. In fact, SmartCode will help protect that from happening," she said.

Paige Riley opened an art gallery in Ocean Springs after Katrina damaged the old store, in downtown Pass Christian. She wants to return, but fears Pass Christian is ripe for overdevelopment in Katrina's aftermath and could lose its small-town charms.

"We're going to have to grow into being what we were before," Riley said following the recent planning meeting at the old library.

Pass Christian Planning Commission member Walter Ketchings is losing patience for workshops like the one Riley attended. "We need to stop talking and start hammering," he said.

Urban planners have received a warmer welcome from Pass Christian's mayor, but McDermott says the city's blueprints aren't worth much if developers don't want to follow them.

"Who's going to pay for it?" he asked. "You can draw something. I can draw something. They can draw something. The bottom line is, the market will determine what happens."

A lack of affordable insurance is widely seen as the biggest obstacle to private investment on the coast now and in the coming years. A recent study by the RAND Corp. think tank found that the soaring cost of wind coverage has nixed or delayed some commercial projects.

Given the modest pace of new construction, many experts say it's premature to accurately forecast what the Gulf Coast will look on Katrina's 10th anniversary.

"It will not be the same Mississippi Gulf Coast, I can tell you that," said Tommy Walman, Gov. Haley Barbour's housing adviser. "Things already are changing — some for the better and some not so. It depends on how you look at it."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070825/ap_on_re_us/after_katrina_mississippi2015;_ylt=ArDOoWOwXTJ.Xl0 NZlyTBolvzwcF

Jolie Rouge

08-25-2007, 04:11 PM

Big Easy struggles 2 years after Katrina
By ALLEN G. BREED and CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writers
Sat Aug 25, 2:48 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - Two years after Hurricane Katrina, much of the "city that care forgot" still lies in ruins. But Otis Biggs' task as he shuffles his Tarot deck this moist August day is to peer into the future to 2015, the storm's 10th anniversary.

Rings of silver and turquoise flash as one card, then another flops onto a zodiac-patterned table in the incense-perfumed Bottom of the Cup Tea Room in the French Quarter, where the diminutive Biggs has been telling fortunes for 32 years.

An upside down tower — violent storms will hold off until levees are repaired.

The ace of cauldrons — money will flow.

The empress — stability, fruitful things.

Downtown, near the riverfront, Biggs sees a gleaming glass and steel tower rising, the tallest in the state. Elections will bring new blood and vision. Companies will feel safe to invest in the city, and most of those who fled will return.

"There's hope," Biggs says, his hazel eyes twinkling in light reflected through a crystal ball.

There may be hope, but there are few assurances for the recovering Big Easy.

"For every positive that's going on in New Orleans right now, there's a negative, there's a concern," says Reed Kroloff, who until recently was dean of the school of architecture at Tulane University.

The failure of federally funded, state-administered recovery programs to quickly take hold, and the city's struggle to define and fund plans for neighborhood redevelopment, have shaken confidence about New Orleans' short-term future. Mayor Ray Nagin favors a "market-driven" recovery of the city. Critics say he has not made the tough decisions necessary to get planning for the city's future moving into high gear.

New Orleans still struggles with corruption. A congressman is under indictment, a senator has been implicated in a sex scandal and a city councilman thought to be a favorite as New Orleans' next mayor pleaded guilty in August to federal bribery charges and resigned.

There are geophysical challenges ahead, too. By 2015, parts of New Orleans will have subsided nearly an additional 8 inches. The city filled up like a bowl when Katrina broke levees on Aug. 29, 2005. Roughly 240 more square miles of the eroding wetlands that protect the city from storm surge will be gone by 2015.

If the Army Corps of Engineers has its way, and billions in federal funds don't get siphoned off by war or another natural disaster, those who remain should be better protected from flooding by 2015.

To the east, a massive levee-and-floodgate structure rising out of the brackish marsh should block the surge from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, or MR-GO. To the north, new flood gates and pumping stations would prevent a surge from Lake Pontchartrain and prevent a repeat of the failures along the city's drainage canals.

The city's population will be smaller a decade after the storm. A recent estimate pegs the current population at around 270,000 — about 60 percent of the pre-Katrina total.

Rich Campanella, an urban geographer at Tulane, predicts that by 2015, the city's population will be somewhere around 350,000. Blacks will still outnumber whites, but the margin will be significantly less.

He and others agree the city's residents will be somewhat more affluent, the poor possibly being squeezed out by the increased expense of living in a hurricane zone.

And New Orleans could be a city with a younger population.

"Not because there are more children," says Campanella, associate director of the Center for Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane and Xavier universities. "Being elderly and in need of health care in this city might inspire many older people to relocate."

Health care challenges and the dearth of affordable housing will continue to influence the pace of recovery.

Nearly half of the hospitals open in the parish before Katrina remain closed, and one is a shell of its former self. The remaining hospitals serving the city lost a combined $56 million in the first five months of 2007, and the projected operating loss for the year is $135 million, says Leslie Hirsch, who took over Touro Infirmary a week before Katrina.

If major changes aren't made, such as drastic increases in Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement, the city's hospitals will continue to hemorrhage money, says Hirsch, who worries there will be even fewer choices for care.

Before Katrina, many locals rented homes — garrets in the French Quarter, wings of faded mansions Uptown, shotgun homes in Bywater. For the impoverished, sprawling public housing projects offered shelter to more than 5,000 families.

But Katrina closed four-fifths of that subsidized housing.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to demolish four of the biggest housing projects and turn them into Norman Rockwellian mixed-income neighborhoods. That plan has met with fierce opposition from housing advocates who fear the poor would lose their foothold.

And there's little prospect New Orleans will become the renter's paradise it once was.

The back wall of the city council chamber is lined with architectural renderings of mixed-income, multi-family developments. That is the future planned for the eight-story brick Falstaff brewery, where pigeons now roost and graffiti artists leave their marks.

But so far, those plans are little more than wrinkled drawings.

The city's neighborhoods are repopulating, with and without government aid. But it is a patchwork redevelopment that favors those of means.

In the predominantly black Lower 9th Ward, the city's poorest neighborhood, streetlights are back on and water is flowing. But while there are houses being repaired here and there, and even some innovative solar power projects being instituted, there are vast stretches of empty, weed-choked lots and rooftops still covered in storm debris.

In mostly white Lakeview, where water levels topped 10 feet in some areas, things are booming.

Harrison Avenue, the main business strip, is fairly buzzing with banks, restaurants, even a Starbucks. Medians once strewn with debris and rotting garbage are now blooming again with crepe myrtles.

Surveys show 47 percent of Lakeview residents have returned, and another 23 percent are working on their homes. Freddy Yoder, a recovery contractor, has not only refurbished his 11-year-old brick Queen Anne Victorian-style home, but he's purchased several other lots in the neighborhood.

"I work with the Corps of Engineers. I go to their projects and I see what actions are being taken," he says. "And I am thoroughly convinced that if we're not there yet we're very close to being in a very safe environment and a very safe place to live."

Campanella, the Tulane geographer, thinks time, weather patterns and the insurance market will prove the folly of allowing people to reoccupy the city's old footprint. He sees the future in New Orleans' past.

Campanella says more than half of New Orleans is at or above sea level. But while nearly all New Orleanians occupied high ground a century ago, only 38 percent lived at or above sea level when Katrina hit.

Using satellite imagery, he has mapped about 2,000 empty or underutilized above-sea-level parcels covering an area about three times the size of the French Quarter.

"All I'm saying is we have this valuable natural resource that's being underutilized," he says, sitting in a grassy lot between two coffee warehouses in Faubourg Marigny.

And what happens with the public school system, long blamed as the root cause of New Orleans' entrenched poverty, will also shape the city's future.

Katrina accelerated a process of replacing the corrupt, underperforming system with reformed traditional schools and charter schools. Recently released test results show higher scores among the charter students. But the system is having trouble attracting teachers.

The clean slate attracted John Alford, a Harvard Business School graduate who moved from Baltimore to run the Langston Hughes Academy Charter School. By the storm's tenth anniversary, he expects 90 percent of the city's schools to be independently run charters.

"If we do what we're supposed to do," he says, "it can be a glorious city."

Crime remains rampant. Meanwhile, the New Orleans Police Department is still operating out of trailers, and the force continues to lose more officers to retirement and resignations than it can graduate from its academy.

Changes in organization and funding of the criminal courts and public defenders' offices promise to shore up a foundering judicial system. But with a nation-leading per-capita murder rate, the city has an uphill struggle to present an image of being safe.

Katrina continues to bring pain.

On a recent day, Stanley Joyce, 68, stood in line at City Hall with hundreds of others seeking to challenge their new property assessments. The valuation on his house just outside the French Quarter more than doubled. He knows the city needs the tax revenue. But that's a lot to swallow all at once, especially in a city whose waterlines are crumbling and streets are riddled with tire-swallowing potholes.

"If they want to go ahead and buy my house for the price that they assessed it for, I'd sell it to them tomorrow," said Joyce, waving a manila folder with his property records.

(( continues ))

Jolie Rouge

08-25-2007, 04:12 PM

Tourism is a bittersweet bright spot. The French Quarter survived Katrina, and the music and restaurant scenes continue to rebound. Some musicians are still missing in action. But Jazz trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, a co-founder of the renowned Rebirth Brass Band, says he and friends are busy as ever.

"It's just so wonderful to be alive and swinging in New Orleans," he says. "We're going to be buried here, man. That's for sure. That's for DAMN sure."

Most of the city's signature restaurants — Brennan's, Emeril's, Commander's Palace — have reopened.

A 70-story Trump hotel and condominium tower is planned for the central business district.

"There will be a Trump Tower," Cliff Mowe, one of The Donald's co-developers, said last week during a visit to the city for meetings with project attorneys and real estate people.

The building is not scheduled for completion until 2010, but Mowe says developers have received several hundred reservations and deposits from prospective tenants — many for units costing nearly $2 million.

But as millionaires stake out lofty digs, the city continues to bleed jobs. Tourism is notoriously poor-paying. There are huge questions about where thousands of good-paying jobs needed to sustain the city's rebound will come from.

Since Katrina, the oil industry has continued a shrinking that began in the 1980s. In November, Murphy Oil Corp. closed its New Orleans production office and shifted 100 employees to Houston. Chevron Corp. is building a new office across Lake Pontchartrain in St. Tammany Parish and will move 500 workers from New Orleans later this year.

Entergy Corp. was and likely will remain the city's only Fortune 500 company, says Robert Hartwig, chief economist at the Insurance Information Institute. "It's unlikely that it's going to emerge ... as a major business center," he says.

That means the city's economy will muddle along, bouyed by short-term construction jobs and spending. For the economy to prosper long-term, the city must be seen as safe and well-run.

And there, the jury is out.

Local businessman Aidan Gill doesn't need Tarots or tea leaves to know what New Orleans will look like in 2015. All he has to do is read the local newspaper and history books: It'll be just as corrupt and seedy as before Katrina, he believes.

"I am mystified at grown-up, mature, intelligent, educated people for talking about this `new New Orleans,'" says the Irish native, who dispenses $45 haircuts and $600 alligator belts from his men's haircuttery and haberdashery on Magazine Street.

"A simple way of putting it for the simple natives: You cannot make a gumbo using the same ingredients every day, and then at the end of every day expect it to taste any different."

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — AP Writer Mary Foster in New Orleans also contributed to this story.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070825/ap_on_re_us/after_katrina_nola2015;_ylt=Ai.66P.rC9iGTGbcnJXQzv hH2ocA

Jolie Rouge

08-25-2007, 04:13 PM

Insider tale of city hall in Katrina
By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 38 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - After Hurricane Katrina inundated his city, as Mayor Ray Nagin surveyed what was already being called the nation's worst natural disaster, press secretary Sally Forman asked if he was OK, she writes in a new book on the man and the post-storm chaos. "This was God's plan for me, Sally," Nagin said.

"What was?" she asked.

"To rebuild New Orleans."

Forman's book, "Eye of the Storm, Inside City Hall During Katrina," being released this week, details the problems, politics and bureaucracy that hindered efforts to save the city.

Forman, who left the Nagin administration when her husband ran for mayor last year, said that when she told Nagin about the book's release a few days ago, he said he didn't mind — as long as it was truthful.

On Saturday, Nagin's current spokeswoman, Ceeon D. Quiett, said the administration and the mayor were not contacted before publication to verify any facts or anecdotes. "Therefore, we will not, after final publication, validate or invalidate the content of this publication," Quiett said in an e-mail.

Nagin took office promising a new day in government, more transparency and an end to the corruption that has long plagued politics here.

But Forman says the business executive-turned-mayor's distrust of politicians, his outsider status, and his sense he was on a mission from God, hurt the city after Hurricane Katrina.

When Katrina hit on Aug. 29, 2005, he was nearly finished with his first term, disillusioned with police chief Eddie Compass, who he later fired, and navigating a rocky relationship with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Forman writes.

Though government at all levels seemed to pull together before Katrina, just days into the disaster communications and cooperation had broken down, she says.

With communications limited and misinformation rampant, Nagin met with military leaders and others.

FEMA's Phil Parr said the agency was "here to head up command and control," and warned that all FEMA guidelines would have to be followed.

"His words thudded down like sandbags as he rattled off technicalities that made me wonder if FEMA's motto was `Just say no,'" Forman wrote.

Later, Parr said in a meeting with Nagin that if the mayor continued to evacuate New Orleans, FEMA couldn't provide food to people left in the city.

Help had arrived, Forman says, but "bureaucracy was still tightening like a noose around our necks."

Looking back, she sees how "partisan bickering, senseless bureaucracy and failures within government, including my own, may have delayed our recovery and stopped many from coming home."

It hasn't killed New Orleans, Forman writes. But the city's medical and tourism sectors and its infrastructure took hits, and the murder rate has again begun to soar.

"Topping it off, slow moving and disjointed planning efforts have made new Orleans a case study in how to recklessly rebuild a major American city," she writes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070825/ap_en_ot/katrina_book_3;_ylt=AuAIxHq2AD4qPnWTdMuk5RRH2ocA

Jolie Rouge

08-26-2007, 09:01 PM

Pay heed to New Orleans' plight
By BRIAN SCHWANER, Associated Press writer
Sun Aug 26, 12:30 PM ET

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NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans is my hometown. And it's dying. Despite billions of dollars in aid, recovery programs with catchy names and an outpouring of volunteer effort, New Orleans is not recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

Beyond the happy mayhem of the French Quarter, entire neighborhoods are in ruins and the business district sags from the shattered economy. Thousands of people are homeless and squatting in vacant and storm-damaged properties, some just a few blocks from City Hall.

More than 160,000 residents never returned. For those who did dare to come back home, little resembles normalcy.

For the people with the power to save it, New Orleans is a forgotten place.

It's a national disgrace.

People should pay attention.

The next time, it could be your town.

A VIEW OF THE CRISIS

Katrina struck Aug. 29, 2005, flooding 80 percent of New Orleans and laying waste to the Mississippi coast. The feared worst-case storm lived up to every promise of horror.

Local, state and federal disaster officials bungled the rescue effort from the start, but in the city's darkest hour a presidential promise offered hope.

Barely two weeks after Katrina, President Bush stood in deserted Jackson Square before the majestic, eerily lit St. Louis Cathedral and pledged the nation to a massive reconstruction effort. "When communities are rebuilt, they must be even better and stronger than before the storm," Bush said. Earlier, Bush told relief volunteers that government would be the solution, not the problem. "Bureaucracy is not going to stand in the way of getting the job done for the people," he said.

Nearly two years later, New Orleans is neither better nor stronger, and a bureaucratic stranglehold is choking off its recovery. From a tinted window 25 stories above the New Orleans business district, I can see the city rotting from the inside out.

Across the street, Dominion Tower, once bustling with office workers and sprinkled with upscale retailers, is abandoned.

The adjacent Hyatt Hotel, where Super Bowl, Sugar Bowl and NCAA Final Four fans relaxed, also is empty.

Rows of camouflaged Humvees wait in a nearby parking lot for the military police who patrol lawless neighborhoods.

Just out of sight are wastelands where people live in cramped trailers or try to rebuild as best they can.

The only attention the city gets these days is as a campaign prop for some of the presidential contenders.

Among citizens, there is anger. There should be. For those who see New Orleans as someone else's agony, a caution: This kind of governmental and political nonchalance could greet you at your most dire moment.

The main program to help homeowners rebuild from Katrina — the $8 billion federally funded, state-administered and inaptly named Road Home — is going broke and may be short as much as $4 billion. Public schools, firehouses, police stations and transit routes are closed. Hospitals have not returned to normal capacity, and those that are open say they are losing millions of dollars providing medical care for the poor. There is little political will to build a levee system that would prevent the kind of flooding Katrina caused.

Federal, state and city officials can't even agree on priorities, or get aid dollars to where they are needed now. Mayor Ray Nagin, Gov. Kathleen Blanco and White House recovery director Don Powell play a blame game for the failed recovery. There are even whispers among the leaders of the effort that the city's problems are overblown.

They are dead wrong.

OK, NEW ORLEANS HAS BAGGAGE

If Katrina was the perfect storm, New Orleans was the perfect victim. Political corruption and incompetence in city government and an anemic economy made the city as vulnerable to turmoil as the levees that failed.

Sadly, the situation has worsened, and many of the leaders New Orleans must count on are fading from the scene or mired in scandal.

Take, for example, the representatives closest to the seats of power. U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., has been charged in an alleged international bribery scheme. He has denied wrongdoing. U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., has been caught up in a Washington sex scandal. Blanco has thrown in the towel and isn't running for re-election following the failure of state-led recovery programs and largely ineffective pleas to Congress for more aid.

Even the city's emerging leadership was dealt a shock when City Councilman Oliver Thomas, seen as one of the "good guys" of the recovery effort and maybe a future mayor, pleaded guilty this month to federal bribery charges,

Meanwhile, the police chief and district attorney are feuding while the city grapples with a murder rate that is the worst per capita in the nation.

Even the mayor may be checking out. Nagin is raising money to campaign for a new political office — perhaps governor or congressman, he won't say which. With three years left on his term, the city needs his undivided attention.

President Bush, the city's self-declared savior, has been here 10 times since Katrina, half the visits in the first six weeks after the storm. In the past year, as the true scope of the failure of the recovery unfolded, Bush visited only twice. The city didn't even get a mention in his State of the Union address last January.

PAINFUL REALITIES

Many of the 270,000 people now living in New Orleans wonder how the nation can spend a half-trillion dollars in Iraq while this city remains wrecked. "I can't believe this is the United States and after so long, so much is still not fixed," said Melanie Ehrlich, a Tulane University researcher. "It's scandalous, unforgivable."

It's worse than that.

Not far from the Ehrlich home, the 6000 block of Paris Avenue is deserted. Weeds obscure gutted houses. Gruesome gang-like symbols painted on their doors tell cryptic tales of what rescuers found when they pushed through Katrina's floodwater.

"It's like looking at the rapture," said the Rev. Jeremy Evans, 31, as he gazed out from the nearby Edgewater Baptist Church. Like the biblical call of the faithful to Heaven, people seem to have vanished.

Paris Avenue is not an exception. Hard-hit neighborhoods across the city could rot for years at the mercy of process-oriented bureaucrats.

Ilene Powell has had her fill of it.

Powell's home in Lakeview was hit hard by Katrina's flood. She applied to Road Home for a rebuilding grant, then spent 16 months in a maddening process of confusing paperwork, interviews and phone calls. Like thousands of others, she is shaken by the experience. "Just who are the rocket scientists running this mess?" she quips.

Actually, New Orleans does have rocket scientists at the Lockheed-Martin plant that serves the space shuttle program. But the remainder of its economy is shaky.

Perhaps taking cues from the leaderless, chaotic recovery, a crisis of confidence has tainted the local corporate contingent. Companies have heaped charitable contributions on the city, but some are pulling jobs out. There are murmurs that more may do so. Companies have a hard time getting executives to transfer here. Meanwhile, a University of New Orleans poll showed public sentiment is so bad that 29 percent of the current resident population may leave.

America should not allow New Orleans to die a slow death. "No one in government has a true sense of the reality of what is happening here," Powell observed.

A great American city is withering. The people with power must be made to care.

And you should care — that it could be your hometown that is abandoned when the crisis is yours.

EDITOR'S NOTE — Brian Schwaner is the Louisiana news editor for The Associated Press, based in New Orleans. A New Orleans native whose family traces its roots in Louisiana to the 1760s, Schwaner is a graduate of East Jefferson High School in suburban Metairie and the University of New Orleans. Much of his career in journalism has been spent covering culture, politics and business in Louisiana. He joined AP in 2006 from The Cincinnati Enquirer, where he was assistant managing editor/business.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070826/ap_on_re_us/after_katrina_my_hometown;_ylt=AhmJmtcszwKI4y.IDPT v99xH2ocA

Jolie Rouge

08-26-2007, 09:02 PM

Tough times for New Orleans musicians
By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 58 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Musicians, instruments strapped to their backs and signs in hand, marched to the French Quarter on Sunday, demanding better wages and asking tourists, music lovers and political leaders not to take them for granted.

"It ain't easy to be in the Big Easy," Deacon John Moore, the president of the local musicians union, told onlookers after the low-key march through the rain from Louis Armstrong Park. "Our musicians are suffering. We hate to come out here and beg, but we have no alternative at this point."

Many musicians, like other New Orleanians, are struggling with life since Hurricane Katrina struck nearly two years ago. Many venues that offered live music have not reopened or offer the stage as often.

That's creating a "cutthroat mentality" among the working musicians in town, Moore said. While the union has a minimum scale wage, not all members are adhering to it, Moore said. Some are working on the streets for tips from tourists and other passers-by — cheapening the value of what they're producing, he said.

"The local music economy has forced local musicians to live in survival mode, 'a little something is better than nothing,'" the guitarist-band leader-singer said. "That's how you live when your back's against the wall."

Before Katrina, he said, there were more than 3,000 professional musicians, including music teachers, in New Orleans; this spring, there were less than 1,800, he said. Moore estimated a quarter of those commute into the city, where music has long been part of the colorful culture.

Saxophone player Travis Blotsky said his situation as a musician hasn't changed much since the storm, which hit two years ago this week. But he said he's concerned about the future of the music scene in what was jazz legend Armstrong's hometown. Musicians shouldn't have to take gigs in Top 40 cover bands to make ends meet, if that's not their thing, he said.

"We need to nurture more original music," he said during the processional, which included a black hearse.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070827/ap_on_re_us/katrina_musicians;_ylt=Aq8F8C6AjT4ZnhOo4kS9mzNH2oc A

Jolie Rouge

08-27-2007, 08:31 AM

In New Orleans, 'brain gain' fills in as government falters
Mon Aug 27, 12:22 AM ET

Two years after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, the Fort Pike Volunteer Fire Department in east New Orleans does not lack for firetrucks. Shortly after the storm, it received two, donated by non-profit groups.

Now, if it could only get a fire station to put them in.

The department's trucks sit out in the elements, reducing their life expectancy. Its firefighters operate out of their homes and a couple of trailers, while they plod through the tedium and frustration of getting federal help.

Their experience is typical of the halting, uneven status of rebuilding in New Orleans. Significant progress is being made, particularly with funds from non-profits and in cases where homeowners and small businesses can draw on their own money upfront. Some neighborhoods, particularly wealthier ones, have revived. But in much of the city, public facilities and lower-income communities still look storm-ravaged.

The New Orleans police chief still operates out of a trailer. In the first three months of this year, the violent crime rate more than doubled over the previous year. Seven area hospitals, four of them public, remain closed, causing an acute shortage of health care services. Throughout much of the city, boarded-up homes still show Katrina's high-water mark, often well into their second floors. And in the Lower 9th Ward, a largely African-American community, it is possible to walk for blocks through erstwhile neighborhoods without seeing anything but tall grass and potholed streets. Tens of thousands of residents still live in trailers.

All of this would make for an unrelenting tale of woe, but for one thing: People are pouring into the city. For all that government is messing up, market forces and individual initiative are helping to right, albeit painfully slowly.

In the past year, the population of New Orleans has grown from less than half the pre-Katrina level to more than two-thirds. Many new arrivals are young, idealistic and highly educated newcomers, drawn to the city by its uniqueness and undaunted by its problems. The Times-Picayune, the city's daily newspaper, recently called the phenomenon New Orleans' "brain gain."

Also pouring into the city are an impressive number of senior executives drawn to the challenges of building and rebuilding, rather than merely administering. Schools chief Paul Vallas, city recovery czar Edward Blakely and Tulane University medical school dean Benjamin Sachs are among a long list of nationally or internationally acclaimed professionals coming to New Orleans in recent months. Tulane's president, Scott Cowen, who hired Sachs, says he's getting more and better applicants than he did before Katrina.

There are broader lessons in this.

The most obvious is that government simply must do a better job the next time there is a natural, or man-made, disaster remotely approaching the scale of Katrina. All levels of government have failed to deliver. But perhaps the most disappointing has been the federal government, which has by far the most resources.

Two years after Katrina, Washington is just waking up to the fact that the Stafford Act, which governs the disbursement of federal disaster aid, simply does not work with a catastrophe on the scale of this. Its long list of rules and procedures might help reduce some waste. But in this case, it has led to haggling over minor details, such as the size of the firehouse doors or the number of pencils allocated to each school, rather than pushing ahead with rebuilding. Road Home, the main program for aiding homeowners, has closed its books on just one in five of its applicants.

A second conclusion is that Americans are a highly entrepreneurial and compassionate lot who can make up for the shortcomings of government. The influx of people is proof of that.

For better or worse, New Orleans has become a laboratory. The lows it has experienced over the past two years have been devastating. But a good case can be made that eventually, it will emerge as a better city.

Flood control systems are clearly improved, if still nowhere near levels that would fend off a Category 5 storm. And its school system, long one of the nation's worst, is changing. Some 57% of its students are now in charter schools, and there is optimism, if no real results as yet. What's more, the influx of talent, if it is not driven away, will create vibrant businesses and arts communities. The city might even make headway in tackling its notorious corruption. It recently lured Robert Cerasoli, the former inspector general of Massachusetts (another impressive hire) to take on waste fraud and abuse as its first IG.

Ultimately, however, there are limits to the individualistic approach to solving major problems. The energetic, idealistic people flooding into New Orleans are unlikely to stay if basic government functions such as health care and education are substandard.

When firefighters lack firehouses, there's no doubt that the city's needs remain massive and urgent two years after the storm.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070827/cm_usatoday/inneworleansbraingainfillsinasgovernmentfalters;_y lt=Asnq3e1Q0wkdU8JdmY1J_IWs0NUE

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Jolie Rouge

08-28-2007, 08:20 PM

Louisiana governor testifies in Katrina deaths
By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 28, 5:35 PM ET

ST. FRANCISVILLE, La. - Gov. Kathleen Blanco feared many people would decide to ride out Hurricane Katrina but left it to local officials to order a mandatory evacuation, she testified Tuesday in the trial of two nursing home owners charged in the drowning deaths of patients.

Prosecutors called the governor as a witness after she fought a subpoena from attorneys for Mabel and Salvador Mangano, the husband and wife who own St. Rita's nursing home.

The Manganos face 35 counts of negligent homicide. Prosecutors say they should have evacuated their patients from the nursing home in St. Bernard Parish, a coastal parish near New Orleans that was all but wiped out by flooding when Katrina hit Aug. 29, 2005.

Defense attorneys say Blanco and other public officials failed to organize an effective evacuation and help get "at-risk" people to high ground.

Under questioning by Assistant Attorney General Burton Guidry, Blanco said that until late in the day on Aug. 26, it appeared Katrina would hit Florida. She issued an emergency order at 10 p.m. that day after the state was placed on the edge of the forecast track.

She described three news conferences she held two days before the storm struck, during which, she said, she encouraged evacuation. She said she feared that many people did not realize the storm was heading for Louisiana and that many would not evacuate, especially those who had spent hours stuck on the road a year earlier during an evacuation for Hurricane Ivan.

"I was concerned that a lot of people did not even know about it Saturday night," Blanco said. "I was concerned that people would not want to get on the highways."

She said 1.3 million people fled in the 36 hours before Katrina hit. She never issued a mandatory order to leave, she testified.

"I did not issue that order because all the local governments were deeply engaged in getting out the word and helping people to evacuate," Blanco testified under cross examination.

Blanco said that when Hurricane Rita struck Louisiana, 3 1/2 weeks after Katrina, she worked to line up hundreds of buses in advance to help people evacuate. "We learned our lesson," she said.

She also said the state received requests from nursing homes for help in evacuating residents.

"There was a tremendous amount of pleading for help, including citizens, nursing homes and from hospitals," Blanco said.

Blanco was on the stand for three hours, acknowledging early on that she was nervous and explaining that she had never testified in a trial before.

The Manganos' trial was moved to St. Francisville, about 100 miles northwest of St. Bernard Parish, because of fears it would have been difficult to find jurors in the slowly recovering parish.

The Louisiana Supreme Court rejected Blanco's attempt to avoid testifying in the trial. An attorney for the Democratic governor, who is not running for re-election, said Blanco was not the best person to answer attorney's questions.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070828/ap_on_re_us/katrina_nursing_home_deaths;_ylt=AkYhO0N8Jr_ZaQWNE M6yDtlvzwcF

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Jolie Rouge

08-28-2007, 08:23 PM

[The day the music died?
By Caroline Briggs
BBC News, New Orleans

Thousands of musicians and their families were affected by the storm

When Katrina blew her fury across New Orleans in August 2005, she ripped the very heart out of the city. The music.

Before Katrina, music had pulsed through the veins of New Orleans. It spilled out of every club, seeped into every street, and nourished every tight community.

But it was those tight communities - places like the Lower Ninth Ward, St Bernard's, and Treme districts - that were engulfed when the levees broke.

And it was those communities that many of New Orleans' musicians were forced to flee.

Katrina scattered them far and wide - to New York, Houston, Atlanta, Dallas.

Thousands, it is thought, are yet to return.

Ben Jaffe, director of New Orleans' venerable Preservation Hall, says his jazz band was hit hard.

"Our trumpet player stayed in New Orleans, our clarinet player stayed, our pianist stayed, but our drummer left town, and our banjo player left town. Most of them lost their homes."

'It knew where I lived'

Officially, New Orleans' population is half its pre-Katrina level.

How Katrina affected six musicians

According to the Renew Our Music Fund - one of a number of charities helping musicians get back on their feet - of the 5,000 full-time, professional musicians who lived in the city before Katrina, about 3,000 are still displaced.

Veteran musician, songwriter and producer Allen Toussaint, known around the world for writing songs like Lee Dorsey's Working In A Coalmine, and more recently working with Elvis Costello, was one of those forced to leave.

A veteran of Louisiana's long legacy of hurricanes, he weathered the storm in the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel on Canal Street, before leaving for neighbouring Baton Rouge.

Toussaint eventually settled in New York, where he is living while his house is rebuilt.

"The Hurricane Katrina knew exactly where I lived," he says.

"It knew exactly where all the important things that I lived with daily were, and it found them and it baptised them all."

Despite the impact the exodus of musicians had on the city's music scene, Toussaint says he is confident it will come back.

"New Orleans hasn't died. At this very moment there are musicians playing in Jackson Square, out in front of the Cathedral, all up and down the French Quarter and many other places."

Quieter streets

To the casual visitor, seeing clubs like Vaughn's, the Spotted Cat, Donna's, d.b.a, and Snug Harbour writhing with live music, it would seem the scene is already back there.

House-to-house searches began in the city within days of the levees breaking. The eerie graffiti crosses the searchers sprayed remain on thousands of abandoned homes.
Typically, one quadrant contains the date the house was searched, another the agency who conducted the search. The bottom quadrant records the number of bodies found at the site. In this case, the homeowners were lucky.
The city's official death toll stands at about 1,100.

But, nearly two years after Katrina, the reality is very different.

As the tourists have begun trickling back to the French Quarter - but at half pre-Katrina level - so have the gigs.

And those who go looking will still find the same quality music in the shape of bands like Glen David Andrews and the Lazy Six, Joe Lastie's Lil' Jazzmen, Trombone Summit, or Kermit Ruffins.

But the streets are a little quieter these days. Fewer venues are offering live music, and those that do are not open as often. Musicians claim they are also being paid less.

It is down to the fall in the number of tourists and poorer locals who feel they can no longer afford door charges or tips for the band.

Even Preservation Hall, a Mecca for visiting jazz fans, now only opens four nights a week.

Glen David Andrews, trombonist and leader of The Lazy Six, admits Katrina's legacy is still hurting musicians.

Glen David Andrews lost his home in the floods

"This is my second gig this month - two gigs in one month - you can't pay rent like that, but I'm going to make it work.

"Before Katrina I was a living musician, since I was 16 years old. I'm 27 now and I feel like I'm 10 years back. Literally."

But even if work can be found, the fact remains that many musicians' homes are still in ruins.

The rebuilding so far has been ad-hoc, like a sticking plaster on a severed limb.

Ghost towns

Most of the areas flooded two years ago are a mixture of renovated properties and gutted homes awaiting repair while their owners live in trailers in the garden.

Others remain untouched, and every few metres an empty site tells its own sad tale. Many of the poorer areas are still like ghost towns.

Even middle-class areas like Eastover, with its 4,000 sq ft homes, remain lifeless. The floods did not distinguish between rich and poor.

It is only money to rebuild the homes that can ultimately help. Musicians - like anyone - need somewhere to live. Until then, locals say, the communities will remain shattered, and the music scene weakened.

"This is supposed to be America. The great America and look at what's happening," says Andrews, who spent 18 months living in a trailer after his house was flooded.

THE ROAD HOME
The programme is designed to provide compensation to Louisiana homeowners affected by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita
Eligible homeowners can receive up to $150,000 in compensation for their losses to get back into their homes
131,182 householders in New Orleans have applied to the scheme
To date, 35,809 households have received cheques
Figures based on five New Orleans parishes: Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St Bernard; St Tammany

"It's not just about the music, it is about the music community, the people who play the music.

"You've got to be at home. You've got to do jazz funerals, you've got to play Mardi Gras, you've got to do Jazz Fest."

'Where is the money?'

But thousands of people are still waiting for cash from the Road Home Programme before they can start to rebuild.

It is coming through, although painfully slowly for many and not without a little controversy. The question on most people's lips is: "Where is the money?" Many are angry. and fear it will never come through for them.

In the meantime, musicians have been helping themselves in an attempt to rebuild their fragile livelihoods.

Non-profit organisations, many run by musicians, have sprung up, helping other artists to replace lost or damaged instruments, find gigs, provide transport and accommodation, or cover health care and housing costs.

The Tipitina's Foundation, the charitable arm of the world-famous New Orleans music venue, has distributed about $1.5m, while Renew Our Music, and New Orleans Musician's Relief Fund (NOmrf) are also there.

The aim is simple: to get musicians back working and living in New Orleans.

The musicians who are yet to return are mostly elderly who need access to healthcare, or younger musicians with families.

"Ultimately it may mean we lose an older generation," says Jaffe, who co-founded Renew Our Music in the days following Katrina.

"They are the ones I learned to play music from, learned how to cook from. Those are the ones I feel saddest about losing."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6944941.stm

Jolie Rouge

08-28-2007, 08:27 PM

Two Years Later: Katrina's Economic Impact
The Region's Economy Is Recovering, but Slowly
By DANIEL ARNALL - ABC News Business Unit
Aug. 28, 2007

When the storm made landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi on Aug. 29, 2005, no one knew how vast the devastation would be.

The near total loss of New Orleans and the counties surrounding the grand Creole city was not a regional tragedy, it was a national one, with long-term economic costs to every American.

In the weeks after Hurricane Katrina, oil and gasoline prices spiked, as nearly a third of the nation's refineries and the entire domestic oil production of the Gulf of Mexico were shut down.

Retail gas prices rocketed up 46 cents in a single week to a new nominal record high. Almost immediately, the American consumer started cutting back. Economists say that the storm likely took a full percentage point out of the U.S. gross domestic product in the quarter immediately after the storm.

But nationally, the American economy recovered fairly quickly. The oil infrastructure was back up and running at near pre-Katrina levels in months and retail gas prices dropped to their pre-storm level by the end of October.

"The U.S. economy rebounded from Katrina, although the region hit by the storm has not, demonstrating, once again, how amazingly resilient our economy can be," Dan Laufenberg, chief economist at Ameriprise Financial, told ABC News on the first anniversary of the storm.

In the region directly affected by the storm, thousands lost their jobs and were forced to move to other cities.

Insured losses in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama directly attributable to Katrina totaled more than $40 billion, according to the Insurance Information Institute. That was nearly double the amount of damage caused by the previous record holder, Hurricane Andrew, in 1992. Andrew left a wake of destruction in south Florida that totaled more than $21 billion in insured losses in today's dollars.

Nearly two years after Katrina, the region is still struggling to regain its pre-storm economic strength, but there are some encouraging signs:

Many of the region's economic indicators sales tax revenue, total employers, jobs and labor force size have been restored to at least 79 percent of pre-Katrina levels. (Source: Brookings Institution)

The U.S. Postal Service says the number of households actively receiving mail in New Orleans as of June is two-thirds of the pre-Katrina number, up from 50 percent one year after the storm. (Source: USPS)

After seeing a huge boom in real estate sales immediately after Katrina, sales of single-family homes in the greater New Orleans region have cooled. Single-family home sales averaged more than 1,200 per month across the metro area for the first year after the storm, up from the 1,076 before Katrina. During the second year of recovery, sales dropped back down to 962 per month on average. (Source: New Orleans Association of Realtors)

Fair market rents rose an astounding 39 percent from 2005 to 2006, as people scrambled for the sliver of available rental housing in the New Orleans area. By 2007, rents began to stabilize at these higher levels, increasing just 4 percent from 2006 to 2007. A two-bedroom apartment in the region now rents for $978 per month, up from $676 in 2005. (Source: HUD)

The portion of the sales tax that comes from hotels and motels, especially for the months between February and May of 2007, representing the major visitor draws of Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest, have also rebounded to near pre-Katrina levels. Specifically, taxes from hotel and motel stays generated a total of $3.4 million in revenue for the city between February and May of 2007, representing 74.2 percent of the total revenues during that period in 2005. (Source: City of New Orleans, Finance Department)

According to the most recent estimates, the New Orleans region lost more than 4,000 businesses in the year after the disaster. By the fall of 2006, the city and the metro area region had reached 72 percent and 85 percent of its pre-Katrina employer base. (Source: Louisiana State University)

The region's employment base has recovered to approximately 83 percent of its pre-Katrina levels. In the New Orleans metro area today, approximately a half million people are employed. Before the storm blew through the city, more than 600,000 worked there. (Source: BLS)

Approximately 3,500 businesses have received grants from the state of Louisiana. The average grant size is $18,100 and given to a firm with fewer than 10 employees. (Source: Louisiana Department of Economic Development)

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=3529341&page=1

Jolie Rouge

08-28-2007, 08:34 PM

Two Years Later: Katrina's Economic Impact
The Region's Economy Is Recovering, but Slowly
By DANIEL ARNALL - ABC News Business Unit
Aug. 28, 2007http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=3529341&page=1

from their comments page ....

Your evening news broadcast (Tuesday, August 28, 2007) gives one the impression that of $114B allocated to Katrina Relief, $15B has been spent. The fact of the matter is that less than $7B has actually been spent and that includes funds associated with flood insurance. That $7B figure is approximately what the Federal Government spends EACH MONTH in Iraq!!!Further, apparently, your Wednesday broadcast will feature. a segment showing "New Orleans remarkable comeback in spite of all the hardships." I can only hope that you convey accurately to your viewing audience what the words "remarkable" and "comeback" REALLY mean.I have just returned (my fifth time back) from New Orleans where I was a physics professor, and while there is progress, that progress is extremely spotty and for the most part confined to those areas where people were very tenacious, had adequate insurance, or just plain stubborn. Many areas are essentially just as they were (minus standing water) just after Katrina. You should note there are many levee regions where NOTHING has been done...The chain is only as strong as its weakest link comes to mind.FEMA is basically impotent and so full of "red tape" that it is almost impossible to get help on a timely (or almost any other) basis. The City and State are also much at fault in not making it easier to bring back its former citizens. For instance, just last week, enormous increases in assessed property values will make even harder a comeback for those people on fixed or "Middle Class" incomes. In this case, story lines suited for the cartoon "Dilbert" come to mind.Let's hope that no hurricanes hit New Orleans and the near Gulf coast in the next 5 (or 6 or 7??) years.

Posted by: slaughtsABC 8:17 PM

UNFORTUNATELY, NEW ORLEANS WILL NEVER EVER BE THE SAME AGAIN. ONE OF THE CITIES THAT I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO SEE AND IT'S GONE DUE TO POOR PLANNING AND EVEN POORER RECONSTRUCTION. THE CITY WITH THE MOST MARVELOUS MUSIC, THE MARDI GRAS, THE HOSPITALITY, THE WONDERFUL CULTURE AND CUISINE AND NOW WE HAVE PEOPLE LIVING IN EXTREMELY POOR CONDITIONS, PEOPLE THAT HAVE BEEN ORPHANED FROM THEIR FAMILY AND FRIENDS AND LOTS OF KILLINGS. SO TERRIBLY SAD. WE CAN ONLY PRAY THAT THEIR IS A VISION FOR NEW ORLEANS AND THAT IT BECOMES A REALITY.

Posted by: cindernmollie 5:44 PM

I made the mistake of returning to New Orleans 3 weeks after Katrina! I worked as a union stagehand in the New Orleans area since 1992. What did I get for returning to New Orleans and trying to restart my life? I am currently homeless in Atlanta! The federal government promised a year of disaster unemployment, but what they did was make me use all 22 weeks of my state unemployment, before I received only 13 weeks of disaster unemployment! The theaters in New Orleans, where I earned half my yearly income are just now starting to be repaired. The trade show industry in New Orleans is still recovering and could not produce income for me to maintain a residence in the New Orleans area! The federal government did not provide the needed support for me to survive the economic conditions after Katrina! Now I receive no help from FEMA, little or no help from the Red cross. I would liketo return to New Orleans, once the theaters are repaired, but I will need help returning! The federal government seems only interested in cutting or delaying aid!

Posted by: stagehand555 12:56 PM

every fema manager should be in the unemployment line. This town shouldve been leveled and moved to higher ground. it was the substandard flood controls that caused the damaged and then the people at fault are again giving taxpaying citizens the runaround. forget about iraq.. lets fix this country. My heart goes out to all of u trapped in this mess. One of my friends lost everything in katrina and the insurance co said all of their possesions were worth $9000. Um, for 2 interior designers w no kids... that didnt even cover their living room. They are struggling and they make very good money. i cant even imagine what low income families are doing. Disgusting

Posted by: misterian48335 10:07 AM

it was the substandard flood controls that caused the damaged

No - a 22 foot storm surge which broke the levees and the loss of power ( and pump operators who were ordered out of town by Nagin and Brousard ) to the water pumps caused the damage ...

Jolie Rouge

08-28-2007, 08:38 PM

Bush dines with Queen of Creole
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 8 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - President Bush said Tuesday he wanted to celebrate the spirit of New Orleans. He chose to do so with Leah Chase, considered this proud, still-struggling city's Queen of Creole, known as much for her famous cooking as her warm personality.

The president and his wife, Laura, dined with about two dozen others at her restaurant, Dooky Chase, a landmark eatery that was once a gathering place for civil rights leaders and has become famous for traditional Creole cooking. Around the large square table with Bush, federal, state and local officials mixed with athletes, artists, developers and others.

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees was at the table, as was musician Irvin Mayfield, for a long list of dishes such as crab soup, grilled redfish, shrimp Clemenceau, chicken with oyster dressing and jambalaya.

Bush called them all "quiet heroes who have helped bring optimism and hope to New Orleans" after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina two years ago Wednesday. He saluted Chase and her husband, Dooky Chase II, who have renovated the restaurant with its elegant dining rooms, impressive art collection and brilliantly colored walls and plan to finally reopen from the storm's damage in a couple of weeks.

"I know you would want me to say that the food here is about as good as anyplace here in New Orleans," Bush said. "I will say it."

The president and his wife are to spend Wednesday's anniversary at a New Orleans charter school and a community center down the Gulf Coast in Bay St. Louis, Miss. It is Bush's 15th visit to the region since the storm but only his second since last year's anniversary, as the issue has moved further off the president's radar.

The federal government's dismal performance in the immediate aftermath of the storm — and some residents' lingering sense of abandonment since — severely dented Bush's image as a take-charge leader.

So, as on other visits, Bush and his team came here armed with a raft of facts and figures about how much his administration has done to fulfill his Jackson Square promise to "do what it takes" to rebuild New Orleans.

"The president continues to follow through on his commitment to help local citizens rebuild their lives," said Bush spokesman Scott Stanzel.

The storm killed more than 1,600 people along the Gulf Coast, decimating the Mississippi shoreline and flooding nearly 80 percent of New Orleans.

Two years later, huge swaths of the city remain in shambles, with businesses shuttered and houses abandoned and bureaucracy choking federal and state assistance.

The city's population continues to grow. Sales tax revenues are approaching normal. But unemployment is stubbornly high. Schools and hospitals have not reopened to keep pace and neither has crime prevention. New Orleans levees still are not ready for the next big storm.

Bush's Gulf Coast rebuilding chief, Don Powell, noted the federal government has committed a total of $114 billion in aid to the region, $96 billion of which is already disbursed or available to local governments. The implied criticism is that it is local officials' fault if that money has not reached citizens.

Powell also said the president intends to ask for $7.5 billion more — for a total of $15 billion — to strengthen New Orleans' levee system to withstand a 100-year storm and improve the area's drainage system. Levees, he said, are undeniably and solely a federal responsibility.

But he said that other areas — such as infrastructure repair and home rebuilding — are shared responsibilities with local officials or entirely the purview of state and local governments.

The federally funded, state administered Road Home program, created to help people rebuild their homes, is a particularly sore subject.

Fewer than 40,000 Louisiana have received grants, out of more than 180,000 applications. And federal, state and local government officials discovered only recently that insurance shortfalls means they won't have enough money to go around.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070829/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_katrina_1;_ylt=ApxJqfBeJkEaOfgT4ma1bXJH2ocA

Jolie Rouge

08-29-2007, 01:13 PM

Our view on coastal insurance:
Help Gulf recover, but don't subsidize the next disaster
Wed Aug 29, 12:22 AM ET

Along parts of Mississippi's Gulf Coast, rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina is moving forward quickly, if unevenly.

Many of Biloxi's beachfront casinos are not only back but are bigger than before, employing 2,000 more people than they did when Katrina struck two years ago today.

Beyond Biloxi, however, you can drive miles along the low-lying Mississippi coastline and see little other than vacant lots. The storm surge washed in more that 20 feet high, wiping out homes and businesses far from shore. Insurance rates soared so drastically that for many, rebuilding is impossible. A typical homeowner's policy that once cost less than $4,000 per year now costs more than $10,000. And many companies aren't even writing new policies.

This economic reality is already beginning to dictate a different kind of development. Near Biloxi, high-rise condominiums, which can be engineered to better endure storms and spread insurance costs, are replacing single-family homes.

But where homeowners and businesses are determined to rebuild as before, a seductive proposal is gaining popularity, one that ducks the choice between taking on unaffordable costs and bearing unacceptable risks.

To break the insurance-induced logjam, Mississippi leaders are lining up behind a proposal by Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., that would shift the risk to federal taxpayers. Taylor wants to broaden the National Flood Insurance Program — already a grossly underfunded boondoggle that encourages building in flood-prone areas and leaves the public holding the bag.

It's not hard to see why the idea is politically attractive on the coast. It's also natural — and appropriate — to help people who have suffered so much. It's just hard to see why people in Kansas or Colorado should be compelled to help foot the bill for others to live near the beach.

The federal flood insurance program was begun in 1968 with the idea that it would offer subsidized rates in communities that adopted minimum building and zoning requirements. Over time, the subsidized rates have done far more to encourage development than the very minimal requirements have done to restrict it.

Political pressure has kept rates low, in effect forcing people in less vulnerable inland communities to subsidize people who live along the coast. And efforts at reform have been minimal. The program imposes no additional costs on properties that have been repeatedly damaged or destroyed. And a 1982 law that set some uniquely vulnerable undeveloped land off-limits to flood insurance has been undermined by exemptions granted to favored developers in congressional earmarks.

As it is now, the federal program covers flood damage while private insurance covers wind damage. Under Taylor's plan, the deeply flawed federal program would be expanded to cover wind damage as well as flooding.

The wind-water distinction, and the endless finger-pointing it produces in the wake of a hurricane, certainly needs to be addressed. Nothing in the post-Katrina period has imposed more pointless misery and delay. Nonetheless, adding incentives that would re-create pre-Katrina vulnerabilities in a place that has been wiped out twice in 40 years by hurricanes is the wrong way to go about it.

Taxpayers already have been called on to cover a Katrina-related flood insurance shortfall of more than $20 billion (in addition to much more for direct disaster relief they have provided). Washington is handling this in its usual manner — by borrowing from future generations.

In theory, Taylor's measure would require the government to charge rates based on "accepted actuarial principles." But the history of flood insurance, as well as other government programs, shows that political expedience, rather than actuarial soundness, is its chief principle in setting rates.

Even after the Katrina shortfall, for example, lawmakers are considering only a modest 10%-15% hike in federal flood insurance rates, while increasing the amount of coverage offered. Private policies covering wind damage have gone up as much as fourfold.

Gulf Coast residents deserve the nation's sympathy and assistance in putting their lives back together. But the answers lie elsewhere: in new kinds of construction and innovative building codes that reduce risk; in returning vulnerable seashore to a natural state; and in aid to the thousands still displaced by the storm.

Subsidizing everything to be as it once was, or inviting reckless development, will only ensure a new catastrophe with the arrival of the next great storm.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070829/cm_usatoday/ourviewoncoastalinsurancehelpgulfrecoverbutdontsub sidizethenextdisaster;_ylt=ArMVlM4SltwrVLv85lXdWka s0NUE

It's just hard to see why people in Kansas or Colorado should be compelled to help foot the bill for others to live near the beach.

Katrina and Rita caused intensive damage to properties miles and miles from any beach. We may as well say ... why should people on the Gulf Coast pay for the tornando damage in OK and KS ? For earthquake damages along the west coast ? For the flood damages - caused in part by a Tropical Storm system - in the Mid West ?

Opposing view: Expand federal program
Wed Aug 29, 12:21 AM ET

After Hurricane Katrina, insurance companies paid for wind damage as far inland as Tennessee, 300 miles from the Gulf Coast, but denied wind damage claims in coastal areas where five hours of destructive winds were followed by the storm surge.

State Farm instructed its adjusters that "where wind acts concurrently with flooding to cause damage to the insured property, coverage for the loss exists only under flood coverage." Other companies implemented similar policies. ( This is in the fine print of your HURRICANE policy - what is a hurricane but wind and water ? )

Homeowners who paid high premiums for decades were left with unpaid claims for wind damage. While denying their own claims, companies were generous with taxpayers' money, paying federal flood insurance claims in full without proving how much damage was caused by flooding.

When insurers did order damage assessments, the reports were rigged. One engineering firm was fired and then rehired by State Farm only after promising to rewrite reports that found wind damage. Managers at another firm changed the on-site assessments of engineers who concluded that damage was caused by wind.

In Louisiana, adjusters billed the downstairs flood insurance claim for damage to upstairs contents that should have been on the wind insurance claim. Allstate used different cost estimates for identical building materials — exaggerating the cost when figuring the flood insurance check while underestimating the cost for the Allstate payment.

A year and a half after Katrina, federal courts ruled that insurance companies have to prove that damage was caused by flooding in order to exclude wind coverage. Only then did State Farm and Allstate offer settlements for the wind damage that preceded the storm surge. The delay took advantage of the desperation of disaster victims. Many settled for less than they were owed; others had given up and relied on government assistance.

Congress has provided more than $30 billion for housing repair grants, FEMA trailers, rental assistance, subsidized loans, tax deductions and other housing assistance. Many of those costs should have been covered by insurance.

The best way to protect taxpayers and policyholders from insurance company fraud is to allow the National Flood Insurance Program to offer both wind and flood coverage in one policy.

The insurance industry will not cover flooding and does not want to offer wind coverage in hurricane-risk areas. It has dumped $600 billion of coastal risk into state wind pools and other state-sponsored insurers of last resort.

The Multiple Peril Insurance Act would benefit every taxpayer in America by ensuring that more disaster costs are covered by insurance premiums instead of by costly and inefficient disaster assistance programs.

Rep. Gene Taylor, a Democrat from Bay St. Louis, represents coastal Mississippi.

219/4,700

State Farm instructed its adjusters that "where wind acts concurrently with flooding to cause damage to the insured property, coverage for the loss exists only under flood coverage." Other companies implemented similar policies.

( This is in the fine print of your HURRICANE policy - what is a hurricane but wind and water ? My roof damage was ultimatly not covered becasue of the water damage caused after the wind ripped the corner of my roof off my house. I live 80 miles from NO and 150 from the coast.)

The Multiple Peril Insurance Act ...

http://www.house.gov/genetaylor/

Jolie Rouge

08-29-2007, 04:10 PM

The Flooding Didn't Destroy Enough Houses
Harry Shearer
Tue Aug 28, 8:58 PM ET

EN ROUTE TO NEW ORLEANS--Along with other New Orleanians, I've been amazed at the lack of alacrity with which both Republicans and Democrats have approached the problem of a federally caused flood that destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of homes, wrecking whole neighborhoods and communities, and spinning half a city's population into involuntary, semi-permanent exile. Now the answer becomes clear: the post-Katrina flooding just didn't destroy enough houses.

Latest estimate, in today's Times-Picayune, [b]105,000 residential buildings severely damaged in the City of New Orleans alone, a $14 billion loss. Apparently, judging by the turtle-like response, just not enough.

This becomes clear when you consider the heart-pounding race to come up with a plan to cushion the "legions of" subprime borrowers from the consequences of their gullibility, as their low "teaser " interest rates expire (note: they're called teaser rates for a reason).

"Legions," in NYT-speak, may mean millions, but, more importantly, these folks probably live in more than one state. So nationally prominent Democrats, like Hillary Clinton and Barney Frank (Congressman, have you yet been to post-K New Orleans ?) are falling all over themselves to "rescue" people who just couldn't bother to read fine print, who just chose to believe TV commercials about their incredible luck in qualifying for home loans, despite, in many cases, lack of income, jobs or assets (those loans even have an industry codeword--NINJA). For them, home loans became less a subject of sober and prudent financial judgment than an adjunct to Powerball.

According to today's NYT, the "big wave of defaults" "would be crashing during the primary and general election campaigns next year". So, New Orleans, if you want real help, please schedule your next failure of the federal levees during an even-numbered year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20070829/cm_huffpost/062227;_ylt=AoI7aqAHNEk0TE4xLOEgbrT8B2YD

Jolie Rouge

09-06-2007, 08:57 PM

Sep 6, 11:58 AM EDT
Federal appeals court hears Katrina insurance case
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN -- Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. urged a federal appeals court Thursday to uphold policy language that the company has used to deny hundreds of homeowners' claims after Hurricane Katrina.

State Farm says its policies cover damage from hurricane-force winds, but not from rising water, and has refused to pay for any damage from Katrina's monster storm surge.

The Bloomington, Ill.-based insurer also says damage from a combination of wind and rising water is excluded from coverage. Last year, however, a federal judge in Gulfport, Miss., ruled that this "anti-concurrent cause" policy language is ambiguous and therefore can't be enforced.

In the same ruling, Judge L.T. Senter Jr. refused to throw out a lawsuit filed by John and Claire Tuepker, State Farm policyholders whose home in Long Beach, Miss., was reduced to a concrete slab by the Aug. 29, 2005, storm.

State Farm appealed Senter's ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. A three-judge panel heard arguments Thursday from attorneys on both sides of the case, but didn't immediately issue a ruling.

State Farm attorney Clarke Holland urged the judges to follow a recent ruling by a different three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit, which found that similar language in Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. policies is not ambiguous and can be enforced.

"The same arguments were made" in both cases, Holland said. "The same issues were raised."

Also, in a case that predates Katrina, the Mississippi Court of Appeals found that State Farm's anti-concurrent cause language is "clear" and unambiguous, the company's attorneys noted.

"Courts in many other jurisdictions have likewise upheld the validity of this same language," State Farm attorneys wrote in court papers.

The Tuepkers' attorneys suggested in court papers that State Farm's policies are "craftily ambiguous" and are "woven so as to not give away their true intent."

Chip Robertson, one of the couple's lawyers, said State Farm's policy language is different than Nationwide's. He told the judges they aren't bound by their colleagues' ruling last month in the Nationwide case.

"Even if it's binding by rule, it's not going to be binding by law," he said.

Robertson also told Judges Grady Jolly, Will Garwood and Carl Stewart that their ruling could affect several hundred other cases in Mississippi.

"I think we understand the case," Jolly said. "Well, maybe we understand it better."

The Tuepkers are among thousands of homeowners in Mississippi and Louisiana who have sued their insurers after the Aug. 29, 2005, storm. The couple already have reached a tentative "high-low" settlement with State Farm, in which the payout hinges on the result of the appeal.

One of the couple's attorneys is Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, who helped negotiate a multibillion dollar settlement with tobacco companies in the mid-1990s. Scruggs also appeared before the 5th Circuit last month to challenge Nationwide's policy language, but the court sided with the Columbus, Ohio-based insurer in an opinion issued Aug. 30.

David Rossmiller, a Portland, Ore.-based lawyer who closely follows Katrina insurance litigation, said policyholders shouldn't expect a different result in the State Farm case even though its policy language is different from Nationwide's.

"The handwriting is on the wall," he said. "It would be shocking to me if the result was substantially different."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LA_KATRINA_INSURANCE_LAOL-?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Jolie Rouge

09-09-2007, 02:16 PM

As Premiums Rise, Homeowners Drop Wind Coverage
By LIAM PLEVEN
September 4, 2007; Page B1

A small but growing number of homeowners are taking an extreme approach to insurance against hurricane winds: They're going "bare" -- doing without the coverage entirely.

Florida this year passed a law making it easier to opt out of wind coverage amid a voter backlash over soaring premiums, and the practice is also appearing in other states, particularly those along the Gulf Coast hit hard by recent storms.

While the option of doing without wind coverage is generally limited to people who don't have mortgages -- banks typically require borrowers to carry insurance -- even a slender increase in those going uncovered could have broader repercussions in the wake of another major storm. A drop in insurance payouts could leave storm-struck areas with fewer resources for rebuilding and shift some of the burden to taxpayers. That more individuals are opting to go without coverage also underscores the breakdown of the insurance system in coastal areas.

Nobody tracks how many Americans are going without wind coverage, and it's likely still rare -- most homeowners do have mortgages and 96% carry some kind of home insurance, which often includes wind coverage, according to the trade group Insurance Information Institute. Moreover, in some coastal states, wind coverage is typically included as part of a general policy, making it harder to drop. Nevertheless, people in the insurance industry say it occurs, and some say they see an increase.

"There's no doubt in my mind that there are more people going bare than in the past," says Robert Rusbuldt, chief executive of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, an Alexandria, Va.-based organization that represents 300,000 agents and brokers nationwide. "They're betting against Mother Nature."

Mr. Rusbuldt says a survey conducted for the group in May concluded that nearly three million Americans were dropped by their home insurers in the past two years -- more than two-thirds of them in 16 Southeastern states. The survey had an average margin of error of 3.7%. "You have to assume" that some of those people did not get new wind coverage, he says.

After the devastating hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 caused more than $150 billion in damages, much of which they had to pay for, insurers have increased rates dramatically while dropping clients they consider high-risk. Allstate Corp. -- which insures nearly one out of every eight homes in the U.S., according to A.M. Best Co. -- has moved to shed roughly 290,000 customers in hurricane-prone states since Katrina, most of them in Florida.

Customers can choose to drop wind coverage on their own. "We work with them to make sure they are appropriately covered," says Mike Siemienas, an Allstate spokesman. But, he adds, "At the end of the day, it's the customer's decision."

The federal government handed out at least $6.5 billion in grants and aid money after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 -- some of which went to help people who didn't have government-backed flood insurance. But one of Katrina's consequences was a sharp jump in premiums for wind coverage from private insurers, which doubled or tripled in some coastal areas. Some homeowners are doing the math and concluding it can be more cost-effective to cover rebuilding costs out-of-pocket, rather than paying big annual premiums.

Kathy Sansbury dropped coverage on her Fort Lauderdale, Fla., townhouse after the premium roughly doubled in December, to nearly $9,000. At that price, she and her husband concluded that after paying the higher premium for just 13 years, they would have spent enough to rebuild.

"It doesn't make sense, as expensive as it is," she says.

At the other end of the spectrum are individuals who either can't afford soaring premiums, or who have concluded that their homes aren't worth enough to warrant the price of coverage at all. "There's no incentive to have my home insured," says Melissa DeStio, who owns a roughly 30-year-old mobile home in Boynton Beach, Fla., that she estimates is worth up to $6,000. "The premium far exceeds the benefit, after you pay the deductible."

Some insurance agents say they are seeing an increase in the number of clients who have taken the plunge of going uncovered or discussed the option. Alex Soto, who heads InSource Inc., a Miami insurance agency, estimates that 2% to 3% of his clients have dropped wind coverage. Five years ago, he says, such a step was almost unheard of.

Earlier this year, a number of homeowners in the New Orleans area opted to go without wind coverage after being dropped by their prior carriers and electing not to turn to Louisiana's insurer of last resort, says Marc Eagan, president of Eagan Insurance Agency. He estimates that 500 of his agency's 9,000 homeowners' insurance customers are currently without the coverage. But Mr. Eagan adds that the market's improving because no storms have struck the area so far this season, and he expects more insurers will be willing to offer coverage at rates that appeal to customers.

The recent upheaval in the insurance industry has led to a dramatic rise in the number of people getting insurance through state-created insurers of last resort. These insurers sell insurance to people who can't get coverage otherwise, often at much higher rates than they got in the private sector. For instance, Florida's insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., now insures more than 1.3 million homes, more than any other company in the state.

Until recently, insurers in Florida were required to include wind coverage in all policies they sold, except in particularly high-risk areas. But in response to anger over rising premiums, lawmakers passed new rules -- which took effect July 1 -- letting insurers sell policies without wind coverage to any Florida homeowner willing to sign a statement that they don't want it.

There's also interest in self-insurance pools. Homeowners are "looking for ways to bypass insurance companies," says state Sen. Don Gaetz, a Republican who represents part of the Florida Panhandle.

Large corporations have long turned to self-insurance, setting up their own insurance companies and paying premiums to them, or planning to pay out-of-pocket if disaster strikes.

Companies including Walt Disney Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have said they now carry less insurance against hurricane damage after storms the past few years. In a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Disney blamed "recent weather events" for its inability to purchase as much wind insurance as it previously carried. As a result, the company says it is "carrying more self-insurance ... than we have in the past." Disney's main property in a hurricane-prone state is the Walt Disney World theme park in Florida.

But for some homeowners, dropping insurance simply means taking on a big risk. Wendy Avin, who lives in a mobile home park in Gulfport, Miss., a town that was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, says she received an insurance payout for damages to her home from that storm. But now, she says, she cannot afford the wind coverage and is going without. "It really worries me," she says.

George Mastics, who lives near the Atlantic Ocean in Palm Beach, Fla., says the structural stability of his house, built in 1935, factors into his decision not to carry wind insurance. "The walls are so thick," he says. "I can't imagine a hurricane tearing it down."

"Maybe I'm a gambler. I don't know," he adds. But he hasn't paid for wind coverage for a few years. "So far, I'm ahead of the game."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118886673597616437.html

The federal government handed out at least $6.5 billion in grants and aid money after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 -- some of which went to help people who didn't have government-backed flood insurance. But one of Katrina's consequences was a sharp jump in premiums for wind coverage from private insurers, which doubled or tripled in some coastal areas. Some homeowners are doing the math and concluding it can be more cost-effective to cover rebuilding costs out-of-pocket, rather than paying big annual premiums.

I could not get any goverment help because I had "adequate coverage" thru my homeowners insurance, but after over ten years with the company and having NEVER made a prior claim, they refused to cover the damage to my home by Katrina AND then raised my rates. Friends of mine who lived in apartments up the road had NO INSURANCE but the goverment gave them 2,000 to compensate for the damages to their possesions ( tree fell into the building, lots of water damage )

Jolie Rouge

10-09-2007, 02:32 PM

Gov't may buy thousands of Miss. homes
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 1 minute ago

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. - The federal government is considering buying out as many as 17,000 homes along the Mississippi coast and remaking the land into a vast hurricane-protection zone, raising anxieties that it could destroy the waterfront lives many residents are struggling to rebuild after Katrina.

The Mississippi Coastal Improvement Program could cost $40 billion, including buying the homes, building levees and restoring barrier islands. The land could be converted into wetlands or other public uses, such as golf courses or bike trails, but could not be sold for private development.

For Finley Williford, a 42-year-old boat captain, a buyout offer would have been tempting if it had come shortly after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his Bay St. Louis home on Aug. 29, 2005. But instead of leaving, he invested countless hours of labor and more than $400,000 in two new houses for his family and his father. "If they had showed up a day after the storm, I probably would have taken the money. It's kinda after-the-fact now," Williford said.

The buyouts would be voluntary, and the Army Corps plan envisions allowing casinos, hotels and restaurants to continue operating on the coast from Bay St. Louis to Biloxi. But until the proposal becomes more focused, residents are concerned that it could spell the end of their Margaritaville-like communities, where a lifestyle of beaches and boiled shrimp has flourished for decades, and many houses are already built atop stilts.

Williford fears the buyouts could stunt the growth of his nearly deserted neighborhood and harm property values if few other residents return. "Just the rumor of it is slowing people down," he said, noting a neighbor suspended his rebuilding plan after hearing about the proposal.

Buyouts could be part of a similar plan in Louisiana, but Corps officials could not say how many properties may be involved or where they are. "Buyouts are a possibility, but it's still just one of several options we're studying for the report," Corps spokeswoman Julie Morgan said.

The Corps expects to release a draft of its plan in December. In the meantime, project director Susan Rees is fielding questions at meetings with local officials and residents.

Several hundred people attended a forum last month in Bay St. Louis, a city about 45 minutes east of New Orleans, where Katrina destroyed many of the quaint shops and beachfront restaurants that drew tourists and New Orleans-area residents.

Rees said many residents mistakenly worry their land would be seized and turned over to private developers. Involuntary buyouts are "always an option of last resort," but aren't part of this plan, she said. "I was taken aback by what some of the individuals believed the proposal was," she said. "I wasn't taken aback by the emotional nature of the response."

The Corps has bought flood-prone homes near rivers in the past, but Rees said this would be its first large buyout of coastal homes. The proposal will give Congress a menu of choices, not impose mandates, she added. "Congress gave us an opportunity to just strip everything away and say, 'What are the options to make this a resilient coast?' It is a rare opportunity, and I hope a lot of good comes from it," she said.

Oliver Houck, a Tulane University law professor who has studied government efforts to control coastal flooding, said voluntary buyouts are a "very reasonable way to approach managing floods."

Moving people away from areas at the greatest risk of flooding makes more sense than spending hundreds of millions of dollars to shield them with levees, he added. "Any program that attempts to subsidize their continuing to stay in place is simply subsidizing another wipeout," Houck said.

William Walker, director of Mississippi's Department of Marine Resources, is helping Rees craft the plan and introduce it to communities. "If all we do is rebuild where we were prior to Katrina, we will have failed," he said. "We need to rebuild better, stronger and smarter."

Government subsidies could offset the loss of tax revenue from residential buyouts, but some local officials fear the proposal would have a chilling effect on development plans and turn some parts of the coast into a disjointed checkerboard of homes and wetlands.

U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor, a Democrat whose home in Bay St. Louis was leveled by Katrina, said he doesn't see much support — locally or on Capitol Hill — for funding billions of dollars in home buyouts. "I can't think of a single person who has come up to me and said, 'I want the government to buy my land,'" he said.

Some of his constituents welcome that option, though. Arnold Toups, 90, is living in a government-issued trailer outside the gutted shell of the octagon-shaped home he built with his own hands three decades ago. A "For Sale" sign in his front yard has attracted a few offers, but nothing serious. Toups said he would listen to an offer from the Corps. "If I get my price," he said. "I'm not in a rush to sell."

Libby Garcia, one of the few residents to rebuild in Williford's neighborhood, wonders why the Corps is singling out the Gulf Coast for buyouts when so many other coastal areas face the same flood risks. "Why don't they go buy Key West?" she asked.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071009/ap_on_re_us/katrina_home_buyouts;_ylt=AqxuY6YjuiPGYWYAknAhicBH 2ocA

Jolie Rouge

11-06-2007, 08:43 PM

Survey shows New Orleans back to 63% of pre-Katrina population

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LA_NEW_ORLEANS_POPULATION_LAOL-?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

224/4,931

Jolie Rouge

12-23-2007, 08:54 PM

Should they rebuild New Orleans?
Yes 64 48.48%
No 68 51.52%
Voters: 132.
Posts : 225
Views : 5,055

Curious : how many voting on this poll live in New Orleans, Louisiana, or any part of the Gulf Coast ? How many have ever visited the same ?

Jolie Rouge

01-30-2008, 09:26 PM

Katrina suit vs. Army Corps dismissed
By CAIN BURDEAU and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writers
10 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - A federal judge threw out a key class-action lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over levee breaches after Hurricane Katrina, saying that the agency failed to protect the city but that his hands were tied by the law.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval ruled that the Corps should be held immune over failures in drainage canals that caused much of the flooding of New Orleans in August 2005.

The ruling relies on the Flood Control Act of 1928, which made the federal government immune when flood control projects like levees break.

The suit led to about 489,000 claims by businesses, government entities and residents, totaling trillions of dollars in damages against the agency.

The fate of many of those claims was pinned to that lawsuit and a similar one filed over flooding from a navigation channel in St. Bernard Parish. It was unclear how many claims could still move forward.

In his ruling, Duval said he was forced by law to hold the Corps immune even though the agency "cast a blind eye" in protecting New Orleans and "squandered millions of dollars in building a levee system ... which was known to be inadequate by the Corps' own calculations."

But, Duval said, "it is not within the Court's power to address the wrongs committed. It is hopefully within the citizens of the United States' power to address the failures of our laws and agencies."

Breaches at both the 17th Street and London Avenue canals allowed flood water to inundate large areas of the city from near Lake Pontchartrain to the north to the edge of downtown.

Throughout the court proceedings, plaintiffs lawyers knew they faced a daunting task because the canals were, over time, used as flood control projects by the Corps.

"I knew we had an uphill battle. But we had to do it," plaintiffs lawyer Joseph Bruno said. "It's an outrage. Read the opinion: The judge reads through all the negligence by the Corps, but says he had to rule the way he had to."

Bruno said the plaintiffs would appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but he conceded that overturning Duval's ruling would be difficult.

The plaintiffs tried to bypass the immunity issue by claiming that the Corps used the canals as drainage projects and that the levee failures were brought about by canal dredging.

The ruling was another blow to the people of New Orleans, where loathing for the Corps continues unabated.

"This cost people's lives and property," said Gwen Bierria, 66. She is still living in a government-issued trailer on her property abutting the London Avenue Canal and is among the tens of thousands of people who have filed claims against the federal government for damage from the levee breaches.

"Anybody that calls themselves the Army Corps of Engineers should be embarrassed," she said.

Kathy Gibbs, a Corps spokeswoman, said "the Corps agrees with the dismissal of the case" but declined to comment further because other lawsuits are pending over Katrina damage.

Al Petrie, incoming president of the Lakeview Civic Improvement Association, said that few residents who returned to the neighborhood and started to rebuild based their decision on the success or failure of the levee litigation.

Still, many residents will continue blaming the Corps for the disaster no matter what the courts say, he said.

"Over time, anger tends to quiet down," he said. "It doesn't mean people are less cautious. We're still beholden to the Corps to do this right."

New Orleans activists and politicians said they will not give up on holding the Corps accountable.

"We will stick with our mission of education that this was the worst engineering failure since Chernobyl," said Sandy Rosenthal, founder of Levees.org, a group that has lobbied for overhauling the Corps.

Since Katrina, calls for a makeover of the Corps have gained momentum, and the agency, which has acknowledged mistakes, has re-evaluated its procedures for picking and designing projects.

Duval, in his ruling, agreed that legal and bureaucratic change is required.

"The byzantine funding and appropriation methods for this undertaking were in large part a cause of this failure," Duval said, referring to the politics-riddled process Congress has for funding Corps projects.

The Flood Control Act is counterproductive, Duval said, because it negates incentives for good government workmanship and creates an environment where "gross incompetence receives the same treatment as simple mistake."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080131/ap_on_re_us/katrina_levee_suit;_ylt=AkTnbpDcSPr.dhAZvczIny0XIr 0F

226/5,145

forumliker

02-13-2008, 02:49 AM

They need to completely redo the infrastructure at New Orleans. I was there recently and it's just a mess with the swamps and low land water everywhere.

Jolie Rouge

02-18-2008, 11:34 AM

Remaking New Orleans
By Robert D. Novak
Townhall.com

NEW ORLEANS - The imposing presence of Robert A. Cerasoli as the city's first inspector general is the clearest sign that Hurricane Katrina's changes wrought on New Orleans in 2005 were not limited to physical devastation. By declaring war on municipal corruption, Cerasoli has signaled that life in the Big Easy no longer will be so easy.

I spent two days here with Donald E. Powell, federal coordinator for Gulf Coast rebuilding, who conducts over-sight on remaking New Orleans. Physical reconstruction is slow, and the city never will regain its former size or appearance. But civic leaders I met here agreed that law enforcement, criminal justice, education and health all are better than they were before Katrina.

Louisiana politicians grumble that the flow of around $120 billion from Washington is insufficient and mourn for some 180,000 New Orleanians who have left the area. But that does not worry the rebuilders. "We don't want to rebuild an old New Orleans," insurance executive and civic leader John Casbon told me. School reformer Sarah Usdin said of the improvement in schools that "it never would have happened" save for the storm.

At the heart of the Katrina-inspired revival is a transformed mindset in a city traditionally more interested in good times than good government. For the first time, New Orleans elites are concentrating on something other than Mardi Gras.

A sign of change that transcends federal dollars was the arrival last August of Cerasoli, the nation's foremost inspector general, who served 10 years as Massachusetts state IG. "I was amazed when I arrived to find that just about everybody I met had been the victim of a holdup," Cerasoli told me. He wondered why crime was much more rampant in New Orleans than in Atlanta, a larger city with a smaller police force.

Cerasoli is working closely with U.S. Attorney Jim Letten to crack down on corruption. In a city whose good-time image belies high murder rates and violent crime that preceded Katrina, the new local district attorney, Keva Landrum-Johnson, and police chief Warren Riley are bringing reform to a law enforcement system notorious for putting arrested criminals back on the street. As founder of the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, Casbon has led business community pressure for reform in the D.A.'s office.

Those efforts followed the Katrina catastrophe, as did the replacement of half of the city's public schools with charter schools. I visited the Langston Hughes Charter Academy, whose principal and founder, John Alford, is a recent Harvard MBA graduate who has sacrificed making big money. He and the school's students are African-Americans, as are nearly all the city's public school students. The children in their red uniforms were orderly as they followed Alford's strict instructions against jostling and fighting in the corridors.

This spirit of reform seems to have eluded re-elected Mayor Ray Nagin. He is not tarred with corruption in a city where his former possible successor, Councilman Oliver Thomas, last year pleaded guilty to taking bribes and some 85 other New Orleans officials have been convicted or indicted recently. But neither is Nagin considered a reformer at city hall. There, the new spirit is typified by City Council President Arnie Fielkow, elected in 2006 after running the New Orleans Saints football team's front office.

Federal Coordinator Powell, a rich banker from Amarillo, Texas, and generous contributor to George W. Bush, knows that the progress in New Orleans stems not from billions sent by Washington. He told the National Press Club on Nov. 29 that "the real reason I'm optimistic -- the reason I have hope for New Orleans -- has nothing to do with government." Powell openly sympathizes with locals over the infuriating red tape of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Katrina's assault on New Orleans and the failure of government at all levels to cope with its damage has been cited by critics the past two years as proof that more, not less, government is needed. While "government harnesses tax dollars and administers programs," Powell contends, "in this country it has never been and never will be a substitute for the creativity and can-do spirits that individuals possess." A visit to New Orleans proves his point.

Jolie Rouge

05-27-2008, 01:28 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080527/ap_on_he_me/formaldehyde_in_trailers;_ylt=AhROjldKqmm0v1dDj65E vFCs0NUE

atprm

05-27-2008, 01:41 PM

flute

05-27-2008, 02:37 PM

I voted yes.

To use a current event example -- Kansas cities that were recently dessimated by the recent rash of tornadic activity.

Should those cities rebuild? If so, why? Since they will forever get tornadoes.

In my opinion, that has got to be the DUMBEST reason to not rebuild something -- because of the weather.

no matter where you go in the United States (or anywhere in the world for that matter) you are going to face some sort of devastation from natural disasters. To not rebuild in your home because of the weather is just insane.

AMEN.

I would rather go through a million hurricanes than to go through another tornado.

I've never been through a hurricane but I know tornadoes are bad stuff! One went 20' from my friend's house. He was inside, thought if it's my time to go I'll go - did take out his barn, but his house is ok.
The river is forever changed & it's been interesting watching it after this devestation.
Trees are down everywhere and I wonder if all the flooding lately (yesterday....months ago...etc..) isn't the big MN (mother nature/god) trying to correct or clean up after herself.

hotwheelstx

05-27-2008, 03:59 PM

I can live thru hurricanes and tropical storms. I'm not sure I could live thru another tornado. We've had a few here over the years. Earthquakes....I'd be running the other way.

I think they should rebuild...it's their home and a place that really does rock.

Jolie Rouge

06-25-2008, 10:19 PM

It takes a lot to shut up a bunch of columnists.

These are people used to expressing their opinions forcefully — and often. On Saturday I was in a bus full of them, and they were finally at a loss for words.

At the 32nd annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in New Orleans, co-chairman Sheila Stroup of the Times-Picayune set up a bus trip through the Lower 9th Ward and Chalmette.

These, of course, were areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina and flooding.

There was a lot of chatter as we set off, but by the time we reached the Lower 9th, things had quieted down.

We went on streets with no occupied houses, or just one or two per block.

We saw houses with the ubiquitous painted marks on them indicating, among other things, if dead people had been found in them.

By the time we reached St. Bernard Parish, all I heard was an occasional “Oh, look at that …” or just “Oh …”

Block after block, mile after mile, we saw gutted houses, slabs or vacant lots where homes had once stood. And it was being so close to these homes that had so much impact.

You can hear numbers recited or see aerial photos, but until you stand in front of a home and see an overturned tricycle, a battered barbecue grill or curtains blowing in a glassless window it doesn’t fully come home to you.

That shell of a house or concrete slab once was the home of a family — a kid who rode that tricycle, a dad who grilled burgers on that grill, a mom who hung those curtains.

When you think of the personal loss each of those empty spaces represents, the sadness can render you speechless. As it did us.

The theme of the conference was “New Orleans, We Haven’t Forgotten.”

http://www.2theadvocate.com/columnists/smiley/21038764.html

luvcub

06-26-2008, 07:25 AM

How about Gulfprt and blxi,amd waveland we have not forgotten? I was in Katrina,and it was a night mare there also,NO,it was bad,you got the water,we got the wind and the water,I just wish I could twinkle my nose and make all the towns back to where they were. I am still home sick for good old blxi and gulfport.

Jolie Rouge

08-08-2008, 08:30 PM

Group promotes New Orleans anthem
By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 44 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Kevin Molony was listening to a version of the old spiritual "I Shall Not Be Moved," when it struck him as the perfect anthem for New Orleans residents still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

The song, which served as a battle cry for the union movement in the 1930s and the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s, seemed particularly relevant for those clinging fiercely to lives wrecked by the deadly storm almost three years ago.

"That line, 'Like a tree planted by the water, I shall not be moved,'" Molony said on Friday. "It seemed to sum up what everyone struggling to come back after Katrina was feeling. I really wanted to bring the city together with that thought."

Molony founded a nonprofit agency aimed at audio and video production of the slightly altered song. He describes it as a New Orleans version of "We Are the World" — a song recorded in 1985 by an elite group of artists whose goal was to raise funds to help famine-relief efforts in Ethiopia.

In what he calls the "folk tradition of adapting and transforming songs to serve as anthems to galvanize people in a cause," Molony made a few modifications. He adopted a version, sung by the unions and civil rights marchers, that changed the song's pronoun to "We." Then he lined up 12 New Orleans musicians, including Charmaine Neville and John Boutte, along with groups ranging from gospel choruses to the New Orleans Opera Choir and recorded a CD of the song.

"It's very emotional for everybody," said singer Topsy Chapman, who sang on the CD with daughters Yolanda Windsay and Jolinda Phillips. "Everything has changed since Katrina. Even our neighborhoods aren't familiar anymore."

Both of Chapman's daughters' houses were submerged by Katrina's flooding. Chapman said the first floor of her own home flooded. She lost all the gowns and shoes she used in performances, as well as other possessions.

Chapman, who was in "One Mo' Time" on Broadway, just moved back into her renovated house two months ago.

Julie Condy directs the Crescent City Lights Youth Theater Chorus, which also took part. Since the storm, music has been a saving experience for the kids in her group, she said.

The chorus is a multicultural, multi-race group of children, 8 to 14 years old, from all social and economic groups, Condy said.

One thing almost all of them share, she said, is leftover pain from the hurricane that flooded 80 percent of New Orleans and scattered its people across the nation.

"You're talking about kids who lost everything — their homes, their schools and friends," Condy said. "For some of these kids this music is all they really feel they have and they are very excited about this project."

Molony's CD is scheduled to go on sale Aug. 29, three years after Katrina slammed into New Orleans.

The group is also working on a video that will be posted on the Internet via YouTube. Molony hopes thousands of New Orleans residents will converge on Woldenberg Park on Saturday for the final filming.

He said he also hopes the movement will inspire one more thing:

"We're hoping that at noon on the 29th, everyone will sing, say or shout 'We Shall Not Be Moved.'"

___

On the Net: http://www.weshallnotbemoved.org

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080808/ap_on_re_us/katrina_anthem;_ylt=AjTu_1qoq5KLnNrKHqSK0lQXIr0F

Jolie Rouge

08-23-2008, 06:31 PM

New Orleans repeating deadly levee mistakes
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
Sat Aug 23, 2:51 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - Signs are emerging that history is repeating itself in the Big Easy, still healing from Katrina: People have forgotten a lesson from four decades ago and believe once again that the federal government is constructing a levee system they can prosper behind.

In a yearlong review of levee work here, The Associated Press has tracked a pattern of public misperception, political jockeying and legal fighting, along with economic and engineering miscalculations since Katrina, that threaten to make New Orleans the scene of another devastating flood.

Dozens of interviews with engineers, historians, policymakers and flood zone residents confirmed many have not learned from public policy mistakes made after Hurricane Betsy in 1965, which set the stage for Katrina; many mistakes are being repeated.

"People forget, but they cannot afford to forget," said Windell Curole, a Louisiana hurricane and levee expert. "If you believe you can't flood, that's when you increase the risk of flooding. In New Orleans, I don't think they talk about the risk."

Tyrone Marshall, a 48-year-old bread vendor, is one person who doesn't believe he's going to flood again.

"They've heightened the levees. They're raised up. It makes me feel safe," he said as he toiled outside his home in hard-hit Gentilly, a formerly flooded property refashioned into a California-style bungalow.

Geneva Stanford, a 76-year-old health care worker, is a believer, too. She lives in a trim and tidy prefabricated house in the Lower 9th Ward, 200 feet from a rebuilt floodwall that Katrina broke.

"This wall here wasn't there when we had the flood," Stanford said, radiant in a bright kanga-style dress. "When I look at it now, I say maybe if we had had it up it there then, maybe we wouldn't have flooded."

They're not alone. A recent University of New Orleans survey of residents found concern about levee safety was dropping off the list of top worries, replaced by crime, incompetent leadership and corruption.

This sense of security, though, may be dangerously naive.

For the foreseeable future, New Orleans will be protected by levees unable to protect against another storm like Katrina.

When and if the Army Corps of Engineers finishes $14.8 billion in post-Katrina work, the city will have limited protection — what are defined as 100-year levees.

This does not mean they'd stand up to storms for a century. Under the 100-year standard, in fact, experts say that every house being rebuilt in New Orleans has a 26 percent chance of being flooded again over a 30-year mortgage; and every child born in New Orleans would have nearly a 60 percent chance of seeing a major flood in his or her life.

"It's not exactly great protection," said John Barry, the author of "Rising Tide," a book New Orleans college students read to learn about the corps' efforts to tame the Mississippi.

As a rule, any levee building makes people feel good in this unsettling landscape where the Gulf of Mexico can be seen gleaming from the top floors of skyscrapers and where the ubiquitous dynamics of a sinking and eroding river delta ripple through every aspect of life.

Levees tend to get built after devastating hurricanes: It's happening now and it happened after Betsy struck and flooded much of the same low ground that Katrina invaded.

"We did go in and did a whole bunch of levee work right after Betsy," said Philip Ciaccio, a New Orleans appellate judge and longtime former politician from eastern New Orleans, a reclaimed swamp transformed into the Big Easy's version of the American suburban dream.

Between Betsy and Katrina, about 22,000 homes were constructed in eastern New Orleans out of an abundance of confidence.

"We were under the illusion that what we had done would prevent another Betsy from flooding the area," Ciaccio said. "Hopefully the experts know what they're doing this time."

The corps says its work is making the city safer, but there are serious doubts.

At every step in the scramble to correct the engineering breakdowns of Katrina, independent experts have questioned the ability of the corps, an agency that has accumulated ever more power over the fate of New Orleans, to do the right job.

On the road to recovery, the agency has installed faulty drainage pumps, used outdated measurements, issued incorrect data, unearthed critical flaws, made conflicting statements about flood risk and flunked reviews by the National Research Council.

At the same time, the corps has run into funding problems, lawsuits, a tangle of local interests and engineering difficulties — all of which has led to delays in getting the promised work done.

An initial September 2010 target to complete the $14.8 billion in post-Katrina work has slipped to mid-2011. Then last September, an Army audit found 84 percent of work behind schedule because of engineering complexities, environmental provisos and real estate transactions. The report added that costs would likely soar.

A more recent analysis shows the start of 84 of 156 projects was delayed — 15 of them by six months or more. Meanwhile, a critical analysis of what it would take to build even stronger protection — 500-year-type levees — was supposed to be done last December but remains unfinished.

Another opportunity for setbacks: The corps says it will need more than 100 million cubic yards of clay and dirt to build up levees — enough to fill the Louisiana Superdome 20 times.

Also on the corps' drawing board are gigantic pumps capable of pushing more than 20,000 cubic feet of water per second. For comparison, the biggest pumps in New Orleans move about 6,000 cfs every second and they're among the most impressive in the nation.

That's not all: The corps has awarded The Shaw Group a $695 million contract to build a massive barrier against storm surge in the Industrial Canal. It's touted as one of the biggest public works projects ever performed by the agency.

Publicly, the corps says the work is on budget and will be done by 2011.

"The progress I see each time I visit is really remarkable. The region has a better hurricane and storm damage reduction system in place than ever before in its history — and it will continue to get better," Lt. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, the corps chief, wrote on his blog in April.

Al Naomi, a corps branch chief who's worked for the past 37 years in New Orleans, said he was upbeat because Congress has shown a willingness to fund the work. In addition, he said, enough elements are coming together to make him "cautiously optimistic" the work will stay on track.

"We are in pretty good shape financially to do quite a bit of work in this area," he said.

Doubts, though, weigh on those familiar with the game plan.

"It's almost one of those proverbial `you can't get there from where we are' situations," said Gerald Spohrer, executive director of the West Jefferson levee district. The deadline, he said, is "overly optimistic."

The trouble so far stirs up bad memories: Of the four decades of excruciatingly slow levee building after Betsy.

Betsy was eerily similar to Katrina. The levees broke. Water reached roof tops and people clung to trees for survival. A flotilla of rescuers worked for days in lingering floodwaters.

In Betsy's aftermath, President Lyndon B. Johnson — like President Bush — pledged to rebuild New Orleans and make it safe from hurricanes. Little more than a month after the storm, Congress gave the corps $85 million to build a Category 3 hurricane levee system.

By 1976, though, the Government Accountability Office found the completion date for the work had slipped 13 years, from 1978 to 1991. Costs had soared to $352 million. By 1982, the GAO found that the project's cost had increased to $757 million and the agency said the work would not get done by 2008.

Jolie Rouge

08-23-2008, 06:33 PM

Katrina's storm surge laid bare the incomplete and inadequate work.

What happened? By 1968, a Congress worn down by the Vietnam war and economic turmoil began reining in spending; at the same time, the work met resistance from Louisiana politicians, communities, environmentalists and businesses fighting for individual interests.

For example, the corps scrapped a plan in the 1970s to build a floodgate at the entrance to Lake Pontchartrain out of concern that it would impede boats and marine life. Next, the alternate plan to build gates at the mouths of city drainage canals was rejected. Finally, the corps built floodwalls on the canals — and they broke during Katrina.

Can this sort of history repeat itself?

"All the human instincts post-Katrina are the same (as) post-Betsy," said Oliver Houck, a natural resources law professor at Tulane University and longtime New Orleans resident who participated in many of the fights since Betsy.

Some present-day examples of those instincts:

• Politicians have pushed for development in wetlands, undercut flood protection efforts with legislation and balked at paying for levee work.

• Environmentalists have pushed for wetlands-sensitive policies that arguably could add millions of dollars in costs.

• Residents have filed lawsuits to stop the corps from removing trees the agency says pose a risk to levees and sued the corps over the Katrina levee breaches.

• Policymakers are encouraging development in risky areas.

Ameliorating that last instinct is the business of Joe Sullivan, the 82-year-old city engineer who's overseen the New Orleans drainage and water department for nearly a half century.

"We keep building in holes, and contractors keep trying to move in and take advantage of a situation: They come in with a bunch of contractors, sell off property in low places, take their money and run," Sullivan said.

He runs his finger across a city drainage map. On it, green indicates low-lying terrain, and green is everywhere.

"You see that green spot up there? That's below sea level, well below sea level," he said. "There's some people going to have dinner tonight out there in New Orleans east, they're walking on the floor inside their house at 13 feet below sea level."

Naomi, the Corps of Engineers veteran, said his agency was candid about telling people the risk they face.

"We're in the job of risk reduction, not risk elimination," he said. "Strictly relying on levees alone should not give anyone the impression they are risk free. I think that would be a horrible mistake to make."

Three years since Katrina killed more than 1,600 people and destroyed a way of life here, New Orleans is trying to reclaim a past taken away from it.

And there are some promising signs.

Streetcars are swaying on St. Charles Avenue again. Coteries of old men have reappeared, swapping stories in the shade. There are plans for new parks, schools and theaters.

But the past remains prologue in another sense, too: This majestic city is still perilously at the mercy of the next hurricane.

"What we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history," said Tim Doody, the president of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East, a consolidated regional levee board created after Katrina to improve levee protection.

"What happened after Betsy? Katrina," Doody said. "And what's going to happen after Katrina? Pick a name and put it on it and it's going to happen again unless we pull together to make sure."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080823/ap_on_re_us/katrina_repeating_the_past;_ylt=ArEHLwlC1LfEy3HaNL K4Qkas0NUE

On the Net:

Army Corps of Engineers report on decision-making chronology for the New Orleans levee system after Hurricane Betsy: http://www.iwr.usace.army.mil/inside/products/pub/hpdc/hpdc.cfm

Army Corps of Engineers Web site on projects to protect New Orleans from hurricanes: http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/hps/

Jolie Rouge

11-18-2009, 09:47 PM

Judge: Corps' negligence caused Katrina flooding
By Cain Burdeau, Associated Press Writer
53 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS – A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Army Corps of Engineers' failure to properly maintain a navigation channel led to massive flooding in Hurricane Katrina, a decision that could make the federal government vulnerable to billions of dollars in claims.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval sided with six residents and one business who argued the Army Corps' shoddy oversight of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet led to the flooding of New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward and neighboring St. Bernard Parish. He said, however, the corps couldn't be held liable for the flooding of eastern New Orleans, where two of the plaintiffs lived.

Duval awarded the plaintiffs $720,000, but the government could eventually be forced to pay much more in damages. The ruling should give more than 100,000 other individuals, businesses and government entities a better shot at claiming billions of dollars in damages.

The ruling is also emotionally resonant for south Louisiana. Many in New Orleans have argued that Katrina, which struck the region Aug. 29, 2005, was a manmade disaster caused by the Army Corps' failure to maintain the levee system protecting the city.

"Total devastation could possibly have been avoided if something had been done," said Tanya Smith, one of the plaintiffs. "A lot of this stuff was preventable and they turned a deaf ear to it."

The 36-year-old registered nurse anesthetist lived in Chalmette close to the channel when Katrina hit. She was awarded $317,000 in property damages, the most of any of the plaintiffs.

Duval referred to the corps' approach to maintaining the channel as "monumental negligence."

Joe Bruno, one of the lead lawyers for the plaintiffs, said the ruling underscored the Army Corps' long history of not properly protecting the New Orleans region.

"It's high time we look at the way these guys do business and do a full re-evaluation of the way it does business," Bruno said.

He said he expected the government to appeal.

The corps referred calls seeking comment to the Justice Department. Spokesman Charles Miller said the government would review the judge's ruling before making any decision on how to proceed.

During trial testimony, government lawyers and experts argued the levee system was overwhelmed by the massive storm, and levee breaches couldn't solely be blamed on the shipping channel dug in the 1960s as a short-cut between the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans.

The corps had also unsuccessfully argued that it is immune from liability because the channel is part of New Orleans' flood control system.

In his 156-page ruling, Duval said he was "utterly convinced" that the corps' failure to shore up the channel "doomed the channel to grow to two to three times its design width" and that "created a more forceful frontal wave attack on the levee" that protected St. Bernard and the Lower 9th Ward.

"The Corps had an opportunity to take a myriad of actions to alleviate this deterioration or rehabilitate this deterioration and failed to do so," Duval said. "Clearly the expression 'talk is cheap' applies here."

The corps has been sued before over levee failures and flooding, but it had always walked away untouched. That included after Hurricane Betsy in 1965 over alleged flooding by the outlet. Ahead of Duval's ruling, experts had said it would likely have consequences for the way the Army Corps does business nationwide.

Pierce O'Donnell, another lead plaintiffs lawyer, said the ruling was the "first time ever the Army Corps has been held liable for damages for a major catastrophe that it caused."

The plaintiffs lawyers would like Congress to set up a compensation fund to speed up payments to the thousands of other claimants, whose claims must still be heard in court.

At a one-month trial in May, experts clashed over the causes of flooding and the channel's contribution to it.

Government experts argued the levees and floodwalls would have failed regardless of whether the MRGO had been dug.

By contrast, the plaintiffs' team of experts said the outlet became a "hurricane highway" that funneled storm surge into New Orleans. They said that without the channel, the flooding would have been minimal.

The lawsuit was the first major case against the federal government over Katrina flooding to go to trial. A decision rested with Duval because a jury cannot try a case against the federal government.

Despite its statements in court, the corps has acknowledged the area's flood risk and closed the channel with rocks. It is also building a $1.3 billion floodgate to stop surge entering the city from the direction of the channel and Lake Borgne.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091119/ap_on_re_us/us_katrina_flood_lawsuit