New Orleans Today, Five Years After Katrina

Thank God Obama has fixed everything….

  
 
 
Post-Katrina Demographic    
Shifts Could Boost Rebuilding    
Efforts in New Orleans    
     
Daily Finance,    
by MATTHEW SCOTT       
   
Original Article    
   
8/27/2010    
   
In the five years since it hit New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina has reshaped the city’s population — and perhaps its financial future as well. The aftermath of the 2005 storm, which took 1,835 lives and caused an estimated $81 billion in property damage, has left the city with an older, wealthier and less diverse population, according to data recently released by the Nielsen company. If its findings are confirmed by the 2010 Census, that information could go a long way in helping the city attract businesses and outside capital to continue rebuilding.

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A quarter of Katrina    
aid money still unspent    
   
McClatchy Newspapers,    
by Geoff Pender       
   
Original Article    
   
8/27/2010    
   
BILOXI, Miss. — More than a quarter of the $20 billion in Housing and Urban Development relief funds that were earmarked for Gulf Coast states after Hurricane Katrina remains unspent five years after the storm, a fact noticed by at least one congressional leader who’s eager to spend it elsewhere. In June, U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, ordered data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development on how much remains unspent from the Community Development Block Grants that were earmarked in hurricane relief funds….

New Orleans looks just fine so long as you only see the parts that are tourist attractions. Take a look at the lower 9th ward and you won’t see much improvement. Why is this area still a picture of desolation?

For all the patting himself on the back for the wonders he has wrought in NO it doesn’t appear to me that the left has done anything more for those who need the most help than the right did.

I know, we all know that the re-building can’t be done overnight. But damn it’s been a long night.

Damn all politicians to hell that try to make political points on the misery of people who have all ready suffered so much.

I wish I could wave a magic wands and fix it all. If not that I wish I could wave a magic wand and make all the pols that use it as a wedge issue mute. This time of year I’m sure the residents of NO would appreciate the lack of the hot air.

While I agree that the Lower Ninth Ward still has a long way to go, it is only one part of the city. Why do we never see any of the other areas?

I think it’s impossible to quantify the positive effect that the Saints have had on the area. The team has invested heavily in New Orleans and the players as individuals have too.

As for Ozero, five years ago he was a US Senator, what did he do for New Orleans then? As far as I can recall, absolutely nothing. Did he visit? Not that I can recall. Did he give a rat’s ass? Not that I can recall.

Geaux Saints!

Count on the MoonBeam Media to make a big deal over this for as long as they can stretch it.  They hope that it will distract attention from the disaster Obama made and is still making of the BP/Deepwater Horizon blowout.

I’m mostly interested in better levees. Any news on that, engineering fans?

Thanks for the post Amy.

Watching the aftermath of Katrina is when Americans really lost faith in their government.  The disconnect between the image of America as a strong, powerful, a leader among nations, and the gold star of people oriented government.

Then to see the reality of inaction, incompetency, and helplessness unfold for days on end was too overwhelming and painful.  Even now I don’t think most people want to think of it.  Even as angry as most people are at their government now, I think in some ways they don’t want to go back to that moment and that realization.

Watched a rivetting and heart-breaking documentary this weekend on New Orleans, called “If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise.” As a former Gulf Coast resident for more than 2 decades, and a Louisiana-born native, I highly recommend it. 

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/2010/08/21/spike_lee_katrina_followup

You mean by saying he wasn’t going to have his birth certificate plastered to his head?  I was thinking, hell, we’d just like to SEE it ONE time, Obama – no need to wear it all the time!

That’s why I thought Dr. Archer’s piece was so important – he made it QUITE clear that things are not all humy dory after the BP disaster, and the media, like the NY Times, needs to stop pretending like it is…

Sorry – just saw this – yes, they are building better levees now.  The Army Corp of Engineers (found to be at fault for the old ones), claims the new ones are just about ready.

Where has all the New Orleans people with money and power been? How about those Saints-how much of the NFL Saints players donated part of their huge salary to the rebuilding? Where is Mr. Chocolate City, the Governor, Sharpton, Jackson, movie stars and singers besides Pitt? In Nashville they helped themselves. If New Orleans residents were so resilent, they why do so many not go back to help clean up the mess instead of running off with the things they looted?

New Orleans–well Thee One had a New Orleans superstar working in his administration–organizing parties!  That would be Desiree Rogers.  Don’t want to throw the Zulu Queen under the bus, Barack.  Oh–but he made up for it by saving the city from the oil spill . . . New Orleans–its name is music–more romance per block than any other American city . . . Makes me want to lift up my shirt just thinking about it!

And who is helping THESE people.
THe flood was even bigger than New Orleans. 

Huh?  I was there a few months ago, and the city is in ruins.  Still
Where was the media on THIS event?  HUH?
http://www.cedarrapidsfloodstory.com/

No reply.
Because nobody cares about Iowa. 

The elite media and the elite pols, from both sides of the aisle care about nothing except what is going on in Washington D.C. or either left coast.

Some of them may actually have a compassionate bone left in their bodies but I doubt it. If it don’t get them votes or campaign contributions or doesn’t fit their own personal ideology then they don’t give a rats backside. Just my cynical opinion from years of watching the scum in government and media. Are there a few exceptions? Absolutely. But “caring” should be the “rule” not the exception. Again, JMO

Just a reminder about the COE…

They asked repeatedly for money to fix the levees.  They were turned down every time. 

Yes, the levees were their responsibility.  But it’s damn difficult to maintain a levee with no money.

“The complaints and problems with corps funding go back to the Carter administration, and presidents since then have tried to draw money from the agency’s projects to pay for other priorities.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9213319/

Washington is doing the same thing to the Corps with our system of river locks and dams.  For years they have pleaded for funding to expland the locks so that they will accommodate an entire tow.  Only two of them do that now.  In order for a full tow to transit a lock, they must first break it into two pieces.  Then they lock each section through and reassemble it on the other side. 

This can take a couple of hours and often results in long delays at the locks when river traffic is heavy.  We have seen barges delayed for twenty-four hours waiting to lock through.  You don’t want to know what that costs in lost time and fuel, never mind the increased danger of an accident when breaking and re-assembling the tow. 

Those lock projects have been repeatedly stripped of funding requests, just as the levee enhancements in NOLA were. 

I feel sorry for the Corps.  The rest of our military gets almost everything it asks for.  The Corps gets its buget slashed repeatedly.  And then they get the blame when something goes wrong.

We know many of the people who work for the Rock Island District of the COE.  They’re hard-working, caring people who don’t deserve the abuse that’s been heaped on them.

Tamara, the last thing Cedar Rapids needed was “help” from the federal government.  That “help” consisted of refusing people the right to go back to their homes to clean up after the flood.  They had to “survey” every property for any possible hazards before anyone could return.

You know what the result of that was?  Properties that could have been saved by the immediate application of a couple of gallons of bleach were kept off-limits for a year.  By the time the residents were allowed to return, mold and rot had finished what the Cedar River started.

THAT is why the city looks so devastated. 

Here on the Mississippi we’re used to floods.  They’re just a fact of life.  Happily, our local officials have not yet seen fit to prevent residents along the river from returning to their flooded homes.  So they move out when they have to and return with their Clorox the minute the water goes down.  Some of the houses around here have been flooded a dozen times.  They’re still standing because their owners we allowed to save them.

I suspect any order trying to keep us river rats away from our homes would be met with derision.  We know better.  What a shame the residents of Cedar Rapids didn’t.

Well, Creeper, I didn’t mean THAT kind of Government help, but I guess you’re right. 
If the Government gets involved in ANYTHING, they screw it up.
You should know.  You live in the area!

I guess my point is, we’ve been hearing about New Orleans for FIVE YEARS, yet we hear nothing about Cedar Rapids and all of those small towns in Iowa that were flooded.  Sorry I didn’t make my point clearer.

And I also shouldn’t be surprised that Iowans such as yourself don’t WANT Government intervention.  
You Iowans are tough, pragmatic and not asking for a hand out.

I hope Cedar Rapids comes back.  I always liked that town.

The COE bears some of the responsibility for the failure of the levees. They packed them with a local reed for filling. The local reed was a magnet, and favorite food, of a local bug. Said bug descended in the millions on those levees and ate out the filling. When the weight of the rising waters buffeted the levees, they failed because their insides had been eaten out. Perhaps this time they will use a non-edible filler on the levees.

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Not Obama’s Katrina  
   
Commentary,  
by Peter Wehner     
 
Original Article  
 
8/31/2010   
 
In his interview from New Orleans yesterday with NBC’s Brian Williams, commemorating the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, President Obama assured the world that his handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was not his administration’s Hurricane Katrina. The president is right, if the people of Louisiana are to be believed. Mr. Obama’s handling of the BP oil spill is judged by them to be considerably worse than how Bush reacted to Katrina. A Public Policy Polling survey reports this: The oil spill in the Gulf may be mostly out of the headlines….

The good citizens of Cedar Rapids, being unaccustomed to such devastation, deferred to the feds.

Big mistake.

My stepdaughter lives in Cedar Rapids.  On my trips to visit her I continue to be amazed at the lack of rehabilitation in the flooded area.  It didn’t have to be like this.

What’s so infuriating is that government facilities and the hospital that flooded were repaired as quickly as possible, on the taxpayers’ dime.  John Q. had to wait for a year to even begin to help himself.  

The funny thing is, many Cedar Rapids residents don’t understand to this day how badly the aftermath of their flood was botched.  With no previous experience to fall back on they bought the government’s theories hook, line and sinker.  

But then the county went for Obama, 53-44, so it’s hardly a surprise.

True, FLDemFem.  I don’t believe the Corps understood the potential for decay when they did that.  They were trying to make do with whatever they could.  But it was a big mistake.

Thanks for the clarification, Creeper.  I was only in town for a day, but was shocked at how little had been done in the downtown area. 

I wish people in the country would realize that “We’re from the Government, and we’re here to help!” is a lie. 

Creeper:  I forgot to mention that I spoke to as many of the locals in Cedar Rapids as I could while I was there.  The big thing I heard from them was that there were no jobs, and many people just picked up and left the area. 

Sadly, the entire city could be put to work reconstructing their town, but I’m sure the “Government” will waste any funding to that area on paper-shuffling jobs that accomplish nothing. 

It truly breaks my heart to see that gorgeous little town in such horrible condition.  And hearing the stories from the locals was also heart wrenching.

Your idea is wonderful Tamara. Give the people in that area jobs that accomplish something that needs to be done and let them “earn” a paycheck. They can take pride in what they do and in what they earn. Sadly the government is more in the “handout” than “handup” business.

I know, Kenoshamarge.
It’s just common sense, but it seems that common sense has left the country.

I’m miffed. Did any owners of property in N.O. get insurance money then just take off. Why were som many properties not insured ? Why didn’t the people evacuate ? Why was there so much looting  has anybody checked the pumps or will it be the same thing all over again.