Katrina: Four Years Later

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck Florida and the Gulf Coast, breached New Orleans’ levees in multiple locations and flooded 80 percent of the city. For days thousands of mostly Black residents languished on rooftops, in leaky boat flotillas, and in flooded government buildings and civic centers. The storm killed more than 1,800 people and left the city of New Orleans a shell of its former self. Damage estimates hover around $80 billion. Four years later rebuilding continues.

One of the positive outgrowths of the devastation is that the New Orleans public school system is substantially improved from its horrible situation in advance of Katrina.

There is evidence of the growing success of the schools in many areas. First, the city attracted a nationally known reformer, superintendent Paul Vallas, and so many teachers that it has 10 applicants for every opening. Second, New Orleans now spends twice as much as it did before Katrina -- $15,500 per pupil –- far above the national average.

The proof is in the pudding: Scores have risen on both state and national exams.

The Obama administration recently provided New Orleans’ HBCU, Southern University, with $32 million to replace four hurricane-damaged buildings.

The Brookings Institution and the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center summarize their report as follows:

"The nation’s deepening economic recession has produced dissolution and despair across the country as many communities grapple with the social and economic ramifications of massive layoffs, prolonged unemployment, shuttered businesses, and home foreclosures. By contrast, rebuilding from the woes caused by Hurricane Katrina has helped cushion greater New Orleans from the ravages of the downturn. As New Orleans ends its fourth year since the hurricane and levee failures, the region has been buoyed by post-disaster recovery efforts and its fortunate industry mix."

The release entitled ‘The New Orleans Anniversary Edition: Four Years after Katrina’, says Congress and the Obama leadership must commit and sustain its partnership with Louisiana state and local leaders by “delivering on key milestones in innovation, infrastructure, human capital and sustainable communities to help greater New Orleans move past 'disaster recovery' and boldly build a more prosperous future”.

The 24-page 'New Orleans Index' documents some key findings that include:

• The New Orleans economy is weathering the recession relatively well due in part to its industry composition. The New Orleans metro area lost 0.9 percent of its jobs since last June, compared to the 4.1 percent lost nationally. The industries hardest hit — manufacturing and construction — comprise relatively small shares of the New Orleans economy and since last June have shed few jobs. The four largest sectors of the region’s economy — trade and transportation, government, leisure and hospitality, and education and health services — either stagnated or added jobs. The New Orleans metro area’s unemployment rate rose to 7.3 percent while it climbed to 9.5 percent for the nation.
  
• Ongoing rebuilding activities are attracting people, jobs, and investments, further shoring up the greater New Orleans economy. New Orleans added more than 8,500 households (actively receiving mail) in the past year, the biggest one-year expansion since 2007, reflecting a mix of new and returning residents. While home rebuilding has slowed dramatically since 2007, post-disaster infrastructure investments in the levee system, schools, police stations and other public facilities have continued apace. Since July 2008, FEMA has paid over $800 million for infrastructure repair projects across the five-parish area. In the city of New Orleans, 94 facilities and public works projects were completed as of April 2009, and 113 more were under construction.
  
• Yet New Orleans is not immune from the economic crisis. Like many metropolitan areas, the housing market has stalled, with home sales down 39 percent and new construction down 48 percent. The slowdown in consumer spending has contributed to a plunge in city sales tax revenues with 21 percent fewer receipts from general sales, motel/hotel stays, and motor vehicle purchases in April and 6 percent fewer receipts in May compared to the previous year.
  
• Further, massive blight, affordable housing for low-income workers, and significant flood risk remain the area’s major challenges. While there are fewer unoccupied residences in Orleans, St. Bernard and Jefferson parishes this year, the scale of blight remains high— 65,888, 14,372, and 11,516 residences, respectively — posing significant challenges for local governments. Steep rent increases have abated, but at 40 percent higher than pre-Katrina, rents remain out of reach for many critical workers. Typical rent for an efficiency apartment is $733 per month, unaffordable for food preparation, health care support, and retail sales workers.

According to a 'Katrina Pain Index, the Louisiana landscape is dotted by nearly 2,000 temporary FEMA trailers (many of them contaminated and uninhabitable) 65,888 unoccupied residences and countless weed-filled lots and molding houses. The murder rate in New Orleans topped all cities nationwide last year, although the overall rate of violent crime dropped in the city in 2007 and 2008.

Engineering and construction work rebuilding Louisiana after Katrina has cushioned unemployment at 6.8%. The nation’s rate is 9.4%. Still the state ranks No. 2 in the nation for the highest jobless rate (13.2%) among African Americans and people living in poverty trailing Mississippi, despite billions in post-Katrina recovery dollars.

Nearly a third of the city’s children live in poverty. The vast majority of these children live in single-parent homes; many are being raised by siblings, foster parents or are on their own.

Recently Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) told her congressional colleagues that it is high time to get serious and get beyond just talking about doing something to help the people of New Orleans.

“Four years after Hurricane Katrina we still have individuals living in trailers, seeking additional benefits, dispersed throughout the country in unfamiliar cities, and disconnected from their families, friends and their hometown.”

Some online activists feel that we need to take actions that will prevent a future where disasters like Katrina become the norm. They want to see President Obama push for a strong clean energy bill that seeks to correct long-term structural energy issues.

The images from Hurricane Katrina are painful. They remind us that America is willing to abandon an entire city when it was inconvenient to save them. We saw images of desperation, racism and hopelessness.

Nothing happens as quickly as we want. Four years later we see rays of light -- new levees, new buildings, returning residents, grassroots organizers and achieving school children. Methinks that we have a chance to see New Orleans regaining its worldwide gleam if we stay the course.

I would be interested to see what villagers have to say about New Orleans: Four Years After Hurricane Katrina...

Katrina's Hidden Race War

I just learned from ColorOfChange.org that in the weeks following Hurricane Katrina, racist vigilantes in Algiers Point attacked, and according to their own accounts, killed Black men seeking refuge from the floodwaters. I'm outraged to hear that New Orleans law enforcement officials have consistently refused to investigate these crimes, and acted to cover up their own complicity in the violence.






Based on evidence recently presented by A.C. Thompson in The Nation, it appears that while at least 11 Black men were shot or shot at, none of the white vigilantes have been brought to justice. And there's damning evidence that police officers allowed a man to die, and then burned his body to cover it up.

Louisiana-style justice has once again failed to protect and serve the state's Black citizens. State officials such as Gov. Jindal must act immediately to change this. I urge all villagers to push for the identification of victims of these crimes, prosecution of the perpetrators, full cooperation with any federal inquiries, and aggressive investigations into the role of local law enforcement officials in committing and suppressing the exploration of these crimes.

That's my view. What say u?

Help Katrina Survivors Come Back Home

UPDATE: My Private Cabash blog shared information about other serious public housing issues impacting on New Orleans. Click here to see the full story on destruction of public housing in that city.

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Villagers, There were a number of public housing residents impacted by Hurricane Katrina. They have been blocked from returning home for over two years. New Orleans leaders are concerned that The Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act of 2007 (HR 1227 / S. 1668) is being stalled in the US Senate.

This bill would help Katrina-impacted public housing residents come home by repairing and opening thousands of minimally damaged public housing units. The bill passed in the House of Representatives, but some senators are standing in the way of the bill, supporting the interests of those who would like to see a richer, Whiter New Orleans and Gulf Coast.




Villagers, is Katrina still on our minds and hearts entering into this thanksgiving season? If so, sign the online petition to help these brothers and sisters out.

Gov.Blanco Responds to Jena Six Pressure

I understand that part of the Jena 6 convictions have been reversed. However, the situation is still an example of small-town racist behavior much like we saw with the Scottsboro Boys. Click here if you need an overview of the Jena Six case.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco's statement re Jena 6 has been shared by her press office. She writes,

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“I have received hundreds of calls, letters and emails from citizens concerned about the situation involving the case of the high school students in Jena, La. As Governor, as a citizen of the State of Louisiana, and as a mother, without rushing to judgment, I condemn racism in any form, and I fully expect that those involved in this case, including all parties, will act with fairness and in complete good faith.

“I must clear up a widespread misunderstanding of my authority in this case. Our State Constitution provides for three Branches of State Government - Legislative, Executive, and Judicial - and the Constitution prohibits anyone in one branch from exercising the powers of anyone in another branch. This issue is currently a matter in the Judicial System, and should those involved in this case suffer any defects, it is their right to address them in that system through the appeals court.

“Again, the oversight regarding how this case was handled, from arrest to prosecution, lies within the Justice System. Therefore, I have consulted Attorney General Charles Foti and Donald Washington, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, regarding these events in Jena. As a result, General Foti has been and is in consultation with U.S. Attorney Washington and other members of the Justice System. Regardless of the outcome of this case, the Jena community has much healing ahead of it, and I urge all those citizens to come together for the common good of their community and their state. Our children deserve nothing less."

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Villagers, have you ever seen such bureaucratic bullsh*t? The governor has the power to stop the prosecution of the Jena 6. She can drop all charges and pardon Mychal Bell. The governor must think that we are all as dumb as Booboo-the-fool. What good faith have we seen from the citizens or prosecutors in Jena? What is a rush to judgement when this racially-based prosecution has been allowed to proceed for almost a year.

It is no wonder that Gov. Blanco has been unable to rebuild New Orleans and other damages in her state from Hurricane Katrina. She is not much of a leader judging from her wimpy statement shown above.

Villagers, what say u? Will any of you be able to attend the march on September 20th?

Wordless Wednesday: Day of Presence

"When communities are rebuilt, they must be even better and stronger than before the storm. Within the Gulf region are some of the most beautiful and historic places in America. As all of us saw on television, there's also some deep, persistent poverty in this region, as well. That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality. When the streets are rebuilt, there should be many new businesses, including minority-owned businesses, along those streets. When the houses are rebuilt, more families should own, not rent, those houses. When the regional economy revives, local people should be prepared for the jobs being created. Americans want the Gulf Coast not just to survive, but to thrive; not just to cope, but to overcome. We want evacuees to come home, for the best of reasons -- because they have a real chance at a better life in a place they love." - President George W. Bush, September 15, 2005

When words and actions do not agree, believe the actions. - African proverb.



Wednesday, August 29, 2007
A Day of Presence for the People of New Orleans
We matter. We care. We act.

Katrina and Black Bloggers

The African American Political Pundit called out the Electronic Village and other Black bloggers as it relates to the Katrina tragedy. The pundit wrote,

"There are things that are going on in America that are an Assault on Black Sanity. Black bloggers need to stop Acting White regarding New Orleans. We need our AfroSpear Think Tank to address Katrina and make it part of our Black Agenda. The brothers and sisters of New Orleans need and deserve Black bloggers unfied help. Yes it's going to take the Field Negro, Jack and Jill Politics, The Free Slave, people from The Electronic Village, BygBaby, brothers and sisters from Cananda, Bronze Trinity, and so many other Black bloggers from around the AfroSphere to bring more attention to the plight of our people, who have been displaced, dislocated and disoriented by a system of local, state and federal governments who seem not to care."

There are a number of aspects of the Katrina tragedy worthy of discussion. For example, have you thought about the unique stories on the pioneering individuals and families who have chosen to exercise their self-granted "right to return" to their devastated homes and rebuild their lives following Hurricanes Katrina. Tavis Smiley went to New Orleans recently to visit with some of these courageous people who are central to the culture of the Big Easy. Tavis regularly has conversations about Hurricane Katrina on his show.

Another recent development in the story is the rising death rate. Hurricane Katrina's tragic aftermath lingered for at least a year after the storm abated, boosting New Orleans' death rate last year by 47% compared with two years before the levees broke.

Doctors say the dramatic surge in deaths comes as no surprise in a city of 250,000 mostly poor and middle-class people who lost seven of 22 hospitals and half of the city's hospital beds. More than 4,486 doctors were displaced from three New Orleans parishes, creating a shortage that still hampers many hospitals. The indigent suffered the brunt of the health toll from the 2005 storm. The Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans, two hospitals that made up the city's safety net for the uninsured, were severely damaged. Charity Hospital, oldest and best known of the two, remains closed.

"We can get hung up on the numbers, but the bottom line is that people are dying at a faster rate here post-Katrina," says Jullette Saussy, director of New Orleans EMS.

"The lack of primary care, of mental health care and of long waits in emergency rooms all have (worsened) people's normally controllable chronic diseases," she says. "Diabetes, respiratory disease and hypertension all are killers, especially when they're not dealt with."

From January to June 2006, they found on average 1,317 death notices a month, for a mortality rate of about 91 per 100,000 people. In 2002 and 2004, the average was 924 notices a month, for a death rate of 62 per 100,000, 47% fewer than after the storm.

I encourage villagers to share their thoughts on the Katrina tragedy. What do you see going on to re-open New Orleans? The recovery is slow and many New Orleans people and places have yet to come back after Katrina. What aspects of the recovery would you like to see discussed here under our baobob tree?