[StBernard] THE BROADER VIEW : New Orleans nine months later

[Westley Annis]

THE BROADER VIEW : New Orleans nine months later
Hoyt Purvis email at nwarktimes.com

Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006

URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Editorial/41184/

It has been nine months since Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans,
and other areas of the Gulf Coast, and set in motion a series of escalating
calamities. With another hurricane season beginning in just a few days, New
Orleans has made limited progress in recovering, rebuilding and in preparing
for what may be ahead. Predictions call for an "above-normal hurricane
season." 

Beleaguered New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, one of the major public officials
who drew heavy criticism for his handling of the crisis in the
hurricane-ravaged city, overcame a serious challenge in his bid for
re-election. Having won the hard-fought electoral battle, Nagin now faces
the daunting reality of guiding the city through a precarious period. 

Parts of the city bear few visible scars and are functioning at a relatively
normal pace. However, significant portions of New Orleans look like a ghost
town, with devastation and debris at every turn. 

The good times are beginning to roll again in the French Quarter - bringing
in tourist revenue, on which New Orleans is so heavily dependent. The annual
Jazz Fest earlier this month drew large crowds. There's a brisk business in
sales of T-shirts with epigrams such as "I drove my Chevy to the levee, but
the levee wasn't there" or "Make levees, not war." 

Most, but not all of the leading hotels and restaurants have re-opened,
although some report that business remains slow in comparison to past years.
The New Orleans (Louis Armstrong) Airport is now back to about 65 percent of
its pre-Katrina flight schedule. One of the problems hindering hotels,
restaurants, and related businesses is the shortage of personnel. If they
are going to attract more business, they need the staff to handle that
business. And this brings us to the bigger and continuingly tragic picture
of New Orleans. A major reason there are not more workers is because working
class and lowerwage employees don't have places to live. Katrina scattered
many of the city's 426,000 residents across the country and more than half
have not returned. Substantial numbers may never move back. 

A recent tour around the hardest-hit areas of the city provides stark
evidence of how extensive the damage was and how little has been done in
many of the stricken areas. The magnitude of the destruction is
overwhelming. We have all seen pictures. But viewing it in person
illustrates the scope - block after block of devastated homes, abandoned
neighborhoods with no power or services, piles of debris, water-logged and
dirtcaked cars. Strip malls sit vacant. Even some without major damage would
not have enough business to sustain them. 

In Chalmette (St. Bernard's Parish), just to the east of the city, many
brick homes are left standing but are in shambles. Roofs that remain are
covered with marsh grass, a reminder that the community was inundated for
days. Family belongings - toys and pots and pans - are strewn about, clearly
visible through gaping holes. There are bizarre relics of that terrifying
time - a large shrimp boat, "The Dolphin," sitting in the middle of a
street, reportedly three miles from its waterway; an ADT panel truck atilt
between two houses. 

Another section hit by catastrophic flooding was the Lower Ninth Ward on New
Orleans's eastern side, which included some poorer neighborhoods and
less-substantial homes. This severely damaged area is largely closed off,
empty and eerily quiet. Here, as in other devastated and hardhit
neighborhoods, most of the remaining structures are marked with
spray-painted codes signifying whether anyone was found in the buildings and
designating many of them for demolition. 

While the Ninth Ward remains basically uninhabitable, there are signs of
recovery and reconstruction in some areas which suffered moderate damage.
Volunteer and church groups have done some amazing clean-up work. But flood
waters reached 80 percent of the city and ravaged the infrastructure.
Progress is spotty at best. Frustration with FEMA and with insurance
companies runs high. 

A long-time observer of New Orleans told me it would take at least 10 years
for the city to get back to what it was before Katrina, and that assumed no
significant hurricanes in the interim and that there would be continuing
large-scale federal assistance. In the meantime, the city remains vulnerable
and ill prepared. New emergency evacuation plans have been drawn up and
drills conducted. Communications networks have supposedly been upgraded. But
flood control capabilities are limited and many questions about the city's
future are yet to be seriously confronted. 

The Army Corps of Engineers acknowledges that two of the three floodgate
systems intended to stop surges from approaching storms will not be ready
this week as promised. There are also continuing questions about the levees.
Despite repairs and improvements, some Corps officials admit that the system
might not prevent flooding by a Katrina-type storm. The future of a
Corps-constructed alternative shipping canal built 40 years ago (The
Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, known at "MR. GO") is in doubt. It apparently
intensified Katrina's surge and was a major factor in flooding on the
eastern side of New Orleans. 

A recent report by independent experts found that the levee system was
routinely underfunded and was insufficient to provide needed protection.
Safety was exchanged for efficiency and reduced costs. The system would not
have been breached if it had been properly financed, designed, constructed,
and maintained, according to the team of forensic scientists who conducted
the study. Floodwalls weren't built properly and some levees washed away
because they were constructed with sandy soils that the storm eroded. The
scientists say the levee system needs a total overhaul. 

The report said human failures in design and construction, compounded by
political infighting and insufficient funding, contributed to the
catastrophe. The Corps and other local and federal agencies were said to be"
dysfunctional. "The team's calls for a national authority to oversee
flood-control planning and projects and coordinate the multiple agencies and
jurisdictions involved appear to be a sound recommendation. 

Meanwhile, FEMA, so badly disgraced in its response to Katrina, says it is
prepared for the coming hurricane season. Disaster supplies have been
stockpiled in the region. FEMA Director Michael Chertoff said the nation is
better prepared than ever for a major hurricane. But the tarnished image of
FEMA is symbolized by those thousands of unused trailers sitting in a field
near Hope, Ark. 

In New Orleans, Nagin may have benefited from a backlash factor in his
re-election and it may have helped him get support from more than 20 percent
of white voters, an essential element in his victory. While many were
disappointed by aspects of Nagin's handling of the disaster response, there
was also a feeling that he was getting a disproportionate share of the
blame, particularly from outside the city. Although the author is from New
Orleans, a book published just before the election and heavily publicized
nationally," The Great Deluge, "by Tulane historian Douglas Brinkley, may
have contributed to that backlash. Columnist Stephanie Grace of the New
Orleans Times-Picayune said Brinkley's treatment of Nagin was" so over the
top... so seething with ridicule" that a backlash was "all but inevitable." 

Nine months after Katrina, with a new hurricane season approaching, Mayor
Nagin begins his new term with a renewed mandate but with enormous problems
to contend with, including the city's problematic finances and services. As
he frequently and correctly emphasizes, New Orleans is a distinctive and
special place. However, although Nagin speaks optimistically and his upbeat
attitude is important, he and community leaders face difficult decisions
about the city's future. Despite the return of vitality to the French
Quarter and some adjacent areas, much of the city still lies in ruin. 

Nine months ago, there was national outrage at the ineffective and
insufficient rescue and relief efforts after Katrina. 

Nine months later, there should be national outrage that so much remains to
be done. 

Hoyt Purvis is a journalism and international relations professor and served
as press secretary to Sen. J. William Fulbright, foreign/defense policy
adviser to Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd and as chairman of the
Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. His column appears on Sundays. 

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