[StBernard] Two years after Katrina, a long road home remains

[Westley Annis]

CHALMETTE - Christopher Andry, 43, looked out over his devastated block on
Pierre Street in Chalmette in St. Bernard Parish and shook his head.

"It's scary to be investing back here," he said, looking down the street at
piles of rubble, for sale signs and three empty slabs. "I just don't know if
it is going to come back. It's hard to know what to do."

 
Prior to the storm, Andry, who is coastal permits manager for St. Bernard
Parish, was on a pretty good personal retirement plan: He had borrowed to
buy eight rental properties in Chalmette, plus a home in Slidell, and had a
good, positive cash flow.

Two years after Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters destroyed Andry's rental
properties Aug. 29, 2005, he's moved back into the renovated half of one
duplex, paying as he goes. Hounded by mortgage companies, he works at his
job by day and on his property on weekends. He is waiting for the Road Home
rental program to let him know in September how much, if any, he will get in
housing rehabilitation grants to rehabilitate the other seven and a half.

Of the 24 doubles within eyesight of his front yard, Andry counts only six
that are renovated and eight that are in various stages of renovations, some
stalled. Two have been demolished and seven stand gutted, empty shells.

It was to this street recently that U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Gov.
Kathleen Blanco brought a delegation of Democratic U.S. House of
Representative leaders to gather first-hand knowledge of the state of the
New Orleans region.

"It was good to have them here," Andry said, his spirits uplifted by the
fact that congressional leaders had seen the ghost town that the
neighborhood has become. "They've seen it first-hand."

The population of St. Bernard Parish, once 67,000, is now estimated to be
less than 30,000. Orleans is down to about 300,000 from 462,000. Jefferson
Parish has lost only 2 percent of its prestorm population.

The Brookings Institute, the U.S. Postal Service and private demographers
hired by the city of New Orleans have made population estimates.

While there are signs of recovery everywhere - even in the especially
devastated Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans - there is still much to be done.

In a report last week, the Brookings Institute made a number of findings:


The federal money for rehabilitation of government-owned buildings and
infrastructure is slow coming down. As of July 20, only 41 percent of the
$6.3 billion allocated had actually been distributed. New Orleans has
received only one-fourth of its allocations.


Fewer than two-thirds of the prestorm hospital beds in New Orleans are open.


In New Orleans, only 98 of the 276 child-care facilities have reopened.


No library has been opened in St. Bernard Parish; five of 16 remain closed
in Jefferson Parish and four of 13 are still closed in New Orleans.


As of July, no repairs had been made on damaged police stations.


Of the 11,300 homes up for sale in June, only 1,029 - less than 10 percent -
were sold.

Pelosi and others bolstered the community when they pledged they would work
to plug the gap anticipated in The Road Home program that provides
homeowners with grants and small landlords with forgivable loans to pay for
housing rehabilitation.

The Road Home program, completely federally funded, is allocated $6.4
billion, but another $1.2 billion in hazard mitigation money could be
switched to the grant program.

The Louisiana Recovery Authority moved another $1 billion in state and other
federal grants to The Road Home program. Still, the housing rehab program is
short about $4 billion of covering the needs of homeowners like Chris Andry.

Pelosi emphasized that House Democratic leaders will again tack on Gulf
Coast needs to the President's next emergency supplemental appropriations
bill the Bush administration needs to fund the war in Iraq. That way, she
explained, they get around the threshold of 60 votes needed to bring a bill
to a vote on the Senate floor, where Democrats have a 50-49 vote majority.

Although FEMA originally predicted there would be about 122,000 damaged
homes eligible for federal grants, 184,000 homeowners have applied and
benefits have been calculated for 116,200, meaning they have been sent
letters giving them concrete numbers and options.

Of the nearly 90,000 people who have chosen an option, most - some 80,000 -
are choosing to rebuild right where they were; only 7,800 have opted to buy
elsewhere and only 2,000 have chosen to leave the state.

Blanco said she was "very, very pleased with the congressional delegation's
level of understanding and their commitment" not only to The Road Home gap
but to other aspects of recovery.

"My concerns remain with the White House and, of course, the Senate. I worry
about them experiencing the exasperation because of the magnitude of our
needs," Blanco said.

"I feel a real sense of movement and stability, not for every single
individual, but you can feel that the critical mass is gathering," Blanco
said.

The money is flowing, and it shows throughout the neighborhoods, though
there is a long way to go, said Andy Kopplin, Louisiana Recovery Authority
director, who estimates recovery will take another three to five years "and
beyond."

Part of the problem with the slowness has been that the federal government
responded by using the existing bureaucracy, FEMA and its rules for
reimbursement. There was no specially created Hoover Commission as President
Calvin Coolidge set up following the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927.

"We didn't get Herbert Hoover, that's the bottom line," Kopplin said.

U.S. Rep. Richard Baker, R-Baton Rouge, proposed legislation that would have
created a robust federal agency with great powers to rebuild the region, but
the White House stopped the bill in the Senate.

Instead of reacting to the world's largest disaster, FEMA operated under
existing laws governing federal response to smaller disasters.

"They wanted us to count the number of No. 2 pencils in every classroom,"
Kopplin said. "The federal government didn't have an agency set up for a
major disaster. They used all their regular procedures. The people who made
up the red tape don't have to live with it. And it's been a boa constrictor.

"Despite all that, recovery is now beginning to hit its stride," Kopplin
said.

The New Orleans convention and tourism business is picking up, running about
70 percent of pre-Katrina levels this fall, said Steve Perry, president of
the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"We are showing signs of rebound," Perry said. "We are ahead of pace in
convention bookings. We will have a very strong fall and summer."

The Saints will open their home season Sept. 24 with a Monday Night Football
broadcast by ESPN.

"When the Saints get that kind of coverage, we actually see a major bump in
calls and reservations the very next day," Perry said. "It's literally three
hours of advertising."

Another good sign is that the Sugar Bowl is already sold out and a week
later the Bowl Championship Series championship is Jan. 7. "It will bring
thousands of visitors," Perry said.

The tenor of questions has changed. No longer do convention bookers want to
ask about the recovery, but the questions are about all the attractions and
things for people to do.

The crime rate is a problem, as publicity about murders goes nationwide. "It
has had an impact. But people know that the tourist areas are among the
safest areas in the United States," Perry said.

New Orleans shipbuilder Boise Bollinger, who has been on both the state and
city recovery teams, likes the progress he is seeing.

His major concern is insurance rates. "I talked to a guy in Metairie whose
insurance bill was double his note," Bollinger said. "I think the market
will drive rates down."

The storm has exposed some of the city's problems, including a failing
school system now taken over by the state, an incompetent local district
attorney's office and public corruption investigations that have resulted in
more than 50 guilty pleas.

The U.S. attorney's office is steadily rooting out the corruption.

"We're going to get some new politicians and a justice system that is
working; we are not allowing the ways of old to continue," Bollinger said.
"I am very optimistic."

Tulane Law professor Tania Tetlow, whose damaged Uptown basement is nearing
repair, is having a dinner party for friends Wednesday, just as she did for
the first anniversary last year.

"It feels like it has been 10 years since the storm, as life has been so
grueling and intense," Tetlow said. "I think we need to take a deep breath
and give ourselves credit for what we've been through and what we've
accomplished."


CThe Times
August 26, 2007