by Bruce Katz, Matt Fellowes, and Mia Mabanta
February 2006
FINDINGS
Days Since Katrina Made Landfall: 156
Full report...
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/200601_KatrinaIndex.pdf
Now over five months since Katrina made landfall, New Orleans is home to over 130,000 people, including a much larger than expected population of college students. But, the city lacks enough essential services to support all of these returning residents, and the area continues to hemorrhage workers. What key trends were available this month for the states suggest little progress in both Louisiana and Mississippi. In particular, we find:
Demand for essential services in New Orleans continues to overwhelm the supply. Only 32 percent of the city's hospitals are open, and waits for emergency room visits have exceeded six hours. Over 9,000 children have now enrolled in the city's schools but only 15 percent have reopened and some of those are reporting difficulty accommodating demand. Electricity has been restored to about 95 percent of former customers, but power is only being used by 30-35 percent of the former customers, as many customers have either not returned or wait for the city to certify the safety of their electricity connections.
Hundreds of thousands of households continue to face major obstacles restarting their lives. Nearly 750,000 households remain displaced by Katrina, of which about 650,000 are receiving rental assistance, or about $800 a month. Mortgage delinquency rates skyrocketed between the second and third quarter of the calendar year. In the state of Louisiana, for instance, nearly one out of every four loans is now 30 or more days past due.
The dramatic drop in the unemployment rate is almost entirely
due to a decrease in the size of the labor force in New Orleans and
Louisiana. In particular, the metro area lost 42,000 people in its
labor force between November and December, while the state of
Louisiana lost over 100,000 people.
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/200512_katrinaindex.htm
End Brookings report
Prevention and evacuation issues
According to the National Response Plan, the Department of Homeland Security "will assume responsibility on March 1st [2005] for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort" [71]. The state evacuation plan (Part 1 Section D7) states [72], evacuation is the responsibility of the local parish. In Orleans Parish that responsibility fell to Mayor Ray Nagin. Many critics have noted that while Mayor Nagin gave a mandatory evacuation order on August 28, before the storm hit, they did not make sufficient prevention and provisions to evacuate the homeless, the poor, the elderly, the infirm, or the car-less households. Hospitals, nursing homes, group homes, were supposed to have pre-determined evacuation and/or refuge plans in place. [73] Foreign nationals without transport claimed that the police refused to evacuate them, giving bus places only to American citizens. [74]
Prior to this, on August 27 the White House issued a statement
[75], effective August 26, authorizing federal emergency assistance
for Louisiana. The statement authorized the DHS and FEMA to
coordinate disaster relief and "...required emergency measures,
authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives,
protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or
avert the threat of a catastrophe
in the parishes of
Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldwell,
Claiborne, Catahoula, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East
Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Jackson,
LaSalle, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches,
Pointe Coupee, Ouachita, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St.
Helena, St. Landry, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll,
West Feliciana, and Winn." This includes all the parishes in the
state of Louisiana except the coastal parishes which are inherently
exposed to the most destructive forces of a hurricane.
The President had not yet authorized FEMA to enter the coastal
areas despite the governors request including those
parishes.
[76] The governor activated the National Guard with her August 26,
State of Emergency Declaration page II-4 Red Cross relief in New
Orleans remains forbidden by the Governor. [77]
As the US military and rescue services regained control over the
city, there were restrictions on the activity of the media.
Gaffer's tape identifies journalists to police and military
personnel
Enlarge
Gaffer's tape identifies journalists to police and military
personnel
On September 7 a FEMA spokeswoman requested in an email to journalists that they voluntarily refrain from taking photographs of the many corpses still present in the city at that time[114][115][116]. On September 8, FEMA spokesman Mark Pfeifle confirmed this request. On September 9, Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, the military leader of the relief effort, announced that reporters would have "zero access" to efforts to recover bodies in New Orleans. Critics of the federal government considered this effort to be similar to the controversial post-9/11 policy that corpses under federal custody should be kept shielded from media photographers.
Immediately following the government decision, CNN filed a lawsuit and obtained a temporary restraining order against the federal ban[117]. The next day (September 10), spokesperson Col. Christian E. deGraff announced that the government would no longer attempt to bar media access to the victim recovery efforts[118].
Journalists Brian Williams and Pete Williams[119] reported that government personnel on the scene blocked attempts to report on rescue efforts in New Orleans. Brian Williams also reported that in the process of blocking journalists, police even went so far as to threaten reporters with a weapon[120] [121]. However, at evacuee centers such as the Austin Convention Center and the Houston Astrodome press activity was extensive.
On September 7, a journalist for the Denver Post was denied access to a survivor camp at the Community College of Aurora and reported that the camp was fenced-in and heavily guarded.
On September 7, KATU journalist Brian Barker reported[122] that his team was threatened with automatic weapons by US Marshals until they were identified by Brig. Gen. Doug Pritt, commander of the 41st Brigade Combat Team of Oregon that they were embedded with. Subsequently, his team taped the letters "TV" on the side of their vehicles in accordance with standard practice in war zones.
Toronto Star staff photojournalist Lucas Oleniuk was thrown to the ground by police in the Spanish Quarter after taking photographs. He took pictures of a firefight between looters and police and the subsequent beating of a looter by the police. They attempted to take all of his equipment. He convinced them to just take the memory cards[123].
Freelance photojournalist Marko Georgiev, shooting for The New York Times, took photos of a body presumably shot and killed by the police. Police then pointed their weapons at the car and ordered the journalists out. They proceeded to search the car and stole one of Georgiev's memory cards[124].
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_katrina
In 2001, a FEMA report ranked hurricane damage to New Orleans as one of the three most likely catastrophes facing the country (the other two were a terrorist attack on New York City and an earthquake in San Francisco). The New Orleans Times-Picayune published a five-part series in 2002 that began with the words: "It's only a matter of time before south Louisiana takes a direct hit from a major hurricane. Billions have been spent to protect us, but we grow more vulnerable every day. ...'' The stories quoted flood experts warning specifically of the potential damage from rising water levels and broken levees. Despite the warnings, money was cut from flood control as the federal government's focus shifted to terrorism. The Bush administration routinely provided less than half the money the Army Corps of Engineers requested for New Orleans flood prevention. Officials routinely blamed budget restrictions and the war in Iraq in Times-Picayune articles. A strategic plan produced by FEMA in 2003 noted that "Since September 11 (2001) ... the nation's attention has shifted from natural hazards to include its capability to respond to future terrorist attacks.'' The agency, which was given Cabinet level status by President Bill Clinton, was folded into the newly created Department of Homeland Security and reported to its secretary rather than directly to the president.
Critics Say Bush Undercut New Orleans Flood Control
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