4 Years Later: Hurricane Katrina

[downtown]

So this Saturday makes marks the 4 year anniversary of the most expensive hurricane in US History, Hurricane Katrina. Katrina killed people in four states (and nearly 2,000 in all), caused 80 billion in damage, and caused the largest diaspora in United States history. One million people moved away...and Louisiana lost over 4% of its entire population that year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

I took the day off today to go help out with the reconstruction of a home outside of New Orleans. Parts of the metro area are still awfully messed up. Nearly every house on the road was boarded up and empty. Few were being rebuilt. Streets all over the city need repavement. School enrollment numbers have yet to match pre-storm levels. The library system is at half capacity. The beat goes on. Many are still commited to rebuilding the area, but it had faded from the public memory.

Many debate over who is to blame for the messes that happened right after the storm (and very good cases can be made for Nagin, Broussard, Brown, FEMA and the NOPD), but the recovery effort has been moved to the backburner, at least nationally (not locally).

4 years later, what have we learned? How can we change our disaster preparedness so nothing like this happens again? What can we do to repair the situation, or should anything be done at all?

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I still think that after the storm we should've filled in the hole where the city way and built a new city on top of it, one that would be above sea level. It could've been one of those model cities, where firms and scientific organizations and stuff build all kinds of cool concept buildings and city layouts and stuff.

 

[Labtec600]

Think the lesson learned is that in a time of great diaster the people should come together to help one another out (a lot didnt) instead of waiting for the Government to come save you.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Think the lesson learned is that in a time of great diaster the people should come together to help one another out (a lot didnt) instead of waiting for the Government to come save you.

An equally valuable lesson is that the government was inadequately prepared to answer the needs of its citizens in a time of crisis, when a government organ had been created specifically to do just that.

 

[Labtec600]

An equally valuable lesson is that the government was inadequately prepared to answer the needs of its citizens in a time of crisis, when a government organ had been created specifically to do just that.

Damn straight.

My point and your point go hand in hand.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

If the government had the power to forcibly evacuate people, we wouldn't have so many people dying from something so easily preventable.

 

[SG-17]

I think it is time to abandon New Orleans all together. Why build a city below sea level right near a large lake and the ocean? The lesson being anything man made can buckle under the force of mother nature. This includes any levees or varying strength and design.

They could still use New Orleans for stuff like filming a new season of The Colony, but no one should be living there permanently.

 

[Godwynn]

I think it is time to abandon New Orleans all together. Why build a city below sea level right near a large lake and the ocean?

They could still use New Orleans for stuff like filming a new season of The Colony, but no one should be living there permanently.

This is America, why would we do it any other way?

BRING IT MOTHER NATURE!

 

[downtown]

If the government had the power to forcibly evacuate people, we wouldn't have so many people dying from something so easily preventable.

The logistics of forcing an evacuation in New Orleans would be crazy. The city is only served by one major US highway, it is nearly totally surrounded by water, and doesn't have a major US metro big enough to absorb everybody close by.

 

[Kerozine]

Build stronger levees.

 

[QuoVadisNation]

To be fair: a lot of the city infanstructure is pretty much the same now as it was before New Orleans. The city just doesn't repair nothing unless they make a profit of it somehow. Otherwise they just let it rot until someone buys it up and builds something else or it becomes historic (example: oak street)

 

[cubsfan6506]

I still think that after the storm we should've filled in the hole where the city way and built a new city on top of it, one that would be above sea level. It could've been one of those model cities, where firms and scientific organizations and stuff build all kinds of cool concept buildings and city layouts and stuff.

Yes one where the former poor residents could never afford to live.

 

[Joecoolyo]

I still think that after the storm we should've filled in the hole where the city way and built a new city on top of it, one that would be above sea level. It could've been one of those model cities, where firms and scientific organizations and stuff build all kinds of cool concept buildings and city layouts and stuff.

That would be cool, now if only we had the money

 

[downtown]

To be fair: a lot of the city infanstructure is pretty much the same now as it was before New Orleans. The city just doesn't repair nothing unless they make a profit of it somehow. Otherwise they just let it rot until someone buys it up and builds something else or it becomes historic (example: oak street)

You're telling me. I think its shameful.

 

[Shylock]

If the government had the power to forcibly evacuate people, we wouldn't have so many people dying from something so easily preventable.

http://workbench.cadenhead.org/news/2748/police-trapped-thousands-new-orleans

So much for that thar government.

 

[MobBoss]

So this Saturday makes marks the 4 year anniversary of the most expensive hurricane in US History, Hurricane Katrina. Katrina killed people in four states (and nearly 2,000 in all), caused 80 billion in damage, and caused the largest diaspora in United States history. One million people moved away...and Louisiana lost over 4% of its entire population that year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

I took the day off today to go help out with the reconstruction of a home outside of New Orleans. Parts of the metro area are still awfully messed up. Nearly every house on the road was boarded up and empty. Few were being rebuilt. Streets all over the city need repavement. School enrollment numbers have yet to match pre-storm levels. The library system is at half capacity. The beat goes on. Many are still commited to rebuilding the area, but it had faded from the public memory.

Many debate over who is to blame for the messes that happened right after the storm (and very good cases can be made for Nagin, Broussard, Brown, FEMA and the NOPD), but the recovery effort has been moved to the backburner, at least nationally (not locally).

4 years later, what have we learned? How can we change our disaster preparedness so nothing like this happens again? What can we do to repair the situation, or should anything be done at all?

Dont elect idiot deadbeat mayors and governors. And (in the case of the mayor) re-elect his ass after he has been recognized as being incompetent.

 

[Miles Teg]

Dont elect idiot deadbeat mayors and governors. And (in the case of the mayor) re-elect his ass after he has been recognized as being incompetent. And put political pressure on the president and future presidents to appoint better FEMA directors.

I know that you didn't intend for that post to sound like a partisan answer to a non-partisan question, so I fixed it for you.

 

[Theige]

Dont elect idiot deadbeat mayors and governors. And (in the case of the mayor) re-elect his ass after he has been recognized as being incompetent.

Right, because its not like we have a federal agency to deal with unprecedented, massive natural disasters.

You make me sick.

 

[MobBoss]

The federal agency is simply not a first responder. Never was before Katrina, so why in the hell would it be for Katrina?

Historically, the federal response to Katrina was days faster than previously for other significant hurricanes. Again, the fed response being seen as inadequate was precisely because the local city and state governments had done very little to prepare its populace for what was to come. I mean, everyones seen the photos of hundreds of school buses underwater that could have been used to evacuate people. Everyone knows how the city didnt put enough food or clean water in the Superdome for the number of people inside.

Point is, if the whole city goes to hell in a handbasket even before the feds can respond, it makes their job tougher by a magnitude.

And I could care less if I make you sick.

@Miles: dont alter my quotes to misrepresent me.

 

[darkedone02]

storms, hurricane, earthquakes and other disasters comes and goes, every time these disaster's appear, it's obvious that we will rebuild it if we can. People cared a small bit of disasters that strucked, like hurricane katrina and the typhoon or tidal wave that hit india (i think). After a year or two has gone by, people seem to care more of politics, wars, and other news that is going on, like today our "warfare for or against health care reform".

There is no need to play the blame game, as diseasters will come by sooner or later, and whatever it destories, we rebuild.