The governor, a sweet lady who would make a great neighbor, is, truthfully, as dumb as a door knob. Government cronyism is rampant. Classism and racism are real. There is a feeling that whatever security we felt prior to Katrina, whatever prosperity we enjoyed as a city, and whatever harmony we had among our diverse populations will never return. After 17 months and nearly $60-billion, the people still feel panicked and confused by a leaderless local and state government and a Federal government that seems unable to even approach solving the problems in Katrinaland.
In the aftermath of Katrina, with 80% of New Orleans underwater, civility disintegrated. Looting was rampant. Highways and roads were flooded. The Interstate 10 twin span that stretches across Lake Pontchartrain was broken into giant disjointed slabs that fell into the water. Tens of thousands who evacuated to the Superdome and Morial Convention Center became restless. Food and water were not provided. The leader of the Federal Emergency Management Association said he did not even know people were in the Superdome or Convention Center, but everyone in the world with a TV set knew it. In a matter of hours, the situation descended into despair. Musician Harry Connick, Jr. stood in front of the convention center with cable news channel television recording it, showing and describing to the world the despair of thousands. But the FEMA boss said he never knew anything about it. As for Mayor Ray Nagin-where was he? He was hiding in a suite on the 16th floor of a hotel building.
Unfortunately, despite public pronouncements by New Orleans and Louisiana state officials to the contrary, that despair is still looming over the city. I felt it and I saw it as recently as today, January 26, 2007.
What will ultimately become of New Orleans?
Updates from Katrinaland
January 26, 2007
"After yesterday I feel this must be said"
Hurricane Katrina, Revisited
"Rumors are fueled by a shortage of truth," said Ted Steinberg, author of Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disasters in America. Finding truth is often the casualty of fear and panic, both the initial reactions of a stricken population whose lives are decimated by the aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina. Today, 17 months after this catastrophe hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of the United States, truth is still very scarce. I should know. I lived through it. I am living through it again and again, a day not passing when this life-changing event does not visit me here in Mississippi in what I call "Katrinaland".
As much as 80% of New Orleans was plunged underwater, leaving 1.2 million residents homeless. As for the greater Gulf Coast area, Katrina affected 90,000 square miles-about the size of the United Kingdom. If you have seen it only on TV, you have not seen it at all. In New Orleans, more than 80,000 homes were destroyed - with an average of eight feet of water in each for a period of no less than 17 days. Today I drove around the city where I once owned two houses and a commercial office building, and, sadly, I report that the 250,000 persons or so who fled the hurricane have not returned. Only a few of the devastated homes are being rebuilt. A politician in the city estimates that there are approximately 30,000 homes that must be razed, as they are creating a dangerous ground for rat and snake infestation.
Nobody talks about it publicly but the onslaught of crime is another deterrent for evacuees who actually fear trying to return to their homes. Local and state governments are virtually leaderless. The NOPD, the New Orleans District Attorney's Office, and the courts are barely functioning, and the criminals know it, thus flocking into a city that has taken on a 'wild west' aura.
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