Alexandria, La. – Amid fears that the effort to repopulate New Orleans is stalling, Mayor C. Ray Nagin hopscotched shelters across the state Wednesday to assure Hurricane Katrina evacuees that the city is beginning to operate again and urged them to “come on home.”
It is a daunting task. New Orleans’ lower 9th Ward reopened to residents Wednesday, but few came back. Schools in neighboring communities have seen their students reduced by half. Business owners are desperate for workers, and city leaders are increasingly concerned that many residents will never return. Evacuees from Katrina are scattered across 44 states, and many have vowed never to return.
Red Cross officials say about 550,000 remain in hotels and motels subsidized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Meanwhile, neighborhoods such as the 9th Ward, lower parts of St. Bernard, Plaque mines and Cameron parishes “will take months and sometimes longer to create a livable environment,” said U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen.
With much of his city still vacant, Nagin launched his campaign.
“My big message is: You can come back to the city,” Nagin told a group of about 40 at a shelter in Alexandria, a three-hour drive from New Orleans.
He urged the crowd to “get back to the red beans and rice and gumbo and all those things that you love.”
Nagin said the city was rich with jobs and that he could help arrange trailers from FEMA for those who return. It was in a many ways an advertising effort. Crime is lower than it has been in 100 years, he told the crowd, and city schools will begin to reopen in November and January.
He noted that some Burger King franchises are offering $6,000 bonuses to new employees.
A shortage of workers has driven up wages.
