Two years after Hurricane Katrina destroyed cities and shattered lives along the Gulf Coast, large swaths of Mississippi and Louisiana, including New Orleans, are still struggling to their feet.
When the images of thousands of people stranded without food or water – and hundreds more clinging to their rooftops – first surfaced, shocked Americans rightly wondered how this could be happening in our country.
With the rebuilding effort far from complete, we should be wondering that again.
Why can’t we rebuild our cities quicker? Why shouldn’t we be worried about the response the next time a natural disaster strikes? And what if the next time happens to be here? Would it be any different?
There have been some post-Katrina successes, to be sure, thanks to public and private assistance and thousands of volunteers. Some businesses are back up and in some areas the economy is bouncing back. Tourists are returning.
But schools and hospitals are not completely back. Homes are still in ruins. Many displaced families still have nowhere to return to.
In New Orleans, levees still have not been rebuilt to withstand another Katrina-like storm. In the days after the storm, the federal government was roundly denounced, as it should have been, for its response to Katrina. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which erected the faulty levees, mostly escaped criticism and is in charge of rebuilding the walls of protection.
The mental and spiritual needs of displaced victims also have been largely overlooked. Thousands of people who fled the area, including many who came to Colorado, have not returned.
The reconstruction effort has been marred by waste, incompetence and apparent apathy. Instead of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development mapping out a plan to house people whose homes were destroyed and who had no relatives elsewhere, storm victims have been moved from one temporary shelter to another. After living in motels, thousands ended up in FEMA trailers that were found to have high levels of toxic gas.
Surveys have found widespread depression among survivors, including those living in trailers. Two out of five New Orleans students in the fourth through 12th grades had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or depression.
While the government has poured millions into the reconstruction effort, contracts have lacked adequate oversight. Lucrative federal contracts were handed out to politically connected companies who did shoddy work, then left, according to reports.
A special House of Representatives committee report last year called the response of government at all levels to Hurricane Katrina dismal and federal leadership ineffective.
The Gulf Coast and its residents are still ailing two years after the storm, and Katrina has begun to fade from public consciousness.
Presidential candidates rushing in and out of the Gulf Coast area this week to grab publicity should bear that in mind. The area’s recovery has a long road ahead unless the next president makes a concerted effort to show that future anniversaries will show far more progress than this one.
