Five years ago this morning, August 29, 2010, Hurricane Katrina hit just east of New Orleans.

Five years later, we still don’t feel like we’re really part of the United States. We don’t seem to fit into the rest of the country. We feel taken for granted and then forgotten. Then we get remembered and hope returns for awhile.

This is one of the worst things I have gone through in my life. It has left me with some serious mental and emotional scars, and a great deal of anxiety, especially when a storm is brewing that may make it’s way to us.

Rachel Maddow sums it up so well in the following clip from the end of her show’s two day coverage of the 5th anniversary:

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I’m still angry that in 21st century America, a catastrophic disaster led to anarchy. Those who could help stood by doing nothing for way too long. Those who were powerless were left to die, or fight for their own survival, hoping not to get shot trying to get food and drink from closed stores. Those who tried to cross the bridge to the west bank, to dry land, were turned back by men with guns who were unwilling to share at the expense of human lives. Not only were the New Orleans poor treated as second-class citizens, they were expendable. It didn’t matter enough to those who could change the situation to do so before lives were needlessly lost.

The fact is, we are still surviving. We still have a long way to go before we are back to pre-Katrina levels of business, tourism, population, public housing, bus service, public schools, Charity hospital and other health care for the poor, etc. New Orleans was a poor city and it is still a poor city today. It still has the same problems it did before the storm.

I’m angry about the city counsel deciding (pushed by the Bush Administration) it was time to socially re-engineer the New Orleans population. The poor, mostly black population wasn’t welcome to return because Bush thought social programs cost too much and should be eliminated in the new, re-engineered city. It didn’t work. Crime is still high.

Interview with James Perry, GNO Fair Housing Action Center:

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Tracy Washington of the Louisiana Justice Institute had to sue to get public schools reopened:

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The New Orleans justice system completely broke down and prisoners were left to drown in the prison. Things here are a magnification of what the rest of the country is or will go through. This is a fight for American democracy. Interview with Billy Sothern, author of Down in New Orleans:

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Old school radio was the only means of communication. It was a life-line for weeks. Garland Robinette on WWL-AM radio:

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New Orleans is part of America.

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Flood Protection Update

Katrina is the worst natural disaster in American history to date.

But the New Orleans flood was not a natural disaster. It was man-made. The Army Corp of Engineers under-engineered, falsified data, and ignored the facts of the real dangers of the levee system. The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) shipping channel funneled storm surge directly into the city.

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Please see my related article: Why Wetlands Are So Important

Interview with Dr. Ivor van Heerden, author of The Storm, about MRGO and flood protection:

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When will New Orleans be fully recovered? I don’t know. I hope by the 10th anniversary we will be talking about all the new things that were built to solve our problems, help the poor have real opportunities and an affordable life, and protect us well from future storms.

It is very heartening to see that there are strong people working on public housing, public schools, fighting for buses and public transportation and reopening the Charity hospital system. It is also heartening that there are people who are working to get the poor a living wage and restore the services they need so badly.

I know we’re making progress. It remains to be seen whether the new flood protection systems will protect the city and rebuild the wetlands. We must restore our barrier islands and rebuild our wetlands, and it must be done fast.

If we don’t rebuild our wetlands, New Orleans may not be here by the end of this century. The coastline may be as far north as Baton Rouge by then. We can no longer wait for progress. We must fight for it and do it before it is too late for New Orleans and the rest of southeast Louisiana.

Acknowledgment:

I’d like to thank Rachel Maddow and The Rachel Maddow Show on both MSNBC and Air America Radio for continuing to cover the Katrina disaster for the past 5 years, and for keeping us in the national news. This 5th anniversary update is invaluable in nailing down the real story and the progress we have and haven’t made.

Rachel, as far as I’m concerned, you are a full, native resident of the Who Dat Nation. Come and see us any time. You and your crew are always welcome.

The Rachel Maddow Show visited New Orleans on February 5 to help us celebrate the first time the Saints ever went to the Superbowl. It turns out the Saints also won their first Superbowl competition, so WHO DAT? WE DAT!!!

Here is a clip from the show about the levees and flood protection system progress. Rachel interviews John Barry, author and chair of the south Louisiana flood control board:

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The new flood control structure being built at the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet is state-of-the-art and extremely well designed for its purpose. When completed, it will do a great deal to shield New Orleans from another flood like occurred after Hurricane Katrina.

Technorati Tags: Army Corps of Engineers, Causes of Katrina Disaster in New Orleans, Flood Protection, John Barry, Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), New Orleans, Rachel Maddow, Wetlands

I just ran across an interesting article from 2008 on the Think New Orleans blog entitled Truth Stranger Than Fiction: Army Corps of Engineers Building Levees Out of Newspaper

It’s a fascinating and damning story of “maintenance and repair” of the New Orleans levee system after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I encourage you to read the article. It’s not long and it’s very compelling.

This picture is priceless:

Why is it we wonder how our infrastructure fails? With design and building like this, failure is imminent.

The Army Corps of Engineers had a large amount of responsibility in the flooding of New Orleans and the loss of 1400 lives. The oil and gas industry and residential and commercial construction industries also contributed significantly to damage and loss of barrier islands and wetlands.

But the biggest failure of all is humankind’s lack of understanding of the complex, multifaceted ecosystem of south Louisiana. Many factors converged over time to cause this catastrophic event.

The question is will the city of New Orleans, state of Louisiana, and Federal Government address the root causes of this catastrophe. I’m not holding my breath, but I am hopeful that we the people of Louisiana have had enough and will demand that the root problems will be properly repaired, or even redesigned and rebuilt from scratch if needed.

Technorati Tags: Army Corps of Engineers, Hurricane Katrina Pictures, newspaper as building material