Hurricane Headline News

Hurricane Katrina & Rita Headline News
Edited by Mark Looker mllooker@ainet.com

Read all the latest news clips at http://www.lookercomm.com/NewsLetterModule/Hurricaneheadlinenews.htm

"Louisiana will not fully recover until those displaced by this storm can rejoin their communities."
- Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco

Link to Governor's website

State of Louisiana Katrina Web site

Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2007

The media's Katrina malpractice. Two years later, the press is detailing everybody's mistakes except its own. - - Last week, according to LexisNexis, there were more than 2,000 newspaper and wire stories on Hurricane Katrina, along with blanket coverage on cable news. This newspaper alone ran no less than two dozen articles of one kind or another around the two-year anniversary of the worst natural disaster ever to hit the United States. This hurricane of hurricane retrospectives was no doubt long in the works, as editors like to put stories "in the can" for vacation time. The media seemed to cover every angle, particularly the Bush administration's missteps in response to the disaster. And while some might quibble with this or that characterization or selection of facts, ultimately the media were doing what they're supposed to do: hold government accountable. But there was one thing missing from the coverage of this natural, social, economic and political disaster: the fact that Katrina represented an unmitigated media disaster as well. <more> Sept. 4, 2007 LA Times

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Louisiana Governor Won’t Seek 2nd Term - - Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, politically battered by a shaky post-Hurricane Katrina performance, announced Tuesday that she would not seek election to a second term this fall. The Democratic governor’s announcement ends months of speculation in Louisiana political circles, fueled by dismal poll ratings that showed her capturing barely a third of the vote against a Republican challenger, Bobby Jindal, a congressman from the New Orleans suburbs. In a brief televised statement from the governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge, Ms. Blanco said: “While so many still suffer, I am choosing to do what I believe is best for my state. I will focus my time and my energy for the next nine months on the people’s work, not on politics. After much thought and prayer, I have decided I will not seek re-election as your governor.” <more> March 21, 2007 NY Times

Monday, Aug. 21, 2006

Damage and Doubts Linger After Katrina. Study Cites Wide Skepticism of U.S. Readiness for This Year's Hurricane Season - - Nearly one year after Hurricane Katrina punched into the Gulf Coast, much damage remains, both in the shattered homes that litter parts of New Orleans and in the battered reputation of government institutions, a new survey shows. The country is in the heart of hurricane season again, and many Americans are not persuaded by federal assurances that the government is ready for the next big storm, according to the national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Fewer than half of those surveyed said they thought the government is "very prepared" to deal with this year's hurricane season. Only half agreed that the federal government had "learned a lesson from Hurricane Katrina" -- which swamped New Orleans, killing more than 1,500 people and displacing hundreds of thousands more -- "and the nation is better prepared for a major disaster as a result." More than four in 10 respondents said the government had not learned anything. <more> Aug. 21, 2006 Washington Post

Saturday, Aug. 19, 2006

Gov't fulfills few Katrina promises - - Nearly half of New Orleans was still under water when President Bush stood in the Crescent City's historic Jackson Square and swore he would "do what it takes" to rebuild the communities and lives that had been laid to waste two weeks before by Hurricane Katrina. "Our goal is to get the work done quickly," the president said. He promised to spend federal money wisely and accountably. And he vowed to address the poverty exposed by the government's inadequate Katrina response "with bold action." A year after the storm, the federal government has proven slow and unreliable in keeping the president's promises. <more> Aug. 19, 2006 AP

Thursday, June 1, 2006

Corps Takes Blame for New Orleans Flooding -- A contrite U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took responsibility Thursday for the flooding of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina and said the levees failed because they were built in a disjointed fashion using outdated data. "This is the first time that the Corps has had to stand up and say, `We've had a catastrophic failure,'" Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the Corps chief, said as the agency issued a 6,000-page-plus report on the disaster on Day 1 of the new hurricane season. The Corps said it will use the lessons it has learned to build better flood defenses. "Words alone will not restore trust in the Corps," Strock said, adding that the Corps is committed "to fulfilling our important responsibilities." <more> June 1, 2006 AP

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Levees Rebuilt Just in Time, but Doubts Remain - - In a breathless finale that has been called one of this generation's greatest adventures in civil engineering, the Army Corps of Engineers has all but completed its repairs to this city's ruined levee system. With just days to go before the beginning of the hurricane season, the corps' $800 million effort has even improved the system in many ways, engineering experts say, with tougher concrete flood walls, brawny new canal gates and more than 150 miles of new or repaired levees. But even though all sides agree that the corps has largely achieved its goal, independent engineers say it is the goal that is the real problem. New Orleans is still very much at risk, they say, because the level of protection the corps has reached is still not as strong as the city needs. <more> May 25, 2006 NY Times

Monday, May 22, 2006

Corps' Levee Work Is Faulted. Report says barriers in New Orleans may fail again and mistakes by federal engineers raise questions about their competence nationwide. - - A wide range of design and construction defects in levees around New Orleans raise serious doubts that the system can withstand the pounding of another hurricane the size of Katrina, even after $3.1 billion in repairs are completed, a team of independent investigators led by UC Berkeley's civil engineering school said Sunday. The findings undermine assurances by the Bush administration and the Army Corps of Engineers that the federal levee repair program due to be completed in June will provide a higher level of protection to New Orleans, which sustained 1,293 deaths and more than $100 billion in property loss from Katrina. The team's 600-page report disputed most of the corps' preliminary findings about what caused the levee breaches, saying the investigators had made critical errors in their analysis. <more> May 22, 2006 LA Times
Levees ailing before Katrina hit, report finds -- New Orleans' levee system was routinely underfunded and therefore inadequate to protect against hurricanes, according to an independent report released Monday. The report also called for an overhaul of the agencies that oversee flood protection. It took aim at Congress for its piecemeal funding during the past 50 years, and at state and local levee authorities for failing to properly oversee maintenance of the levees. "You tend to get what you pay for," Dave Rogers, a member of the team of academics who extensively studied the system, said during a Monday news conference. <more> May 22, 2006 AP
Blanco top advisor quits post early - - The governor's top communications adviser is leaving a little earlier than expected. Bob Mann accepted an endowed chair at LSU earlier this year. However, he was supposed to stay on Gov. Kathleen Blanco's staff until the end of the legislative session June 19. His new job starts July 1. Mann said he changed his mind about staying through the end of the session. His last day was Friday. Mann said he wants to spend time with his children and work on a revision of his civil rights book. "It's more important for me to be at home than to be at work right now," Mann said. May 22, 2006 The Advocate
An Incumbent Proves Resilient in New Orleans - - The extraordinary circumstances stacked against Mayor C. Ray Nagin by Hurricane Katrina - a displaced electorate, an emptied city treasury, a punishing leadership test - could not finally trump a constant force of New Orleans politics, the power of incumbency. By a margin of four percentage points, voters re-elected Mr. Nagin on Saturday to guide the city through the next four years, having rejected the temptation to change leaders in the midst of a crisis. Mr. Nagin drew the vast majority of the votes of black residents, many of whom said they wanted to retain a black incumbent rather than see City Hall in the hands of a white mayor for the first time since 1978. At the same time, enough voters in the city's whitest precincts decided they were comfortable with the unscripted personality of a mayor who has dominated headlines, nearly tripling his support in those precincts from last month's primary. Those were areas in which Mr. Nagin's challenger, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, needed virtually unanimous support to win. <more> May 22, 2006 NY Times

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Voters Re-elect Nagin as Mayor of New Orleans - - C. Ray Nagin, the unpredictable mayor who charted a sometimes erratic course for his city through Hurricane Katrina and after, won a narrow re-election victory here Saturday. Mr. Nagin, who will now lead the city through four crucial rebuilding years, fended off a strong challenge from Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, the scion of one of Louisiana's leading political families, in a vote that see-sawed all night. With all of the city's 442 precincts reporting, Mr. Nagin had 52 percent of the vote, while Mr. Landrieu received 48 percent. Mr. Nagin, an African-American, won about 21 percent of the votes of whites, as well as over 80 percent of the black vote, according to a local elections analyst and political consultant, Greg Rigamer. Mr. Landrieu appeared to have lost black votes that he picked up in last month's primary, Mr. Rigamer said in an interview. <more> May 21, 2006 NY Times

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Katrina-stricken parish starts tearing down homes -- Workers on Wednesday began tearing down thousands of condemned homes in St. Bernard Parish, a blue-collar district adjacent to New Orleans, where Hurricane Katrina spared only a few structures. The first homes to be broken into pieces and tossed into dump trucks were in the Lexington Place subdivision in Meraux, a neighborhood that once contained brick and frame homes, green lawns, barbecue pits and quiet streets. In the subdivision, which was flooded by 10 feet of water or more, homes sit empty, their windows smashed and holes gaping in their sides. Few people navigate the streets and only a handful of residents have returned to live in government travel trailers parked outside their houses. <more> May 11, 2006 AP

Monday, May 8, 2006

New Landfill in New Orleans Sets Off a Battle - - Block after block, neighborhood after neighborhood, tens of thousands of hurricane-ravaged houses here rot in the sun, still waiting to be gutted or bulldozed. Now officials have decided where several million tons of their remains will be dumped: in man-made pits at the swampy eastern edge of town, out by the coffee-roasting plant and the space shuttle factory and the big wildlife refuge. But more than a thousand Vietnamese-American families live less than two miles from the edge of the new landfill. And they are far from pleased at having the moldering remains of a national disaster plunked down nearby, alongside the canal that flooded their neighborhood when Hurricane Katrina surged through last year. <more> May 8, 2006 NY Times

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Report Details Katrina Communications Fiasco. Backup equipment arrived late or went unused, a Senate panel finds. Private firms were often more adept at meeting the challenges. - - As state and local officials on the Gulf Coast scrambled to help panicked residents flee Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, mobile communications units developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency were at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, La. — outside the disaster area — and did not make it to the state's emergency operations center in Baton Rouge until the day after the storm hit. In addition, according to a bipartisan Senate committee report released Tuesday, most of the U.S. Forest Service's 5,000 radios — the largest civilian cache in the United States — remained unused. In the eight months since Katrina devastated Louisiana and Mississippi, much has been written about how the failure of communications hampered relief and rescue efforts. Several reports, including one by a House select committee that Democratic leaders boycotted and another conducted by the White House, documented a collapse of telephones, computers and radio networks. The 750-page "Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared," issued by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee after 22 hearings over seven months, added some gripping details to the familiar narrative. <more> May 3, 2006 LA Times

Tuesday, May 2, 2006

New Orleans' new disaster plan: Get out of town. New hurricane plan stresses evacuation, not shelters -- Mayor Ray Nagin unveiled a new evacuation strategy for New Orleans on Tuesday that relies more on buses and trains and eliminates the Superdome and Convention Center as shelters. "There will be no shelter of last resort," Nagin declared. The mayor, facing a runoff election May 20, has been widely criticized for failing to get the city's most vulnerable residents out of town as Hurricane Katrina approached. <more> May 2, 2006 AP

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Panel Says to Scrap FEMA. A Senate probe urges that the agency be dismantled and then rebuilt to correct shortcomings revealed by its Katrina response. - - The Federal Emergency Management Agency should be dismantled and restructured to deal with the problems exposed by its response to Hurricane Katrina, Senate investigators have determined after a seven-month inquiry. "We have concluded that FEMA is in shambles and beyond repair and that it should be abolished," Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who heads the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said Wednesday night in a statement. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the committee's ranking Democrat, faulted President Bush as well, for lack of action during the crisis and for not cooperating with the committee investigation. "For Hurricane Katrina, the president failed to provide critical leadership when it was most needed, and that contributed to a grossly ineffective federal response," he said in a statement. <more> April 27, 2006 LA Times

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Runoff Election Is Set for New Orleans Mayor's Race - - Mayor C. Ray Nagin made a strong showing Saturday in the city's first mayoral election since Hurricane Katrina but failed to escape a runoff election next month in which he will face Louisiana's lieutenant governor, Mitch Landrieu. With 94 percent of the city's 442 precincts reporting, Mr. Nagin had 39 percent of the vote, ahead of Mr. Landrieu, who had 28 percent. A third leading candidate, Ron Forman, a local businessman, had 17 percent. Because no candidate got more than 50 percent of the vote, Mr. Nagin and Mr. Landrieu will compete in a runoff on May 20. <more> April 23, 2006 NY Times

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Times Picayune wins two Pulitzers, in public service, breaking news - - With reporters and editors in the newsroom of their battered city cheering and crying at the same time, The Times-Picayune won two Pulitzer Prizes on Monday, including a gold medal for meritorious public service, for the newspaper's coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The newspaper also received a Pulitzer Prize for distinguished reporting of breaking news for Katrina coverage. Both prizes were awarded to the newspaper's staff. <more> April 18, 2006 New Orleans Times Picayune

Monday, April 17, 2006

Racial Current Runs Through This Campaign. In New Orleans, many see the mayoral election through a prism of color and class. `More is at stake for us now,' one evacuee insists. - - Most of this city is still a river of rubble, with basic services barely functioning and its population slashed in half. But when voters go to the polls Saturday to cast their ballots for mayor, an underlying factor influencing their choice for the person who will help them retreat or return, rebuild or raze, is another R-word. "It's about race," said Elliott Stonecipher, an independent pollster based in Shreveport, La. Which neighborhoods will be allowed to rebuild, who is able to return to the city, even the logistics of voting in the elections for mayor and other municipal offices are being viewed through a prism of color and class, Stonecipher and other analysts agree. Incumbent Mayor C. Ray Nagin faces an unprecedented 22 challengers. Local polls show Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu and Audubon Nature Institute Chief Executive Ron Forman as Nagin's strongest contenders. <more> April 17, 2006 LA Times

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Lenient Rule Set for Rebuilding in New Orleans - - Federal officials issued unexpectedly lenient guidelines on Wednesday for rebuilding the flood-damaged homes of New Orleans, potentially allowing tens of thousands of homeowners to return to their neighborhoods at costs far less than they had feared. Under the guidelines issued here by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, huge swaths of homes might still have to be rebuilt at least three feet off the ground, or risk getting no federal reconstruction money or insurance. But the announcement, anxiously anticipated as a critical step in rebuilding this still-ravaged city, was nonetheless greeted with some relief by local officials and residents. They had feared that, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's catastrophic flooding, the government would demand that some houses be raised as much as 10 feet, at enormous expense. <more> April 13, 2006 NY Times
Ex-FEMA director won't be paid consultant in Louisiana. Brown had been talking with St. Bernard Parish -- Under mounting criticism, former FEMA chief Michael Brown said Wednesday that he will not serve as a paid consultant to St. Bernard Parish, a New Orleans suburb hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. Brown, whose name became synonymous with government ineptitude after Hurricane Katrina, had planned to meet with officials in the parish Thursday to help them navigate the recovery process. He canceled his trip after residents protested. Brown made the decision after meeting in Orlando, Florida, with parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez, where both were attending a national hurricane preparedness conference. <more> April 13, 2006 AP
A Jambalaya of Mayoral Candidates. In New Orleans, Katrina has stirred up the political status quo. Nearly two dozen people want C. Ray Nagin's job. - - The frustration, disillusionment and anger of life after Hurricane Katrina have compelled 22 people to declare that they can do a better job of running the city than Mayor C. Ray Nagin. The largest field of challengers in a modern New Orleans mayoral race includes marquee names such as Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu and familiar names and faces such as radio host James Arey, city Clerk of Court Kimberly Williamson Butler and a comedian who ran in 2002 on the slogan "A Troubled Man for Troubled Times." (His slogan this year? "More Troubled Now Than Ever.") But most are relative unknowns: a paralegal running his campaign from his car, two ministers, a former minor league baseball team owner and a woman whose trademark is her extravagant hats. <more> April 13, 2006 LA Times

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

In Attics and Rubble, More Bodies and Questions - - When August Blanchard returned to New Orleans from Pennsylvania in late December, his mother was still missing. Family members, scattered across the country, had been calling hospitals, the Red Cross and missing persons hot lines, hoping she had been rescued. But Mr. Blanchard, 26, had a bad feeling. Twice, he drove past the pale green house on Reynes Street in the Lower Ninth Ward, where he and his mother, Charlene Blanchard, 45, had lived, yet he could not bring himself to enter. It was not until Feb. 25 that one of Mr. Blanchard's uncles nudged the front door open with his foot and spied Ms. Blanchard's hand. Dressed in her nightgown and robe, she lay under a moldering sofa. With her was a red velvet bedspread that her daughter had given her and a huge teddy bear. <more> April 11, 2006 NY Times

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Senate Panel Adds Billions to Bush Plan for Storm Relief - - Spurred by an influential Mississippi Republican, the Senate moved yesterday toward adding billions of dollars to the Bush administration's $19 billion hurricane relief request, which was approved by the House last month. The additional money, voted by the Senate Appropriations Committee, means that Louisiana will most likely retain all of the $4.2 billion that the House approved for home rebuilding. Texas and Mississippi had been expected to vie for a share of those funds, but the provisions adopted by the committee yesterday, adding about $8 billion in hurricane relief that would also help other programs and states, heads off such a battle. <more> April 5, 2006 NY Times
FEMA Trailer Park Fails to Survive Storm From Residents - - A mayoral election is less than three weeks away, and the sympathy of elected officials for the irritations of voters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is boundless. As a result, there will be no trailer park in Lakewood Estates, a collection of solid, spacious homes behind a high locked gate in the Algiers section. Last weekend, angry residents of the neighborhood took to the street to protest a trailer park being built on their doorstep by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 34 single women and their children who were left homeless by the hurricane. FEMA, their signs proclaimed, was "raping" their neighborhood. <more> April 5, 2006 NY Times

Thursday, March 30, 2006

New Orleans recovery could take 25 years - - A full recovery in New Orleans could take 25 years as homeowners, businesses and tourists are coaxed back to the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration's Gulf Coast recovery coordinator said Thursday. In an interview with The Associated Press, Don Powell said that much of the city's rebirth will hinge on factors he said were "out of our control," including restoring housing, ensuring safety and encouraging robust investment by the private sector. "We kind of want it to happen overnight, or I do, but it's going to take some time," Powell said. "This could be five to 25 years for it all to fit into place." <more> March 30, 2006 AP
As Life Returns to New Orleans, So Does Crime - - The wail of police sirens is back, and gunfire again punctuates the night. As drug dealers move into flood-damaged houses, alarmed residents say that in the last few weeks, they have begun to sense a return to the bad old days before Hurricane Katrina, when crime was an omnipresent straitjacket on life in this city. In a city that once led the nation in homicides per capita, crime has long been a leading indicator of New Orleans's health and prospects — an unavoidable part of the equation for a walk around the block or a trip to the grocery store. That diminished greatly after the storm, when several hundred thousand people were evacuated. But there are signs that the past may be returning, with a new twist. <more> March 30, 2006 NY Times

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Evacuees' Lives Still Upended Seven Months After Hurricane - - Nearly seven months after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans and forced out hundreds of thousands of residents, most evacuees say they have not found a permanent place to live, have depleted their savings and consider their life worse than before the hurricane, according to interviews with more than 300 evacuees conducted by The New York Times. The interviews suggested that while blacks and whites suffered similar rates of emotional trauma, blacks bore a heavier economic and social burden. And even as both groups flounder, most said they believed that the rest of the nation, and politicians in Washington, have moved on. "I don't think anybody cares, really," said Robert Rodrigue, a semiretired computer programmer who has returned to his home in the suburb of Metairie. "New Orleans is kind of like at the bottom of the country, and they just forget about us." <more> March 22, 2006 NY Times
New Orleans Rebuilders Camp at Home. Asked where she'd like FEMA's trailer parked, a returnee emphatically says, 'My property!' Thousands of others are opting to do the same. - - The houses on Doerr Drive looked like the kind that could stand up to anything. But their heavy stone facades offered little resistance when the floodwater spilled through the town of Arabi in St. Bernard Parish, bursting windows and filling the postwar frame houses to ceiling level. For six months after Hurricane Katrina, this middle-income block east of New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward was deserted. Then, early this month, its first returning homeowner moved in. After six months in Mississippi, Carol O'Brien and her four dogs, Honey, Lady, Tippy and Baby Girl, spent their first night home on a street with no neighbors, no lights, no mail delivery and no trash pickup except the bulldozers that come by from time to time to remove the debris from gutted houses. For the next six months, or 12 or 18 — whatever it takes — O'Brien and her husband, James McPherson, who arrived a few days after she did, will make their home in a white trailer installed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on what used to be their frontyard. <more> March 22, 2006 LA Times

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Storm-Tossed Governor Throws Out a Lifeline. Louisiana's Kathleen Babineaux Blanco has turned to a former rival to rebuild bridges with the state Legislature and repair her reputation. - - Less than two weeks before the state begins its regular legislative session, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco has found herself in a tenuous position. The debate over next year's budget and the fate of Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina — including how to rebuild a crumbling healthcare system and develop cheap rental housing — promises to be fierce, and she lacks the political support to push through her ideas. Blanco knows she needs help. So one night recently, she reached out to former rival Hunt Downer. She called to tell him that she wanted his help to unify a divided Legislature, gather support for her ideas to rebuild Louisiana, and repair her tattered reputation. Blanco's plea surprised Downer, a highly respected Republican who served in the Legislature for 28 years. He ran against her in the 2003 gubernatorial race and has been critical of her leadership. <more> March 19, 2006 LA Times
New Orleans Rebuilding Plan Stirs Anger. Speakers have just three minutes during the public-comment session, but it doesn't take long to say not enough is being done. - - Mayor C. Ray Nagin faced another hurricane Monday, this one of rage as residents stood to criticize his plan to rebuild New Orleans. Nagin met with the Bring New Orleans Back commission that had outlined a broad framework for remaking the city after Hurricane Katrina — its infrastructure, as well as its economy, cultural life and educational, health and criminal justice systems. "We have worked tirelessly," Nagin told the residents in presenting the plan. "It has been controversial in some respects, but I am pleased by the results." Seven months after the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, much of New Orleans remains a ghost town and thousands of families are unsure if they will be able to reconstruct their lives. Meanwhile, Congress still has not approved billions of dollars in federal reconstruction funds. The public-comment session at the commission meeting Monday made clear that for the moment New Orleans is a city of rage. <more> March 21,2006 LA Times
Behind Louisiana Aid Package, a Change of Heart by One Man - - Louisiana was in a foul mood on the February day that President Bush's Gulf Coast rebuilding coordinator, Donald E. Powell, stood before an audience of fellow bankers in Baton Rouge. Two weeks before, the administration had rejected Louisiana's housing recovery plan. Mr. Powell's own idea of housing aid excluded thousands of homeowners, many of them poor, who lived in the flood plain but did not have flood insurance when Hurricane Katrina hit. Asked about those who had counted on federally built levees to protect them, Mr. Powell, a wealthy man from the dry Texas Panhandle, noted that he had been responsible enough to buy flood insurance for his home in Amarillo. The members of the Louisiana Bankers Association were not won over. Nor was The Advocate, Baton Rouge's newspaper, which demanded Mr. Powell's dismissal, calling him a "flint-souled" bean counter whose only concern was "guarding the money." <more> March 20, 2006 NY Times
Blanco plan passes first test - - Legislators on Friday advanced the biggest part of Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s hurricane recovery plan — totaling $6.2 billion — despite gripes about the lack of detail on how the money will be spent. The dollars are coming from Congress. The state must submit a spending plan to the federal government before the funds start flowing. The Louisiana Recovery Authority’s executive director, Andy Kopplin, said the state is only ready to spend part of the money. <more> March 18, 2006 The Advocate
More Katrina Fatalities Could Be Found. Officials think most of the missing are alive, but bodies continue to be uncovered in the ruins. - - The discovery of two bodies in the wreckage of a neighborhood devastated by Hurricane Katrina seven months ago has served as an unsettling omen to families still searching for missing relatives. Eight bodies have been found since March 1, and with about 1,400 people still unaccounted for, Louisiana state officials said they could not rule out the possibility of finding others. Until recently, recovery teams were unable to retrieve bodies from the neighborhoods that were rendered uninhabitable and designated off-limits to residents. The two bodies found Sunday in the rubble of a collapsed home in the city's Lower 9th Ward have not been identified. <more> March 21, 2006 LA Times

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Louisiana Plan Focuses on Housing for Renters. The state would spend $3.5 billion to rebuild rentals for displaced residents. More than half of New Orleanians rented before Katrina. - - Offering a welcome incentive to many displaced Louisiana residents who want to return home, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco announced a $3.5-billion proposal Tuesday to rebuild the state's storm-damaged rental property. Before hurricanes Katrina and Rita, more than half of New Orleans residents rented their homes. Katrina destroyed 70,000 rental units throughout Louisiana, along with 120,000 owner-occupied properties, according to state statistics. Using requested federal funds, Blanco's proposal calls for $1.75 billion in community development block grants to be used to rebuild rental units owned by small landlords and to develop mixed-income rental communities. An additional $1.7 billion would be used to attract private investment through low-income housing tax credits. <more> March 15, 2006 LA Times
Louisiana Turns to the Needs of Renters - - Underscoring the serious housing shortage for workers here, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana announced a $1.75 billion plan Tuesday to encourage landlords to repair or build apartments and houses for rent. Officials hope the plan will lead to the restoration or construction of as many as 45,000 dwellings in a city where huge swaths of low-income housing were left unlivable by Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters. But they emphasized that the plan was contingent on approval by Congress, which has been increasingly reluctant to give Louisiana a special hand. <more> March 15, 2006 NY Times
New Orleans Mayor Sees Support Shift. Some white former backers hope to elect a new leader April 22. But many blacks see C. Ray Nagin as their candidate for the first time. - - Perhaps it did not bode well for C. Ray Nagin, the mayor of this fraught city, that candidates for the upcoming mayoral election were asked to turn in their filing papers at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. After all, the same facility had become a fetid, lawless and ill-equipped shelter after Hurricane Katrina — and a fiasco Nagin's critics have pointed to in questioning his response to the storm. But it wasn't so much the building that underscored the minefield Nagin will face in the weeks before the April 22 election. It was the people walking in the door: Some of Nagin's friends had turned on him. Several prominent members of the community who backed Nagin when he ran in 2002 have decided to run themselves this time. It is a reflection, analysts said, of the topsy-turvy world of New Orleans politics six months after the storm. <more> March 12, 2006 LA Times
Out of Katrina's Havoc, Into the Arms of Family. When Patricia Edwards took in 45 relatives, it was an act of faith. Before worrying about their futures, they had to learn to live together. - - When her doorbell rang at 3 a.m. on Friday, four days after Hurricane Katrina, Patricia Edwards opened the door and couldn't believe her eyes. There, standing on the lawn, were 40 members of her family. Toddlers and teenagers. Parents holding infants. Brothers and sisters. Cousins, uncles and aunts. Two days earlier, her mother had called from a Dallas motel, saying the family had fled New Orleans and had run out of money. "Y'all stay with me," said Edwards, who began getting blankets ready for five visitors, based on the hurried, garbled conversation. Instead, most of her extended family had piled into seven cars for the two-day drive to her home, 1,400 miles from Dallas. As she looked at their faces, Edwards recognized a few: her mother, Beatrice; her cousins Kathy and Deborah; her sister, Evelyn; her niece Shaday. <more> March 12, 2006 LA Times
Seeking a Revival in New Orleans. St. Augustine, seen as a symbol of racial unity, is set to close. Congregants say they won't let it go quietly at a time when the city needs it most. - - Hoping for resurrection as Easter approached, the congregation of one of this city's oldest and most historic churches gathered Sunday for what might have been its last Mass as a parish. The parish of St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church, which has become a focal point for this city's jazz culture, is scheduled to close this week and merge with another. Protesting the closure of the parish has been a rallying point for residents in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which destroyed so much of the city's cultural patrimony. The decision has been met with opposition from politicians, editorial writers and parishioners, some of whom appealed the decision to New Orleans Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes last week. A response is expected this week. <more> March 13, 2006 LA Times

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Army Corps Report Details 17th Street Levee's Failure - - Weak clay soils combined with tilting concrete storm walls caused the failure of the 17th Street levee during Hurricane Katrina, according to an Army Corps of Engineers investigation released Friday. The corps' first official findings about the levee failures in New Orleans do not indicate whether they resulted from defects in design or construction, although the wall apparently withstood less force than it should have. A 465-foot section of the 17th Street levee was breached Aug. 29, flooding the Lake View section of New Orleans. Breaches occurred on two other major canals in New Orleans; the analysis of those failures is incomplete. As the 17th Street Canal filled up with water from the surges that inundated Lake Pontchartrain, the top of the wall on the canal began to deflect or tilt toward the neighborhood and away from the canal, according to the report. <more> March 11, 2006 LA Times
Bush: Congress 'Shortchanged' New Orleans. Touring Gulf Coast, President Calls for Restoration of $1.5 Billion for Levee Repairs -- President Bush, on a Gulf Coast inspection tour that included his first visit to this city's storm-shattered Lower Ninth Ward, bluntly accused Congress on Wednesday of underfunding the repairs and called for speedy action to make good on federal commitments. The president said Congress has been slow to provide funding to rebuild housing destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and, while pledging to make New Orleans's levees "equal or better than they were before" the storm, attacked a congressional decision last year to redirect $1.5 billion from his request to repair the region's flood-protection system to projects in other storm-affected states. <more> March 9, 2006 Washington Post
Bush Insists on Approval of Full Aid for Louisiana - - President Bush demanded on Wednesday that Congress provide Louisiana with the full $4.2 billion he has requested in housing aid for this storm-battered state, even as the House and Senate began considering whether some of that money should go to other states in the region. Visiting New Orleans after taking more criticism last week for his handling of Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Bush said he fully understood the "pain and agony" of people frustrated with the pace of reconstruction. He urged local officials to speed the removal of debris and said the federal government would rebuild the levees to provide greater protection against floodwaters like those that swamped the city six months ago. Mr. Bush inspected the damage and cleanup efforts here, and said he was impressed by the desire of hurricane victims to "pick up and move on and rebuild." The president, in shirt sleeves, spoke at a work site here, in front of construction cranes, cement mixers, bulldozers and excavation equipment. <more> March 9, 2006 NY Times
Tough Hurdles for Companies in Move Back to New Orleans - - When Frank A. Glaviano Sr. told friends that he believed his company, Shell Oil, would return to New Orleans despite the devastation done by Hurricane Katrina, many had a good laugh. Forget it, they said; you are moving to Houston. After all, more than 100 Shell employees lost their homes when water covered much of the city and the surrounding suburbs. Mail delivery was still unreliable, air service remained thin, and only a small fraction of the previous hospital capacity was back. With Shell's American base in Houston, it seemed to make sense to move its exploration and production unit there from New Orleans. But Shell, a subsidiary of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, returned last month to its marbled office building here at One Shell Square, after making an extraordinary investment to do so. It bought $32 million in residential properties in the area — 120 houses and condominiums in all — to lease to its employees. The company owned no residential property in the United States before Hurricane Katrina. In considering whether to move back its 1,000 employees who worked in New Orleans before the storm, Shell had to monitor closely things like the federal government's commitment to rebuilding the levees and the city's progress in reviving its school system. "In the end, we decided to do the right thing by the city, the company and our employees," said Mr. Glaviano, the company vice president in charge of Shell's operations here. <more> March 7, 2006 NY Times

Monday, March 6, 2006

House Speaker Offers Hope for New Orleans - - Six months after he said it did not make sense to rebuild parts of New Orleans, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert stood amid the rubble of the Lower Ninth Ward on Friday and, in a reversal, spoke words of comfort. "I think you have to be here firsthand on the ground to see the impact," Mr. Hastert, an Illinois Republican, said while standing on the banks of a breached levee that allowed a surge of water to wipe away a swath of the city. "We want to make sure these edifices are safe and that the system is foolproof," he said, so that New Orleans does not have to "relive this nightmare over again." <more> March 4, 2006 NY Times
Body found in attic of New Orleans home. Searchers resume operations, expect to find up to 400 missing -- Three days after firefighters inspected a storm-damaged home spray-painted with "0" -- indicating no bodies inside -- cadaver dogs led searchers to a victim of Hurricane Katrina in the attic. Before dying, the man apparently was trying to crawl out of an air-conditioning vent to escape rising floodwaters, said Dr. Louis Cataldie, Louisiana's medical examiner. Cataldie said searchers expect to find up to 400 more bodies of storm victims still hidden inside New Orleans homes six months after the storm. <more> March 6, 2006 CNN
New Orleans Official Vanishes for Week, but Surfaces to Run for Mayor - - For a week she was on the lam, a fugitive from the remnants of this city's judiciary and her high responsibilities as well. Nobody knew where the Orleans Parish clerk of criminal court was hiding out — or if they did know, they would not say. In a kind of carnivalesque charade that seemed like an extension of Mardi Gras, arrest warrants were issued, the city's top judges, furious, made threats, but still the clerk, Kimberly Williamson Butler, refused to appear. That she is also the city's top elections official in a week when candidates were filing to run for mayor only made the disappearance more breathtaking. Ms. Butler had been asked by the judges to relinquish some of her responsibilities in applying for federal money to clean up the flood-damaged courthouse. She refused, and last Friday the judges of the criminal court issued a warrant for her arrest. Meanwhile, as she hid from the authorities, the critical linchpin of New Orleans's faltering criminal justice system — cleaning up the city's flooded evidence room — was balanced on Ms. Butler's game of hide-and-seek. With thousands of defendants backed up, trials cannot move forward until rusty guns, muddy clothing and other items are decontaminated. <more> March 4, 2006 NY Times
Louisiana unveils celebrity-studded tourism campaign -- The state rolled out a star-studded, $7 million advertising campaign Tuesday to lure tourists back to Louisiana and boost the sluggish economy along the hurricane-ravaged coast. Chef Emeril Lagasse, professional golfer David Toms, actor John Goodman and musicians Wynton Marsalis and Allen Toussaint are among the celebrities with Louisiana connections appearing in a TV commercial that thanks Americans for their hurricane recovery efforts and asks that they return to enjoy the state's art, food and music. "Come for the people. Come for beignets," says actress Patricia Clarkson, a New Orleans native who most recently played a role in the Oscar-nominated movie "Good Night, and Good Luck." <more> March 7, 2006 AP

Thursday, March 2, 2006

Video Shows Blanco Saying Levees Intact - - In the hectic, confused hours after Hurricane Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast, Louisiana's governor hesitantly but mistakenly assured the Bush administration that New Orleans' protective levees were intact, according to a new video obtained by The Associated Press showing briefings that day with federal officials. "We keep getting reports in some places that maybe water is coming over the levees," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said shortly after noon on Aug. 29, according to the video that was obtained Thursday night. "We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee. I think we have not breached the levee at this time." <more> March 2,2006 AP
In Katrina's Ruins, a Land of Opportunity. Residents, new buyers and real estate agents await a neighborhood's rebirth. - -An outsider might look at the Lakeview neighborhood and see only collapsed homes, waterlogged living rooms, and moldy drywall and collapsed furniture stacked at curbsides. Greg Jeanfreau, a native son of Lakeview, stands in the front doorway of his flood-damaged brick ranch house and sees opportunity. "Yep, Lakeview is coming back — and I want to be part of it," Jeanfreau said last week, stepping over storm debris in his front yard, where an abandoned pleasure boat lay rotting at the curb. Jeanfreau, a voluble, cigarette-smoking entrepreneur born here 28 years ago, is a professional optimist — a real estate agent in a market that has nowhere to go but up. He spends his nights on friends' sofas outside town, but spends his days trolling the ravaged neighborhood, scouting for bargains. <more> March 2,2006 LA Times
Tapes: Bush warned before Katrina hit -- In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President George W. Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage. Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on August 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared." The footage -- along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by The Associated Press -- show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster. <more> March 2, 2006 AP
A Mardi Gras for Reuniting, Reflecting. More locals and fewer tourists attend, boosting a torn city's spirits if not so much its economy. - - Mardi Gras, the quintessential celebration of debauchery, had a spiritual feel to it Tuesday, as thousands of Crescent City residents lined the streets to honor their wounded city and give themselves hope for a better future. New Orleans officials had hoped the first Mardi Gras after one of the country's worst natural disasters would bring with it tourism's economic boost. But for displaced natives, this year's Fat Tuesday was more than that. It was a time to reconnect with the city they were abruptly forced to flee six months ago. "One day we had everything, then all of a sudden we don't have anything," said Donald Rhodes, who lost his job, house, neighborhood and church in the flood following Hurricane Katrina. He now lives near Houston. "To see this today has brought a great joy to me," Rhodes said, as the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club paraded up St. Charles Avenue near downtown. "This is more like a family reunion. Mardi Gras is bringing a lot of people back." <more> March 1, 2006 LA Times
Storm's Missing: Lives Not Lost but Disconnected - - As far as Curtis Broussard Jr. is concerned, he is not missing. He is in Missouri City, Tex., where he plans to stay. But according to the State of Louisiana, Mr. Broussard, formerly of Cherry Street, New Orleans, has not been found. His daughter, Antonette Murray, had not heard from him since Hurricane Katrina. In January, she finally reported him to the state, expecting to hear back that he was dead. But though he was added to the missing list, other family members had known of his whereabouts since September, and a reporter recently put Mr. Broussard back in touch with his daughter after a few telephone calls. Despite intensive efforts to reach the scattered refugees of Hurricane Katrina, nearly 2,000 such names remain on the state's list of people still unaccounted for, out of 12,000 that had once been reported. Even now, new missing persons reports trickle in; there were 99 over the two-week period that ended Feb. 5. <more> March 1, 2006 NY Times

Monday, Feb. 27, 2006

The Big Blank Canvas. Everyone has big dreams for New Orleans. Now that more money is promised, will any of them become reality? - - They still love to party in New Orleans. It's just that lately the laughs come kind of hard. The Mardi Gras season that wraps up this week will have consisted of just eight days of parades and whatever gamy fun goes with them. In most years, it goes on for 12. Marching bands have been in short supply, their members still scattered to Houston and Atlanta. The crowds along the parade routes have been sparser too. On the bright side, that has made it easier to score the strands of colored beads flung by people on parade floats. Hustle, and you could grab 50 or so in just a few hours. Making the most of misfortune--that's a very New Orleans thing to do. <more> Feb. 27, 2006 Time Magazine
Flood-Control Proposal Seeks Gates and 'Armored' Levees - - The Bush administration has asked Congress to pay for two huge gates in the New Orleans area to close off the navigational canals that devastated the city's Lower Ninth Ward, along with "armored" levees that would not be destroyed when water washed over the top, according to the most recent details of its spending plan. The $1.46 billion flood-control proposal is part of the administration's $19.8 billion emergency financing request that was announced this month. A description of how the money would be spent was discussed in detail on Friday by Donald E. Powell, the federal coordinator for Gulf Coast rebuilding, on a visit to New Orleans. The proposed repairs could be completed in about four years, said James Ward Jr., deputy director of the United States Army Corps of Engineers task force responding to Hurricane Katrina. <more> Feb. 28, 2006 NY Times
New Orleans Running Out of Options as It Scrambles for New Loans - - Somehow, some way, at some point in the future, city officials here will need to pay back all the money they are borrowing. In the meantime, though, the Mardi Gras parades must still be protected, the police must still patrol the streets and the garbage must be picked up. And so, even though the city has already racked up $120 million in debt, officials here are scrambling for loans of as much as $200 million more so that New Orleans can continue to pay its bills through the end of the year. "We can't keep borrowing money," said Oliver M. Thomas Jr., the president of the New Orleans City Council. "But the need for fire protection doesn't just go away. At some point, we need to rebuild our parks and restart recreation programs as children and families start coming back." <more> Feb. 26, 2006 NY Times
In New Orleans, Home Is Still Far Away. Half a year after Katrina ravaged the city, most residents haven't returned. And those who have remain in a state of uncertainty. - - Six months ago, a 200-foot-long barge careened over a collapsed levee during Hurricane Katrina, eventually coming to rest on the shattered remains of three houses in the Lower 9th Ward. And there it remained. On Friday, workers with metal torches finally began to dismantle the barge. But by then, it had become a rusting, 150-ton metaphor for everything this city has been through: destruction and despair, followed by lagging reconstruction that has given way, too often, to dismal stasis. Red tape. Bumbling bureaucrats. Recalcitrant politicians. Tightfisted insurance companies. Old age. Sheer exhaustion. <more> Feb. 26,2006 LA Times
Louisiana Parish Must Ready Land Legs as Ship Departs - - Here in battered St. Bernard Parish, the docked cruise ship was an oasis amid the destruction, a lifeline for those who had no place else to go. And now, it's about to weigh anchor. St. Bernard took some of the worst punishment meted out by Hurricane Katrina. The storm and flooding crippled or destroyed most of the working-class suburbs hugging the Mississippi River east of New Orleans. To make matters worse, a beached tanker spilled its oil over a 3-square-mile neighborhood in Chalmette, in the heart of the parish. On Wednesday, the day after Mardi Gras, the parish will lose the Scotia Prince, the cruise ship that has provided lodging and food for hundreds of residents. <more> Feb. 28, 2006 LA Times

Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2006

Aides: Mitch Landrieu to announce run for New Orleans' mayor -- Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu will formally announce his candidacy for mayor of New Orleans on Wednesday, senior campaign staff members told CNN. Landrieu, a member of a famous political family in Louisiana, will almost certainly emerge as a front-runner among a crowded field of challengers to Ray Nagin. <more> Feb. 21, 2006 CNN
Louisiana Unveils a Plan With Cash to Rebuild Homes - - With thousands of ruined homeowners here watching weeks turn into months without assistance, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana for the first time unveiled a real package of assistance on Monday, proposing to use federal money for loans and grants that aides said would spur rebuilding in devastated areas. For months an unpromising brew of competing ideas, inadequate money and political fighting has left Louisiana homeowners devastated by Hurricane Katrina in limbo, wondering where to turn for help. Some have returned and are rebuilding on their own, but many thousands more remain in exile, without the money needed to come back and start over. More than 330,000 homes sustained some damage, state officials say. Officials here said the state's $7.5 billion proposal, which offers up to $150,000 in grants to repair or rebuild, along with inexpensive loans, would not have been possible without the $4.2 billion in new money promised by President Bush last week, and $6.2 billion allocated last year. <more> Feb. 20, 2006 NY Times
Panel Urges Corps to Study Oversight of Levees - - The Army Corps of Engineers investigation into the flooding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is overlooking one of the most important causes: organizational failures, according to an outside engineering group working officially with the corps. The corps is spending about $20 million to understand the physical causes of the levee breaches that left more than 75 percent of New Orleans flooded. But the engineering group said the corps should also be looking into "discontinuity and chaos" in the creation and maintenance of the levees, according to a letter from the group to Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, the chief of the corps. "No one person or organization is in charge of the New Orleans hurricane protection system," the group wrote. Local levee boards, parish governments, state agencies and bureaucracies within the corps operate independently and sometimes in conflict with one another, and they are all but destined to miss danger signs and perpetuate mistakes, said the group, known as the External Review Panel, or the E.R.P. <more> Feb. 20, 2006 NY Times
Lawmakers Call for FEMA Restructuring. Members of both parties urge changes after the Katrina failures, with some saying the agency should be made independent again. - - After a week of scathing criticism of the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina, members of both parties in Congress are calling for an overhaul of the federal agency responsible for disaster relief. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on a Senate committee that held hearings last week on the disaster, said Sunday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had become "a joke, a four-letter word" after its slow and disorganized response to August's Gulf Coast hurricane. "It's time for FEMA to go," Lieberman said on ABC's "This Week." Lieberman advocated restructuring the agency but keeping it within the Department of Homeland Security, where FEMA has been housed since the department was created in 2003. However, other lawmakers want to go further and restore FEMA's position as an independent agency to get it more attention and funding. <more> Feb. 20, 2006 LA Times
A Canine Krewe Puts on the Dog. 'After everything we've all been through, it feels good to laugh,' a parade participant says. - - Sadi and Stella sat demurely in a corner of Louis Armstrong Park, a pair of perfect canine ladies waiting for their annual walk with the Mystic Krewe of Barkus Mardi Gras parade. Like true Southern belles, the girls had endured tail-teasing and fur-fluffing to get their costumes just so for the annual pooch parade. After much debate, their owner had decided to deck out the Labradors in the season's finest Hurricane Katrina fashion: neon-orange life preservers that were strapped snugly around their bodies. Signs around their furry necks read, "Follow the Water Line Home." Over the last 14 years, the Mystic Krewe of Barkus has evolved from a bar prank to one of the largest and most eclectic of the processions to parade during the Carnival season. So it was early Sunday afternoon, as a river of barking, yipping and howling dogs wound through the narrow road along Vieux Carre. "There are a lot of strange and wacky things you see during Mardi Gras, but this is clearly the top dog," said Melissa Hymel, 29, who owns Sadi and Stella. "It's silly, but after everything we've all been through, it feels good to laugh." <more> Feb. 20, 2006 LA Times

Friday Feb. 17, 2006

More U.S. Aid Will Be Sought for Louisiana - - Facing complaints that it has not done enough to rebuild New Orleans, the Bush administration announced Wednesday that it would ask Congress for $4.2 billion more to compensate Louisiana residents whose homes were severely damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The money will come from $18 billion that the administration said last month it would request from Congress this year for hurricane relief. The announcement was praised by Louisiana officials who said that the $4.2 billion, when added to $7.7 billion in rebuilding money approved by Congress last year, would be enough to help anyone in the state who owned a storm-wrecked home. "I am here to say a special thank you to the president," said Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, who flew in for a news conference at the Capitol. Ms. Blanco, a Democrat, had criticized the White House for falling short of President Bush's pledge to "do what it takes" to reconstruct New Orleans. <more> Feb. 16, 2006 NY Times

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, center, speaks about Hurricane Katrina rebuilding Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2006, on Capitol Hill in Washington. At rear from left is New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, White House reconstruction coordinator for the Gulf Coast Don Powell and Sen. David Vitter, R-La. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)
Merger of Louisiana Levee Boards OKd. State lawmakers say the bill, backed by the governor, proves they are intent on reform. - - The state's House of Representatives unanimously passed a measure Thursday to merge southeast Louisiana's levee boards — a move that lawmakers said would boost residents' safety and send a strong signal to the White House that they were serious about reform. The bill calls for the state's numerous independent boards to be divided into two groups, one for the west bank of the Mississippi River and one for the east. Both would report to the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, which will handle all future negotiations for project funding with the federal government. "We've just undone more than a century of history," said state Sen. Walter J. Boasso, the bill's author. "It's proof that even we can change." <more> Feb. 17, 2006 LA Times
Flood experts to replace politicians on levee board. Governor's housing, government-streamlining bills fail to pass -- Louisiana lawmakers voted Friday to put the state in charge of overseeing all of Southeast Louisiana's levees, hoping to end complaints from Congress that the state lacks competent oversight of its flood-control system. The Senate vote Friday sends the measure to Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who proposed the plan. It will take effect next year if voters approve it during a statewide election in September. <more> Feb. 17, 2006 AP
A Chance for New Orleans. - - The Bush administration has made a commitment to rebuilding southern Louisiana. Congress must make sure this opportunity is not lost. On Wednesday, President Bush's Katrina czar, Donald Powell, called for $4.2 billion more to help Louisiana residents save severely damaged homes and, in some cases, rebuild in safer areas. Congress needs to approve this request quickly for New Orleans and the surrounding parishes to have a fighting chance at anything but a patchwork recovery. Half a year was too long to wait. Speculators have already begun to settle like vultures around the city, offering victims pennies on the dollar for their properties. The desperate often jump at any cash offer, but a clear commitment to rebuilding and a promise of support backed by money will help poor homeowners withstand the plunderers. <more> Feb. 17, 2006 NY Times editorial
Mardi Gras Set for City Stripped of All but Pride - - With a purplish dusk settling over the city, a few workers in a hurricane-damaged warehouse daub the final garish touches on an armada of Mardi Gras floats. Any day now, these grotesqueries on wheels will roll through city streets, reminding all who see them to seize the day, for tomorrow we fast. Across the rutted street from the warehouse, the workers can gaze at the railroad tracks and see an endless stretch of unspoiled white government trailers, sitting on flatcars like a broken string of oversize, colorless Mardi Gras beads. A different kind of grotesquerie on wheels, these trailers will be homes for the fortunate, reminding all who see them that six months after Hurricane Katrina, hard times, not good times, continue to roll in the great city of New Orleans. <more> Feb. 17, 2006 NY Times
Blanco, lawmakers scramble to wrap up work by Friday session end - - Nearly all of Gov. Kathleen Blanco's hurricane recovery legislation remained unfinished Thursday as a special legislative session neared its end, with compromises still being worked out on sweeping proposals to consolidate levee boards and create a housing corporation. The post-hurricane session, which began less than two weeks ago to cope with issues that surfaced after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, must end by Friday. <more> Feb. 16, 2006 AP
Blanco Can't Repair Louisiana, Ag Commissioner Says -- Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom said he has lost confidence in Gov. Kathleen Blanco's ability to lead the state and is trying to persuade retired U.S. Sen. John Breaux to run for governor in 2007. At a chamber of commerce luncheon on Wednesday, Odom said he thinks Breaux can turn the state around. <more> Feb. 16, 2006 AP
A Parish to Be Mourned. The mostly black St. Augustine has a unique role in New Orleans. Some say its absorption by another parish will hurt the community. - - It seemed for a while that Hurricane Katrina might give St. Augustine parish — home to one of the nation's oldest African American Catholic churches — a reprieve. After years of seeing its attendance drop, the numbers climbed as people pulled together in churches that were spared devastation. But last week, the city's Roman Catholic archdiocese announced a decision that had been years in the making: It will be closing the parish that has been a historic centerpiece of the New Orleans black community and the city's jazz culture. Located two blocks from the French Quarter, the church built by slaves in 1841 has also been a tourist attraction, displaying the intricate weave of race, culture and history distinctive to New Orleans. St. Augustine parish will be merged with St. Peter Claver, a larger parish several blocks east, on March 15, said Father William Maestri, spokesman for the archdiocese. <more> Feb. 16, 2006 LA Times
Republican panel rips Katrina response. House report: Government response 'dismal'; Chertoff singled out -- The response of government at all levels to Hurricane Katrina was "dismal," poorly planned and badly coordinated, showing that more than four years after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, "America is still not ready for prime time," a House report concludes. "It remains difficult to understand how government could respond so ineffectively to a disaster that was anticipated for years, and for which specific dire warnings had been issued for days. This crisis was not only predictable, it was predicted," the committee said in the report. "If 9/11 was a failure of imagination, then Katrina was a failure of initiative. It was a failure of leadership." The findings of the House investigative committee are striking because the panel consisted of 11 Republicans; the House Democrats boycotted the committee after pushing unsuccessfully for an independent probe. <more> Feb. 15, 2006 CNN
U.S. unprepared for Katrina: report - - Federal emergency agencies were unprepared for the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina and quicker involvement by President George W. Bush might have improved their response, said a harsh congressional report written by Republicans and released on Wednesday. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff acknowledged that his department was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the storm when it hit August 29 but said it was wrong to suggest he and Bush were unresponsive. "I have to say that the idea that this department and this administration and the president were somehow detached from Katrina is simply not correct," Chertoff told a hearing of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee. "We were acutely aware of Katrina and the risk it posed." <more> Feb. 15, 2006 Reuters
Gentle Rise Was Big Edge. Some New Orleans neighborhoods survived Katrina because of a geographical quirk. In Sugar Hill, relief and guilt live side by side. - - When Marvin Trudeau was looking to buy his first home 11 years ago, he was drawn to a timeworn bungalow at the end of Pauger Street, in the Gentilly district of New Orleans. The block was part of a middle-class black neighborhood, and many of the homes had been passed down from one generation to the next. Trudeau liked that. The homeowners had respect for each other and for themselves; each weekend, they swept up the leaves that had fallen from the block's six towering oaks. Trudeau liked that too. He was so sold, in fact, that he gave little thought to the real estate agent's chief selling point. The neighborhood, he was told, was called Sugar Hill; it sat atop a rise that, although imperceptible, could offer protection in the event of a storm. "Maybe I'm cynical. But I thought: 'You'll tell me anything to sell the house,' “said Trudeau, 45, who counsels teenagers in a psychiatric hospital. He's a believer today. <more> Feb. 17, 2006 LA Times

Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2006

Republicans' Report on Katrina Assails Administration Response - - House Republicans plan to issue a blistering report on Wednesday that says the Bush administration delayed the evacuation of thousands of New Orleans residents by failing to act quickly on early reports that the levees had broken during Hurricane Katrina. A draft of the report, to be issued by an 11-member, all-Republican committee, says the Bush administration was informed on the day Hurricane Katrina hit that the levees had been breached, even though the president and other top administration officials earlier said that they had learned of the breach the next day. That delay was significant, the report says, rejecting the defense given by the White House and the Department of Homeland Security that the time it took to recognize the breach did not significantly affect the response. "If the levees breached and flooded a large portion of the city, then the flooded city would have to be completely evacuated," the draft report says. "Any delay in confirming the breaches would result in a delay in the post-landfall evacuation of the city." It adds that the White House itself discounted damage reports that later proved true. <more> Feb. 13, 2006 NY Times
Homeland Security chief defends agency. Secretary Chertoff rejects claims by former FEMA director -- Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Monday rejected criticism that his agency is preoccupied with terror threats, at the expense of preparing for natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. "I want to tell you I unequivocally and strongly reject this attempt to drive a wedge between our concerns about terrorism and our concerns about natural disasters," Chertoff said. His strong defense of his agency, in response to criticism by ex-federal disaster chief Michael Brown and others came as a congressional report blamed government-wide ineptitude for mishandling Hurricane Katrina relief. <more> Feb. 13, 2006 AP
Judge lets FEMA cut off Katrina hotel payments -- A judge let the U.S. government Monday drop some 12,000 families made homeless by last year's hurricanes from a program that has put them up at hotels nationwide. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has promised the evacuees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that they will still receive federal assistance that they can use toward hotel stays or fixing their ruined homes, although the agency will no longer pay for the hotels directly. Attorneys for the evacuees tried to get U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval to issue a temporary restraining order, saying the forthcoming money from FEMA won't be enough for reasonable living accommodations or for hotel stays. <more> Feb. 13, 2006 AP
Big Easy ushers in Mardi Gras jawing. Parade floats take swipes at Hurricane Katrina, politicians -- This city's battered residents put their months of heartache, frustration and anger on parade Saturday, in effigies, blue-tarp trailers and themes like "Fridge Over Troubled Water," and gave themselves the first of many desperately needed Mardi Gras laughs. The Krewe du Vieux, a satirical group that has used its parade to mock corporations and politicians every year for the last two decades, featured carts with effigies of Mayor Ray Nagin and Gov. Kathleen Blanco, among other things. "It's good we can laugh at ourselves," said spectator Robert Elmwood, 77. "It means the spirit is still alive. After all the grim things, we've prevailed." <more> Feb. 12, 2006 AP
Mardi Gras All Set to Go, but Officials Want Help - - City officials here boldly decided last fall to hold the parades of Mardi Gras, even though the city treasury was empty and large swaths of the town still lay in ruins. The price, though, was their demand that the beloved party abandon tradition and seek corporate sponsors. With the official start of festivities scheduled for next Saturday, no corporation has come up with the $2 million the city was hoping to receive for the naming rights to Mardi Gras, which was first celebrated here 150 years ago. So far only a single company, the trash-bag maker Glad Products, has said it will contribute to the cause. On Tuesday, Glad, a subsidiary of the Clorox Company, announced an unspecified six-figure donation to the city and a gift of 100,000 trash bags. If no additional corporate sponsors step forward, the city will have to dig into its nonexistent treasury to pay for the celebration, which many officials say the city needs to raise its spirit and its economy. <more> Feb. 12, 2006 NY Times
New Orleans Justice System Scrutinized. Two criminal court judges have opened investigations into whether indigent suspects are adequately represented.- - Two veteran New Orleans criminal court judges have launched investigations of the besieged city's crumbling criminal justice system — probes that could lead to major changes in how poor defendants are represented. That system, on the verge of collapse for years, has been further imperiled by Hurricane Katrina's consequences. In the public defender's office, so few lawyers are available for more than 4,000 cases that defense for the indigent is almost nonexistent. And the office has no investigators. That disarray has caused Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Arthur Hunter to summon key players in the system to a hearing that will be held Friday. <more> Feb. 12, 2006 LA Times
FEMA boots evacuees from hotels. Agency: Those not receiving rent assistance referred to charities -- Twelve thousand families left homeless by hurricanes Katrina and Rita will lose their federally funded hotel privileges Monday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Saturday. This will be the second wave of evacuees weaned off the federally sponsored hotel stays within two weeks. Last week, the occupants of roughly 4,500 rooms lost FEMA funding for failing to register with the agency. FEMA said it would continue to pay for families in 5,000 hotel rooms across the country. <more>Feb. 12, 2006 AP
Hurricane aid may be ‘too late’ -- USDA’s announcement of an additional $2.8 billion in aid to victims of the 2005 hurricane season may come too late for many Louisiana farmers, the state’s commissioner of agriculture says. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced on Jan. 26 that USDA would provide $1.2 billion to help farmers in seven states, including Louisiana, recover from hurricane losses and $1.6 billion to help restore homes and rural communities in the storms’ paths. <more> Feb. 14, 2006 Delta Farm Press

Friday, Feb. 10, 2006

Ex-FEMA Leader Faults Response by White House - - Michael D. Brown, the former federal emergency management chief who became a ridiculed symbol of the Bush administration's flawed response to Hurricane Katrina, returned in anger to Capitol Hill on Friday and lashed back at his former superiors. Mr. Brown said that he told a senior White House official early on of the New Orleans flooding, and that the administration was too focused on terrorism to respond properly to natural disasters. Testifying before a Senate committee, Mr. Brown said he notified a senior White House official — who he said was probably Joe Hagin, the deputy White House chief of staff, but might have been Andrew H. Card Jr., the chief of staff — on the day the hurricane hit to report that it had turned into his "worst nightmare" and that New Orleans was flooding. It was the first public identification of any White House official who was said to have directly received reports of extensive flooding on Monday, Aug. 29, the day Hurricane Katrina hit. <more> Feb. 10,2006 NY Times
Former FEMA Chief Says He Told White House of Levee Breaks - - Michael Brown, the embattled former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, testified before a Senate committee today that he told a top White House official on the day Hurricane Katrina struck that "our worst nightmares" had come true in New Orleans. In an often tense exchange, Brown told the committee that he wasn't exactly sure who he talked to from the White House staff that night, but said it was probably Deputy Chief of Staff Joseph Hagin, who he said was in Crawford, Tex., with President Bush. Asked if he told the White House staffer specifically that the New Orleans levees had been breached, Brown said he couldn't recall, but said he informed him that "everything we had planned about, worried about, was coming true." He said that talking to Hagin was like "speaking to the president." <more> Feb. 10, 2006 Washington Post
Ex-FEMA Chief Brown Says DHS Knew of Levee Breaks Immediately- - Top Department of Homeland Security officials were told that New Orleans' levees were breached the day that Hurricane Katrina roared ashore, former disaster chief Michael Brown said Friday, contradicting previous statements by agency officials who said they did not know the levees were toppling until the next day. "I find it a little disingenuous," Brown, who at the time headed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told a Senate oversight committee. "For them to claim that we didn't have awareness of it is just baloney." Brown also told senators that decisions and policies by the parent Homeland Security Department doomed FEMA to "a path to failure" that led to the government's slow response to the storm. He said that because of a focus on terrorism, natural disasters "had become the stepchild of the Department of Homeland Security." <more> Feb. 10, 2006 AP
The Big Easy? Now It's Limbo Land. Slow-Moving Bureaucracy Leaves New Orleans Stuck in a Cycle of Waiting -- When Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco told a special legislative session Monday night that "It's time to play hardball, as I believe it's the only game that Washington understands," she was speaking with the fervor and frustration of someone living in Limbo Land. Mayor C. Ray Nagin has also been wrestling with ways to break the bureaucratic logjams that he says are preventing New Orleans from rebuilding. He recently met with officials from foreign countries, including France and Jordan, looking for help. "We had a little disappointment earlier from some signals that we're getting from Washington," Nagin told a local television station, "but the international community may be able to fill the gap." Officials here are resorting to strong words -- Blanco is threatening to try to block federal sales of leases for gas and oil off the Louisiana coast -- and pleas to foreign nations because they say they need more money to rebuild New Orleans. They are trying to appeal to the federal government and also minister to impatient constituents. New Orleanians are angry that President Bush did not devote more of his State of the Union speech to the city and are concerned that Washington's attention is no longer trained on them. They feel as though they are living in the mean in-between. <more> Feb. 9, 2006 Washington Post
How big will scaled-down Mardi Gras celebration be? -- As in past years, labor attorney Eve Marie Stocker plans to fly from Virginia to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, ride costumed on a float with her mother in the all-female Krewe of Iris parade and catch up with family and friends. This year, however, she says the mission takes on a serious note: New Orleans, venturing into an uncertain Mardi Gras season after Hurricane Katrina, needs a successful celebration to get its sputtering economy started -- and give its storm-shocked residents a break. "Mardi Gras is a compass," said Stocker, a former New Orleans resident. "This is what's normal for the city, and everyone needs a little bit of normalcy." <more> Feb. 9, 2006 AP

Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006

Louisiana governor vows 'hardball'. Blanco: Gulf Coast recovery being treated as 'yesterday's problem'-- Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco warned state lawmakers Monday that corruption could no longer be tolerated, as the area rebuilds from Hurricane Katrina, and vowed to "play hardball" with Washington over oil and gas revenues. Opening a special legislative session in the New Orleans Convention Center, where thousands of residents took refuge in the days after Katrina flooded the city, Blanco said the disaster that killed 1,300 people had become "yesterday's problem" for many in Washington. "We had all better put Louisiana politics aside and worry about Washington politics, or our people and our state will lose," she said. <more>Feb. 7, 2006 Reuters

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco (C) addresses residents during a tour by state legislators of hurricane damaged neighborhoods of New Orleans in the Lower Ninth Ward February 6, 2006. About a third of the 144-member Legislature boarded buses to view ruined areas of the city at the start of a special session. (Lee Celano/Reuters)
Legislature in Louisiana to Consider Levee Boards - - Like myriad other local institutions here, Louisiana's parish levee boards have existed for years in relative obscurity, all the while amassing wealth and property, and even maintaining their own police forces. But following the disastrous flooding after Hurricane Katrina, the operations of the levee boards have come under intense questioning. And on Monday, the State Legislature convenes a special session that will consider whether to consolidate the local boards in Orleans and seven neighboring parishes into one regional board that would be professionally run and managed. The fragmentation of the flood-protection system is regarded here as heightening the risk of future breaks. <more> Feb. 6, 2006 NY Times
Hurricane's Forgotten Victims. Four months after Rita and a world away from New Orleans, the 'Cajun Riviera' is still in ruins. Many fear they've been lost in Katrina's shadow. - - Loretta and Sonny Meaux led a simple but satisfying life from the bounty of the Gulf of Mexico. They raked oysters and trapped blue crabs and sold their catch out of a shack beside their home. They rented beach cabins to college students on beer-chugging getaways and to adventurous tourists who came to alligator country from as far away as Britain and Germany."We worked hard, we lived hard and we laughed hard," Loretta Meaux said. That life blew to pieces in September, when Hurricane Rita slammed into the Louisiana coast with 120-mph winds and a 20-foot wall of water. Holly Beach, a sliver of sugar-white sand affectionately known as the "Cajun Riviera," was all but wiped off the map. More than four months later, the former community of about 200 residents, roughly halfway between New Orleans and Houston, remains a surreal scape of concrete foundations, aluminum picnic benches and frying pans half buried in sand. Without outside help, all the sweat and muscle the families can muster will never be enough to bring back Holly Beach. <more> Feb. 6, 2006 LA Times
Mardi Gras Medical - - In two weeks, Mardi Gras parades will begin rolling in New Orleans, bringing revelers intent on proving they can still party in the Big Easy. Unfortunately, New Orleans is down to one working adult hospital. That is a recipe for disaster. The city needs this celebration both emotionally and financially, but its stricken hospital system requires help to ensure that it is a safe one. Doctors say the biggest problem is facilities, specifically hospital beds. There are no psychiatric beds available for mentally ill patients. And the lack of primary care means emergency rooms are swamped with people suffering from less pressing ailments. Emergency patients in Orleans and other parishes nearby are currently stuck on ambulance stretchers for a minimum of 45 minutes and up to six hours while waiting for treatment, according to city statistics. <more> Feb. 4, 2006 NY Times Editorial

Thursday, Feb. 2, 2006

Report Blames Katrina Response on Chertoff. The Homeland Security chief failed on several fronts, an independent investigation says in the first official criticism aimed at so high a level. - - For the first time, a nonpartisan government investigation Wednesday put principal blame on Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not lower-level officials, for the fumbled response to Hurricane Katrina. The Government Accountability Office, an independent agency of Congress, said in its preliminary report that Chertoff had failed to move quickly to mobilize resources despite advance warnings that Katrina was likely to be a devastating storm. And, the report said, Chertoff's failure to name an individual to spearhead the response was a prime factor in the delays and confusion that followed. In particular, the GAO faulted Chertoff for not immediately designating Katrina a "catastrophic event," a technical step that would have permitted federal officials to take the initiative in the emergency. Federal agencies instead had to wait for state and local agencies to request specific kinds of assistance, said David M. Walker, who as comptroller general heads the GAO. <more> Feb. 2, 2006 LA Times
Investigators Criticize Response to Hurricane - - No one from the federal government was clearly in charge of the response to Hurricane Katrina, Congressional investigators said Wednesday, and in the absence of clear leadership the general federal approach was "to wait for affected states to request assistance." In a preliminary report, the Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, criticized Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, for waiting until Tuesday, the day after the storm hit, to designate Hurricane Katrina an "incident of national significance," a status that more clearly put his department in charge. "Government entities did not act decisively or quickly enough to determine the catastrophic nature of the incident," the report said. "In the absence of timely and decisive action and clear leadership responsibility and accountability, there were multiple chains of command." <more> Feb. 2, 2006 NY Times
Administration Faulted on Katrina. GAO Report Blames Bungled Response on Failures That Started at the Top - - Responsibility for the government's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina extends widely but begins at the top of the Bush administration, which failed before the storm to name a White House, homeland security or other senior aide to take command of disaster relief, congressional investigators reported yesterday. Four years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, administration officials did not establish a clear chain of command for the domestic emergency; disregarded early warnings of a Category 5 hurricane inundating New Orleans and southeast Louisiana; and did not ensure that cities and states had adequate plans and training before the Aug. 29 storm, according to the Government Accountability Office. "A single individual -- directly responsible and accountable to the president of the United States -- should be dedicated to act as the central focal point to lead and coordinate the overall federal response," GAO chief David M. Walker said, summarizing the preliminary findings of 30 pending Katrina-related studies. <more> Feb. 2, 2006 Washington Post
Louisiana in Limbo - - New Orleans waits. While some heroic efforts at rebuilding are taking place, hundreds of thousands of residents have put their lives on hold until they know what the government's next steps will be, leaving the shells of their houses as placeholders. But the Bush administration has now rejected the most broadly supported plan for rebuilding communities while offering nothing to take its place. It has been five months since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast and for many the norm is still the claustrophobic new reality of tiny trailers and multiple families crammed into single apartments. Louisiana is trying. You can hear jackhammers pounding and buzz saws whirring on Canal Street in New Orleans. Dedicated workers endure a grinding daily commute from points north, like Baton Rouge, as they try to make the city and the region whole again. But the mission is far from complete and the challenge is beyond the scope of a broken city and a poor state. <more> Jan. 30, 2006 NY Times Editorial
FEMA failed to accept Katrina help, documents say. Homeland Security: 'Of course' not all assets were used -- Federal emergency officials failed to accept offers of possibly life-saving aid from the Department of Interior immediately after Hurricane Katrina, according to documents obtained by CNN. The Interior Department offered the Federal Emergency Management Agency the use of personnel who were experienced in water rescues and also offered boats, helicopters, heavy equipment and rooms, the documents say. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of a Senate committee with jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, said the additional resources may have saved lives. <more> Jan. 30, 2006 CNN
New Orleans women seek Congress' support - - They're stay-at-home moms, successful professionals and mothers of celebrities. And while many of the 140 women who arrived by private jet Monday hail from Louisiana's most prominent political families, their journey to the U.S. Capitol was highly personal. Carrying photographs of their flooded homes and calling themselves "Women of the Storm," they set out in small groups to invite each member of Congress to visit post-Katrina New Orleans to see the devastation first hand - and hopefully support a boost in federal aid to the region. <more> Jan. 30, 2006 AP

Friday, Jan. 27, 2006

Study Says 80% of New Orleans Blacks May Not Return - - New Orleans could lose as much as 80 percent of its black population if its most damaged neighborhoods are not rebuilt and if there is not significant government assistance to help poor people return, a detailed analysis by Brown University has concluded. Combining data from the 2000 census with federal damage assessment maps, the study provides a new level of specificity about Hurricane Katrina's effect on the city's worst-flooded areas, which were heavily populated by low-income black people. Of the 354,000 people who lived in New Orleans neighborhoods where the subsequent damage was moderate to severe, 75 percent were black, 29 percent lived below the poverty line, more than 10 percent were unemployed, and more than half were renters, the study found. The report's author, John R. Logan, concluded that as much as 80 percent of the city's black population might not return for several reasons: their neighborhoods would not be rebuilt, they would be unable to afford the relocation costs, or they would put down roots in other cities. <more> Jan. 27,2006 NY Times
Louisiana Tires of Its Rogues. Now that Katrina has spawned its first graft case, angry residents see the state's reputation for corruption corroding its ability to get federal aid. - - Joseph Impastato conceded he took the two cashier's checks worth $85,000. The whole thing was captured on tape by the FBI, so it would have been difficult to deny. But it was no kickback, the councilman from St. Tammany Parish said. It was business. When he cut a deal to receive half the money from a government contract to haul away hurricane debris, Impastato said, he was acting as a private businessman, not a public official. Federal prosecutors are not buying it — and neither apparently is the Louisiana public. After a federal grand jury indicted Impastato on felony extortion charges last month, making him the first Louisiana politician accused of Hurricane Katrina corruption, citizens condemned him in newspapers and on talk radio and the Internet as an embarrassment to his home state. <more> Jan. 27, 2006 LA Times
White House Got Early Warning on Katrina - - In the 48 hours before Hurricane Katrina hit, the White House received detailed warnings about the storm's likely impact, including eerily prescient predictions of breached levees, massive flooding, and major losses of life and property, documents show. A 41-page assessment by the Department of Homeland Security's National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC), was delivered by e-mail to the White House's "situation room," the nerve center where crises are handled, at 1:47 a.m. on Aug. 29, the day the storm hit, according to an e-mail cover sheet accompanying the document. The NISAC paper warned that a storm of Katrina's size would "likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching" and specifically noted the potential for levee failures along Lake Pontchartrain. It predicted economic losses in the tens of billions of dollars, including damage to public utilities and industry that would take years to fully repair. Initial response and rescue operations would be hampered by disruption of telecommunications networks and the loss of power to fire, police and emergency workers, it said. <more> Jan. 24, 2006 Washington Post
Lieberman: White House hindering Katrina probe -- The White House is dodging questions about Hurricane Katrina response and has instructed other agencies to join it in fending off investigators, Sen. Joseph Lieberman said on Tuesday. The White House denies the allegations. Lieberman went so far as to suggest that the Department of Homeland Security is trying to kill the investigation. "My staff believes that DHS has engaged in a conscious strategy of slow-walking our investigation in the hope that we would run out of time to follow the investigation's natural progression to where it leads," Lieberman said. "At this point, I cannot disagree." <more> Jan. 24, 2006 CNN
Panel OKs New Orleans election plan -- A panel of Louisiana lawmakers has approved a plan to hold city elections in the spring by distributing absentee ballots to displaced residents and establishing new polling places to replace those devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The joint House-Senate committee that backed the plan Monday was under pressure from a federal judge who has threatened to take over the planning process if the state does not set dates for April elections by Tuesday. <more> Jan. 24, 2006 AP

Monday, Jan. 23, 2006

Dream team' to plan Katrina rebuilding. Louisiana governor's appointee dodges thorny question -- A "dream team" of thinkers, researchers and urban planners will shape the rebuilding of Louisiana cities and towns after the destruction caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Thursday. Blanco introduced a group that includes architects and planners, some of whom also have been involved in figuring out how to rebuild Mississippi towns destroyed by Katrina. Miami, Florida-based architect Andres Duany led a team that came up with recommendations for rebuilding 11 Mississippi cities and towns. Duany is a practitioner of "new urbanism," which seeks to create compact towns with prominent public spaces and old-fashioned downtowns to increase foot traffic and reduce suburban sprawl. <more> Jan. 20, 2006 AP
New Orleans Agrees to Give Notice on Home Demolitions - - A federal judge approved a settlement on Tuesday in a lawsuit over the first demolitions of New Orleans homes ruined by Hurricane Katrina, after city officials agreed to give homeowners advance notice. The settlement means that the city can begin demolishing homes, an emotional and symbolic act here, within a few weeks. A group of advocates for improved housing in damaged neighborhoods filed suit against the city last month, demanding that homeowners be notified before any demolitions. The group dropped its suit with the city's agreement to provide that notification, and Judge Martin L. C. Feldman of Federal District Court signed an order dismissing it. <more> Jan. 18, 2006 NY Times
Thousands still missing after Katrina. Medical examiner wants search to resume in hardest-hit areas -- More than 3,200 people are officially still unaccounted for nearly five months after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and the state medical examiner wants the search to resume for those missing from the most devastated neighborhoods. A total of nearly 11,500 people were reported missing to the Find Family National Call Center, a center run by federal and state workers. The reports included people from throughout the Gulf Coast area, but most were from Louisiana. As of Wednesday, all but about 3,200 had been located, the agency said. <more> Jan. 18, 2006 AP
Lawmakers say Gulf Coast needs more help. 'We need a new tool,' Louisiana Sen. Landrieu argues -- Federal programs and funds to help the Gulf Coast recover from Hurricane Katrina do not go far enough to help, according to lawmakers touring the battered region Tuesday. "The tools we have in our toolbox are not effective," said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, on a flight to Gulfport, Mississippi, where blue-tarped roof dotted the city's houses. She was with a delegation of senators who also planned to tour disaster sites in the New Orleans area. "We need a new tool." <more> Jan. 18, 2006 AP
Patients Needing Care Overwhelm New Orleans's Hospital System - - The emergency rooms of this bedraggled region are facing their own emergency. As thousands of residents have begun returning in the weeks since New Year's, there are far more sick people than there are doctors, nurses, beds and equipment to take care of them. The slow repopulation of the city picked up speed after the holidays as more schools reopened and, in the words of one emergency room doctor, the sicker people began to return. But only seven of what had been 15 adult acute-care facilities in the city and three surrounding parishes are open, and only one-third of the acute-care beds. Hundreds or perhaps thousands of doctors and nurses never returned to New Orleans after the flood; long-term and psychiatric hospitals, not to mention hospices and rehabilitation centers, are now almost nonexistent in and around the city. As a result, the returning residents have filled the functioning hospitals in and immediately around the city to capacity and beyond. Waiting times in emergency rooms have extended to as much as six hours, medical personnel at three hospitals reported. <more> Jan. 23, 2006 NY Times

Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2006

Nagin calls for rebuilding 'chocolate' New Orleans. Black majority city 'the way God wants it to be' -- Mayor Ray Nagin on Monday called for the rebuilding of a "chocolate New Orleans" that maintains the city's black majority, saying, "You can't have New Orleans no other way." "I don't care what people are saying Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day," Nagin said in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech. "This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be." Uptown is a reference to a mostly white part of the city. Pressed later to explain his comments, Nagin, who is black, told CNN affiliate WDSU-TV that he was referring to creation of a racially diverse city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, insisting that his remarks were not divisive. <more> Jan. 17, 2006 AP
Hurricanes May Be God's Punishment, Mayor Says. The New Orleans leader suggests the Almighty is "mad at America" and at blacks in particular. - - Mayor C. Ray Nagin said Monday that the hurricanes that devastated this city last summer were a sign that "God is mad at America" and at African Americans in particular, remarks that appear to have hit the weary populace like a lead weight and may cast a further cloud over his reelection prospects. During a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, Nagin gave a meandering speech in which he imagined himself talking to the late civil rights leader. He also spoke of New Orleans becoming "chocolate" again — an apparent reference to "Chocolate City," the 1970s funk recording by Parliament that called on blacks to fill the urban void left by white flight. At one point, Nagin joked that he might be suffering from "post-Katrina stress disorder." But it was the mayor's remark likening the damage done by hurricanes Katrina and Rita to the wrath of God that drew comparisons to extreme statements by controversial televangelist Pat Robertson and became the talk of political New Orleans. <more> Jan. 17, 2006 LA Times
Storms Payback From God, Nagin Says. Mayor Faults War, Blacks' Infighting -- Mayor C. Ray Nagin suggested Monday that hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other storms were a sign that "God is mad at America" -- and at black communities, too, for tearing themselves apart with violence and political infighting. "Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country," Nagin said as he and other city leaders marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day. "Surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves." <more> Jan. 17, 2006 AP
At Center of Storm Destruction, Eager Few Try to Reclaim Parish - - In the stillness here on Louis Elam Street, where the houses are nothing more than rotting shells collapsing on themselves for block after deserted block, the Robinson family has decided, against all odds, to re-create life all by itself on lot No. 6429. The Robinsons are living where few people even dare to drive, here in the midst of a vast stretch of desolation on the banks of the Mississippi River east of New Orleans in St. Bernard Parish. In all of southeast Louisiana, Hurricane Katrina was the most vicious and thorough in its destruction here, and some streets remain impassable nearly five months later, blocked by houses that the storm surge lifted, twisted and deposited as wrecks. The blue house with the white trim was one of them, and it belonged to the Robinsons. Now, the family members have come back to what used to be its front yard in a government-issued trailer, determined to make a home again on what seems like the edge of civilization. <more> Jan. 17, 2006 NY Times
Fatal Flaws: Why the Walls Tumbled in New Orleans. Experts point to defects in design, construction and maintenance that left levees vulnerable. - - In the frantic days after Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers scrambled to plug a breach on the 17th Street levee, dropping massive sandbags from a fleet of helicopters. But the engineers were baffled: The sandbags kept disappearing into the watery breach. The pit eventually swallowed 2,000 sandbags, each weighing between 3,000 and 20,000 pounds. It was an early sign that the hurricane had opened an extraordinarily deep hole in the foundation of the storm wall, pointing to a fundamental breakdown in the engineering of the city's levee system. Investigators recently told The Times that the 17th Street levee failed because its engineers made a series of crucial mistakes, one of which was to base the levee design on the average strength of the soil rather than on the strength of its weakest layer. The errors may reflect a loss of expertise during the 1990s, when the corps sharply downsized its soil laboratories. <more> Jan. 17, 2006 LA Times
Hard Decisions for New Orleans - - It would be nice to believe that New Orleans could be made whole, exactly as it was before Hurricane Katrina devastated it. But that kind of wishful thinking, apparently prevalent among some New Orleanians and encouraged by some city leaders, will only stymie the reconstruction process. The nation cannot rebuild everywhere in New Orleans, nor should it. The city's rebuilding commission took an important step this week when it recommended that only the areas that could muster sufficient population should be rebuilt. Not surprisingly, that announcement drew the ire of residents of some neighborhoods where generations have lived on the same plots of land. While that is an ideal that should be protected wherever possible, it cannot define the rebuilding process. <more> Jan. 14, 2006 NY Times editorial
Culture Raises Its Head and Heart - - While much of the grieving and arguing about New Orleans has centered on housing, a panel appointed by the mayor contends that any comeback will be driven by a fierce love of the city's distinctive culture - from music to food to folk traditions. To that end, a report to be released today by the cultural committee of Mayor C. Ray Nagin's Bring New Orleans Back Commission, proposes that the city regenerate its pool of creative talent by finding jobs and shelter for artists and cultural institutions. It must repair damaged cultural facilities and build new ones, like a National Jazz Center and an expanded and enhanced arts district, the report says; market New Orleans as a world-class cultural capital; teach the arts and cultural traditions to the city's young people; and seek investment from national and international sources. After the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina in late August, "no one doubts that the first order of business for New Orleans is to rebuild the levees and address the enormous need for shelter," the report says. "But it is New Orleans culture, our musical, visual, culinary, architectural, literary and graphic arts, that has always drawn people to visit, to live in, and to invest in our city. And it is our culture that will bring back the city that we love." <more> Jan. 17, 2006 NY Times
Legislators Eager for a Say in Spending Louisiana Aid - - With a shower of federal dollars about to rain down on this state, jockeying is beginning here in the halls of the Louisiana Capitol over who will control the money. In a place where eagerness to grab money is dampened only by its usual scarcity, the prospect of some $9 billion in quick Hurricane Katrina relief - half the state's normal budget - has whetted appetites. Even legislators normally wary of their colleagues' free-spending ways are nervous about being shut out. On Friday, as Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco's handpicked, 26-member recovery commission, the Louisiana Recovery Authority, made first plans for dividing up the money, a handful of state legislators hung around outside a committee room here. Some predicted fights over what they see as Ms. Blanco's propensity for hoarding the largesse. <more> Jan. 14, 2006 NY Times

Friday, Jan. 13, 2006

In New Orleans, Bush Speaks With Optimism but Sees Little of Ruin - - President Bush made his first trip here in three months on Thursday and declared that New Orleans was "a heck of a place to bring your family" and that it had "some of the greatest food in the world and some wonderful fun." Mr. Bush spent his brief visit in a meeting with political and business leaders on the edge of the Garden District, the grand neighborhood largely untouched by the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina, and saw little devastation. He did not go into the city's hardest-hit areas or to Jackson Square, where several hundred girls from the Academy of the Sacred Heart staged a protest demanding stronger levees. Mr. Bush's motorcade did pass some abandoned neighborhoods as it traveled on Interstate 10 into the city. "It may be hard for you to see, but from when I first came here to today, New Orleans is reminding me of the city I used to come to visit," the president told the local leaders at the Convention and Visitors Bureau, an independent group set up to attract business and tourism to the city. Mr. Bush added that "for folks around the country who are looking for a great place to have a convention, or a great place to visit, I'd suggest coming here to the great New Orleans." <more> Jan. 13, 2006 NY Times
Hostility Greets Katrina Recovery Plan. Residents Assail Eminent Domain and Other Facets of New Orleans Proposal -- Angry homeowners screamed and City Council members seethed Wednesday as this city's recovery commission recommended imposing a four-month building moratorium on most of New Orleans and creating a powerful new authority that could use eminent domain to seize homes in neighborhoods that will not be rebuilt. Hundreds of residents packed into a hotel ballroom interrupted the presentation of the long-awaited proposal with shouts and taunts, booed its main architect and unrolled a litany of complaints. One by one, homeowners stepped to a microphone to lampoon the plan -- which contemplates a much smaller city and relies on persuading the federal government to spend billions on new housing and a light-rail system -- as "audacious," "an academic exercise," "garbage," "a no-good, rotten scheme." "You missed the boat," homeowner Fred Yoder, who lived in heavily flooded Lakeview, told committee members. "Give me a break: We don't need a light-rail system. We're in the mud." <more> Jan. 11, 2006 Washington Post
University Begins Its Post-Katrina Term. More than four months after the hurricane, 6,500 students return to Tulane in New Orleans. - - Christina Brown spent less than an hour in her freshman dorm at Tulane University last summer before the campus was evacuated for Hurricane Katrina. She took enough clothes with her to last for what was expected to be a four-day absence. Four months later, Brown and other students returned Thursday for what the school billed as a deja vu orientation: first-year move-in, the second time around. Work crews had packed up their possessions so the residence halls could be refurbished after Katrina blew off roofs and knocked out windows — and after 3 feet of water engulfed the jewel of this city's Uptown section. With the restoration complete and the students ready to return, they put everything back. <more> Jan. 13, 2006
A Will-to-Rebuild Deadline Proposed for New Orleans. A $12-billion buyout is planned if residents don't stake a convincing claim in four months. - - Mayor C. Ray Nagin's commission to revive this city on Wednesday proposed that residents of the districts most heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina get four months to demonstrate strong support for rebuilding their neighborhoods or face the possibility of having to sell to the government. The proposal, a centerpiece of the mayor's "Bring New Orleans Back" recovery effort, drew outrage from residents and community activists, who argued that many citizens — especially the African Americans who predominated the flood-struck areas — might be forced out of the city for good. By allowing residents to help determine their neighborhood's fate, the Nagin commission hoped to defuse a flashpoint in the debate over how to restore the ravaged city: Should all of New Orleans be rebuilt, or should low-lying neighborhoods be returned to wetlands and green space that would serve as a natural barrier against floods? <more> Jan. 12, 2006 LA Times
Some Evacuees Uprooted Again. As Mardi Gras nears, some hotels and motels are asking hurricane victims staying under a FEMA plan to leave to make room for tourists. - - With the peak tourist season of Mardi Gras approaching, hotel managers across this slowly rebounding city are wondering: When will the thousands of hurricane evacuees lodging at taxpayer expense finally check out? Members of more than 25,000 households forced to flee hurricanes Katrina and Rita last summer remain scattered in hotels and motels around the country, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. So far, the government has spent $400 million covering their bills. About 15,000 of those displaced occupy 8,700 rooms in Louisiana — largely in the New Orleans metropolitan region. Their stay past FEMA's original December relocation deadline, which has been extended twice, is testing the hospitality of hotel operators, who are hoping Mardi Gras can attract visitors to the city and revive its moribund tourism economy. <more> Jan. 11, 2006 LA Times
New Orleans Commission to Seek Overhaul of Schools and Transit - - The commission devising a blueprint to reconstruct the city will propose on Wednesday a complete reorganization of the troubled school system, the elimination of a 76-mile shipping channel that was a prime cause of flooding after Hurricane Katrina and the creation of a new jazz district downtown. The commission report, several members said, will also advocate building a 53-mile light-rail system crisscrossing the city, connecting neighborhoods with the airport, downtown and other commercial centers. That system would be in addition to a separate heavy-rail system that would link New Orleans with Baton Rouge and the rest of the Gulf Coast. The light-rail system, estimated to cost $3 billion, is intended to help spark redevelopment in areas of the city that were flooded. Toward that end, the plan calls on the city to enlist developers to build at least four communities of 1,000 or more houses at stops along the proposed light-rail lines. <more> Jan. 11, 2006 NY Times
Katrina evacuees weigh possible return -- James Anthony, who fled Hurricane Katrina like tens of thousands others, is facing a wrenching decision: whether to return home and help rebuild a shattered community or make a new home elsewhere, essentially from scratch. Anthony and his family abandoned their home and business in New Orleans East, one of the Louisiana parishes most affected by the storm. They found a place to stay at his mother-in-law's home in Atlanta, Georgia. "I'm one of the lucky ones from what I understand. We did have a place to come to," he said. In one of the first steps that may help ease Anthony's decision, the Bring New Orleans Back Commission, appointed by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, begins unveiling on Wednesday a series of proposals on how to rebuild the city. <more> Jan. 11, 2006 CNN
Mardi Gras intrudes on Katrina evacuees -- New Orleans is preparing to welcome back tourists who want to celebrate Mardi Gras in the Big Easy. The revelers will be heading to hotels also being used by about 4,000 people who lost their homes amid the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. It's an interesting dichotomy. In the New Orleans Intercontinental Hotel, I saw well-heeled tourists and displaced families carrying in groceries all together in the lobby. After spending time with some of the homeless hotel residents, it's clear many are at a loss about what to do. They keep getting told their trailers are coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but the temporary homes still haven't arrived. <more> Jan. 11, 2005 CNN
La. petition to recall Blanco begins but faces long road - - A Republican who says she has never worked on a political campaign filed documents Tuesday launching a drive to oust Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who was harshly criticized for her response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Kat Landry, who filed a recall petition with state elections officials, said Louisiana needs new leadership to recover from the storms' back-to-back blows. "What we have seen in the past few months is a lack of leadership, a lack of communication, a lack of understanding of how to get things done," Landry said. <more> Jan. 10., 2006 AP

Monday, Jan. 9, 2006

Louisiana Governor, Senators Go to Holland - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco left for Holland on Monday to learn how the Dutch created the huge flood-control system that protects a land much farther below sea level than Louisiana. The trip means the Democratic governor will miss President Bush's visit to New Orleans, scheduled for Thursday. Blanco said her trip had been long scheduled when the White House informed her office about the president's trip to Louisiana. The governor was among more than 40 government, business and education leaders — including Sens. David Vitter and Mary Landrieu — who took the trip in hopes of learning how to create levees and floodgates strong enough to withstand a storm as large as or larger than Hurricane Katrina, which overwhelmed New Orleans' flood control system. <more> Jan. 9, 2006 AP
N.O. needs 7,000 more trailer sites, Blanco says. Councilman will agree to using parts of City Park for housing -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Sunday night called on the seven members of the New Orleans City Council to work quickly to identify sites for another 7,000 temporary homes for displaced New Orleanians, which could help satisfy housing requests by almost 47,000 families flooded out by Hurricane Katrina. Wrapping up a meeting at the Governor's Mansion with New Orleans Councilman Jay Batt, who represents the City Park-Lakeview area, Blanco said the state and city already have identified sites for about 40,000 New Orleans families who have requested temporary housing from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but that sites for 7,000 more are needed. <more> Jan. 9, 2006 Times Picayune

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, center, is greeted by council members Jacquelyn Clarkson, Rene Gill Pratt, Cynthia Willard Lewis and Louisiana Sen. Diana Bajoie, at the New Orleans City Council meeting at City Hall, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2006, in New Orleans. Blanco presented an update on the rebuilding effort to the council, and also promised to work with the city council and mayor to come up with a plan on where to put trailers throughout New Orleans. (AP Photo/Cheryl Gerber)
Nagin Works Both Sides of Aisle for Aid. New Orleans Mayor Crafts Strategy To Get Funds to City Following Katrina - - When President Bush announced a $3.1 billion plan to rebuild and strengthen the levees around New Orleans last month, he was joined by an unlikely ally: the city's mayor, Ray Nagin, who earlier had assailed the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The months since Katrina have been a crash course in politics and legislative gamesmanship for Mr. Nagin, a businessman who took office in 2002 after his first campaign. After initially denouncing the White House response, he wooed the president and then played to both sides of Washington's political divide. In the end, Mr. Nagin has emerged as the leading advocate for the Bush administration's post-Katrina agenda. <more> Jan. 9, 2006 Wall Street Journal
Fight Grows in New Orleans on Demolition and Rebuilding - - With activists, planners and residents squaring off over which neighborhoods will be demolished and which will be rebuilt, state officials are warning that some low-lying neighborhoods may not be eligible for federal rebuilding assistance. Sean Reilly, a member of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the state body formed partly to manage the flow of federal money to the state, castigated city officials on Wednesday for assuring residents that every neighborhood flooded after Hurricane Katrina would be rebuilt. Mr. Reilly made it clear that federal money, at least in some forms, was unlikely to go to those areas. "The L.R.A. will not fund an irrational and unsafe rebuilding plan," Mr. Reilly said in Baton Rouge. "Someone has to be tough, to stand up, and to tell the truth. Every neighborhood in New Orleans will not be able to come back safe and viable. The L.R.A. is speaking the truth with the money it controls." Until now, political leaders in New Orleans have been reluctant to tell residents that some areas may be too damaged or too vulnerable to flooding to be rebuilt at the same pace as others less damaged. <more> Jan. 6, 2006 NY Times
Blanco: Feds will fund $600 million, six-lane twin-span - - The federal government will pay about $600 million for a new, six-lane Interstate 10 bridge over Lake Pontchartrain that is expected to replace the existing four-lane twin spans in about three years, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. Blanco made the announcement Thursday as she joined federal highway officials in cutting a red ribbon to signify the full reopening of the 43-year-old twin-spans that link New Orleans to Slidell. <more> Jan. 9, 2006 AP
Students Return to Big Changes in New Orleans - - Hundreds of children returned Tuesday for the first time since Hurricane Katrina to schools here that had survived on dry ground. Some came gleefully. Some came mournfully, and, to be sure, tens of thousands who were still displaced could not come at all. But for those who ventured back, the educational landscape was much different from the one they had left: New Orleans is now a smaller system dominated by new charter schools in the same buildings that housed traditional public schools before the storm, as well as by leaner private schools eager for what they hope will be new pools of aid. <more> Jan. 4, 2006 NY Times

Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2006

Safety in Storms Now No. 1 Selling Point. In the New Orleans housing market, high ground and buildings designed to withstand hurricanes and flooding are attracting buyers. - - For a few hundred years, nobody could quite figure out what to do with Money Hill. In the 1700s, pirates buried their plunder in the piney woods north of Lake Pontchartrain — hence the name — and in the 1800s it became a logging site. It was a tung tree orchard during World War II, then a campground. Finally, in 1998, it became a housing development, and an outer suburb of New Orleans. Only recently, however, did the Money Hill Golf and Country Club find that it was truly resting on a pile of gold. Long frustrated by slow sales, executives stripped their advertisements of descriptions they had relied on in the past — garden homes modeled after the French countryside, Bermuda grass on the golf greens — and produced new ads that would mean something to today's buyers. "Lots start," the ads read, "at 100 feet above sea level." <more> Jan.2, 2006 LA Times
The Price of Katrina Hospitality. States with evacuees try to add up the costs, but variables persist: How many will stay? Who? 'We never envisioned' this, a Texas official says. - - Overtime for workers processing a deluge of food-stamp applications. A satellite dish to bring Internet access to a summer-camp-turned-shelter. New textbooks and teachers. Dialysis. Chemotherapy. Security deposits for rented apartments. As they plan budgets for 2006, officials in Texas, Georgia, Arkansas and elsewhere are first calculating the costs of providing for hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina. They've come up with some daunting numbers — and questions. Although they expect reimbursement from the federal government for many expenses, officials say they aren't sure how much they will receive or when the money will arrive. More vexing for budget planners is uncertainty about the evacuees: How many will stay in their adoptive states, how many will find work and become self-sufficient, how many will continue to need public aid — and for how long? <more> Jan. 1, 2006 LA Times
Port of New Orleans is at half-way mark - - After Hurricane Katrina destroyed about one-third of the Port of New Orleans, the port's chief executive turned an offhand remark into a challenge to restart a vital part of the city's storm-ravaged economy. "It all came out as kind of a joke when someone told me, 'You won't have a ship in this port for six months,'" port chief Gary LaGrange said. "My response, with a lot of bravado, was, 'We'll be back at 70 percent within six months.'" So far, so good. <more> Jan. 2, 2006 AP

Friday, Dec. 30, 2005

After Storm, She Tries to Mend State, and Career - - She is struggling to rebuild a shattered state. But along the way, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana is also working to repair a wounded reputation - her own. She has been mocked as weepy and indecisive by radio talk show hosts who deride her as "momma governor." She has feuded with the White House, which did not invite her to a recent announcement on levee protection. She has been criticized on Capitol Hill by Republicans as having made a "dysfunctional" response to Hurricane Katrina. And through it all, Ms. Blanco, a 63-year-old Democrat, has found herself dogged by invidious comparisons to a certain mayor of New York whose stand-tall image after Sept. 11, 2001, seems to have become the one that all elected officials are expected to duplicate during a crisis. "People can't stop comparing her to Rudy Giuliani," said State Representative Troy M. Hebert, a Democrat from Jeanerette. "When 9/11 came, he looked like he was doing something. I'm not sure he was. But he looked like it." But Ms. Blanco is fighting back. She points to several important victories in a special legislative session last month - including the state takeover of New Orleans's failing schools - as evidence of decisive action. And she is planning a media blitz, using weekly newspaper columns and regular radio appearances to outline her reconstruction plans. <more> Dec. 29, 2005 NY Times
Yearning for home. Her money is running out, her house is destroyed, but Katrina survivor knows one thing: She wants to return to New Orleans - - Shatonda Yarbrough was swept up by a whirling force of nature. She landed over 2,000 miles away with no idea whether she would go home again. The 29-year-old single mother is one of hundreds of Hurricane Katrina evacuees who ended up in the Bay Area after one of the most powerful hurricanes on record slammed the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, breaking levees, flooding 80 percent of the city and killing more than 1,300 people in the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Many of them, like Yarbrough, had jobs, owned homes and lived comfortable lives. And when they resettled in Oakland, San Francisco and elsewhere, many of them hoped to put down roots here. But jobs are hard to find, government subsidies a roller-coaster and now, with help running out, they are faced with what to do next. Yarbrough has run out of patience here, and wants to go back to New Orleans. "I want to go home," Yarbrough said, sitting in the kitchen of her Oakland apartment one recent morning, her voice growing more certain. "I want to go home." <more> Dec. 29, 2005 San Francisco Chronicle
Instead of mailing cards, Blanco makes donation - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco opted for hurricane relief over sending Christmas cards this year, her staff said. The governor considered sending cards but decided instead to donate to hurricane relief funds with money that otherwise would have been spent on cards, Blanco's spokesman, Roderick Hawkins said Friday. Hawkins said he did not know how much money was donated and to which charities. <more> Dec. 29, 2005 AP
Newspaper Finds New Attitude After Katrina. Advocacy reporting is making an auspicious return in New Orleans, some observers say. - - To New Orleans Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose, the front porch gatherings felt like an extension of his work — another way to talk with his neighbors about everything that had happened since Hurricane Katrina. A collection of old and new friends arrived on the stoop of his Uptown home most nights following the storm. Their stories flowed, along with the cold bottles of Abita Amber, the local brew. "Even the people who usually watched ESPN and 'Sex and the City' were flushed out of their houses," recalled the newspaperman, whose neighborhood escaped serious flooding. "We all sort of bonded together." So it was with considerable pain that Rose recounted in his column this month how one of the regulars on his front stoop lost her fiance. He killed himself, apparently in despair over innumerable losses that the hurricane delivered. "The most open, joyous, free-wheeling, celebratory city in the country is broken, hurting, down on its knees. Failing. Begging for help," Rose wrote. "Somebody turn this movie off; I don't want to watch it anymore. I want a slow news day. I want a no news day." <more> Dec. 29, 2005 LA Times

Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2005

With Coastline in Ruins, Cajuns Face Prospect of Uprooted Towns - - Cameron Parish, where generations of Cajuns have hunted ducks and pulled up redfish, lost about 400 people to Hurricane Audrey in 1957. Last fall, when Hurricane Rita destroyed thousands of structures and flattened the coastline, some state officials began to question whether life there was still worth the risk. Now Louisiana planners are proposing an idea that would have been unimaginable here a few months ago: moving an entire string of seaside towns and villages - and the 4,000 longtime residents who live in them - 15 or 20 miles inland to higher and presumably safer ground. "If we could get 100 percent participation, which admittedly is extraordinarily difficult, if possible at all, we could conceivably take the entire population of Cameron Parish largely out of harm's way for future events," said Drew Sachs, a consultant to the Louisiana Recovery Authority. He has been asked to develop bold suggestions for rebuilding the state's coastal region in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. <more> Dec. 27, 2005 NY Times
'Special' Christmas in Katrina's wake. Louisiana churchgoer: 'My house is gone but I'm still home' -- The congregation of First Emmanuel Baptist Church drove from Baton Rouge, Houston and other points far and wide on Christmas, then walked past collapsed buildings and piles of storm wreckage to worship in their old church for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. "This means everything. We've come home," said Lila Southall, the minister's wife. "My house is gone, but I'm still home for Christmas." The 118-year-old church had lost much of its roof, part of the ceiling still hung precariously and the soggy carpet had not yet been replaced. But the magnificent stained-glass windows survived unscathed, and so did most of the 1,200 members. <more> Dec. 26, 2005 AP
Waning Days of Grace for New Orleans Homeowners. Strains begin to show as mortgage reprieves are extended. Borrowers say some lenders demand lump sums at the end of forbearance periods. - - As unpaid home-loan bills pile up, mortgage companies and owners of hurricane-ravaged property are still unsure what federal assistance they may get, and uncertain if they can salvage their investments. After hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck, the mortgage industry granted victims a 90-day reprieve from payments, late fees and damaging reports to credit agencies. Most home lenders, including the two largest — California-based Countrywide Financial Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. — have added another 90 days of forbearance for borrowers who need more time. But strains are showing in the fourth month since New Orleans' levees gave way. About 80,000 to 100,000 homeowners whose properties were inundated might have had no flood insurance, according to the Mortgage Bankers Assn. Thousands of borrowers haven't contacted their lenders, increasing the odds of foreclosure, bankers and regulators said. <more> Dec. 26, 2005 LA Times
Feds rack up $39 million Katrina credit tab -- Federal employees helping Katrina victims charged more than $39 million on government credit cards for disaster relief items, and Congressional investigators want to make sure the taxpayers got a good deal. One senator, citing past abuse, wants to know whether anyone used the cards for holiday shopping. Many of the goods, which included $60,639 for sleeping bags and $713 for four 27-inch televisions, were bought at retail rather than cheaper volume prices following the August 29 storm, according to federal records. <more> Dec. 26, 2005 AP
New Orleans to begin razing storm-wrecked homes. Lawsuit to stop demolitions is being prepared -- The city is ready to demolish some 2,500 houses deemed threats to public safety because of damage from Hurricane Katrina, but opponents said Saturday they will sue to stop the work to make sure homeowners' rights are respected. City officials said inspectors had examined roughly 128,000 homes on New Orleans' east bank of the Mississippi River. About 4 percent, or 5,534 homes, were marked with red stickers as being unsafe to enter and must be razed, said Greg Meffert, the city's chief technology officer, who also oversees the department of safety and permits. <more> Dec. 26, 2005 AP
Displaced, but Not Disheartened. A church puts up a woman and three children uprooted by Katrina. They are optimistic about their new life in L.A. - - As she walks through the bungalow she now calls home, Dawn Evans casts grateful eyes over the polished dining room table and the simple but stylish drapes hanging at the windows. Her eldest son, Sean, 10, barrels through, bike helmet still strapped to his head. In the backyard, 7-year-old daughter Ashlyn's pink-and-white two-wheeler sits upside down, one training wheel on, one off. Her youngest, 4-year-old Kannin, wanders by wide-eyed, offering up his juice box so his mother can insert the straw. When Father Robert Kearns of St. Brigid Catholic Church in South Los Angeles walked her through the house two months ago, he warned her she might not want it. The house needed everything — paint, carpeting, windows, blinds for the windows. But Evans, 31, needed everything too — a place a single mother and three children could call theirs, a place where they could pause an odyssey that began after midnight the day before Hurricane Katrina tore up the Gulf Coast. <more> Dec. 26, 2005 LA Times
Levees Weakened as New Orleans Board, Federal Engineers Feuded - - When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and New Orleans levee officials joined forces in July 1985 to protect the city from a long-feared hurricane, the two agencies could not agree on how to proceed. It was the beginning of a dysfunctional partnership that ushered in two decades of chronic government mismanagement. Corps engineers wanted to install gates in front of the city's three main internal canals to protect against violent storm surges from Lake Pontchartrain. The Orleans Levee District, the city's flood protection agency, preferred to build higher flood walls for miles along the canals. For five years, neither side yielded. <more> Dec. 26, 2005 LA Times

Saturday, Dec. 24, 2005

California dairy group gives close to $10,000 for hurricane victims - - Members of Western United Dairymen, based in Modesto, donated close to $10,000 for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Gloria Klink, executive director of the Stanislaus County chapter of the American Red Cross, said the money put the chapter's Katrina donations over $700,000, a local record for a natural disaster. Hurricane volunteers from the county included Mark Looker, communications manager for the dairy group, who spent two weeks with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco's communications team shortly after Katrina struck. Dec. 24, 2005 Modesto Bee
Katrina is most talked-about story. LexisNexis ranks news of 2005 -- Hurricane Katrina and the spike in gas and oil prices were the most talked-about news stories in the United States in 2005, edging out the war in Iraq and the Asian tsunami, a survey showed on Monday. According to the poll of 1,500 people commissioned by data and information company LexisNexis, 97 percent of Americans considered the August hurricane that devastated New Orleans the most talked about event at their home or office during 2005, followed by the gas hikes, the Iraqi war and the tsunami. <more> Dec. 24, 2005 Reuters

Monday, Dec. 19, 2005

A Down Payment on New Orleans - - It is cheering to see that New Orleans has not been completely forgotten. The White House's request for an additional $1.5 billion for hurricane protection demonstrates that the city's fate has not slipped entirely off the agenda in Washington. As a result, residents hoping to return to their homes in time for Christmas can think about rebuilding with a little more confidence than before. Most important of all, it ought to remove from the table for good the question of whether we should or would rebuild the city. We must rebuild it - or to be more precise, give New Orleans the ability to rebuild itself. The administration has indicated it will stand by President Bush's pledge to do so. The issue now is not whether to do it, but how to do it right. <more> Dec. 19, 2005 NY Times Editorial

Sunday, Dec. 18, 2005

Katrina Killed Across Class Lines. The well-to-do died along with the poor, an analysis of data shows. The findings counter common beliefs that disadvantaged blacks bore the brunt. - - The bodies of New Orleans residents killed by Hurricane Katrina were almost as likely to be recovered from middle-class neighborhoods as from the city's poorer districts, such as the Lower 9th Ward, according to a Times analysis of data released by the state of Louisiana. The analysis contradicts what swiftly became conventional wisdom in the days after the storm hit — that it was the city's poorest African American residents who bore the brunt of the hurricane. Slightly more than half of the bodies were found in the city's poorer neighborhoods, with the remainder scattered throughout middle-class and even some richer districts. "The fascinating thing is that it's so spread out," said Joachim Singelmann, director of the Louisiana Population Data Center at Louisiana State University. "It's not just the Lower 9th Ward or New Orleans East, which everybody has heard about. It's across the board, including some well-to-do neighborhoods." <more> Dec. 18, 2005 LA Times
Louisiana's Deadly Storm Took Strong as Well as the Helpless - - More than 100 of them drowned. Sixteen died trapped in attics. More than 40 died of heart failure or respiratory problems, including running out of oxygen. At least 65 died because help - shelter, water or a simple dose of insulin - came too late. A study by The New York Times of more than 260 Louisianans who died during Hurricane Katrina or its aftermath found that almost all survived the height of the storm but died in the chaos and flooding that followed. Of those who failed to heed evacuation orders, many were offered a ride or could have driven themselves out of danger - a finding that contrasts with earlier reports that victims were trapped by a lack of transportation. Most victims were 65 or older, but of those below that age, more than a quarter were ill or disabled. The results are not necessarily representative of the 1,100 people who died in the storm-ravaged part of the state. The 268 deaths examined by The Times were not chosen through a scientific or random sample, but rather were selected on the basis of which family members could be reached, and which names had been released by state officials. <more> Dec. 18, 2005 NY Times
Bush Seeks $1.5 Billion More to Bolster Levees. Some in New Orleans see it as a hopeful sign. Others say it amounts to a drop in the bucket. - - President Bush, under increasing pressure to demonstrate his determination to rebuild New Orleans, asked Congress on Thursday for an additional $1.5 billion to make the city's protective levees stronger than they were before they burst during Hurricane Katrina. Donald E. Powell, the White House's coordinator for Gulf Coast rebuilding, said the money would pay to line the levees with concrete and stone and close off three canals that were the source of about half of the flooding. "The levee system will be better and stronger than it ever has been in the history of New Orleans," Powell said. "If a hurricane such as Katrina ever visited New Orleans again … there will be some flooding, but no catastrophic flooding." Yet officials at the Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the levees, said that even with the improvements described by the White House to strengthen the system, it could not withstand hurricanes as powerful as Katrina. <more> Dec. 16, 2005 LA Times
White House to Double Spending on New Orleans Flood Protection - - The Bush administration agreed on Thursday to double what it would spend on flood protection for New Orleans, promising a system that it said would make the city safe from catastrophic flooding from a storm as powerful as Hurricane Katrina. At a briefing at the White House, the coordinator of the federal response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Donald E. Powell, said the government would add $1.5 billion to the $1.6 billion already promised for the levees. The protection, Mr. Powell said, will "be better and stronger" than ever and encourage homeowners and businesses to return. "I'm convinced that what we're doing here today, if there is another Katrina that hits New Orleans, that we would not see the catastrophic results that we saw during Katrina," he said. <more> Dec. 16, 2005 NY Times

Thursday, Dec., 15, 2005

Blanco Criticizes Levees, Hails Evacuation Efforts - - Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) yesterday declared efforts to evacuate state and New Orleans residents before Hurricane Katrina "an outstanding success" and told members of Congress they would not be investigating the government's flawed response into the Aug. 29 storm if levees protecting the city had not failed. Over three hours of measured, at times defiant testimony to a House investigative panel, the first-term governor rebutted Republican charges that overwhelmed state and city leaders did not order the evacuation of New Orleans soon enough or provide transportation or relief to poor, sick and elderly residents who did not get out before floodwaters rose. <more> Dec. 15, 2005 Washington Post

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) and New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, at the House panel to testify about Hurricane Katrina. (By Dennis Cook -- Associated Press)
Hurricane Response Is Defended. Louisiana's governor answers her critics in Capitol Hill testimony. She worries Congress is looking for reasons to deny more aid. - - Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco gave no ground to Capitol Hill critics Wednesday, saying she and other state officials did all they could to save lives after Hurricane Katrina and that she feared Congress' focus on missteps was an excuse to deny more money for reconstruction. Blanco offered her first public accounting to Congress on her handling of the crisis as House and Senate negotiators wrangled over a new aid package for the states hit by the massive storm. "Looking back is a necessary exercise, and we will improve our response," Blanco told a House committee. "But none of this negates the obligation of this Congress to help American citizens from the Gulf Coast who literally and figuratively are feeling they have been left out in the cold." <more> Dec. 15, 2005 LA Times
Bush Requests Additional $1.5 Billion for New Orleans - - President Bush asked Congress today for an additional $1.5 billion to fortify New Orleans against future hurricanes and floods like the disaster that ravaged the Mississippi Delta city a few months ago. "The president believes deeply in New Orleans and is deeply committed to its future," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. The new money will help assure "the rebirth of this great American city," he added. The $1.5 billion will be devoted to improving the city's much-criticized levees, which were breached in the floods accompanying Hurricane Katrina, allowing water from nearby Lake Pontchartrain to inundate vast sections of low-lying territory, killing hundreds of people and triggering an exodus of hundreds of thousands. <more> Dec. 15, 2005 NY Times
Loans to Homeowners Along Gulf Coast Lag - - Hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast families, hoping to rebuild their homes after the hurricanes using low-interest government loans, are facing high rejection rates and widespread delays at the federal agency that administers the disaster loan program. The Small Business Administration, which runs the federal government's main disaster recovery program for both businesses and homeowners, has processed only a third of the 276,000 home loan applications it has received. And it has rejected 82 percent of those it has reviewed, a higher percentage than in most previous disasters, saying that many would-be borrowers did not have incomes high enough, or credit ratings good enough, to qualify. The rejections came even though the Federal Emergency Management Agency has referred more than two million people, many of them with low incomes, to the S.B.A. to get the loans. <more> Dec. 15, 2005 NY Times
New Orleans Soil Poses Hazard. Study Finds Elevated Lead Levels in Neighborhoods - - Some New Orleans neighborhoods are covered in a layer of sediment containing lead above the concentration the federal government considers hazardous to human health, a new study has found. The dirt poses the greatest hazard to small children who might play in it, said Steven M. Presley, a toxicologist at Texas Tech University, who led the soil survey team. The hazard could be reduced by keeping the dirt from becoming dry and airborne, by covering it with uncontaminated soil or, if necessary, by hauling it away. <more> Dec. 15, 2005 Washington Post

Monday, Dec. 12, 2005

Evacuees of Hurricane Katrina Resettle Along a Racial Divide - - Hurricane Katrina may have emptied whole sections of New Orleans, but it hasn't set in motion the great national diaspora that was widely foreseen. Instead, the vast majority of displaced households are staying close to their former homes, postal records show. A Times analysis of address changes after the hurricane also highlights the metropolitan area's sharp distinctions of class and race. Poor blacks from the city were more likely to land farther away in places much different from home. In many cases, those evacuees stayed wherever government-chartered buses or planes stopped. Evacuees from the suburbs, mostly middle-class whites, tended to find housing closer by in areas similar to their neighborhoods, which minimized the disruption to their lives and left them in a better position to return as soon as circumstances allow. <more> Dec. 12, 2005 LA Times
Blanco postpones New Orleans vote - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco has postponed the New Orleans mayoral election indefinitely, setting up a legal battle with voters who filed a lawsuit seeking to ensure the election is held as scheduled. Blanco's executive order cites the recommendation of Secretary of State Al Ater, the state's top elections official. Ater has said the city is incapable of holding elections in February because Hurricane Katrina caused so much damage to polling sites and voting machines. The order was released Monday but Blanco signed it Friday. It did not set a new date for the elections, saying only that they should be held "as soon as practicable." <more> Dec. 12, 2005 AP
Judge orders extension of Katrina hotel program. FEMA pays for 41,000 rooms in 47 states and D.C. -- A program that put Hurricane Katrina evacuees in hotels must be extended until February 7, a month beyond the deadline set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a judge ruled Monday. U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval's temporary restraining order is part of a class-action lawsuit filed in November by advocates for hurricane victims. <more> Dec. 12, 2005 AP
Katrina victims: 'Living in barns'. Parish president blasts FEMA over temporary homes -- More than three months after thousands of people lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina, local and federal officials are trading blame over the slow delivery of trailer housing. "We got a serious situation in St. Bernard Parish," its president, Henry "Junior" Rodriguez, told CNN on Tuesday. "We got people living in tents and automobiles. We got people living in barns. We got people living in their houses -- in tents," he said on "American Morning." "This is the beginning of winter. This is unacceptable." <more> Dec. 13, 2005 CNN
Official who criticized pump decision ousted - - A member of the East Jefferson Levee District who criticized the Jefferson Parish president for evacuating flood pump operators during Hurricane Katrina has been ousted by Gov. Kathleen Blanco. Kenner businessman Patrick Bossetta, who has served as president of the levee district for the past 18 months, said he was removed Sunday after refusing a request by a Blanco aide to resign. <more> Dec. 13, 2005 AP

Sunday, Dec. 11, 2005

Death of an American City - - We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a conscious plan to let the city rot until no one is willing to move back or honest paralysis over difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a major American city will die, leaving nothing but a few shells for tourists to visit like a museum. We said this wouldn't happen. President Bush said it wouldn't happen. He stood in Jackson Square and said, "There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans." But it has been over three months since Hurricane Katrina struck and the city is in complete shambles. <more> Dec. 11, 2005 NY Times Editorial
Anxiety Is the Cornerstone. Set aside the French Quarter and the trucks hauling away debris. New Orleans is not bouncing back. 'We are not OK. We are desperate.' - - More than half the city may remain in moldering ruins, its residents scattered, confused, anxious, its commercial activity moribund, its political leadership adrift, and yet the people of greater New Orleans at least have managed to come together and save Katrina Ridge. Katrina Ridge is not an actual neighborhood. It is a miniature village laid out for the holidays in the middle of a suburban mall near the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, at a place where children line up to sit on Santa's lap and ride a tiny train around and around in circles. Nestled in fake snow, its houses decorated with twinkling lights, the village seems pretty much standard issue for American malls in this season — except for a few special touches. In Katrina Ridge, blue tarps cover the rooftops of the tiny houses. A plastic helicopter airlifts a figurine in a basket. Little toy men and women balance on chimney tops. Downed trees rest against buildings. And finger-sized refrigerators set at curbside carry such warnings as "You Loot. We Shoot." Ho. Ho. Ho. <more> Dec. 10, 2005 LA Times
Crisis Communications Remain Flawed. Despite Promises to Fix Systems, First Responders Were Still Isolated After Katrina - - Emergency workers isolated and unable to call for help for themselves or others; radios and cell phones inoperable; and government unable to respond to a catastrophic event. The chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina, vividly recounted in thousands of pages of documents recently released by Louisiana officials, had an eerie familiarity to members of the Sept. 11 commission, who delivered their final report this week. "On September 11, people died because police officers couldn't talk to firemen. And Katrina was a reenactment of the same problem," Thomas H. Kean, the commission co-chairman and former New Jersey governor, said in an interview. "It is really hard to believe this has not been fixed. "But four years after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Kean and the commission concluded, emergency communications networks in most U.S. cities still cannot sustain a major natural disaster or terrorist strike, despite pledges from Congress and the Bush administration to rapidly upgrade the networks and implement national standards to make it easier for emergency workers to talk with one another during crises. <more> Dec. 11, 2005 Washington Post
Feds, state agencies seek to stamp out fears of toxic New Orleans - - Federal and state agencies on Friday sought to quell fears that New Orleans was turned into a contamination zone by Hurricane Katrina by emphasizing few risks were found in the soil, air or water. "We're pleased to be able to say that residents can return to the affected areas, that tourists can return to the affected areas," said Andy Kopplin, the executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. Friday's announcement that New Orleans and the rest of southern Louisiana are safe to return to was the latest round in an ongoing disagreement between environmental groups and government agencies over the effects of the hurricanes on the environment. <more> Dec. 9, 2005 AP
Government says New Orleans environmentally safe - - Most of the air, water and soil around New Orleans is as clean -- and in some cases cleaner -- than it was before Hurricane Katrina devastated the region, government officials said on Friday. State and federal officials gave the "all-clear" to residents and tourists, saying recent alarming reports by environmentalists about toxic sediment are unfounded. In fact, the state's chief environmental officer said the deluge that covered 80 percent of the city was no more polluted than typical floodwater. <more> Dec. 9, 12005 Reuters
Tulane announces cutbacks, faculty layoffs - - Students at Tulane University will return to a school with a gutted engineering department, eight fewer sports programs and student housing replaced by cruise ships. The school is also laying off nearly 10 percent of its faculty -- 230 positions -- before students return January 19 for the first classes since the school was swamped by Hurricane Katrina. <more> Dec. 9, 2005 AP
Senator questions some New Orleans Katrina aid requests. City asked for computers, police cruisers -- A senator leading an investigation into the government's response to Hurricane Katrina questioned whether post-storm requests by New Orleans city officials for golf carts, air conditioners and travel assistance were necessary. Documents released Thursday by Republican aides to a Senate committee show that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's administration also asked for hundreds of laptop computers, patrol cars, handcuffs and guns for police. The flooded city was ransacked by some looting after the August 29 storm, and many of its police cars and other vehicles and equipment were destroyed. "They struck me as not the typical request," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairing a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing that examined Federal Emergency Management Agency's response operations. <more> Dec. 9, 2005 AP
Panel seeks Blanco e-mail. Staff e-mails given to Congress don't include all records - - A congressional committee wants to know why Gov. Kathleen Blanco's cyberspace communications weren't included in the reams of records submitted by her administration last week. "We have not received her e-mails and we will be making that request again," Jen Burita, a spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Susan M. Collins, R-Maine, said Friday. Collins is the chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, one of two congressional committees investigating the slow governmental response to Hurricane Katrina. <more>Dec. 11, 2005 The Advocate
Group files suit against Blanco. Residents say governor wrong to halt elections - - A group of New Orleans residents has filed suit in an attempt to stop Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Secretary of State Al Ater from halting the Feb. 4 elections in New Orleans. The residents of the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina claim that the elections should be held as scheduled or at least by April 29, because the city's charter says the newly elected officials are supposed to take office on the first Monday in May. Delaying the election would extend the terms of the elected officials without a vote of the people. The New Orleans charter also limits at two the number of terms a mayor or council member can serve. <more> Dec. 11, 2005 The Advocate

Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2005

FEMA chief was given dire warning in 2004. Brown was told response teams were not prepared for 'next big one' - - FEMA’s top official was told more than a year before Hurricane Katrina that the agency’s emergency response teams were unprepared for a major disaster and were operating under outdated plans, documents show. Additionally, e-mails obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press indicate that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff tried to call Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco the afternoon before Katrina hit, but she could not be immediately reached; she may have been napping. A spokeswoman for the governor said Wednesday that Blanco was getting personal items at her residence when Chertoff called. “There was no time for napping,” Denise Bottcher said. <more> Dec. 7, 2005 AP
Katrina relief fund to distribute $90 million -- Former U.S. Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton announced Wednesday the recipients of $90 million of Hurricane Katrina relief money, unveiling the grants at the University of New Orleans. The Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, a tax-exempt charity established to assist the recovery that has raised $110 million from individual and corporate donors, will distribute the first amounts in three grants. <more> Dec. 7, 2005 CNN

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, center, speaks during a news conference at University of New Orleans, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2005 in New Orleans, to announce several major grants from the Bush Clinton Katrina Fund, as former Presidents Bill Clinton, left, and George H.W. Bush, right, look on. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki)
Holiday depression follows Katrina. Psychologist calls it a 'shotgun blast' to social stability -- For three months after Hurricane Katrina's waters consumed her home, Michelle Thomas locked her stress deep inside and put on a brave face for her husband and two daughters. She focused on the positive: Her Ninth Ward home was destroyed and her hospital job was gone, but her husband and children, ages 7 and 16, were alive and the family was together. Then came Thanksgiving, celebrated in her mother's cramped home in a small Louisiana town. Since then, the family has moved into a modest rental house they owned in a community an hour from New Orleans. As Christmas approaches, the 36-year-old woman is feeling anything but joyful. Like many survivors, Thomas has the blues. <more> Dec. 7, 2005 AP
Victims: Racism was factor in slow Katrina response. Angry Katrina residents confront Congress -- Black survivors of Hurricane Katrina said Tuesday that racism contributed to the slow disaster response, at times likening themselves in emotional congressional testimony to victims of genocide and the Holocaust. The comparison is inappropriate, according to Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Florida. "Not a single person was marched into a gas chamber and killed," Miller told the survivors. "They died from abject neglect," retorted community activist Leah Hodges. "We left body bags behind." <more> Dec. 7, 2005 AP
Refrain Rises to Call Off Next Mardi Gras. It's time to rebuild, not celebrate, say leaders of poor, black areas wiped out by Katrina. - - A growing chorus of critics, concerned that throwing a massive party would be unseemly and impractical when much of New Orleans remains in ruins, are pressuring authorities to do the unthinkable: call off Mardi Gras. City officials and tourism leaders have pledged to use an abbreviated carnival this winter as a springboard, a way to reintroduce New Orleans as a viable city. Their October announcement that Mardi Gras would go on despite Hurricane Katrina met with an enormous cheer. But many community activists — particularly leaders of poor, black neighborhoods that were destroyed by the floodwaters and have sat virtually untouched since — have turned against the idea. "We're not against Mardi Gras. We're against their priorities," ChiQuita Simms, a displaced New Orleans resident who is organizing a protest, said of city leaders. "It is not a time … to conduct party planning." <more> Dec. 7, 2005 LA Times
The State of New Orleans - - HOW will we know when New Orleans is rebuilt? Will it be when all the jobs and public services are back in place? Will it have to do with the amount of money spent? Or will it be when the number of displaced families receiving federal housing aid dwindles from 600,000 to just a few? In truth, no consensus exists. But that has not stopped rebuilding from going forward, as government agencies, businesses and New Orleanians all struggle to start over. Now, 100 days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, it is worth asking: Just who is benefiting from this rebuilding? And how much has actually been accomplished? <more> Dec. 7, 2005 NY Times

Monday, Dec. 5, 2005

Documents Highlight Bush-Blanco Standoff - - Shortly after noon on Aug. 31, Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R) delivered a message that stunned aides to Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D), who were frantically managing the catastrophe that began two days earlier when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. White House senior adviser Karl Rove wanted it conveyed that he understood that Blanco was requesting that President Bush federalize the evacuation of New Orleans. The governor should explore legal options to impose martial law "or as close as we can get," Vitter quoted Rove as saying, according to handwritten notes by Terry Ryder, Blanco's executive counsel. <more> Dec. 5, 2005 Washington Post
Blanco papers recount Katrina response. Documents sent to Congress show state-federal disconnect -- Thousands of pages of documents released by Louisiana's governor illustrate the disconnect between state and federal officials when Hurricane Katrina hit, with one aide warning that the Bush administration was "working to make us the scapegoats." The documents include notes of conference calls, e-mails among members of Gov. Kathleen Blanco's administration and state police reports on the deteriorating situation in New Orleans and its surrounding parishes. Blanco sent them to congressional committees investigating the response to the hurricane, which killed more than 1,300 people in Louisiana and Mississippi when it struck land August 29. <more> Dec. 5, 2005 CNN
Excerpts From Blanco's Katrina E-Mail - - Following are selections from the thousands of pages of e-mail messages to and from Gov. Kathleen Blanco staffers in the days before and after Hurricane Katrina. Blanco aides refer to the governor as "KBB." "Good grief. I'm assuming he's never seen an ocean." — Sept. 2, from Blanco chief of staff Andy Kopplin, responding to a California man's suggestion that future disasters could be weakened by dumping blocks of ice into the Gulf of Mexico, to lower water temperature and weaken storms. <more> Dec. 5, 2005 AP
Staff tried to burnish Blanco burnished image. Documents show aides worked on image after La. hurricanes disaster - - As thousands waited to be rescued after Hurricane Katrina, the governor's top aides brainstormed on ways to make an embattled Gov. Kathleen Blanco look more "John Wayne" than "first lady." Thrust into the national limelight by the storm, Blanco was the target of much criticism for the breakdowns in getting flood victims to safe ground. E-mails, memos and other records released Friday show how Blanco and her staff juggled thousands of inquiries and emergencies. But as the historic natural catastrophe spiraled into a public-relations nightmare, her aides spent more and more time polishing her image. <more> Dec. 5, 2005 The Advocate
Letters Show FEMA Knew Response 'Broken' - - FEMA realized its response to Hurricane Katrina was "broken" and braced for rioting over woefully low supplies in Mississippi in the days just after the storm, according to new documents released Monday. The correspondence among Federal Emergency Management Agency officials, provided by a special House committee investigating the government response to the storm, follows the release last week of more than 100,000 documents by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. Taken together, the details from both states provide evidence that FEMA was unable to provide fast help at disaster sites — even when the needs were obvious. "This is unlike what we have seen before," William Carwile, FEMA's former top responder in Mississippi, said in a Sept. 1 e-mail to officials at the agency's headquarters. He was describing difficulties in getting body bags and refrigerated trucks to Hancock County, Miss., which was badly damaged by the Aug. 29 storm. <more> Dec. 5, 2005 AP

Sunday, Dec. 4, 2006

In Newly Released Documents, a View of the Storm After Katrina - - It was Thursday, Sept. 1, three days after Hurricane Katrina had ripped across the Gulf Coast. As New Orleans descended into horror, the top aides to Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana were certain the White House was trying to blame their boss, and they were becoming increasingly furious. "Bush's numbers are low, and they are getting pummeled by the media for their inept response to Katrina and are actively working to make us the scapegoats," Bob Mann, Ms. Blanco's communications director, wrote in an e-mail message that afternoon, outlining plans by Washington Democrats to help turn the blame back onto President Bush. With so much criticism being directed toward the governor, the time had come, her aides told her, to rework her performance. She had to figure out a way not only to lead the state through the most costly natural disaster in United States history, but also to emerge on top somehow in the nasty public relations war. <more> Dec. 4, 2005 NY Times
Blanco Releases Katrina Records. La. Governor Seeks to 'Set the Record Straight' - - Thousands of documents released by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Friday night shed new light on clashes between state officials, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin and the Bush administration as they struggled to respond to Hurricane Katrina. Among the more than 100,000 pages of newly released records, which ranged from after-action reports to hand-scrawled notes written at the height of the storm, are memos showing Blanco frustrated and angered over delays in evacuations and the slow delivery of promised federal aid. "We need everything you've got," Blanco is quoted in a memo as telling President Bush on Aug. 29, the day Katrina made landfall. But despite assurances from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that 500 buses were "standing by," Blanco's aides were compelled to take action when the FEMA buses failed to materialize, documents show. "We need buses," Andy Kopplin, chief of staff to Blanco, said in an e-mail late on Aug. 30, the day after the storm hit. "Find buses that can go to NO [New Orleans] ASAP." <more> Dec. 4, 2005 Washington Post
Documents Show Katrina's Political Storm - - As Hurricane Katrina roared ashore and thousands of people waited days amid the floodwater for rescue, a series of letters passed between the governor and the White House that reveal delays, claims that requests for federal help weren't received, and concerns on both sides about public relations. Gov. Kathleen Blanco late Friday released 100,000 pages of memos, handwritten notes, e-mails, phone logs and other documents requested by congressional committees that are now investigating what happened behind the scenes in the frantic days surrounding the deadly Aug. 29 storm. <more> Dec. 4, 2005 AP
Blanco's office scrambled to spin Katrina. E-mails detail effort to ensure feds took blame for slow response -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco and the Bush administration were locked in a pitched political battle to shape public opinion about the response to Hurricane Katrina at the same time they were trying to manage the rescue operation, documents released late Friday by the governor's office show. E-mails turned over by the state to the congressional committees investigating the hurricane response show that the governor's senior staff was deeply involved in trying to preserve the governor's political standing and make sure that the White House was blamed for the slow pace of the initial response. <more> Dec. 4, 2005 Times Picayune
Blanco, Bush bickered over Guard, state says. Disagreement delayed help during Katrina -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco and President Bush could not agree on key aspects of who would be in charge of military forces in the response to Hurricane Katrina, a crippling breakdown in relations with the White House that affected the rescue, peacekeeping and support effort during the week after the storm, according to information released by the state Friday. The two sides still can't agree on what was said during that time as the dialog over military deployments unfolded. <more> Dec. 4, 2005 Times Picayune
Governor's response to Congress - - This is the text of Governor Blanco's response to the U.S. House and Senate committee that are investigating the state's response to Katrina. It's the most expansive official account of what the state of Louisiana did in response to the storm. Click here to read the full text. Dec 4, 2005
On Their Own in New Orleans. Residents are left to fend for themselves in making the decision on whether to rebuild. A slowdown in government aid and planning leaves individuals facing huge risks. - - Laurie Vignaud faces a double dilemma: If she rebuilds her wrecked ranch house at 1249 Granada Drive in the great suburban expanse south of Lake Pontchartrain, will her neighbors do the same? And even if they do, will that guarantee their Gentilly neighborhood does not end up an isolated pocket in a diminished, post-Katrina New Orleans? Nothing in Vignaud's 46 years, not even her job as affordable housing vice president with Hibernia Bank, the region's biggest financial institution, prepared her for this problem. From her relocated offices in Houston, she recently confessed, "It's scary." "I don't know when I'll ever go home." Double dilemmas abound in this deeply damaged city, and represent considerably more than the start of the slog back from disaster. <more> Dec. 4, 2005 LA Times

Saturday, Dec. 3, 2005

Image Problem Is Costing Louisiana. Whatever the reason -- its corrupt history, its demands, its Democrats -- sympathy on Capitol Hill is ebbing, and with it, maybe federal funds. - - After battling in Congress for months to get more federal money for their hurricane-ravaged state, some Louisiana officials have come to believe they are up against something more than concerns about the budget deficit or conflicting visions of reconstruction. Maybe, they speculate, their colleagues just don't trust them. Maybe they are right. What is clear is that the initial outpouring of sympathy for victims in the state hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina has been replaced on Capitol Hill by a climate of suspicion — even resentment — toward what is seen as an increasingly demanding supplicant. <more> Dec. 3, 2005 LA Times
Wearying Wait for Federal Aid in New Orleans - - They are the faces and voices of a city's desperation. Stepping wearily up to a Federal Emergency Management Agency help center here, all have a similar story of ruin in the past, anxiety over the future and frustration in the present, suffered differently each time. Young, middle-aged and old, these citizens of New Orleans, wiped out by Hurricane Katrina and now urgently seeking government assistance, spoke Friday of sleeping in a truck and on a floor, living out of a car and waiting for the help that never seems to come. Trickling into the crowded center in the Uptown neighborhood here - hoping for a trailer, a loan, cash, anything - they were grimly resigned to waiting, and waiting some more. "You come to these FEMA centers, you sit all day," said Myrna Guity, 43, whose import business was wiped out by the storm, along with her home in New Orleans East. "You get no answers to your questions. They're evasive. You're constantly 'pending.' What are you going to be doing, 'pending' for the rest of your life? I've lost everything." <more> Dec. 3, 2005 NY Times
Blanco staff records sent. Papers sent to Congress show governor's outburst questioned - - Just days after Hurricane Katrina pummeled Louisiana, there was concern within Gov. Kathleen Blanco's administration that she was succumbing to fits of anger instead of looking like a leader. "She must temper her anger and frustration," the governor's assistant chief of staff, Johnny Anderson, lamented in an e-mail to other administration officials on Sept. 2 after Blanco stormed out of a news conference. "Ten four. Right on," responded Andy Kopplin, who was the governor's chief of staff at the time. <more> Dec. 3, 2005 The Advocate

Friday, Dec. 2, 2005

Statement of Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco regarding release of Katrina documents to Congress - - "Today, I have made available tens of thousands of documents to Washington in an effort to fully and voluntarily comply with requests for information related to the State's preparedness for and response to Hurricane Katrina. These documents are en route to the House Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. I have instructed my staff to make these documents available to the media. "As we move forward, I believe the public deserves a full accounting of the response at all levels of government to the largest natural disaster in U.S. history. I would have preferred for Congress to appoint an independent commission charged with conducting this investigation, as it did after 9-11; however, I will do everything I can to work with the committees and encourage an honest accounting of Louisiana's actions. <more> Dec. 2, 2005 Gov. Blanco Press Release
La. Gov Sends Hurricane Docs to Congress - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Friday sent thousands of Hurricane Katrina-related documents to congressional committees investigating government failures following the storm that killed over 1,000 people in Louisiana. The documents include Blanco aides' notes as the disaster progressed, emergency logs, state police crime and traffic reports and logs of calls from people who were stranded by floodwater and pleading to be rescued. <more> Dec. 2, 2005 AP
Feb. 4 Elections In New Orleans Are Postponed -- Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) agreed Friday to postpone New Orleans's Feb. 4 elections for mayor and City Council for up to eight months because of the damage from Hurricane Katrina. Blanco's decision came hours after Louisiana's top elections official recommended the delay, saying polling places have not been rebuilt and thousands of voters remain scattered across the country. <more> Dec. 2, 2005 AP
Blanco recovery commission backs federal home buyout proposal - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco's hurricane recovery commission backed an idea floated by U.S. Rep. Richard Baker to create a public corporation that would buy hurricane-damaged homes, restore the properties and then sell them to developers or individuals. Support from the Louisiana Recovery Authority came without objection Thursday, though some authority members said they were unclear how the proposal would work and had problems with details of Baker's bill setting up the federal entity, the Louisiana Recovery Corp. <more> Dec. 2, 2005 AP
Environmentalists: New Orleans soil contaminated -- The city's parks and yards will be contaminated with dangerous chemicals and heavy metals for years unless the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency orders a widespread cleanup of areas flooded by Hurricane Katrina, environmentalists said Thursday. The assessment, presented by the Natural Resources Defense Council and several Louisiana groups, was a stark contrast to statements by state and federal agencies that contamination does not appear to be widespread. <more> Dec. 2, 2005 AP
Little to Reclaim in the Lower 9^th. Many residents come up with next to nothing as they pick through their former neighborhood. - - The Lower 9th had been closed since the flooding, and residents had grown agitated over not being able to get to their property. Nagin relented, cautioning that the neighborhood — probably the pocket of the city hit the hardest — was not stable enough for people to move back. But, he said: "Everybody can get their stuff." So for two hours, Meyers and his family rumbled through the Lower 9th in a small convoy, stopping at four family homes that dated back five generations. They all had their wish lists: the lovely picture of Meyers and his wife enjoying a picnic, taken in the '40s. The family Bible. Birth certificates. They came away with nothing. Like hundreds of other families, they did not — could not — salvage a single item. <more> Dec. 2, 2005 LA Times
Feeding the Beast for Light in New Orleans - - The generator people are internal colonists, staking out islands of light in the sea of dark still covering much of the city. In lives where the monstrous, belching backyard power generator is king - where a streetlight flickers tantalizingly, say, in the near distance, but their own block is black - the machine's subjects must follow its rules. Every night at 1 a.m. it calls Willie Solomon, 62, or her husband, Raymond, 68, into the cold and dark, out of the warm bed. Armed with a flashlight, they feed it: two five-gallon cans of gasoline a day, and sometimes more depending on what is plugged in. But they do not plug in too much. The fuel bill already runs $135 a week. It naps at noon and is ready for ear-splitting action again at 5:30 p.m. Barely more than a quarter of this city's prestorm households are illuminated by the power company. Some neighborhoods have limped on since Hurricane Katrina; others have barely budged. When night comes, these electricityless pioneers - nobody knows how many there are - live in a shrunken world, reduced to a few lighted rooms, inside their house, on a darkened block. Scavengers roam, they say, and it is best not to be out. <more> Nov. 30, 2005 NY Times
Engineers confirm LSU levee study -- Government engineers performing sonar tests at the site of a major levee failure confirmed that steel reinforcements barely went more than half as deep as they were supposed to, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official said Wednesday. "We've come up with similar results" to those from earlier tests performed by Louisiana State University engineers, said Walter Baumy, the Corps' chief engineer for the New Orleans District. <more> Dec. 1, 2005 AP
Last section of New Orleans reopens -- A husband and wife who waited three months to see what Hurricane Katrina did to their neighborhood finally returned Thursday to find their blue, wood-frame house sitting in the front yard, three feet off its foundation. Louis Phillips and Donna Williams were among those allowed access to the Lower Ninth Ward for the first time since Katrina struck August. 29. It was the last section the city to reopen, because of the maze of destruction wrought by the storm and floods after the London Avenue Canal levee breach. Residents were allowed in for the day to collect what belongings they could before leaving. Until now, people had been able to view the destruction only on bus tours. <more> Dec. 1, 2005 AP

Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2005

Blanco meets with federal liaison - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco met Tuesday with the man in charge of rebuilding the Gulf Coast. Donald Powell will be the federal liaison between Louisiana, the president and Congress. Powell and Blanco said their main focus will be on rebuilding the levee system in the New Orleans area. The Army Corps of Engineers has already said it will, at the least, rebuild the levees back to pre-Katrina levels by next hurricane season. Blanco said she is still pushing for stronger category 5 protection. Powell agrees. <more> Nov. 29, 2005 The Advocate
Adviser: No federal promise on La. Levees - - The White House's top hurricane-relief adviser said Tuesday he has not decided whether the federal government should pay to make New Orleans' levees stronger than they were before Katrina. Donald Powell declined to say how long it would take before a decision is made. <more> Nov. 29, 2005 AP
La. recovery panel official lashes SBA. Isaacson says agency drags heels in crisis -- The vice chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority on Tuesday lambasted the U.S. Small Business Administration for what he called its sluggish response to hurricane victims. Speaking at a forum hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Walter Isaacson told a group of about 150 business leaders that access to capital is the lifeblood to small businesses. <more> Nov. 30, 2005 The Advocate
Blanco signs oversight panel bill - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed a bill into law Monday that creates an oversight panel for hurricane protection, coastal restoration and flood protection. The new law, however, gained notoriety during the recently completed special session for granting the state partial control over South Louisiana’s levee boards. Senate Bill 71 by Sen. Reggie Dupre, D-Bourg, creates the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, which Blanco said will serve as the state’s guiding light in coming years on a variety of coastal issues. <more> Nov. 30, 2005 Daily Comet
Full Flood Safety in New Orleans Could Take Billions and Decades - - Amid all the arguments over how to rebuild this pummeled city, there is one universally held article of faith here: New Orleans must have a flood protection system strong enough to withstand Category 5 storms, the worst that nature can spawn. It is a rallying cry heard on radio broadcasts and in a front-page editorial in The Times-Picayune, in ruined neighborhoods and in corporate boardrooms. Building Category 5 protection, however, is proving to be an astronomically expensive and technically complex proposition. It would involve far more than just higher levees: there would have to be extensive changes to the city's system of drainage canals and pumps, environmental restoration on a vast scale to replenish buffering wetlands and barrier islands, and even sea gates far out of town near the Gulf of Mexico. The cost estimates are still fuzzy, but the work would easily cost more than $32 billion, state officials say, and could take decades to complete. <more> Nov. 29, 2005 NY Times
New Orleans launches free wireless Internet -- Hurricane-ravaged New Orleans is starting the nation's first free wireless Internet network owned and run by a major city, a move aimed at boosting the city's stalled economy. Mayor Ray Nagin made the announcement at a late morning news conference. Similar projects elsewhere have been stalled by stiff opposition from telephone and cable television companies aimed at discouraging competition from public agencies. <more> Nov. 29, 2005 AP
Katrina victims yet to be identified. Three months after storm, DNA testing hasn't begun -- Up to 200 bodies of people killed by Hurricane Katrina remain unidentified because DNA testing has not begun, CNN has learned. New Orleans coroner Dr. Frank Minyard expressed outrage that the process was stalled because the state of Louisiana had not signed a contract with a firm that would do the testing. "It's extremely frustrating," he said, given that so many dentists' offices were wiped out in the flood along with their dental records, which are commonly used to identify bodies. "We have to rely on DNA and it should have been done, at least started, a month ago," he said. <more> Nov. 30, 2005 CNN

Monday, Nov. 28, 2005

Blanco: We must go to D.C. - - It's 4:30 p.m., and a string of bankers stroll out of Gov. Kathleen Blanco's office on the fourth floor of the state Capitol. In minutes, the House and Senate will adjourn the special session. The governor, having endured an afternoon of back-to-back interviews and meetings, turns off the monitors where she had been watching the action in the two chambers. The 17-day special session, called to deal with the aftermath of hurricane's Rita and Katrina, is her first special session. But Blanco has been under a lava hot spotlight for the previous 85 days. She's been criticized for her handling of the disaster, she's been accused of being overwhelmed, and she's been hit with the news that the Federal Emergency Management Agency expects a $3.7 billion reimbursement from a state where storms crushed a third of the economy. Clearly, for Blanco and for the state, there have been better days. But with the special session winding down - in fact, this interview delayed the House and Senate from officially notifying the governor that their work was done - the governor was in an upbeat mood. <more> Nov. 27, 2005 Louisiana Gannett News
Special session takes on more bitter tone - - As she put her wrap-up spin on the special hurricane recovery legislative session, Gov. Kathleen Blanco praised a spirit of cooperativeness and bipartisanship. That assessment begged the question: Was she at the same session everyone else attended? <more> Nov. 27, 2005 AP
Session fell short on items. Another special session looming - - Topping the list of issues that legislators didn't resolve during the recent special session is the $3.7 billion bill from the federal government for the state's share of hurricane recovery costs. Gov. Kathleen Blanco pronounced the amount "absurd" during a news conference Tuesday. <more> Nov. 27, 2005 The Advocate
Despite special session, much work remains for state - - The Legislature has taken only the first step on a long road toward recovery from the financial woes inflicted by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the state treasurer and political watchdog groups say. Over the past 17 days, the Legislature and Gov. Kathleen Blanco covered an almost $1 billion hole in the state budget with a combination of budget cuts totaling $690 million and fund juggling that made up the rest. The next steps, patching additional holes in the budget and tackling a projected $3.7 billion debt that the Federal Emergency Management Agency says is the state's 25 percent match for help dispensed to Louisiana evacuees, will be much tougher. "They made a good start," state Treasurer John Kennedy said. But slicing $1 billion in the special session doesn't come near handling the ultimate financial responsibility. <more> Nov. 27, 2005 Shreveport Times
Justice Is Another Victim of Katrina. Some suspects go free because the system lacks the means to charge them; more wait behind bars. And cases mount along with new crimes. - - It was telling, one recent morning, that despite the presence of prosecutors, defense attorneys, bailiffs and 27 shackled inmates in orange jumpsuits, New Orleans Magistrate Anthony J. Russo felt compelled to point out: "This is a court." "We are going to have the same decorum," he cautioned. Russo, a 31-year veteran of the bench, is one of a handful of judges presiding over the only form of criminal justice in New Orleans. Court is held in the basement of the local jail with a ratty, peeling ceiling and yardstick notches on the wall because the room was once used for police lineups. Every case, from traffic tickets to homicides, is argued here. The building has no heat; one prosecutor wore woolly gloves while she argued her case. A stubborn pool of water hugs the entrance, so a wooden pallet is used as a bridge, Municipal Court Judge Sean Early said. Nothing, perhaps, embodies the civic collapse of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina so much as the city's criminal justice system. <more> Nov. 27, 2005 LA Times
Mardi Gras to the Rescue? Doubts Grow. - - After Hurricane Katrina floored this city, there was widespread hope that Mardi Gras would yank New Orleans back to its feet, helping to reclaim its spirit, its tourists and its economy. The two weeks of Mardi Gras parades and parties have for decades been the city's binding cord, bringing together all segments of society and thousands of outsiders for a mix of the sacred and the profane. But with planning for the February Carnival season now under way, Mardi Gras has been plagued by harsh financial realities, indecision, lowered expectations and the possibility that this year's parade lineup could be absent some of its most popular krewes, or social clubs. <more> Nov. 27, 2005 NY Times
Doubts Now Surround Account of Snipers Amid New Orleans Chaos - - Even in the desperate days after Hurricane Katrina, the news flash seemed particularly sensational: Police had caught eight snipers on a bridge shooting at relief contractors. In the gun battle that followed, officers shot to death five or six of the marauders. Exhausted and emotionally drained police cheered the news that their comrades had stopped the snipers and suffered no losses, said an account in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. One officer said the incident showed the department's resolve to take back the streets. But nearly three months later — and after repeated revisions of the official account of the incident and a lowering of the death toll to two — authorities said they were still trying to reconstruct what happened Sept. 4 on the Danziger Bridge. And on the city's east side, where the shootings occurred, two families that suffered casualties are preparing to come forward with stories radically different from those told by police. <more> Nov. 25, 2005 LA Times
A New Orleans Bank Faces Mold, Ruins and Tough Choices - - At one bank branch, vandals whacked futilely at a vault with what must have been a crowbar. At another, looters worked over an outdoor cash machine, stripping its plastic molding and exposing the metal and wire innards but never reaching the stack of bills locked inside. After smashing through a glass door, the intruders took a sledgehammer to the cinderblock wall housing the bank vault. They bashed a hole large enough to crawl through-if not for the thick steel plate on the other side. These are some of the depressing scenes that met Alden J. McDonald Jr., the chief executive of Liberty Bank and Trust, the largest black-owned bank in New Orleans, as he toured the eastern half of the city in early November. This vast stretch-encompassing the 9th Ward, the 7th Ward and New Orleans East-is home to most of Liberty's customers as well as the bank's headquarters prior to Hurricane Katrina. <more> Nov. 25, 2005 NY Times
New Face of New Orleans Is Male -- and Lonely - - There were shots of Southern Comfort lined up on the bar at the Coyote Ugly Saloon in the French Quarter the other night, as usual, and the jukebox was playing a gravelly rock 'n' roll anthem. All would have been well in Mike Badon's world, except for one thing. Brassieres still dangled from the ceiling at the bar, which is famous for attracting uninhibited females, but the facts on the ground were these: To Badon's left was a row of police officers from New York state. To his right, three burly contractors were amusing themselves by showing one another photographs on their cellphones. The only unattached woman in earshot was the bartender, Tara — who, Badon noted grimly, was his cousin. He bought her drinks anyway, and tried to look at the bright side. <more> Nov. 25, 2005 LA Times
Big Easy bouncing back. New police chief, Mardi Gras schedule highlight city's recovery -- Krewes, start your float preparations because Mardi Gras is coming back to the Big Easy -- as is some semblance of law and order. In a sign that the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged city may be recovering some degree of normalcy, officials announced Wednesday that New Orleans will hold its famed Mardi Gras celebration and that a permanent police chief will be sworn in well before the revelers converge on the city in February. However, the buildup to Fat Tuesday will be abbreviated. <more> Nov. 25, 2005 CNN

Monday, Nov. 21, 2005

Blanco's hurricane protection plan gets through Legislature - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco's plan to improve hurricane protection and coastal restoration won final approval in the Legislature on Monday, allowing creation of a new board to oversee levee projects across south Louisiana. The bill would create a 16-member authority with the power to overrule parish levee boards if the local bodies diverge from the authority's statewide hurricane protection plan. <more> Nov. 21, 2005 AP
Legislature going into final day with many unresolved issues - - The special legislative session was called for a unique reason - to respond to the problems of hurricanes Katrina and Rita - but it is playing out the same way as typical sessions, with lawmakers moving into the final hours before they go home Tuesday with many of the high-profile and biggest-ticket bills waiting to be resolved. Arguably the most crucial legislation, which rebalances the state's more than $18 billion budget for the current fiscal year that ends June 30, remains unfinished. A legislative compromise committee is working out a final version of the budget-cutting bill after the House rejected the Senate's revisions. <more> Nov. 21, 2005 Dailycomet.com
Blanco-backed state takeover of Orleans schools nears approval - - Without debate, the full Senate approved a House-passed bill Monday allowing the state to take over most New Orleans public schools. The 33-4 vote was one of the last major hurdles for the measure, which is backed by Gov. Kathleen Blanco. A final vote on minor Senate language changes was expected Monday or Tuesday. Barring unforeseen snags, that would send the measure to Blanco's desk for her signature. <more> Nov. 21, 2005 AP
$600 million in budget cuts approved - - More than $600 million in budget cuts - many of them slicing into public college and health care spending - were approved Sunday by the Senate, as lawmakers try to finish rebalancing the state's deficit-riddled budget in the final days of a special session. The spending changes, similar to a package approved by the House, would make the cuts, tap into the state's "rainy day" savings account and use surplus dollars to cope with a $959 million deficit in Louisiana's more than $18 billion budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30. <more> Nov. 21, 2005 AP
New Orleans Today: It's Worse Than You Think - - Neighborhoods are still dark, garbage piles up on the street, and bodies are still being found. The city's pain is a nation's shame. <more> Nov. 20, 2005 Time Magazine Cover Story
Louisiana Sees Faded Urgency in Relief Effort - - Less than three months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, relief legislation remains dormant in Washington and despair is growing among officials here who fear that Congress and the Bush administration are losing interest in their plight. As evidence, the state and local officials cite an array of stalled bills and policy changes they say are crucial to rebuilding the city and persuading some of its hundreds of thousands of evacuated residents to return, including measures to finance long-term hurricane protection, revive small businesses and compensate the uninsured. "There is a real concern that we will lose the nation's attention the longer this takes," said Representative Bobby Jindal, a Republican from Metairie, just west of New Orleans. "People are making decisions now about whether to come back. And every day that passes, it will be a little harder to get things done." <more> Nov. 21, 2005 NY Times
Meet the man behind the state’s budget-- The first thing Jerry Luke LeBlanc does after shaking hands and offering a weak smile is grab a bottle of pills for his fiscal migraine. It’s understandable. When he vacated his seat in the House of Representatives in 2004 to become Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s commissioner of administration, LeBlanc faced a bevy of challenges. As the state’s new chief financial officer, LeBlanc was charged with overseeing the governor’s vision for what was then a $17 billion state budget and for distributing millions in capital-outlay projects; essentially pork for lawmakers to bring back home. The post made LeBlanc, now 49, one of the most powerful men in the state. <more> Nov. 21, 2005 HoumaToday.com
At Death's Door. Delia Holloway's body was found in her New Orleans home Sept. 2. And Sept. 13. And Nov. 2. Yet her daughter still cannot lay her to rest. - - Losing her mother and aunt in the tumult of Hurricane Katrina has been tough for Deborah Holloway to accept. That her mother's body would end up having to be found three times before being recovered has felt intolerably cruel.Holloway's mother, Delia, 82, and aunt Deborah Fisher, 85, did not leave before the hurricane because, like so many others, they were confident their house could withstand the storm. Essentially, it did. But when levees surrounding New Orleans broke after the Aug. 29 storm, the sisters were trapped by rising waters. They used lipstick to scrawl "help" on the upstairs windows. They hung a red scarf to attract attention. Relatives and friends called on their behalf. Help did arrive Sept. 2, but not before Delia Holloway had died. Fisher was rescued but died four days later. Yet — in a saga that underscores the separate disaster of how bodies were handled — two months later, Holloway's remains were still in the upstairs bedroom of the home she shared with her sister. Now her body lies, officially unidentified, in the special morgue in St. Gabriel, La., for hurricane victims. <more> Nov. 18, 2005 LA Times
Frontline examines Katrina response by state and federal officials in Nov. 22 broadcast - - In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, FRONTLINE investigates the chain of decisions that slowed federal response to the devastation in New Orleans. The film exposes how and why federal and local officials failed to protect thousands of Americans from a broadly predicted natural disaster and examines the state of America's disaster-response system, restructured in the wake of 9/11, on The Storm, airing Tuesday, November 22, 2005, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings). FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith (Private Warriors) interviews a comprehensive lineup of key participants from New Orleans to Washington, including former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown in his first televised interview since he resigned. Other interviewees include Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and former Deputy Secretary James Loy. <more> Nov. 21, 2005 Frontline Press Release

Thursday, Nov. 17, 2005

Power Shifting With Population in Post-Katrina Louisiana. Evacuations to rural areas and other states decrease New Orleans' clout in the Legislature. - - In a committee room deep inside Louisiana's Capitol building this week, something unusual happened: A House panel rejected a funding proposal from the Department of Education, complaining that it was overly generous to New Orleans' public schools. Rep. Charlie DeWitt, a conservative Democrat from the rural community of Lecompte, was downright gleeful afterward. Sending that budget back, he said, was "so much fun." Things are looking up for DeWitt, a former House speaker, who before Hurricane Katrina felt so out of favor politically that he joined a group of legislators known as the "Outhouse Gang." An influx of evacuees has added to the population of his district, padding its tax base. And he and his allies in the Legislature are looking forward to the long-delayed pleasure of flexing their political muscles. <more> Nov. 17, 2005 LA Times
Governor: Katrina victims 'nearly forgotten' -- Nearly three months after Hurricane Katrina forced tens of thousands from their homes, bureaucracy is creating a new tide of trouble for victims of the storm. "We feel like we are citizens of the United States who are nearly forgotten," said Democratic Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. "It is a very frustrating thing. People are weary. They want to move on ... It's going to take us a while. And we still need help from Washington." <more> Nov. 17, 2005 CNN
Frontline examines Katrina response by state and federal officials in Nov. 22 broadcast - - In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, FRONTLINE investigates the chain of decisions that slowed federal response to the devastation in New Orleans. The film exposes how and why federal and local officials failed to protect thousands of Americans from a broadly predicted natural disaster and examines the state of America's disaster-response system, restructured in the wake of 9/11, on The Storm, airing Tuesday, November 22, 2005, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings). FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith (Private Warriors) interviews a comprehensive lineup of key participants from New Orleans to Washington, including former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown in his first televised interview since he resigned. Other interviewees include Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and former Deputy Secretary James Loy. <more> Nov. 17, 2005 Frontline Press Release
New Orleans Vote Near, but Who Will Go? - - Were things different, Mayor C. Ray Nagin would be barnstorming for another term these days through Gentilly and Lakeview and the Lower Ninth Ward, neighborhoods that instead form an archipelago of desolation. But with as much as 80 percent of the city's population still out of town, including most of the black voters who constitute the city's majority, it is not clear whether a municipal election will occur here in February, as scheduled. If it does, it will probably be unlike any other in the United States in recent memory and will raise questions of racial fairness. "The minority became the majority, and the majority became the minority," said State Representative Juan A. LaFonta, a Democrat who represents Gentilly and wants the election delayed. "That changed the whole outlook of the political scene. If you have an election right now, it is going to be some of the people voting on behalf of all the people." <more> Nov. 17, 2005 NY Times
Nameless Katrina victims haunt recovery chief -- Nearly three months after Hurricane Katrina swept through south Louisiana, 321 bodies lie nameless and unclaimed in a makeshift morgue. Another 200 have been identified, but no one can locate their families among refugees scattered across the nation. Of those 300-plus unidentified bodies, 140 pose an unprecedented challenge for Dr. Louis Cataldie. The bodies defy the normal rules for forensic identification. They carried no ID and have no fingerprints, no recognizable features or marks. Many of them were found in fields or streets with no link to a house or address. In some cases animals had damaged the bodies. In every case there was severe decomposition. <more> Nov. 17, 2005 AP
Fight over who pays to ID Katrina dead. Bill for DNA testing bounces between state, federal governments -- More than two months after Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana, the identification of 150 of the bodies remaining at a makeshift morgue has become bogged down in a bureaucratic fight over who will pay for DNA testing. The state and federal tug-of-war has brought little comfort to families wanting to bury their loved ones. "I'm just sick to my stomach," said Linda Hymel, whose younger brother, Darryl, is believed to be among those in the morgue's refrigerated trucks. "I'm not only grieving and mourning -- I'm angry. ... It's so simple: I just want my brother." <more> Nov. 17, 2005 CNN

Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2005

Scott, Richardson release two-year economic forecast - - A two-year economic outlook for Louisiana estimates hurricanes Katrina and Rita wiped out 11 years of job growth in the state, reduced its population by over a half-million people and establishes Baton Rouge as the state’s largest metro area. The deflated population and demographic shifts caused by the storms also will likely cost a congressional seat, say economists Loren Scott and Jim Richardson, who released their annual forecast today. By 2006 when things settle out, the authors say, New Orleans will be the second-largest population center in the state. <more> Nov. 16, 2005 The Advocate
House approves Blanco's cuts - - More than $600 million in budget cuts - including all the reductions made by Gov. Kathleen Blanco before a special legislative session - were approved overwhelmingly Tuesday by the state House of Representatives. The spending cuts would combine with the use of money from the state's "rainy day" fund and other measures to rework spending and rebalance the more than $18 billion budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. The budget has a nearly $1 billion shortfall in state tax income after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and Louisiana is required to maintain a balanced budget. <more> Nov. 16, 2005 AP
Blanco's levee bill sails through committee; Boasso's is gutted - - A Blanco administration bill aimed at improving hurricane protection advanced in the Senate today, while another bill involving levees moved forward only after senators sliced out its key elements. <more> Nov. 16, 2005 AP
Business group calls on Blanco to overhaul levee board - - A business coalition is demanding that Governor Kathleen Blanco replace political appointees on New Orleans-area levee boards with a single panel of flood control experts. <more> Nov. 16, 2005 AP
Black caucus suing over budget cuts - - A Baton Rouge judge Wednesday put off hearing a lawsuit against Gov. Kathleen Blanco's budget cuts. The Legislative Black Caucus filed the suit claiming the governor doesn't have the authority to cut the state budget by 10 percent. Blanco argues she does have the authority, and she's backed up by Louisiana's attorney general. Judge Kay Bates continued the matter until after the special session. <more> Nov. 16, 2005 The Advocate
Senate committee approves bill that could help lessen budget cuts - - A Senate committee working on ways to plug the state's budget deficit agreed today to an accounting maneuver that would free up another $ 194 million dollars. A legal definition change, included in a bill by Senate President Don Hines, would let lawmakers get to money that otherwise would pour into the state's "rainy day" fund and couldn't be used to help fill in a $ 959 million-dollar deficit caused by the hurricanes. Governor Kathleen Blanco's financial advisers aren't backing the Hines proposal. <more> Nov. 16, 2005 AP
Katrina Victims Yet to Be Identified. Officials have just found a way to hire out the job of matching DNA from bodies with families. - - Stashed away in the Louisiana state crime laboratory are the pieces of a puzzle no one has put together: DNA samples from more than 800 people whose remains were discovered after Hurricane Katrina and genetic samples submitted by more than 500 families searching for their loved ones. Determining whether any of them match is a relatively straightforward task. Paying for the work has not been. In an example of the bureaucracy that has dogged the government's storm response, it has taken state and federal officials until now — 11 weeks after Katrina — to figure out how to get the money to hire a contractor to do the testing. On Tuesday, Louisiana received assurances that the matching process would begin soon. <more> Nov. 16, 2005 LA Times
FEMA Is Set to Stop Paying Hotel Cost for Storm Victims - - The Federal Emergency Management Agency moved Tuesday to nudge victims of Hurricane Katrina toward self-sufficiency, announcing that it would cut off financing for most of the 60,000 families in government-paid hotel and motel rooms by the end of this month. The deadline, three months after the hurricane struck, will bring the agency's assistance packages more into line with the customary array of federal disaster aid. "There are still too many people living in hotel rooms, and we want to help them get into longer-term homes before the holidays," the agency's acting director, R. David Paulison, said in a statement. "Across the country, there are readily available, longer-term housing solutions for these victims that can give greater privacy and stability than hotel and motel rooms." <more> Nov. 16, 2005 NY Times

Monday, Nov. 14, 2005

Much of New Orleans Is Still in the Dark From Katrina. Without power, repair jobs go undone. The blackout riles returning homeowners, who fear it may push neighbors to stay away for good. - - About 5:30 p.m., when lights blink on in the French Quarter and central business district, darkness falls like a blanket over the eastern half of this city. Homeowners leave in a column of trucks and cars, hoping to reach their temporary housing before nightfall. The last signs of life disappear. Behind the hopeful language about rebuilding lies a dispiriting statistic: Forty percent of the homes in New Orleans, most of them lying east of the Industrial Canal, do not have electricity. Some are in neighborhoods that were damaged beyond repair by Hurricane Katrina. But in other areas, residents say, rebuilding could start immediately if basic services were turned on. <more> Nov. 14, 2005 LA Times
Katrina victims sue FEMA -- More than a dozen Hurricane Katrina victims from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing the federal government of wrongfully denying them temporary housing assistance. Attorneys said this is probably the first of a string of suits to be filed against the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other government agencies. <more> Nov. 11, 2005 AP
Stonewalling the Katrina Victims - - Public outrage is clearly growing over the federal government's woefully inadequate program for housing the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Last week a group of survivors filed the first of what are likely to be several lawsuits alleging that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has failed to live up to its responsibilities. The recovery effort has been subject to blistering criticism from conservative, nonpartisan and liberal groups alike. The same basic question is this: Why did the Bush administration focus on trailer parks built by FEMA - which is actually not a housing agency - instead of giving the lead role to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has so much experience on this issue? <more> Nov. 14, 2005 NY Times editorial
Hurricanes may return before levees rebuilt. Engineers say weak areas will be stabilized for '06 season -- Engineers may not have time to rebuild all 350 miles of battered levees in the New Orleans area before the next hurricane season, but they plan to shore up the structures enough to withstand another storm. The Army Corps of Engineers expects to stabilize any weak areas in the levee system before the 2006 hurricane season begins in June. "Construction might continue past June ... but it will be capable of protecting from a hurricane," said Walter Baumy, chief engineer for the agency's New Orleans district. <more> Nov. 13,2005 AP
Bungled Records of Storm Deaths Renew Anguish - - The Parrs and the Arceneauxs, friends for more than three decades, died together during Hurricane Katrina in the Arceneaux home on Fable Drive in the town of Meraux, east of New Orleans in St. Bernard Parish. All four of them were huddled together, wearing life vests. That much, their children thought, was straightforward. Until the bodies were returned to them from the central morgue at St. Gabriel, La., and the death certificates arrived. The death certificate for Norman Parr, 69, said he died in New Orleans, while Carol Parr, 59, was said to have perished on Fable Drive, but at the wrong address. Mr. Parr's certificate lists his death as "Hurricane Katrina Related" but also adds that it was due to "cardiovascular disease" and "decomposition." Likewise, Ms. Parr's certificate cited decomposition as a cause of death, though it also noted she had drowned. <more> Nov. 13, 2005 NY Times
A Neighborhood Staggers to Its Feet. Elysian Fields Avenue is not the worst-hit strip in New Orleans, but its lingering damage reflects the city's slow and patchy recovery. - - Come hell or high water — and there's been plenty of both around here — Summer Anderson was going to give birth in her beloved New Orleans. Even her insurance adjuster, who is not in the habit of persuading clients that their homes are uninhabitable, told her to stay away. You're too pregnant, he told her. There's nothing here for you. "But the house was in good shape," she said. "And there's no place like home." Two weeks ago, she and her husband, Mark, returned from exile. And Thursday night, she brought her baby home from the hospital. Isabelle Cortina Anderson, all 8 pounds, 15 ounces of her, became the 12th resident of Elysian Fields Avenue, which was home, not long ago, to hundreds of families. <more> Nov. 13, 2005 LA Times
Rift showing between Blanco and black lawmakers - - A noticeable public rift has developed between Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Louisiana's black lawmakers at a critical time for a state struggling to recover from back-to-back hurricanes. Disagreements have emerged over the types of hurricane recovery items that Blanco included in the special legislative session to deal with the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the items that she didn't put up for debate. But the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus called attention to its displeasure this week when the group filed a lawsuit against Blanco, saying the governor didn't have the legal authority to slash $431 million in state spending by executive order. The caucus asked a judge to reverse those deep budget cuts that Blanco handed down Saturday. <more> Nov. 13, 2005 AP
Senator tries, fails to outlaw public official contracts - - Lawmakers who want to make it illegal for Louisiana's elected officials or their families to benefit from federally funded disaster contracts appeared to be out of luck when Gov. Kathleen Blanco set the agenda for the current special legislative session. In Louisiana, when the governor calls a special session, she controls the subject matter. Blanco's session agenda called for debate on legislation that would require state officials to publicly report any such contracts, but it said nothing about making the contracts illegal. <more> Nov. 14, 2005 The Advocate
Old rivals rearing up in state Legislature despite sympathy -- When she called a special legislative session on rebuilding South Louisiana, Gov. Kathleen Blanco expressed hope that the state's ancient political rivalries -- which have set lawmakers from the piney woods of North Louisiana against those from the swamps and bayous in the South -- would finally be cast aside. "The nation must see a united front," Blanco, a Democrat, told the Legislature last Sunday evening as she prepared to cut the budget deeply and to spend huge sums on recovery from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. But one week into the 17-day session, there are already signs that the old geographic differences are bubbling to the surface again. Representatives of rural areas to the north are trying to protect their programs from being slashed. Cities that have taken in large numbers of evacuees want money to deal with the overflow. And lawmakers from stricken southern regions are desperately trying to begin the rebuilding process. <more> Nov. 14, 2005 DaiyComet.com

Thursday, Nov. 10, 2005

Burdens of Past Limit New Orleans's Future. Poverty, Corruption Weigh on Recovery -- Huge stretches of the city are fallow: no power, no water, no sewer system, no life. Half the city workforce has been laid off, not a single public school is open, and the police department is being run by an acting chief after its former head quit. Mayor C. Ray Nagin is forced to hold town hall meetings in Baton Rouge, 70 miles away. The litany of problems faced by New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is unmatched by any other U.S. city in recent history. Billions of dollars in public and private funds are going to be spent on rebuilding New Orleans, but those efforts could be undermined by forces that have long beset the city -- a tradition of corruption and dysfunction and a weak economy that clouded New Orleans's future years before the rains began in August. <more> Nov. 10, 2005 Washington Post

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco speaks at a Rebuilding and Recovery Conference in New Orleans, La., Thursday, Nov. 10, 2005. Blanco talked about the effects of Hurricane Katrina and how the state would have to rebuild. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
Senate panel approves $67 million cut in school funding -- A reshuffling of state funding for Louisiana’s public schools that would cut about $67 million and reallocate other dollars to account for displaced students after hurricanes Katrina and Rita started moving through the state Legislature on Thursday. The Senate Education Committee approved the changes to the $2.6 billion spending plan for the 2005-06 school year that would send dollars back to the state treasury because nearly 80,000 fewer students are in Louisiana’s public schools. Most of the cuts would come from Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, the hardest hit by Katrina. <more> Nov. 10, 2005 AP
Black lawmakers say Blanco's budget cuts were unconstitutional - - Louisiana's black lawmakers filed a lawsuit against Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Wednesday, saying she exceeded her constitutional authority by making deep budget cuts without legislative approval. Blanco cut $431 million from state agencies by executive order to start coping with a nearly $1 billion deficit in the state's operating budget caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. <more> Nov. 10,2005 AP
Panel extends 'tax holiday' proposal from one to three days -- A House committee decided today that hurricane-stricken Louisiana residents need a three-day holiday from state sales taxes next month. Governor Kathleen Blanco had pushed for one tax-free day, on December tenth, an idea endorsed this week by a Senate committee. But the House Ways and Means Committee decided to expand it and make it voluntary, so small businesses could decide whether to go through the cost of reprogramming their cash registers. According to the bill, shoppers would not pay sales taxes on most purchases under 25-hundred dollars for three days begin December ninth. <more> Nov. 10, 2005 KATC-TV
Feds probe corruption in Katrina levee failures. State, local officials also looking into flood wall collapses -- Federal prosecutors said they are conducting a criminal investigation into the levee failures that swamped New Orleans. Federal investigators are looking into the possibility of corruption in the design, construction and maintenance of the flood barriers, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said. Letten said Wednesday that his office began the investigation the week after Hurricane Katrina. The August 29 hurricane, and subsequent canal breaches left about 80 percent of New Orleans under water, killing hundreds of residents and stranding thousand more. <more> Nov. 10, 2005 AP
Blanco: "Tax Holiday" - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco's proposal for a Dec. 10 "tax holiday," when shoppers could spend up to $2,500 for any item without having to pay the state's 4 percent sales tax, won approval from a state Senate committee on Tuesday. It was one of a series of tax breaks Blanco helped push through committees in a special legislative session called to help Louisiana recover from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee each passed separate versions of Blanco-backed bills granting an estimated $90 million to $100 million in business tax breaks, aimed for the most part at manufacturers and other businesses that suffered losses due to Katrina, which hit Aug. 29, and Rita, which hit Sept. 24. Blanco addressed both panels before the votes. <more> Nov. 9, 2005 AP
Inquiry to Seek Cause of Levee Failure - - The Louisiana Attorney General said Tuesday that he had begun examining why the New Orleans levees failed during Hurricane Katrina, partly to increase the chances that people who lost their homes will be compensated for their losses. Attorney General Charles C. Foti Jr. said in an interview that his review could lead to a civil suit to prove that levee design or construction errors caused the flood damage. A favorable ruling in such a lawsuit could make it easier for those with heavy losses to collect damages from engineering firms and construction companies found negligent in the construction of the levee Mr. Foti said he also would examine whether shoddy workmanship contributed to the levee failures, leading to a possible criminal investigation if any evidence of that surfaced. <more> Nov. 8, 2005 NY Times
Hard Choices Seen in Efforts to Help Louisiana Wetlands - - Restoring Louisiana's vanished wetlands, or even maintaining those that remain, will be impossible, according to an expert panel convened in 2004 by the National Academy of Sciences to consider a major proposal for wetlands restoration in the state. The panel says the time has come for state and local governments, businesses and citizens to start talking about which wetland areas can be preserved and which must be abandoned, a process it called "managed retreat." The experts, in a report issued yesterday, said the proposal they studied, put forward by the state and the Army Corps of Engineers, had worthwhile elements but would not come close to halting wetland loss. <more> Nov. 10, 2005 NY Times
Panel: Plan lacking to restore wetlands -- The Army Corps of Engineers and the state of Louisiana lack an overall plan for restoring coastal wetlands, a National Academy of Sciences panel said Wednesday. "Federal, state and local officials, with the public's involvement, need to take a broader look," said Robert Dean, a University of Florida engineering professor in Gainesville who chaired a panel on the restoration efforts. Dean said those efforts must examine "where land in coastal Louisiana should and can be restored and ... how some of the sediment-rich water of the Mississippi River should flow to achieve that." <more> Nov. 9, 2005 AP
Supervisors check trucks for hazardous contents. State deems Gentilly landfill fit for debris - - Refuting claims that it bent rules to deposit hurricane-generated waste in an unsafe area, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality invited reporters to tour the Old Gentilly Landfill on Tuesday. DEQ officials distributed copies of the landfill's permit issued by Assistant Secretary Chuck Brown in December 2004. Standing at its entrance in eastern New Orleans, Brown said the facility meets environmental standards and state requirements. "We're quite fortunate to have it," he said. Controversy arose because the landfill began accepting construction and demolition, or C&D, materials about a month after Hurricane Katrina struck. The Louisiana Environmental Action Network recently filed a lawsuit claiming the landfill is poorly suited to handle the flood-soaked contents of city homes. <more> Nov. 9, 2005 Times Picayune
Blanco proposes statewide building code - - Lawmakers are considering a statewide building code after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused millions of dollars in damage in the state of Louisiana. Gov. Kathleen Blanco is asking lawmakers to pass a statewide building code during the special session. Local builders said they believe it's a great idea that could save residents a great deal of money in the long run. <more> Nov. 10, 2005 The Advocate
Legislation combats state's ethical reputation - - A legislative committee passed a bill that would require state and local elected officials to disclose income from federal disaster-recovery efforts, rejecting arguments by some officials who called for a complete ban on such income. <more> Nov. 10, 2005 Lake Charles American Press
New Orleans Crime Swept Away, With Most of the People - - On a single day last June in Pigeon Town and Hollygrove, impoverished neighborhoods of worn frame houses at the city's western edge, four men were killed, adding to the eight already slain there this year. Young men brazenly sold drugs from street corners in broad daylight. The gunfire was constant. Residents were fearful. But the bullets and the drugs and the fear are gone now, swept away by Hurricane Katrina, along with the dealers and gangs and most of the people. <more> Nov. 10, 2005 NY Times

Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2005

La. lawmakers take up hurricane issues - - State lawmakers Monday considered ways to strengthen building codes and grappled with a billion-dollar hole in the state budget left by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It was the first full day of a special legislative session called by Gov. Kathleen Blanco to deal with the aftermath of the two storms. The House budget committee began hearing testimony on various proposals to cut the budget deficit, caused by the storm damage and the interruption of tax revenue caused when Katrina brought commerce in the New Orleans area to a standstill. "Some of you will consider these cuts too painful and you will try to avoid them. Let me warn you - this is just the beginning," Blanco said Sunday night as she opened the 17-day session. <more> Nov. 7, 2005 AP

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco walks down the aisle of the House chambers to address a joint session of the state legislature at the State Capitol Sunday, Nov. 6, 2005, in Baton Rouge, La. The Governor called a special session of the legislature to deal with recovery efforts in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. (AP Photo/Ted Jackson, Pool)
Louisiana Lawmakers Begin Special Session on Rebuilding - - Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco opened a special session of the State Legislature on Sunday, telling lawmakers that their actions in the coming days would serve as a catalyst for healing and as a guiding light for the rebuilding of New Orleans and other areas devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. "I am confident that we will each do our part to see that a new morning springs from Louisiana's darkest night," Ms. Blanco said. "We all know that this recovery is not a sprint. It requires endurance and commitment from all of us." The 17-day session will be a major test of Ms. Blanco's leadership. She is pushing an ambitious agenda with 77 subject areas, including tax incentives for redevelopment, stricter building codes and better management of levees. <more> Nov. 8, 2005 NY Times
Blanco's cuts hint at chance for real change - - The buildup to the special session of the Louisiana Legislature included a lot of political knife sharpening in the background. But Gov. Kathleen Blanco's announcement of plans for aggressive budget cuts has dulled some of the pre-session criticism aimed at her. Some lawmakers had complained that the session was called too late in the hurricane-recovery process and were concerned that a budget review would not be on the agenda. It is clear now that many budget items will go under the microscope, even though legislators are just now learning what's on the hit list. A collective gulp was heard Sunday when the governor announced, without detail, that she has targeted almost $500 million in budget cuts. <more> Nov. 8, 2005 The Town Talk
Budget cuts 'just the beginning' - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco's action to slice $431 million from the state budget and to save another $70 million by a job-and-spending freeze is only the beginning of a long-term painful budget situation, lawmakers learned Monday. "It's just the beginning and nowhere near the end" of the budget problems, Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. John Alario told committee members. The Revenue Estimating Conference ruled that because of destruction from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, state revenues will fall $956 million short of funding everything in the 2005-06 budget. That action set in motion severe budget reductions. But that's only part of the problem, Commissioner of Administration Jerry Luke LeBlanc told the committee. The $956 million doesn't include hundreds of millions of dollars in lost fees or the billions of dollars the federal government is billing Louisiana for dealing with hurricane evacuees and damages. <more> Nov. 8, 2005 Shreveport Times
Combing through budget cuts - - The grim picture of Louisiana's hurricane-damaged finances worsened today. That as state agencies began to outline losses not included in the state's nearly one billion dollar deficit and to detail the cuts handed out by Governor Kathleen Blanco. <more> Nov. 8, 2005 AP
Pros, cons of adopting building code pondered - - New structures built in coastal zones like Cameron Parish and lower Calcasieu Parish would be required to meet hurricane-proof building standards under proposed legislation introduced Monday. House Bill 76 would impose internationally recognized building codes for commercial and residential structures statewide — one of Gov. Kathleen Blanco's priorities for the special legislative session on hurricane issues. <more> Nov. 8, 2005 Lake Charles American Press
Blanco backs off roads proposal - - The Blanco administration retreated on a plan to speed up road rebuilding Monday after some lawmakers suggested it invites "backroom deals" and ignores traffic snarls in Baton Rouge. House Transportation Committee Chairman Roy Quezaire accused opposing panel members of playing politics and called off a vote on his House Bill 12. But Quezaire, a Donaldsonville Democrat, said he will regroup and bring up the bill again today because the so-called design-build concept "is a tool the (transportation) department needs to move this state forward" after two major hurricanes. <more> Nov. 8, 2005 The Advocate
Is the Governor's race off and running? - - Any post Katrina civility and bipartisanship was thrown out the window last week, when Louisiana Senator David Vitter threw down the gauntlet. "It's easy to look like a giant in a land of pygmies," Vitter told a Republican group in Lafayette. Vitter left little doubt as to where he was pointing his political guns. When reference to Governor Kathleen Blanco was made, he didn't hesitate saying, "If you give me a recall petition, I'll sign it." Key staff members of Louisiana's junior Senator confirm that Vitter has his eye on the governor's office. He's not the only one. <more> Nov. 8, 2005 Louisiana Weekly
Blanco, Nagin, Vitter, Landrieu, Jefferson, Melancon to Participate in Louisiana Recovery and Rebuilding Conference -- The Louisiana Recovery and Rebuilding Conference scheduled for November 10th - 12th will feature speakers including Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, U.S. Sens. David Vitter and Mary Landrieu, U.S. Reps. William Jefferson and Charles Melancon, and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is also scheduled to speak, and numerous other local government officials are registered to participate. <more> Nov. 8, 2005 PR Newswire
New Orleans Grid 'Fragile' - - The bankrupt utility that supplies power and gas to New Orleans has not set a timetable for restoring service to the city's storm-ravaged eastern neighborhoods and the Lower 9th Ward, the company's chief executive told an angry crowd of residents Saturday. Entergy New Orleans, a subsidiary of Entergy Corp., needs a $450-million federal bailout to replace equipment destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and to finance operations over the next year, Chief Executive Dan Packer said. <more> Nov. 8, 005 Reuters
Thousands of Katrina 911 Calls Went Astray -- Early in the afternoon of Aug. 29, as Hurricane Katrina bore down on the Gulf Coast, the phones inside the Louisiana State Police emergency operations center here began ringing with frantic pleas for help -- 467 that first day. Families perched on rooftops, a grandmother trapped in an attic, gunfire outside a hospital. As the floodwaters rose, so, too, did the calls -- to 1,875 the following day, to 3,108 on Aug. 31, and to 3,284 on Sept. 1. The vast majority came from 70 miles away in New Orleans, but what was strange was not the volume of calls or that they were made, but how they ended up so far away from the people who needed help. Floodwaters had forced 120 operators at the 911 center to abandon the New Orleans police headquarters. Emergency calls were supposed to be routed to the fire department but its main station was already abandoned. And so -- after hours of confusion -- many calls were shunted north to Baton Rouge, where unsuspecting emergency personnel suddenly found their phones ringing off the hooks. The disintegration of New Orleans's 911 system carries national implications for future disasters, said public safety experts. While some communities boast sophisticated, high-tech centers with elaborate contingency plans, most cities have older systems lacking adequate backup measures for massive disasters. <more> Nov. 8, 2005 Washington Post
New Orleans Is Still Grappling With the Basics of Rebuilding - - Something once unimaginable has begun to happen here: the United Parcel Service is delivering again downtown. At Langenstein's grocery, celery and pork chops are moving out the door, and revelers spill out of the Magazine Street bars on Friday nights. But just a mile away, workers are struggling to restore some flood protection to the city, which would barely stay dry in even a modest tropical storm. Tens of thousands of homeowners, facing six-figure repair bills for their rotting houses, are unlikely to get more than a fraction of that from the government. As phones ring in empty offices, even the shrimp business can barely find customers, and the economy remains comatose. More than two months after Hurricane Katrina incapacitated this peerless, sultry American city, New Orleans has shaken off the shock of its collapse and has slowly begun to draw breath again. But as it moves from recovery into the more crucial rebuilding phase, it is only beginning to grapple with the elemental questions that will shape its future, many of which have arisen at the special session of the Louisiana State Legislature that began Sunday night. <more> Nov. 8, 2005 NY Times

Friday, Nov. 4, 2005

Charles, Camilla see Katrina's devastation - - Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, flew into New Orleans on Friday for a brief glimpse of the ravaged city and a chance to meet a few of the hundreds of thousands of residents whose lives were turned upside-down by Hurricane Katrina. After an airport ceremony to greet their flight from Washington, the couple went to the impoverished lower Ninth Ward, which was all but obliterated when water breached one of the levees that protected the city. <more> Nov. 4, 2005 AP

Prince Charles is greeted by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco upon his arrival at the New Orleans Airport Friday, Nov. 4, 2005. Prince Charles and his wife Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, were to meet with residents and Hurricane Katrina recovery workers, and they're scheduled to visit the first school in the city to reopen since the storm. (AP Photo/Judi Bottoni)

Blanco budget cut presentation scrapped for Friday - - Plans for Gov. Kathleen Blanco's budget crafters to unveil $300 million in spending cuts to lawmakers Friday have been scrapped, and it's unclear when Blanco will make those cuts to help deal with a crippling deficit caused by the hurricanes. A Friday meeting for lawmakers to get specifics of the budget slashing was canceled after Blanco officials were advised by the attorney general's office that they didn't need the joint budget committee's approval for any of the governor's cuts. <more> Nov. 4, 2005 AP
Blanco moves to trim budget. Action surprises legislative leaders - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco flabbergasted her own leadership Thursday by abruptly deciding to forgo legislative input on massive cuts she made to the state's budget. The move left her legislative leaders scrambling to consult with lawyers on whether the governor truly can cut up to 10 percent from state agencies without their approval. <more> Nov. 4, 2005 The Advocate
Louisiana can't pay Katrina, Rita bills - - Flood-ravaged Louisiana can't pay the $3.7 billion that the U.S. government says is its share of hurricane relief, a spokeswoman for Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Thursday. "You can't squeeze $3.7 billion out of this state to pay this bill. Period. That would be difficult for us on a good day," the spokeswoman, Denise Bottcher, told USA TODAY. <more> Nov. 4, 2005 USA Today
Louisiana faces hefty storm recovery bill - - Louisiana anticipates a $3.7 billion bill to repay the federal government for its share of the hurricane recovery, far exceeding anything the governor had previously expected. The estimate was presented to Gov. Kathleen Blanco this week and now the state must figure out how to pay while dealing with its own crippling budget problems, including dramatic jumps in unemployment, business shutdowns and a state budget deficit of nearly $1 billion in tax revenue alone. <more> Nov. 4, 2005 AP
State may take over 104 N.O. schools If Blanco's plan is enacted, School Board to control 13 - - If the Legislature goes along with Gov. Kathleen Blanco's plan to take over substandard schools in New Orleans as the city rebuilds, more than 100 schools would become the responsibility of the state, according to the latest test scores released Thursday by the state Department of Education. Only 13 of the district's 117 schools would remain under local control, according to the 2004-5 school performance scores. <more> Nov. 4, 2005 Times Picayune
La. governor makes charter school proposal -- Almost all New Orleans public schools, now closed because of Hurricane Katrina, could eventually be reopened by the state as charter schools under proposed legislation to wrest power from the city's fractious school board. Governor Kathleen Blanco outlined the proposal Thursday at the same news conference where state education officials released figures showing 68 of 110 New Orleans schools operating before Katrina were "academically unacceptable," based on student testing. <more> Nov. 4, 2005 AP
"Katrina Cough" Floats Around. The storm's residual mold and muck may be causing respiratory illnesses in people who have returned home. - - A large number of people along the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts are developing a condition that some have dubbed "Katrina cough," believed to be linked to mold and dust circulating after Hurricane Katrina. Health officials say they are trying to determine how widespread the problem is. There are suggestions that it is popping up regularly among people who have returned to storm-ravaged areas, particularly New Orleans. <more> Nov. 4, 2005 LA Times
Governors chafe at greater military role - - Several governors are fuming over a Bush administration suggestion that the active military take a greater role in disaster response, calling it an attempt to usurp state authority over National Guard units. Governors in Washington, Mississippi, Michigan, Arkansas, West Virginia, Delaware and Alabama are among those who have panned the idea, questioning whether it would even be constitutional. <more> Nov. 4, 2005 AP
In Louisiana, Worker Influx Causes Ill Will - - Near this speck on the map southwest of New Orleans, where an oil refinery spouts flames into the sky and alligators are said to lurk in the green canals, sits something that is causing consternation across Louisiana: a camp for out-of-state workers cleaning up after the flood. The camp, operated by a New York company called LVI Services, is not much to look at: a row of tractor-trailers crammed with bunks, a long line of portable toilets, a couple of R.V.'s and three tents with striped roofs. Gun-packing guards wear black T-shirts reading, "Police." It is a temporary home for hundreds of LVI's workers, some of whom said they were in the United States illegally. They are commuting into New Orleans, swabbing the mold off walls, ripping the guts out of buildings, removing mountains of soggy debris. And they are stirring up resentment. Louisianians, from high-level public officials to low-wage workers, have begun to complain about the influx of outsiders they perceive as having come to profit off their pain. <more> Nov. 4, 2005 NY Times

Thursday, Nov. 3, 2005

Blanco loan proposal worries some officials. Spending cuts urged before borrowing - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco's plan to borrow money to balance the budget in the aftermath of the storms is worrisome to some state officials. Blanco is pushing a combination of cuts and short-term lines of credit to plug a budget hole that could be as deep as $1.5 billion. State Treasurer John Kennedy said Wednesday that incurring too much debt could ruin the state's credit rating. "We cannot borrow our way out of this," Kennedy said Wednesday. <more> Nov. 3, 2005 The Advocate
State panel OKs furloughs. 4,000 to lose jobs, most due to N.O. hospitals' destruction - - The state Civil Service Commission on Wednesday approved the furlough of nearly 4,000 state employees -- almost all from LSU's hospitals and medical schools in New Orleans. There's no jobs for them to go back to because there's no place for the employees to work. Their workplaces were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Paychecks -- which have continued since the storm struck Aug. 29 -- will stop Monday, the commission decided. <more> Nov. 3, 2005 The Advocate
Governors' paths diverge after Katrina - - After Hurricane Katrina roared in, Gov. Haley Barbour quickly convened a special legislative session and, just 10 days after the storm, appointed a commission to study rebuilding Mississippi's coastline. The former Republican National Committee chairman and influential Washington lobbyist also traveled to the nation's capital several times to extract promises of federal aid from friends in the Bush administration. Because of the Barbour's take-charge approach to the disaster, even some of Mississippi's staunchest Democrats are saying he may be tough to beat if he seeks a second term in 2007. In Louisiana, it is a different story: Some pundits suspect Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco could prove to be a one-termer when she comes up for re-election the same year. <more> Nov. 3, 2005 AP
Blanco backs state takeover of N.O. schools. Who would run them is another question -- In a move that would give the state unprecedented authority over local public schools, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Tuesday she will back legislation during the upcoming special session to put most New Orleans schools under state control. "I'm determined to seize this opportunity to start anew," Blanco said at a press conference explaining her call for the session, which delineates what can be discussed. "I propose that the state step in and assume responsibility for that city's failing schools, using, among other things, the charter school model as one of the tools in our recovery efforts." <more> Nov. 2, 2005 Times Picayune
Blanco wants officials to report recovery contracts - - Governor Kathleen Blanco wants public officials -- both elected and appointed -- to report the federally funded business they get as part of the hurricane recovery effort. Though she gave no details, Blanco said she will push for the new law when the Legislature convenes Sunday for a special session. <more> Nov. 2, 2005 AP
Health agency asking to delay tax, adds to budget uncertainties - - Louisiana's health department is asking lawmakers to delay the start of a new hospital tax because of the hurricanes — a suspension that will lessen income for a department already bracing for budget cuts to be handed down Friday. The tax on private and community hospitals, approved by the Legislature earlier this year, was supposed to generate $300 million annually to reimburse the hospitals for care they provide to the uninsured and to help the state's Medicaid program for the poor cover costs. <more> Nov. 3, 2005 AP
Farmers in 46 parishes eligible to apply for emergency loans - - Farmers in more than two-thirds of Louisiana parishes will be eligible to apply for low-interest federal emergency loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Gov. Kathleen Blanco's office announced Thursday. "Farmers across the state have been hurt by the extraordinary drought and the devastation of two hurricanes," Blanco said in a statement. "I am grateful that the USDA has recognized the seriousness of our situation and will be helping our farmers through these difficult times." <more> Nov. 3, 2005 AP
Malfeasance Might Have Hurt Levees, Engineers Say - - The head of a team of engineering experts told a Senate committee on Wednesday that malfeasance during construction might have been one reason for the catastrophic failure of the levees that were supposed to protect New Orleans from hurricanes. "These levees should have been expected to perform adequately at these levels if they had been designed and constructed properly," said the expert, Raymond Seed, a professor of civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. "Not just human error was involved," Professor Seed said. "There may have been malfeasance." <more> Nov. 3, 2005 NY Times
Senators: Rebuilt levees may not sufficiently protect New Orleans-- Repairs to New Orleans' levees may be insufficient to protect residents moving back to the devastated city if another hurricane comes, senators said Wednesday. With nearly a month left in the year's tropical storm season, lawmakers said levee repairs after Hurricane Katrina appear to have been done with little or no engineering guidance and perhaps substandard materials. <more> Nov. 2, 2005 AP
Katrina brings winds of change to New Orleans schools - - The New Orleans school board's hold on education in this city was already slipping before Hurricane Katrina hit on Aug. 29, and the storm has only hastened the board's weakening. No public schools are currently operating in the city. When a handful of schools do begin operating, perhaps later this month, many, if not all, will be charter schools. The board voted last week to authorize 20 such schools - essentially agreeing to hand broad authority to run those schools over to independent entities. <more> Nov. 3, 2005 Daily Comet.com
Brown discussed wardrobe during Katrina - - Newly-released e-mails show former FEMA director Michael Brown discussing his wardrobe during the crisis caused by Hurricane Katrina. A House panel has released 23 pages of internal e-mail offering additional evidence of a confused and distracted government response to Katrina, particularly from Brown, the former head of Federal Emergency Management Agency, at critical moments after the storm hit. <more> Nov. 3 ,2005 AP

Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2005

Louisiana governor seeks tax cuts - - Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Tuesday called on state lawmakers to approve business tax relief, a takeover of New Orleans troubled public schools and a consolidated system of managing levees to protect against future hurricanes. Blanco, speaking in Baton Rouge, said the disruption caused by Hurricane Katrina had cost Louisiana about $1 billion in lost tax revenue. She said deep cuts would be needed in state spending in the coming months. But Blanco said businesses also needed an "olive branch" in the form of state tax relief, including tax cuts on replacing storm-damaged equipment and on their electricity and natural gas purchases. <more> Nov. 1, 2005 Reuters
Gov. issues broad call for session - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco has issued a wide-ranging 77-item call for legislators to deal with hurricane-caused problems during a 17-day special session. "This is a substantial package of initiatives that will help our families, our businesses and our state recover from Katrina and Rita," the governor said. "We will cut spending and restructure government to address a $1 billion drop in state revenues." The package includes legislation to recreate the New Orleans school system, give tax breaks to citizens and businesses affected by the storms, create a new building code, build stronger levees, improve coastal protection and strengthen ethics laws so elected officials and their families can't profit from recovery efforts. <more> Nov. 1, 2005 Shreveport Times
Hines: State may have to borrow, even with major cuts - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco can make state budget cuts in several areas and could cut as much as $1 billion and there will still have to be borrowing “to carry it over,” state Senate President Don Hines told The Town Talk Tuesday. Noting that the Revenue Estimating Conference has pegged the shortfall at $971 million, Hines, D-Bunkie, said the governor can now make a 3 percent across-the-board cut, and then can make 5 percent cuts in constitutionally required expenditures. After that, Blanco can make another 2 percent across-the-board cut, although with discretion not to cut every appropriations the same. <more> Nov. 1, 2005 The Town Talk
Out of Their Element. Many New Orleans evacuees find themselves safe but stranded in rural enclaves that are a world away from the closeness of urban life. - - At the end of a long gravel driveway, up a few steps on a wide wooden porch, a mother and son discuss their conundrum. Gladys Brown, 66, and Maurice Brown, 47, praise God for keeping them safe through the ordeal. But two months after Hurricane Katrina tore up their homes and chased them out of New Orleans, they find themselves resettled in a place to which they feel — mildly put — unsuited. Like catfish in a cornfield. "Look here," Maurice says. "I lived my whole life in a neighborhood where you could stretch your finger and touch the house next door. Everything you needed was, like, right there. Grocery, doctor, post office, church. If it wasn't, you got the bus. "This place — " Maurice continues, looking out at a vacant field that just a few months ago fairly glimmered with strawberries, and beyond that, to a grove of pine trees and, farther, to pastures with grazing cows. Lots and lots of cows. "What am I going to do here?" <more> Nov. 1, 2005 LA Times
Coroner: Bodies from hospitals too decomposed -- The bodies recovered from a nursing home and hospital after Hurricane Katrina were so decomposed they may not yield any evidence for prosecuting crimes, the coroner overseeing the autopsies says. Louisiana's attorney general charged the owners of a flooded-out nursing home in Chalmette with negligent homicide in mid-September after 34 bodies were discovered. He has also subpoenaed 73 people in an investigation into rumors that patients were put out of their misery at New Orleans' flooded-out Memorial Medical Center, where 40 people were found dead. <more> Nov. 1, 2005 AP
FDIC chief to head hurricane repair. Donald Powell will oversee federal efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast after flawed initial response. - - The Bush administration Tuesday named FDIC chairman Donald Powell to oversee federal efforts to rebuild the Gulf coast region devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Powell will serve as point person for an administration that was widely criticized as ineffective after Hurricane Katrina stranded thousands in New Orleans without food or water for days in late August. More than 1,200 died in the region. <more> Nov. 1, 2005 Reuters
Study: Design flaws in New Orleans levees -- The engineers who designed the floodwalls that collapsed during Hurricane Katrina did not fully consider the porousness of the Louisiana soil or make other calculations that would have pointed to the need for stronger levees with deeper pilings and wider bases, researchers say. At least one key scenario was ignored in the design, say the researchers, who are scheduled to report their findings at a congressional hearing Wednesday: the possibility that canal water might seep into the dirt on the dry side of the levees, thereby weakening the embankment holding up the floodwalls. "I'd call it a design omission," said Robert Bea, a University of California at Berkeley civil engineering professor who took part in the study for the National Science Foundation.<more> Nov. 1,2005 AP

Monday, Oct. 31, 2005

Blanco's budget cuts to be detailed Friday - - With Louisiana facing a nearly $1 billion budget deficit because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Gov. Kathleen Blanco's plans to slash $300 million in state spending — the maximum she is allowed by law — will be detailed Friday to lawmakers. Blanco's chief financial analyst, Commissioner of Administration Jerry Luke LeBlanc, said his office will explain the cuts, which can be as much as 5 percent to some departments and programs, to the Legislature's budget panel, which must approve a portion of them before they can be enacted. <more> Oct. 31, 2005 AP
Blanco: Benson, NFL chief 'committed' to keeping Saints in Louisiana -- After meeting with Saints owner Tom Benson and NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said today that "all three of us are committed to keeping the Saints in Louisiana." The governor said a "regional approach" to supporting the Saints is being considered that would include using the LSU stadium for some games over the next two years, as well as having games n the Superdome, when it is repaired. A broader marketing program, which includes all of Louisiana and parts of Mississippi, is anticipated. <more> Oct. 31, 2005 Lafayette The Advertiser
Blanco faults White House over rebuilding - - Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, flanked by veteran Democratic activists and a union leader, criticized the Bush administration on Saturday for allowing hurricane rebuilding contracts to go to out-of-state firms and low-wage workers. Blanco, a Democrat who has faced criticism for her own response to the August 29 hurricane, attempted to deflect widespread anger from local workers who complain they have been shut out of federal contracts in favor of larger, better-connected companies. Noting some $300 million in unemployment insurance had been paid out in the state since the storm, Blanco said the initial White House decision to suspend wage protections had compounded the Louisiana problems. "We had already been devastated by a hurricane," she said. "We did not need to be hurt to out-of-state companies giving incredibly low wages to workers outside of Louisiana. I must have said that long enough and hard enough because this week President Bush changed his mind." <more> Oct. 31, 2005 Reuters
Divisions Appear Within a Storm Recovery Commission - - The president dined with its members during one of his many trips to New Orleans. Its mandate is no less ambitious and grand than a master plan by year's end that will serve as the blueprint for rebuilding the city. Yet a month after the creation of the Bring New Orleans Back Commission by Mayor C. Ray Nagin - before it has even had a chance to take up basic procedural questions - there are already signs the commission is in trouble. It is struggling to focus on major rebuilding issues rather than smaller complaints, and sharp divisions have begun to develop among its members. <more> Oct. 30, 2005 NY Times
Swampy part of New Orleans turns into dumping ground -- A swampy section of the city is becoming a dumping ground for paint cans, broken furniture, insulation and whatever else is in the rubble. From its beginnings, New Orleans has viewed the surrounding wetlands and Mississippi River as the logical places for its waste. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the city again is turning to the swamp. East of the city's residential neighborhoods lies a large tract of swamp land that has been turned into an industrial corridor. Even before Katrina it was besmirched with scrap metal and used parts yards, rust-colored streams and dead cypress trees. Making matters worse, environmentalists warn, is that the mounds of debris from Katrina also are winding up here. <more> Oct. 31, 2005 AP
A Grass-Roots Group Is Helping Hurricane Survivors Help Themselves - - With Hurricane Rita bearing down on this city of refuge packed with survivors of Hurricane Katrina, a tense drama played out last month at the Reliant Arena, where hundreds of families from New Orleans, concentrated from the Astrodome and other shelters, were once again facing emergency evacuation. Relief officials were lining them up for trips to yet other shelters as far afield as Fort Chaffee, Ark., when the officials ran into a storm of their own: a demand that vacant houses and apartments in secure inland areas be made available instead. <more> Oct. 31, 2005 NY Times
EPA Announces An Estimated One Million Pounds of Household Hazardous Waste Collected - - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that an estimated one million pounds of household hazardous waste has been collected in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Household hazardous waste typically consists of cleaning products found in most homes as well as lawn and garden products, pesticides and herbicides, fuels and paints as well as batteries found in most garages. <more> Oct. 31, 2005 EPA Press Release

Friday, Oct. 28, 2005

Governor promises turnaround for Louisiana - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco says that northwest Louisiana has a major role in the state's recovery and that she's not going to forget the area when seeking help from the federal government. "It's more important than ever before to have economic success," she told a crowd after touring Beaird Co., a metal fabrication and machining plant in Shreveport. Blanco came to the city shortly before noon to meet with the area's Congressional delegation then visit Beaird, a company she says illustrates how Louisiana should remake itself. <more> Oct. 29, 2005 Shreveport Times

Beaird Co. General Manager Alberto Garcia (left) and CEO Sam Eakin give Gov. Kathleen Blanco a tour of the plant Friday. (Jim Hudelson/The Times)
Blanco invites Bush to speak during the legislative session - — Gov. Kathleen Blanco has invited President Bush to speak to lawmakers next month during a special legislative session that will focus on hurricane recovery and relief efforts. Blanco sent a letter to the White House on Thursday, saying she was grateful for the President's help since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita slammed into Louisiana and asking Bush to consider addressing the Legislature sometime during the session, which is planned to begin Nov. 6. She said the state's recovery will depend on federal help. <more> Oct. 28, 2005 AP
Blanco invites Bush to address Legislature - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco has invited President George Bush to address the Louisiana Legislature when it meets next month to attack problems caused by the devastation of two recent hurricanes. Blanco said Bush would be welcome to talk to lawmakers any time during the session, which will begin Nov. 6 and is expected to last about 12 days. Some lawmakers have pushed for a longer special session that includes a lengthy slate of topics, including budget cuts as the state faces a nearly $1 billion deficit. The governor is expected to release an outline for the session on Monday, her staff said. <more> Oct. 29, 2005 The Advocate
Fed Memos Put Katrina Body Blame on Blanco - - Bodies of people killed by Hurricane Katrina went uncollected for more than a week in the New Orleans area as the federal government waited for Louisiana's governor to decide what to do with them, according to memos released Thursday by a Republican-led House committee. The 38 pages of e-mail between FEMA representatives and Pentagon officials contradict the contention by Louisiana's Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco, two weeks after Katrina hit on Aug. 29, that the federal government was moving too slowly to recover the bodies. <more> Oct. 28, 2005 AP
Governor lifts order for hotel operators - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco has lifted a requirement that hotel operators keep rooms open for Hurricane Katrina evacuees, saying that the state needs to begin to make room for relief workers and recovery personnel. The executive order, issued Friday, takes effect Tuesday. The hotel requirement was lifted because Katrina evacuees have been able to return to their homes and find alternative housing arrangements in the two months since the storm hit. <more> Oct. 29, 2005 The Advocate
La. Wants FEMA to Pay for Majority of Damage to State Property - - Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) is asking federal officials to pay the vast majority of the $2.3 billion in damage to state facilities wrought by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, including at least $125 million to restore the state-owned Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. The preliminary price tag to repair the city landmark and symbolic "ground zero" of the Katrina disaster, disclosed to state lawmakers last week, represents what Federal Emergency Management Agency officials expect to be "the tip of the iceberg" of rebuilding costs from the Aug. 29 and Sept. 24 storms that will be charged to the federal government. <more> Oct. 29, 2005 Washington Post
Category 5 levees a hard sell to Bush aides. Recovery team member recalls Tuesday meeting -- A member of Gov. Kathleen Blanco's hurricane recovery advisory team said White House officials earlier this week were skeptical about building a levee system in south Louisiana to withstand Category 5 hurricanes, but were more positive on some suggested recovery measures. Sean Reilly was one of a few members of Blanco's Louisiana Recovery Authority who met for 90 minutes Tuesday with President Bush's Chief of Staff Andy Card and Al Hubbard, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisors. <more> Oct. 29, 2005 Times Picayune

On a Tour of Debris, and Despair. Residents of a poor New Orleans area devastated by Katrina are allowed to view their homes, but only from afar. Anger gives way to disbelief. - - Residents of the hardest-hit sections of this city's Lower 9th Ward had been barred from their homes since Hurricane Katrina struck two months ago. On Thursday, they were allowed to view their neighborhood — by bus. Many of the returnees said they were angry that it had taken so long to gain entry to survey their homes and upset that, even now, they could not go into their residences. "We should've least been allowed to walk back to the streets … to go see. Even though we can't live there," said Christopher Weaver, 42, whose family was scattered among relatives in Houston, Chicago and other cities after the storm. The anger was soon replaced by despair and disbelief as residents peered out of the bus windows and saw plains of debris that once were their homes. <more> Oct. 28, 2005 LA Times
45 New Orleans cops fired for desertion -- Fifty-one members of the New Orleans Police Department -- 45 officers and six civilian employees -- were fired Friday for allegedly abandoning their posts before or after Hurricane Katrina. "They were terminated due to them abandoning the department prior to the storm," acting superintendent Warren Riley said. "They either left before the hurricane or 10 to 12 days after the storm and we have never heard from them." <more> Oct. 28, 2005 AP

Thursday Oct. 27, 2005

LRA takes step to rebuilding. Task starts with meeting, tour of damage - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco's advisory board on hurricane rebuilding met formally for the first time Wednesday before breaking into groups to visit the storm areas. After three prayers and five overviews, the Louisiana Recovery Authority's co-chairman cut to the chase. "We have to find ways to get our act together in this state," Walter Isaacson said. Blanco asked the board to help her rebuild the state by putting together a package of tax incentives and a financial program for hard-hit businesses. "Your job is to make real my vision for building a stronger Louisiana," she said. <more> Oct. 27, 2005 The Advocate
Recovery group takes first steps -- The commission that will spearhead Gov. Kathleen Blanco's plans for rebuilding the regions of the state devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita met for the first time Wednesday, hearing about the budget predicaments of state and local governments, as well as making some preliminary decisions. <more> Oct. 27, 2005 Times Picayune
Commission chairman: 'Can't believe it until you see it' -- Members of Gov. Kathleen Blanco's storm recovery commission got a first-hand look Wednesday at the massive destruction that hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward and the major challenges that lie ahead. "Unbelievable," Louisiana Recovery Authority chairman Norman Francis said while standing near a barge that was deposited in a flattened Lower 9th Ward neighborhood when a levee broke on the Industrial Canal during Katrina. The same area of the levee breached again during Rita, re-flooding the depopulated Lower 9th Ward. <more> Oct. 27, 2005 The Advocate
In southwest La., destruction everywhere. Team charged with recovery assesses area -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco's hurricane recovery team Wednesday got a first-hand look at some of the utter devastation caused by Hurricane Rita. During a walking tour of Cameron -- ground zero for Rita damages -- officials saw crumpled homes, businesses and schools. "I don't know if there are any homes in Cameron that are salvageable," said Scott Trahan, president of the Cameron Parish Police Jury. Members of the Louisiana recovery authority who took part in the tour were almost speechless. <more> Oct. 27, 2005 The Advocate
State commission tours storm-struck LC, Cameron parish, sets priorities- - Members of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the body appointed by Gov. Kathleen Blanco to oversee hurricane rebuilding efforts statewide, toured Lake Charles and Cameron Parish after the group's first board meeting Wednesday. About half of the 23-member board arrived by helicopter at Chennault International-al Airport just after noon Wednesday before touring battered parts of the city by bus, then heading to Cameron Parish. The other half of the board toured areas in southeast Louisiana devastated by Hurricane Katrina. <more> Oct. 27, 2005 Lakes Charles American-Press
Louisiana recovery board outlines priorities, tours damage - -Louisiana must demonstrate a willingness to help itself recover from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita if it wants to persuade federal officials to loosen the purse strings and send additional relief aid, the heads of Gov. Kathleen Blanco's recovery commission said Wednesday. "We have to continually show that we're not just going to Washington saying, 'Please give us this,' but to show what we're doing, what we have in the game, how hard we're working and how we want a partnership," said Walter Isaacson, vice chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, at the group's first full board meeting. <more> Oct. 27, 2005 AP
President of New Orleans Levee Board Quits Amid Questions About No-Bid Contracts to Relatives - - The head of the Orleans Levee Board has quit amid questions about no-bid contracts to his relatives in the days after Hurricane Katrina. The final days of board president Jim Huey's tenure also had been marred by his collection of nearly $100,000 in back pay several weeks before the storm. Huey had led the board for nine years. Huey defended the contracts and said he was legally entitled to the back pay. <more> Oct. 27, 2005 AP
Flurry of paper filed for evictions. Landlords hope to get apartments back - - Freed by the expiration Tuesday of Gov. Kathleen Blanco's ban on evictions after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans landlords made a beeline to the courthouse Wednesday to begin reclaiming their property from tenants who haven't come home or paid their rent since the storm. The activity made for a busy day for the clerks and constables of 1st City Court, which handles East Bank evictions, and 2nd City Court, which processes such matters in Algiers. <more> Oct. 27, 2005 Times Picayune
Over 200 Katrina deaths focus of Louisiana probe - - The deaths of over 200 patients at Louisiana nursing homes and hospitals during and just after Hurricane Katrina are being examined for evidence of crimes ranging from neglect to mercy killing, the state prosecutor's office said on Tuesday. The Louisiana Attorney General's office is examining allegations ranging from abandonment of patients to claims that some were euthanized in the chaotic aftermath of the storm, Kris Wartelle, a spokeswoman said. <more> Oct. 25, 2005 Reuters
DEQ is fired up about burning. System could save debris removal costs - - Using a high-heat, nearly smokeless system to burn trees, limbs and other plant debris dumped on the city in recent storms could save more than $200 million in landfill fees, speed the cleanup and reduce pollution, environmental officials said Tuesday. "Since we are dealing with 22 million tons of debris from Katrina and 500,000 tons from Rita, one way to effectively eliminate this waste stream is to burn it," Chuck Brown, assistant secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said Tuesday. <more> Oct. 26, 2005 Times Picayune
Two arrested in Katrina Cadillac probe -- A bounty hunter and another man have been arrested in the investigation into whether city police stole almost 200 cars from a dealership after Hurricane Katrina, authorities said Tuesday. Police have acknowledged some cars were taken from a Cadillac dealership after patrol cars were flooded. A department spokesman said earlier this month that it was not considered looting because the officers patrolled in the vehicles. <more> Oct. 26, 2005 AP
Louisiana's hurricane death toll climbs -- The death toll attributed to Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana has grown to 1,053, according to figures released Tuesday. <more> Oct. 26, 2005 AP
Lower 9th Ward like a surreal movie set. It was hard to be prepared for the devastation -- I'll admit it. I wasn't prepared for what I saw. And I can only begin to understand what it was like for the people who lived there. On Thursday, I rode along with residents from the devastated Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans as they toured the area by bus. For some, it was the first chance to see their homes, their neighbors and their belongings. But they weren't allowed to get off the bus. This angered some; others knew there was simply nothing to salvage. <more> Oct. 27, 2005 CNN

Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2005

Blanco to include levee system oversight in special session - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco said she will include proposals for heavier state oversight of Louisiana's levee system in her outline of bills that can be debated in a special legislative session next month. The governor said Tuesday that the transportation and natural resources departments were looking at ways for state government to focus more on the levees after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She didn't say, however, whether she would include in the session proposals to consolidate parish levee boards around south Louisiana into one oversight board. <more> Oct. 25, 2005
Blanco asks for more time to deliver storm documents to Congress - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco has asked for more time to deliver documents to congressional committees about her office's role in Hurricane Katrina preparations and emergency response to the storm. The delay would mean it could be December before internal documents reflecting what was going on behind the scenes are made public. "They have asked for the kitchen sink, which is OK," said Blanco executive counsel Terry Ryder. "But given the fact that we are dealing with Katrina and Rita right now, we have asked for 90 days more." <more>Oct. 25, 2005 AP
Blanco says Superdome repairs will help symbolize recovery - - Repairs to the Superdome were fast-tracked as a sign New Orleans can recover from the devastation and misery that the stadium's stripped roof and destroyed interior symbolize, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Tuesday. "We are trying to erase the negative images as soon as possible," she said. The governor also said she wants the Saints to stay in New Orleans, and the NFL team plays in the Superdome as part of its contractual arrangement with the state. <more> Oct. 25, 2005 AP

Little Data to Support Gulf Enterprise Zone's Promise. The Bush proposal may need a leap of faith, given that no one is sure that such business tax breaks actually work. - - As Congress sizes up President Bush's plan to turn the hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast into one huge, tax-sheltered enterprise zone, it might take a look at northwest Mississippi's new dishwasher plant. Viking Range Corp., based in Greenwood, Miss., decided earlier this year to situate the plant outside town but inside the boundary of the Mid-Delta Empowerment Zone. That qualifies the factory for a variety of tax breaks, including a $3,000-a-year credit for every zone resident it hires. Would Viking have built a new plant without the tax breaks? Yes, it says. Did the empowerment zone keep the plant and its 200 new jobs in the Greenwood area, or would they have wound up there anyway? Even the company can't say for sure. <more> Oct. 25, 2-005 LA Times
Louisiana oysters being harvested again -- Louisiana oysters are being harvested again, although it may be another week or more before people can belly up to an oyster bar and order a dozen on the half-shell. The beds in the eastern half of the state were tested and retested after Hurricane Katrina to ensure they were clean of chemicals or germs from the water that was pumped out of New Orleans or ran off of other areas. <more> Oct. 25, 2005 AP
Louisiana seeking $10.6 billion for post-storm road repairs. Officials making pitch in Washington today -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco's transportation agency is asking the federal government to put up $10.6 billion to rebuild Louisiana's damaged infrastructure in the next few years, the department's head told a legislative panel Monday. Johnny Bradberry, the secretary of the state Department of Transportation and Development, said he and other officials will be in Washington today to pitch their rebuilding plan to members of Congress and the Bush administration. The request includes $5.5 billion to repair highways and other infrastructure destroyed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as $5.1 billion for "critical future needs," including projects to elevate a portion of Interstate 10 in New Orleans to prevent future flooding. <more> Oct. 25, 2005 Times Picayune
An alarming ring - - Yes, many Baton Rouge businesses are booming following Katrina, but thousands of others are fighting for survival with no help in sight. Most alarming: The really bad news--government cuts--has yet to arrive. - - Wayne Felder's wholesale auto parts business was doing well in August. Bumpers, fenders, lights and hoods moved easily out of his north Baton Rouge business, casting a coastal distribution net from DeQuincy to Pascagoula, Miss. Two months later, things have changed--dramatically. In New Orleans and Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina wiped out 35% of his customers. In southwestern Louisiana, Hurricane Rita yanked another 10% of his wholesale business. <more> Oct. 25, 2005 Great Baton Rouge Business Report
Investigators Link Levee Failures to Design Flaws. Three Teams of Engineers Find Weakened Soil, Navigation Canal Contributed to La. Collapses -- Within a space of 15 hours on Aug. 29, three massive, concrete floodwalls in separate parts of the city suddenly fractured and burst under the weight of surging waters from Hurricane Katrina. The breaches unleashed a wall of water that swept entire buildings from their foundations and transformed what might have been a routine hurricane into the costliest storm in U.S. history. Today, exactly eight weeks after the storm, all three breaches are looking less like acts of God and more like failures of engineering that could have been anticipated and very likely prevented. <more> Oct. 25, 2005 Washington Post

Monday, Oct. 24, 2005

Ex-U.S. Sen. Breaux to head Louisiana hurricane panel - - Former U.S. Sen. John Breaux will lobby Congress for passage of federal legislation helping Louisiana recover from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, according to Gov. Kathleen Blanco's office. Breaux, working without compensation, will seek passage of measures covering appropriations for flood control, coastal restoration, business assistance, aid to local governments, and health care, according to a statement from Blanco's office. <more> Oct. 24, 2005 AP
Blanco gets support for post-Katrina stance - - Remember the flap when Gov. Kathleen Blanco rejected President George W. Bush's attempt to preempt her authority in post-Katrina days? In recent weeks, Democrat Blanco has gotten some pretty strong support for her stance from fellow governors. She refused to turn over control of National Guard units to the U.S. Department of Defense. <more> Oct. 24, 2005 The Advocate
Slidell getting back to normal. Schedler blames 'incompetent' governor for delaying financial aid - - Sen. Tom Schedler lays a lot of the blame for local government entities not getting their requested money in Gov. Kathleen Blanco's lap. "She is incompetent at best," Schedler said, referring to the governor. After meeting with local government officials Wednesday, Schedler investigated some of their complaints and concluded many of Louisiana's problems are "self-imposed." <more> Oct. 24, 2005 NewsBanner.com
Judge throws up roadblock to immediate evictions in NO - - With thousands of New Orleans residents facing possible eviction, a judge on Monday temporarily blocked landlords from forcing out tenants unless hearings are held close to home. Acting on a suit filed by community activist groups, Orleans Parish Civil District Judge Kern Reese issued a temporary order blocking eviction hearings from taking place at the New Orleans' post-hurricane court headquarters in Gonzales, roughly 60 miles west of the city. <more> Oct. 24, 2005 AP
New Orleans landlords ready wave of evictions - - A flood of legal battles is set to be unleashed Tuesday in New Orleans when Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco lifts a post-Hurricane Katrina ban on evictions and 8,000 to 10,000 absentee tenants face the losses of their homes and possessions. Landlords are expected to begin filing eviction requests with the courts immediately. If they're successful, they can clear out abandoned apartments and move tons of molding, waterlogged belongings to the streets within five to 10 days. In some cases, the landlords alone can make the decision to evict. <more> Oct. 24, 2005 Knight Ridder
Engineers Point to Flaws in Flood Walls' Design as Probable Cause of Collapse - - - When the Army Corps of Engineers started to design a flood wall on the 17th Street Canal here in the early 1980's, deep probes found what geologists viewed as a potentially weak layer of peat soil about 15 feet below sea level in the area where the wall collapsed during Hurricane Katrina. Yet in building the wall, corps officials acknowledge, they did not drive the steel pilings - the main anchors for the structure - any deeper than 17 feet. Several outside engineers who have examined the designs say the decision not to hammer the pilings deeper and into firmer ground left the support for the flood wall dangerously dependent on soil that could easily have given way under the immense pressure from floodwaters. <more> Oct. 24, 2005 NY Times
Louisiana study: Most victims over 60. Analysis included almost half of bodies recovered -- A majority of people killed by Hurricane Katrina were older residents unable or unwilling to evacuate in the rising floodwaters, according to a study of almost half the bodies recovered in Louisiana. About 60 percent of the nearly 500 victims identified so far were age 61 or older, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals reported. "The elderly were much more likely to be in hospitals and nursing homes as well as possibly homebound and not able to access transportation in order to evacuate from the storm," said agency spokesman Bob Johannessen. <more> Oct. 23, 2005 AP
Thousands of Demolitions Are Likely in New Orleans - - As crews begin inspecting thousands of rotting houses and preservationists begin efforts to save them, city and federal officials say that 30,000 to 50,000 of the city's houses will probably have to be demolished.That number, though smaller than some earlier predictions, nonetheless represents more than a quarter of the city's housing stock. A few weeks from now, when giant track excavators begin tearing into homes that once sheltered families and nest eggs, the city will experience one of the most painful moments of its ordeal. "Really, the whole scope of this thing is hard to get your mind around," said Allen Morse, who will be in charge of the demolition effort for the Army Corps of Engineers. "It's going to be a huge task." <more> Oct. 23, 2005 NY Times
Old Twist on Rebuilding New Orleans. Support is increasing for a proposal to use an arcane legal concept to temporarily put badly damaged homes in government hands. - - Officials and community advocates are quietly planting the seeds for an enterprising program that could give the government temporary control over thousands of privately owned homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina. An increasing number of Louisiana housing authorities believe the proposal, based on an arcane legal concept called "usufruct," could be a key to determining whether New Orleans will again be a seminal American city or whether it will stagnate with a population, like it has now, equal to that of Duluth, Minn., and Fort Smith, Ark. <more> Oct. 23, 2005 LA Times
Longing for Home in a Sealed New Orleans Ward - - Hurricane Katrina turned Willie L. Calhoun Jr. into a hugger. Much to his surprise, the storm stirred up his emotions in a way that made him want to grab people by the hand and pull them in for a quick embrace. Each time he crossed the bridge into the Lower Ninth Ward, he started hugging - pastors, Red Cross volunteers and the few neighbors he encountered in the now ghostly African-American neighborhood where he has spent his life. Mr. Calhoun, 55, did not hug Max Green, however. Mr. Green, a cowboy-boot-wearing insurance adjuster from Dallas, is handling the claim on 2229 Delery Street, the house where Mr. Calhoun grew up. Mr. Calhoun said jokingly that Mr. Green would get his hug if he wrote out a big check to Mr. Calhoun's 77-year-old mother, Gloria. But the two men could not take even the first step toward that kind of resolution this week. <more> Oct. 24, 2005 NY Times
GOP bitterly divided over federal spending. Katrina budget cuts may not muster enough votes to pass -- Republican efforts to cut billions of dollars of federal spending to pay for Hurricane Katrina relief are dividing the party and sparking feuds between fiscal hawks and members trying to protect programs that benefit their home states. House GOP leaders had to postpone a vote last week on a plan to increase the proposed cuts from $35 billion to $50 billion after Majority Leader Roy Blunt, R-Mo., admitted he lacked the votes to pass it. <more> Oct. 24, 2005 San Francisco Chronicle
Louisiana Wants Illinois Mud as Building Block for Devastated Marshes - - Mud from the Illinois River may soon be transported south to Louisiana to fill in wetlands tattered and punctured by Hurricane Katrina. Louisiana officials want to bolster the marshes -- already badly eroded before Katrina -- as a barrier against potential storm surges from future hurricanes. They are in early talks with Illinois to transport by barge or pipeline large amounts of mud to the Louisiana coast. "The material we have here is very much like what the delta was built up with," said John Marlin, senior scientist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. <more> Oct. 24, 2005 AP
Debris from Hurricanes May Be Used To Fight Coastal Erosion in Louisiana - - The mountains of debris created by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita could be the very stuff to protect Louisiana's ravaged coastline and keep hurricanes at bay. Louisiana environmental authorities are thinking of grinding up the approximately 50,000 fiberglass boats destroyed in the storms and mixing them with cement to build artificial reefs, and using tree limbs and timber from homes as sediment traps in the marshes. <more> Oct. 24, 2005 AP

Saturday, Oct. 22, 2005

System Failures Seen in Levees. Investigators looking into the breaches in New Orleans find problems in design, construction and maintenance of the flood-control barriers. - - The massive failures of levees in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, which flooded the city and caused hundreds of deaths, resulted from flaws at almost every level in the conception, design, construction and maintenance of the region's flood-control system, according to the preliminary findings of investigators. The Army Corps of Engineers, local levee boards in Louisiana and other agencies failed to grasp warning signs over the last decade that the levees were not as strong as expected, reflecting a cultural mind-set that did not pay enough attention to public safety, according to Robert Bea, an engineering professor at UC Berkeley who is part of a National Science Foundation investigating team. <more> Oct. 22, 2005 LA Times
After Two Storms, Cities Confront Economic Peril - - In better times, before Hurricane Katrina washed away its tax base, the St. Bernard School District employed 1,200 people. Now, with no money to make its payroll, the district employs fewer than 12 employees, and this weekend, the parish government expects to lay off a large share of its firefighters and emergency personnel. Next door in New Orleans, the school district has laid off virtually every employee, more than 7,000 people. The city has laid off half its workforce, and the state university system is preparing for thousands of layoffs and serious cutbacks in services. After weeks of dealing with the initial shock of the storm and trying to help residents with immediate emergencies, local and state governments around the Gulf Coast are starting to grapple with the staggering size of their financial peril. The disaster that caused so much human misery has also produced what some are calling the worst municipal finance crisis in the nation's history. <more> Oct. 22, 2005 NY Times
Plan would let president take control in disasters -- In what could be read as a slap at Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, the White House is exploring legal options for the president to seize control from a governor when disaster strikes. Federal law puts a state's chief executive at the helm in a disaster, with the president serving in a supporting role. But Frances Townsend, the former prosecutor President Bush appointed to examine failures in the response to Hurricane Katrina, said Friday that she is considering whether there is "a narrow band of cases" in which the president should take over. <more> Oct. 22, 2005 Times Picayune
Corpses still being found in 9th Ward - - Nearly two months after Hurricane Katrina struck and more than two weeks after the official quest for bodies was abandoned, corpses of Ninth Ward residents are being found every day. The discovery of new remains shows no sign of slowing down: Workers hired by the state remove several ossified bodies each day, many of them discovered by residents returning home. As of Wednesday, the death count from the hurricane was 1,053. That includes 20 more bodies than the total counted five days earlier and 80 more than were discovered by Oct. 4, when the search was officially called off. <more> Oct. 22, 2005 Knight Ridder
Last year's surplus too little to fill shortfall this year - - Louisiana lawmakers received a bit of bright news Friday in their struggles to balance the state budget and cope with a looming deficit: fiscal analysts expect the state will close last year's books with a $250 million surplus. But the news was only so comforting to a joint legislative budget panel. If the Legislature uses the surplus to help fill in a gigantic budget hole this year, it would only be a slight offset. The shortfall in state tax revenue alone is expected to top $1.5 billion because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. <more> Oct. 22, 2005 AP
Evacuees Begin to Put Down Roots. New Schools, Jobs Lessen Pull Back Home to New Orleans -- Tyler Smith, a stocky 8-year-old with enormous feet, returned home from school one day this week with the results of a geography quiz. "I got an A," the third-grader boasted as he presented the results of his handiwork to his grandmother, Dolores. "I really like my school," he added. "I like Austin, too." His 10-year-old brother, Deron, seconded that emotion. "I have a girlfriend already," he announced before retreating to a place on the floor near his father's bed to resume a marathon phone call with his new sweetheart, Ambry. As thousands of families victimized by Katrina begin the agonizing process of deciding where to piece together their broken lives, to return home or to try their luck in a new community far from the familiar, the sentiments expressed by children such as the Smith boys are bound to figure mightily. <more> Oct. 22, 2005 Washington Post
Bush Adviser Acknowledges Lack of Preparation for Katrina - - White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend acknowledged yesterday that the government failed to prepare adequately for the consequences of Hurricane Katrina, noting studies of New Orleans's vulnerability to flooding and lessons from flawed U.S. responses to past natural and terrorist disasters. Discussing the administration's internal inquiry into the response to the Aug. 29 hurricane at length for the first time, Townsend told reporters that the broad review she is leading is incomplete but that some initial findings are clear. U.S. officials thought before Katrina's arrival that "we were appropriately positioned and we had the right mechanisms in place," but the long-feared rupture of the New Orleans levee system and the inundation of the sub-sea-level city belied such confidence, she said. "It turned out we were all wrong," Townsend said. "We had not adequately anticipated." <more> Oct. 22, 2005 Washington Post
Worker Tells of Response by FEMA - - It was on the day before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, after thousands of people had packed the Superdome, that the lone FEMA worker in New Orleans sent his first plea for help. "Issues developing at the Superdome," the official, Marty J. Bahamonde, wrote in an agency e-mail message released Thursday by Congressional investigators. "The medical staff at the dome says they will run out of oxygen in about two hours." Mr. Bahamonde sent a series of messages as the hours and days passed, desperation growing. Most startling, he told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday, was that his supervisors in Washington did not seem to understand. In a series of e-mail messages in which he warned of worsening problems, he was told that the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency needed time to eat dinner at a restaurant in Baton Rouge, La., and to have a television interview. <more> Oct. 21, 2005 NY Times
Insider Condemns FEMA Response Its lone representative in New Orleans as Katrina hit, he tells senators of maddening neglect. - - The only FEMA employee to ride out Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans painted a grim portrait Thursday of an agency led by officials who were unprepared for the scope of the disaster and failed to respond to his increasingly desperate pleas for help. Marty Bahamonde's emotional testimony, backed by e-mails he sent from New Orleans as floodwaters engulfed much of the city, was the most detailed eyewitness account yet from a FEMA official of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's handling of the disaster. A veteran public affairs officer, Bahamonde was FEMA's only representative in the city from Saturday, Aug. 27, until early Tuesday, Aug. 30. Katrina made landfall Monday morning, Aug. 29. Bahamonde contested former FEMA director Michael D. Brown's late-September testimony to a House committee, including Brown's account of the number of FEMA staffers sent to the city before the storm — "I was the only one," Bahamonde said. <more> Oct. 21, 2005 LA Times
Doubt Is Cast on Cruise Deal. A Democrat says data show Carnival got a lucrative contract for providing post-Katrina lodging. The firm's chief denies profiteering. - - A prominent Democratic congressman said Thursday that internal company records showed that a controversial $236-million deal to lease three ships from Carnival Cruise Lines for emergency housing after Hurricane Katrina "looks lucrative for Carnival but exceptionally expensive for the taxpayer." In a six-page letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) said a January 2002 financial review made by Carnival and obtained by his staff cast "serious doubt" on the company's assertion that it would not earn any additional profit on the deal with the government. <more> Oct. 21, 2005 LA Times
LSU Med gets creative. Classes held in movie theater, students living on ferry -- The sun is barely up, but the movie theater parking lot holds dozens of cars. There's no early matinee. The cars belong to Hurricane Katrina refugees from New Orleans -- nursing students waiting for class to start. So in Theater 4, nursing management will be followed by "Serenity." After the Research in Nursing class, "Elizabethtown" is showing in Theater 6. An anatomy exam in 7 precedes "The Gospel." And in Theater 11, Mothers and Childbearing Families (aka obstetrics) is followed by the Wallace and Gromit movie "The Curse of the Were Rabbit." "It's just like an auditorium-style classroom," says Jenelle Johnson, 24. "They use PowerPoint. But we can smell popcorn on our way out." <more> Oct. 21, 2005 AP
Evidence of Lives Cut Adrift. Huge swaths of hurricane debris are moving through the ocean. Items big and small stir emotions on distant shores. - - The surge of water that engulfed parts of Iberia Parish four weeks ago tore shrimp boats from their moorings, wrenched the stairs off porches and lifted children's toys out of their yards. Residents spent the next weeks cataloging objects that seemed to have vanished. But they have not vanished; they have moved to other places. This week, while walking on the white sand beach of South Padre Island, Texas, a beachcomber picked up a waterlogged wad of paper and found a guide to real estate in New Iberia, located across 423 miles of open water to the northeast. The book was part of a huge floating cluster of objects that began washing ashore last Saturday and continued to drift in all week. At first it was just a tangle of bamboo and marsh grass, but then larger things washed up: railroad ties, the backboard to a basketball hoop, part of a retaining wall, and a flour sack printed with the name of a ship docked at Grand Isle, La., 490 miles away. When the surges from hurricanes Katrina and Rita receded to open water, they launched millions of pieces of debris on a journey through the ocean. <more> Oct. 22, 2005 LA Times

Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005

Quick fixes in New Orleans. More hotels, tours and transportation services are back in business, though with limited service and hours. - - NEARLY two months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, tourist services there are starting to bounce back. But the city is far from ready to let the good times roll. Most of the area's hotels are still closed, a recent survey found; those that are open mostly house evacuees and relief and reconstruction workers. Although scores of restaurants are serving again, many are on reduced hours, and some of the best-loved were still closed as of the Travel section's Tuesday deadline. But at least some air and train service has returned, and last weekend Gray Line tours began rolling again. <more> Oct. 20, 2005 LA Times

Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, left, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, background center, and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco leave a meeting where they addressed the immediate, post-hurricane priorities for the New Orleans hospitality industry, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Cheryl Gerber)
One by one, city's restaurants reopen. With Katrina's devastation still widely evident, the Big Easy's eateries are back in business, well ahead of schedule. - - THE menus are limited. There aren't enough waiters. And those places not using paper plates are hiring dishwashers at $10 an hour or more. But the restaurants of New Orleans are coming back. Though the devastation wrought in August by Hurricane Katrina is still apparent, restaurants are popping up in the French Quarter and central business district — the areas that escaped the worst of the hurricane and attendant flooding — in defiance of those who predicted that months would pass before anything of the sort could happen. <more> Oct. 20, 2005 Chicago Tribune
Business group pushes tax incentives. Storm-forced budget cuts are also urged -- The state's leading business lobby is urging Gov. Kathleen Blanco to press immediately for tax incentives to help rebuild businesses and to reduce state government spending in reaction to Hurricane Katrina. Responding to the governor's request for recovery suggestions, Louisiana Association of Business & Industry President Dan Juneau sent Blanco a letter Tuesday with 12 recommendations for economic revival and state budget stability. They include action in the November special legislative session to refit the size of government to match lower state tax revenues and loss of population. <more> Oct. 20, 2005 Times Picayune
TWO STREETS, TWO FUTURES: Katrina's Disparate Impact. The Economics of Return. Class, Color May Guide Repopulation of New Orleans - - These days, as planners and politicians look ahead, many realize that the future of this city, which before the storm was more than two-thirds black and nearly one-third poor, swings on two simple questions: Are residents coming home? If so, which ones? It now appears that long-standing neighborhood differences in income and opportunity -- along with resentment over the ghastly exodus -- are shaping the stalled repopulation of this mostly empty city. <more> Oct. 20, 2005 Washington Post
Chertoff Puts the Onus on FEMA. The Homeland Security secretary tells a House panel that local and state officials were not at fault for government lapses in addressing Katrina. - - FEMA's lack of planning, not the failures of state and local officials, was to blame for much of what went wrong with the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a congressional committee Wednesday. The assessment by the most senior administration official to face lawmakers since the hurricane struck in late August contrasted sharply with testimony earlier by Michael D. Brown, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Brown had blamed what he termed the "dysfunction" of Louisiana state and local officials for hobbling the relief effort. "From my own experience, I don't endorse those views," Chertoff said. He told lawmakers that he found the region's governors and mayors to be responsive as the crisis unfolded. <more> Oct. 20, 2005 LA Times
FEMA official in New Orleans blasts agency's response. Regional director said top officials ignored his pleas for help -- Federal Emergency Management Agency officials did not respond to repeated warnings about deteriorating conditions in New Orleans and the dire need for help as Hurricane Katrina struck, the first FEMA official to arrive conceded Thursday. Marty Bahamonde, a FEMA regional director, told a Senate panel investigating the government's response to the disaster that he gave regular updates to people in contact with then-FEMA Director Michael Brown as early as August 28, one day before Katrina made landfall. In most cases, he was met with silence. In an August 29 phone call to Brown informing him that the first levee had broke, Bahamonde said he received a polite thank you from Brown, who said he would check with the White House. <more> Oct. 20, 2005 AP
Money panel approves $45 million in spending on new projects - - As Louisiana officials plead with Washington for federal hurricane relief aid, a state money panel agreed Thursday to spend nearly $45 million on construction projects ranging from health labs and water wells to a sports complex and livestock facilities. A group of state senators not on the panel said the spending would damage Louisiana's attempts to secure federal cash for hurricane recovery efforts and would give the appearance that the state was focusing on non-emergency items while talking about employee layoffs and devastating health and education cuts. <more>Oct. 20, 2005 AP
Want fries with that slander? - - There are a lot of choice words that Louisianians could use to reply to Idaho Sen. Larry Craig's ignorant and mean-spirited attack on this state, but frankly, our mamas taught us not to use that kind of language. They also taught us not to kick people when they are down or repeat things we aren't sure are true. If Sen. Craig received similar home-training, he seems to have forgotten it. "Fraud is in the culture of Iraqis. I believe that is true in the state of Louisiana as well," the senator told the Lewiston (Idaho) Morning Tribune. <more> Oct. 20, 2005 Times Picayune
A pledge to build on - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco says that she's committed to keeping state institutions in New Orleans that were here before Hurricane Katrina, and that's an assurance that this community desperately needed to hear. <more> Oct. 20, 2005 Times Picayune

Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2005

Blanco appeals to Congress for aid. Members question whether some Gulf Coast areas should be rebuilt -- With support for hurricane victims appearing to wane in Washington and around the nation, Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Tuesday pleaded with Congress to keep the federal aid to Louisiana flowing. Blanco made her appeal through a teleconference with a joint House subcommittee, beseeching the lawmakers not to forget Louisiana's plight. "Without the financial support of Congress and the American people, we cannot meet the challenge," Blanco said to the U.S. Water Resources and Environment and the Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management subcommittees. <more> Oct. 19, 2005 The Advocate
New Orleans easing back into business. French Quarter businesses picking up pieces, opening doors -- The scene at Café du Monde on Tuesday was frenetic: employees polishing the counters and wiping the windows, contractors installing new equipment in the kitchen and applying one last coat of paint inside and around the landmark's outside seating area. Early Wednesday morning, the hard work paid-off, as the cafe's trademark beignets and coffee were once again available to the public. More than seven weeks after Katrina, the reopening of Café du Monde is helping New Orleans project a "back in business" image. <more> Oct. 19, 2005 CNN
Nagin folding hand on casino zone. Rebuilding east N.O. undecided, he says -- Mayor Ray Nagin's controversial proposal to make a downtown casino zone a key component of New Orleans' post-Katrina economic recovery strategy appears to have died as quickly as it was born. Testifying Tuesday before two House Transportation subcommittees on Capitol Hill, Nagin said he has given up on his idea to let a handful of the city's largest hotels develop on-site casinos. "The governor didn't much like the idea, so it is pretty much dead," Nagin told a House hearing on "a vision and strategy for rebuilding New Orleans." <more> Oct. 19, 2005 Times Picayune
Number Overstated for Storm Evacuees in Hotels - - The Red Cross and federal government said Tuesday that they had been significantly over reporting the number of Hurricane Katrina evacuees in hotels. Instead of 600,000 people, 200,000 remain in hotels, the charity said. Although the lower number means that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and cities receiving evacuees will find new housing for far fewer people, the count shows the lack of knowledge that FEMA has about the relocations and its limited oversight over the money it is committed to spend on such housing. <more> Oct. 19, 2005 NY Times
Chertoff: FEMA must be retooled. Homeland security secretary says agency was overwhelmed by Katrina -- Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday the Federal Emergency Management Agency was overwhelmed by Hurricane Katrina and must be retooled to improve preparation and response to natural disasters like the one that swamped the Gulf Coast. "There are many things that did not work well with the response," Chertoff said in written testimony to a House panel investigating the federal response to Katrina. "We are not where we need to be as a nation in the area of preparedness," he acknowledged. <more> Oct. 19, 2005 AP
Chertoff says FEMA is ready for Wilma - - Most of FEMA's problems in dealing with disasters can be fixed with better planning, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told Congress on Wednesday. "We are going to be very prepared for Hurricane Wilma," he said of the storm on the horizon. Testifying before a special House committee created to probe the slow federal response to Katrina, Chertoff deflected questions about his own actions by telling lawmakers he had relied on Federal Emergency Management Agency experts with decades of experience in hurricane response. "I'm not a hurricane expert," he said repeatedly. <more> Oct. 19, 2005 AP
Katrina turns pathologist into doctor for the masses -- Fate has a sense of irony, said Gregory S. Henderson, M.D., Ph.D. That's his explanation for the twist of fate that made him one of the few physicians available to the huddled masses trapped by Katrina's waters on the downtown streets of New Orleans -- "and I'm a pathologist!" Pathologists are far more familiar with diseases that can be diagnosed by peering through a microscope at cells on a slide than with dealing with a sick or injured patient face to face. "I was years away from my training in direct patient care," Henderson said. But he coped, and distant memories carried him through. <more> Oct. 19, 2005 CNN
Plain-spoken leader of task force gone. Thousands of troops stay behind to help - - While thousands of National Guard troops from across the country remain in metro New Orleans, the active-duty military force assembled in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is gone. Gone, too, is its leader, Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, a Louisiana native who returned to Fort Gillem, Ga., on Oct. 11 to resume command of the 1st Army. <more> Oct. 19, 2005 Times Picayune
Death toll from Hurricane Katrina increases to 1,281 -- Four more bodies have been found in debris from Hurricane Katrina, pushing Mississippi's death toll to 228, a Gulf Coast coroner reported. The number brings to 1,281 the deaths from Katrina reported by state and local officials in five states. Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove, who is overseeing victim recovery in the Mississippi coastal counties devastated by the Aug. 29 hurricane, said Tuesday that search teams found one body Friday near the Jordan River in Hancock County. <more> Oct. 19, 2005 AP

Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005

Louisiana governor pledges to spend recovery funds responsibly. Blanco says allocation of federal funds will be 'transparent' -- Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco promised Congress on Tuesday that the spending of billions of federal tax dollars to help her state recover from Hurricane Katrina will be "transparent and wide open" as never before. Responding to statements that some lawmakers made noting a history of public corruption in her state, Blanco told a House panel that she intends to hire a national accounting firm to audit all federal recovery spending in Louisiana and has directed the state recovery authority she created this week to set up an audit committee to account for all such spending. "The financial affairs of Louisiana will be transparent and wide open as it pertains to this period of recovery, more so than it ever has been before," Blanco said. "We will stand well to the expected scrutiny by the public, the Congress and the media." <more> Oct. 18, 2005 AP
Blanco speaks up for N.O. economy. Give local firms U.S. pacts, she says - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco pledged Monday to keep institutions like Louisiana State University Medical School in New Orleans rather than move them to other cities in the state. And she said she would exert continuous pressure on federal agencies awarding billions in contracts to hire local firms and workers whenever possible. With more than 40 percent of Louisiana's businesses disrupted or ruined, and with more than $60 billion in federal assistance pouring into the state, the job ahead for elected officials is at once the most daunting and important they will ever face, she said. <more> Oct. 18, 2005 Times Picayune
Treasurer: refinance state debt to help with budget hole -- Louisiana could refinance its debt to extend the repayment period and free up immediate cash to help the state fill in its huge budget hole, State Treasurer John Kennedy suggests. State budget officials have estimated that the storms could knock a $1.5 billion hole in the state's $7.2 billion general fund as taxes on sales, personal income, gambling and other activities come in far lower than projected. <more> Oct. 18, 2005 AP
Special session agenda not yet known - - There are about three weeks remaining before state lawmakers tackle the mounting issues from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The special session is scheduled to begin November 6, but Gov. Kathleen Blanco has yet to set an agenda. Legislators said the sooner they see a plan, the better -- but Louisiana law says the governor only has to give lawmakers five days' notice before a special session convenes. Hurricane Katrina forced south Louisiana residents from their homes and has left thousands in shelters across the nation. <more> Oct. 18, 2005 The Advocate
NUEVO ORLEANS? An influx of Hispanic workers in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has some officials wondering why locals aren't on the front lines of recovery - - More than seven weeks after Hurricane Katrina cold-cocked the New Orleans area, the London Lodge on Airline Highway still has no electricity and isn't open for business. Nevertheless, it doesn't have many vacancies. The first floor of the Lodge, a landmark on a strip briefly famous for trysts between prostitutes and a Louisiana television evangelical, is gone, the Sheetrock and furniture and cigarette machines and glass that once comprised it left in smashed heaps scattered about the lot. And housed on the second floor above the piles of moldy rubble are the workers creating those piles. Most are Latino. Indeed, on similar jobs throughout the hurricane-ravaged region, a majority of the workers are Latino, primarily coming from Texas. The hotels and motels on both banks of the Mississippi River -- most in better shape than the London Lodge -- are filled with these new arrivals. <more> Oct. 18, 2005 Times Picayune
More trailer sites come to B.R. area - - A new FEMA trailer site is up and running in Baton Rouge. The park, which is located on Victoria Road between Airline Highway and Prescott, has 36 trailer homes available, although only a handful of families have moved in so far. Jeanne Purdom moved into her new temporary home last Thursday following a six-week stay at the River Center. <more> Oct. 18, 2005 The Advocate
SBA said to be probed on Katrina help. Report: Backlog of emergency loan applications builds while help remains a trickle. - - Government investigators have launched probes of the Small Business Administration's disaster loan program in the wake of complaints of problems responding to victims of Hurricane Katrina, according to a published report Tuesday. USA Today reports that both the federal Government Accountability Office and the SBA inspector general's office are conducting investigations into problems with delays in getting help to businesses hit by the hurricane six weeks after the storm. The paper says an SBA report shows that, as of Oct. 12, there had been 53,948 loan applications received from the region, with 1,049 loans approved and only 58 checks, totaling $533,400, sent out. <more> Oct. 18, 2005 CNN
Blanco creates Recovery Authority - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco Monday created a panel to assemble short- and long-range plans to guide the state’s recovery from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The 26-member Louisiana Recovery Authority will focus key issues like jobs, housing, education, health care, the environment, family services and transportation and “local needs will drive the plan,” she said. “We can’t replace the hopes and dreams of our people but we can help them to build new ones.” Blanco said much of the storm-ravaged area “will never be the same but that does not mean our people and institutions can’t emerge stronger and better… We cannot simply re-create what the storms destroyed. We must make the new Louisiana smarter, safer and stronger.” <more> Oct. 18, 2005 The Town Talk
Blanco picks advisory panel. Group to coordinate with Nagin's Bring Back New Orleans - - A week after coming under fire for an alleged lack of leadership in recovering from the hurricanes, Gov. Kathleen Blanco created a board Monday to advise her on rebuilding. Blanco named 23 people to the board of directors for the Louisiana Recovery Authority. <more> Oct. 18, 2005 The Advocate
Louisiana Governor, Under Fire, Appoints an Advisory Panel - - Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco created an advisory commission Monday to lead the state's recovery after two devastating hurricanes, responding to critics who said the pace of rebuilding was moving too slowly. The 23-member advisory board, to be known as the Louisiana Recovery Authority, will be led by Norman C. Francis, the president of Xavier University, who will serve as chairman, and Walter Isaacson, former chief executive of CNN and now president of the Aspen Institute, who will be vice chairman. Xavier, in New Orleans, is the nation's only historically black Catholic university. Mr. Isaacson is a New Orleans native. <more> Oct. 18, 2005 NY Times
Messages Depict Disarray in Federal Katrina Response - - As Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans on Aug. 29, Michael D. Brown, then director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, appeared confused over whether Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had put him in charge, senior military officials could not reach Brown and his team became swamped by the speed of the unfolding disaster, according to e-mails to and from Brown. When Chertoff belatedly named Brown the on-site disaster coordinator on the night of Aug. 30 and declared Katrina an "incident of national significance" -- the highest- order catastrophe under a new national response plan -- Brown and his assistants privately complained. <more>Oct. 18, 2005 Washington Post
Debris removal a busy operation -- Short- and long-bed dump trucks line Orleans Avenue on City Park's west side from the Interstate 610 underpass to Delgado Community College, waiting first for their inspections and then for their marching orders. The neutral ground between the park and college is cluttered with recreational vehicles, mobile homes, smaller campers and tents. <more> Oct. 18, 2005 The Advocate
Spike Lee plans HBO doc on Katrina - - Never far from the center of a storm, self-described filmmaker "provocateur" Spike Lee is headed to New Orleans to make a documentary for HBO examining how race and politics may have collided in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Lee says he will use "factual journalism, not creative narrative" in his look at Katrina and New Orleans, which has become a rallying point for black political activists and conspiracy theorists. <more> Oct. 18, 2005 LA Times

Monday, Oct. 17, 2005

Blanco appoints state recovery authority -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco appealed for an end to the bickering that has dominated Louisiana's hurricane recovery on Monday as she announced the creation of a new panel to oversee the process. The 24-member Louisiana Recovery Authority will be charged with developing everything from a 30-day plan to a five-year plan for helping the state's households, schools and businesses, Blanco said at the state capitol. <more> Oct. 17, 2005 Reuters

Newly appointed chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, Norman Francis (L), laughs with Louisiana State Governor Kathleen Blanco (C) and Vice-Chairman of the Recovery Authority, Walter Isaacson at the announcement of the creation of the Louisiana Recovery Authority in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, October 17, 2005. Governor Blanco created the authority and appointed a 23 person board of directors to work on resolving issues with housing, jobs, transportation, healthcare, and education in areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Blanco appoints her hurricane recovery commission - - The president of Xavier University and a former chairman of CNN will lead Gov. Kathleen Blanco's advisory commission for Louisiana's recovery and rebuilding efforts after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Blanco unveiled the 23-member board of directors for the Louisiana Recovery Authority on Monday — seven weeks after Katrina struck the state Aug. 29, causing devastating flooding and wind damage, and more than three weeks after Rita followed Sept. 24 with another harsh blow. "Louisiana will never be the same, but that does not mean that our people and their institutions cannot emerge better and stronger," Blanco said at the announcement. <more> Oct. 17, 2005 AP
Nagin, Blanco asked to detail response. Senate panel probes actions after storm -- A Senate investigatory committee has asked Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin for a detailed accounting of their response to Hurricane Katrina. The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs has asked Nagin and Blanco for documents. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who is leading the House investigation, said he is not interesting in producing a document outlining blame. "We want to be able to report what happened and where, what decisions were made, and try to talk about what went right and what went wrong, so that we can learn by our mistakes," Davis said in an interview. <more> Oct. 17, 2005 Times Picayune
Blanco urged to include tax issues in next session. Flooded homes may get tax relief - - In a rare bit of good news for those whose lives were turned upside down by Hurricane Katrina, it appears that a consensus is emerging on a package of proposals that would protect owners of properties trashed by the storm from the added insult of a hefty tax bill. The dark cloud to that silver lining, of course, is that local governments already bled dry of sales tax money and other revenue streams are likely to face further shortfalls in the coming year. <more> Oct. 17, 2005 Times Picayune
Some tourists trickle back to New Orleans -- Jeanie Reavis has come for Mardi Gras and Jazzfest and Creole Christmas, dozens of trips to the city she loves. She will head to New Orleans again Monday, undeterred by the destruction she witnessed on her TV screen from 700 miles away. She says she has to. "Everyone thinks I'm crazy, but everyone that knows me knew that as soon as it was open I'd be getting down there," said the 54-year-old secretary from Loami, Illinois, near Springfield. "I really need to see it." With the French Quarter, the city's main tourist draw, spared from most of Hurricane Katrina's wrath, visitors are beginning to trickle back and others are vowing to keep upcoming reservations. <more> Oct. 17, 2005 AP
Bush Is in No Hurry on Katrina Recovery. The president's go-slow approach is called a recipe for chaos, even by fellow Republicans. - - Almost two months after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast and a month after promising in a nationally televised speech to help rebuild the region "quickly," President Bush has settled on a cautious, piecemeal approach that even many members of his own party fear will stall reconstruction and sow economic disarray. Bush has made highly publicized trips to Louisiana and Mississippi on average of once a week since the storm, but the administration has yet to introduce legislation for two of the three proposals the president highlighted during his September speech from New Orleans. <more> Oct. 17, 2005 LA Times
Chief of Louisiana Morgue Says Pace of Work There Is Accelerating - - The number of bodies that the central morgue has released to funeral homes since Hurricane Katrina has nearly doubled in the last week, the Louisiana emergency medical director said Friday while shepherding reporters on a tour of the morgue. The tour, offered in an effort to make the public aware of the complexities involved in making identifications, followed weeks of criticism of what many families have called a painfully slow process. At a news briefing last week, Dr. Louis Cataldie, the emergency medical director, said that slightly more than 70 bodies had been released. On Friday, he said that 132 had been released and that 128 more were ready. The families of all but 10 of those 128 victims have been contacted, Dr. Cataldie said. <more> Oct. 16, 2005 NY Times
In New Orleans, the Trashman Will Have to Move Mountains - - On one front lawn, a two-foot-high pile of debris stands where a hedge would normally be. A rusting mattress lies next to a bottle of cleaning fluid and a television set. The stench of paint combined with weeks-old food is choking. Flies hover over the whole thing, zeroing in on a handful of foil-wrapped chocolate eggs. This is just one pile. There are thousands upon thousands of others, totaling 22 million tons of waste, according to state officials. They have baked in the swampy heat for weeks now, making this city look and smell like a landfill. It is more trash than any American city produces in a year. It is enough to fill the Empire State Building 40 times over. It will take at least 3.5 million truckloads to haul it away. <more> Oct. 16, 2005 NY Times
Seeking a Bridge to Somewhere. Officials are trying to get hundreds of thousands of Katrina evacuees out of hotels into more stable housing. But the obstacles are many. - - With almost 600,000 Hurricane Katrina evacuees living in hotels and motels across the country, government officials are launching a massive effort to transfer them into more stable housing. The drive, if successful, will significantly reduce what has become an $11-million-a-day tab, paid by U.S. taxpayers. But officials are encountering an array of obstacles and inefficiencies that have threatened their ability to move evacuees into long-term temporary housing. Among the pressing issues: a shortage of housing that evacuees can afford, a widely scattered population that is difficult to track, local opposition to establishing trailer-park communities and a mismatch between the needs of the evacuees and the location and condition of potential housing. <more> Oct. 14, 2005 LA Times
Risk Estimate Led to Few Flood Policies. For Most in New Orleans's Ninth Ward, Extra Coverage Wasn't Required -- Many of the thousands of homeowners in the Lower Ninth Ward, one of the hardest-hit areas in the city, lacked flood insurance because the neighborhood in theory was supposed to be relatively safe, local insurance agents and residents said. Most of the area sits outside the "high-risk" flood districts designated on federal maps used for insurance, and so, unlike homeowners elsewhere in this low-lying city, most in the Lower Ninth Ward were not legally required by lenders to buy flood coverage. <more> Oct. 17, 2005 Washington Post
Courts' Slow Recovery Begins at Train Station in New Orleans - - The inmates, bleary from trying to sleep on a fenced-in chunk of pavement outside the bus and train station in New Orleans, parade upstairs to the makeshift courtroom, their hands in white plastic cuffs. The prosecutor hustles up from his office - a k a the Taste of New Orleans gift shop - where his file folders now share the display window with bottles of hot sauce and plastic ladles that say "Cooking with Jazz." The magistrate judge, Gerard J. Hansen, is making do behind an old desk, briskly setting bail for some of the 1,100 people arrested in the metropolitan area since Hurricane Katrina hit on Aug. 29. <more> Oct. 14, 2005 NY Times
Dolphins' return to lake hailed as good sign - - Dolphins have returned to Lake Pontchartrain. That suggests the lake is in far better shape than expected after an infusion of polluted flood water from New Orleans, Carlton Dufrechou, director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, said. "The rate of recovery of the lake is a welcomed surprise. Eight dolphins were sighted near Mandeville on Oct. 11," Dufrechou said. <more> Oct. 16, 2005 The Advocate
New Orleans doctor recalls dire scene at hospital. Mercy killings suspected at medical center in wake of Katrina -- The Louisiana attorney general's office is investigating allegations that three days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, staff at Memorial Medical Center discussed euthanizing patients they thought might not survive. The attorney general has requested that autopsies be performed on all 45 bodies taken from the hospital. CNN's Aaron Brown talked to Dr. Bryant King -- who was working at Memorial when conditions were at their worst. King said he did not witness any acts of euthanasia, but "most people know something happened that shouldn't have happened." Brown talked with Dr. King on "Newsnight with Aaron Brown and Anderson Cooper." <more> Oct. 17, 2005 CNN
Houston school keeps Katrina victims together -- Far from the French Quarter, children driven from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina are doing their schoolwork amid reminders of home. At New Orleans West, a charter school set up for storm victims in a small, once-shuttered brick elementary school, the student uniforms are the traditional Mardi Gras colors of purple, green and gold. The school's symbol is a Texas Lone Star with a Louisiana fleur de lis in the middle. And the principal wants to find a Louisiana flag to fly atop the Texas flag. <more> Oct. 17, 2005 AP
For Trumpet-Playing Coroner, Hurricane Provides Swan Song - - "I went down to St. James Infirmary/Saw my baby there/Stretched out on a long white table/So sweet, so cold, so fair." If this tune, made famous by Louis Armstrong, happens to be a favorite of your local coroner, then either you are alarmed, or you are from New Orleans. If your coroner also plays the trumpet, is known as Dr. Jazz, and marches in funeral processions wearing a white suit, then he is Dr. Frank Minyard, a living illustration of the intimate connection between music and death in New Orleans. <more> Oct. 17, 2005 NY Times
A Used Car or a Katrina Biohazard? - - TO the sorrows and losses wrought by Hurricane Katrina, add the unprecedented potential for fraud - and peril - in the resale of cars damaged by the storm. Since the hurricane struck on Aug. 29, auto clubs and law enforcement officials have warned consumers to scrutinize used cars for water damage and investigate their histories. Because a damaged car's title can be "washed"- varying state laws make it relatively easy to obtain a clean title in one state for a vehicle branded with a "flood" or "salvage" title in another - such warnings are routine after major storms. But Katrina's automotive losses were hardly routine. Cars that sat in sewage- and fuel-contaminated floodwaters in New Orleans could pose unprecedented risks to anyone who handles the vehicles or their parts, according to the Coordinating Committee for Automotive Repair, a nonprofit organization that provides advice on pollution prevention and worker health and safety issues to segments of the auto industry, including repair businesses. <more> Oct. 17, 2005 NY Times

Thursday, Oct. 13, 2005

Vitter: Scathing remarks 'joke'. Senator criticizes state leaders' storm response -- U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., on Wednesday gave a brief but scathing appraisal of the efforts of Louisiana's state leaders in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Later in the day, Vitter said he made the comments as jokes. He was speaking at a Lafayette Parish Republican Executive Committee luncheon when state party Treasurer Charlie Buckels congratulated Vitter on the work he has done on behalf of the state in the wake of the storms. Vitter thanked Buckels, but said he had been similarly congratulated recently and had said that considering the efforts of state officials, "it's easy to look like a giant in a land of pygmies." Another audience member, who identified herself as a New Orleans evacuee, asked Vitter if Gov. Kathleen Blanco is "doing anything." Vitter initially replied that the question was a little broad, but went on to say "If you give me a recall petition, I'll sign it," though he did not name Blanco as the target of the recall. <more> Oct. 13, 2005 The Advocate
Dealing with Katrina and facing the future. Poll: Losing everything tops difficulties faced by survivors -- Hurricane Katrina's survivors face homelessness, unemployment and worry-filled sleepless nights, according to a poll of those who sought relief from the Red Cross. According to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted in cooperation with the Red Cross, about a third of the 1,510 respondents were homeless, a quarter were out of work, and more than a fifth were still separated from at least one family member. Roughly 60 percent said they had trouble sleeping and felt depressed; about two-thirds reported feeling anxiety. The most difficult thing cited? The loss of everything they owned. <more> Oct. 13, 2005 CNN
$11 Million a Day Spent on Hotels for Storm Relief - - Straining to meet President Bush's mid-October deadline to clear out shelters, the federal government has moved hundreds of thousands of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina into hotel rooms at a cost of about $11 million a night, a strategy local officials and some members of Congress criticize as incoherent and wasteful. The number of people in hotels has grown by 60 percent in the past two weeks as some shelters closed, reaching nearly 600,000 as of Tuesday. Even so, relief officials say they cannot meet the deadline, as more than 22,000 people were still in shelters in 14 states on Wednesday. The reliance on hotels has been necessary, housing advocates say, because the Federal Emergency and Management Agency has had problems installing mobile homes and travel trailers for evacuees and has been slow to place victims in apartments that real estate executives say are available throughout the southeast. <more> Oct. 13, 2005 NY Times
22,000 Katrina evacuees still homeless -- The federal government has moved nearly a quarter-million Hurricane Katrina victims into hotel rooms, mobile homes or other housing - but more than 22,000 people remain in shelters, the head of the relief effort said. The news dampened hopes that the government could meet its self-imposed deadline to empty shelters of hurricane victims. President Bush set a mid-October goal for getting everyone out, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency was shooting for Oct. 15. <more> Oct. 13, 2005 AP
There's Little Future Here. Residents of New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward get their first glimpse of the damage. For one woman, it was 'look and leave' -- and mourn. - - Six weeks after the flood, on the first day they could come back to look at their homes, some residents of the Lower 9th Ward managed small moments of victory Wednesday, recovering bits of their pre-hurricane lives. A favorite piece of china. A photo album stored on a high closet shelf. In one home, a battery-operated clock, still ticking, still telling correct time. But in most of the low-lying, poverty-stricken neighborhood — one devastated by Katrina and smacked again weeks later by Rita — there were scenes of near-total loss. Hardly anybody who came home to the Lower 9th Ward seemed to think these homes could ever be lived in again. <more> Oct. 13, 2005 LA Times
Residents see ravaged area for first time - - The floodwaters washed away entire city blocks in the Lower 9th Ward, leaving its 14,000 residents grappling over what to make of the present, let alone the future, of a neighborhood that struggled with blight, crime and poverty long before Hurricane Katrina punched through the city's levee system. Wednesday -- the first day that some Lower 9th Ward residents were officially allowed in to see what, if anything, they could salvage -- made their choices painfully clear. <more> Oct. 13, 2005 Times Picayune
Residents scatter with the wind. And some might stay where they landed - - After enduring endless lines for gasoline and fighting would-be car thieves in Lafayette, Hurricane Katrina evacuee Kevin O'Connor's decision to flee Louisiana for the farthest-flung part of the nation was guided by one overriding desire: comfort. In the wake of the storm, residents of the New Orleans area remain scattered across all 50 states, with high concentrations of residents across the South and in major metropolitan areas, according to a map showing where hundreds of thousands of Katrina evacuees have applied for federal assistance. <more> Oct. 13, 2005 Times Picayune
New levee walls to be built deeper, stronger than before. Corps still not sure why they failed in storm -- The Army Corps of Engineers is planning to repair New Orleans area levee breaches caused by Hurricane Katrina with fortified walls much stronger than the originals, design documents show. Where some floodwalls -- consisting of a concrete section mounted on a steel base -- collapsed, the corps wants bulkier concrete walls and significantly deeper steel anchors reinforced with concrete piles. <more> Oct. 13, 2005 Times Picayune
New Orleans wants to rebuild schools, reputation from the ground up -- The pungent smell of mold seeps out of broken windows at Louis Armstrong Elementary School, where toppled desks lie under overturned bookcases, all caked with layers of potentially toxic mud. The school is a historic site that, along with another nearby school, was the first in New Orleans to integrate more than 40 years ago. Now a symbol for what faces area schools, it could be bulldozed if found too water-damaged and dangerous. "It's hard to find a silver lining from Katrina, but one silver lining is that the school board can start anew," said Leslie Jacobs, from the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. "And if any school district needs to start anew, it's Orleans." <more> Oct. 13, 2005 AP
Staff at New Orleans hospital debated euthanizing patients. Investigation continues into what occurred during Katrina ordeal -- Three days after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, staff members at the city's Memorial Medical Center had repeated discussions about euthanizing patients they thought might not survive the ordeal, according to a doctor and nurse manager who were in the hospital at the time. The Louisiana attorney general's office is investigating allegations that mercy killings occurred and has requested that autopsies be performed on all 45 bodies taken from the hospital after the storm. Orleans Parish coroner Frank Minyard said investigators have told him they think euthanasia may have been committed. <more> Oct. 13, 2005 CNN
Rebuilding a great college town. New Orleans colleges hit recruiting road -- The college fair at a University of New Hampshire gymnasium is a regular stop on Rae-Anne Mena's annual circuit through the Northeast. Her job is talking up Loyola University of New Orleans -- its Jesuit service mission, its strong core curriculum, its academic programs and sports teams. But this year, as students and parents snake along the rows of tables toward Loyola's, they look surprised to see her. "Are you under water?" several ask. "When will you reopen?" <more> Oct. 13, 2005 AP
READY TO ROLL. Mardi Gras won't be derailed, a delegation of Carnival krewes and planners assures the N.O. council - - Yes, Virginia, there will be a Mardi Gras. Luminaries from across the Carnival spectrum marched into City Hall on Wednesday to decree that they stand ready to stage a scaled-down, post-Katrina version of the Greatest Free Show on Earth in 2006 that will serve notice that the Crescent City is alive and well. The news was greeted with glee by New Orleans City Council members, who pledged their collective support to make it happen. <more> Oct. 13, 2005 Times Picayune

Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2005

Officials press for changes in federal loan requirements - - Federal emergency loans were supposed to be quick fixes for cash-strapped parishes to pay police officers, sewage workers and others struggling to rebuild communities slammed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. But requirements for repaying the loans must be eased or local governments won't be able to borrow the money, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Wednesday. "We don't want to make dishonest people out of desperate people," she said. <more> Oct. 12, 2005 AP
FEMA Restricts Evacuee Data, Citing Privacy. Families and Police Protest -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency is restricting the release of information on Hurricane Katrina evacuees, complicating efforts by families to find loved ones and by law enforcement officials searching for parolees and convicted sex offenders. Citing privacy concerns, FEMA has rejected a request by Texas officials for access to its database of the more than 100,000 evacuees who have registered for state aid, according to the governor's office. FEMA has also declined requests from five states to cross-check a database of convicted sex offenders and parolees against a list of evacuees requesting federal assistance, law enforcement officials said. <more> Oct. 12, 2005 Washington Post
New Orleans Pumped Out, Army Says - - The Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday that it had finished pumping out the New Orleans metropolitan area, which was flooded by Hurricane Katrina six weeks ago and then swamped again by Hurricane Rita. "Of course there will be a little puddle here and there, but as far as accessibility goes, everything is pumped out," spokeswoman Lauren Solis said. <more> Oct. 12, 2005 AP
Grim discovery as Lower 9th reopens. Feds seek better housing for Katrina evacuees -- As residents of New Orleans' hardest-hit district lined up for miles to see what was left of their homes Wednesday, one man made a grim discovery. His grandmother's body was still inside her home in the Lower 9th Ward more than six weeks after Hurricane Katrina. "I'm never going to forget this rest of my life, man. That's all I can say," said Paul Murphy. It was his first chance to visit the neighborhood east of the French Quarter since the August 29 disaster. <more> Oct. 12, 2005 CNN
Floodwater Not as Toxic As Feared, Experts Say. Metals Seen as Chief Hazard In Survey of New Orleans - - The floodwater that covered New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was not unusually toxic and was "typical of storm water runoff in the region," according to a study published yesterday. Most of the gasoline-derived substances in the water evaporated quickly, and the bacteria from sewage also declined over time, the scientist leading the study said. The water's chief hazard was from metals that are potentially toxic to fish. However, no fish kills have been reported in Lake Pontchartrain, where the water that once covered 80 percent of the city was pumped. <more> Oct. 12, 2005 Washington Post
Housing Aid Called Too Much, Too Little. FEMA Critics Cite Waste as Evacuees Strain to Pay Rent - - The Federal Emergency Management Agency's evolving efforts to shelter Hurricane Katrina victims continue to waste huge amounts of taxpayer dollars and could soon leave many evacuees short of money and facing eviction, according to renter advocates and housing industry officials. The concerns focus on FEMA's extension of an $8.3 million-a-day program to house 549,000 people in hotel rooms beyond an Oct. 15 deadline and its handling of a new rental assistance program, which offers displaced families a lump sum of $2,358 for three months' rent. The disaster agency has previously drawn criticism for its troubled $1 billion-plus effort to house hurricane evacuees in 125,000 trailers. <more> Oct. 12, 2005 Washington Post
Organizers vow Mardi Gras will go on. Specifics uncertain in aftermath of Hurricane Katrina -- Mardi Gras organizers promised Wednesday to roll out the city's signature celebration in February despite the widespread destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. Tourism officials, float builders and parade hosts appeared before the City Council to insist the annual pre-Lent celebration -- part family party, part Bacchanalian blowout -- returns this winter. "We have to do this," said Councilwoman Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson. "We can't afford to miss a beat." <more> Oct. 12, 2005 AP
Losing Hope in Louisiana -- Nearly six weeks after Hurricane Katrina altered both the landscape of Louisiana and the national psyche, most Americans seem poised for the next news cycle: the fight over the new Supreme Court nominee looks to be especially juicy, as does the fun brewing down in Texas over Tom DeLay. But here in what has become, by default, Louisiana's most populous city, the hurricane just won't go away, and the initial excitement of being the state's primary triage center, and suddenly finding ourselves elevated from Nowhere on the Bayou to the center of MediaWorld, has long since worn off. <more> Oct. 12, 2005 Washington Post
Miscommunication cited in Katrina response - - The military's response to Hurricane Katrina was the largest and fastest in U.S. history, but it was hampered by an early disconnect with state and local authorities, a senior Pentagon official said Wednesday. Paul McHale, the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, said the military should have learned more from its experience in previous natural disasters, including Hurricane Andrew in south Florida in 1992. Communication with state and local authorities in Louisiana and Mississippi was so poor in the hours immediately after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29 that military commanders had to use couriers to transmit messages, McHale said. <more> Oct. 12, 2005 AP
Jackson's buses bring job seekers to N.O. -- As promised, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and members of his Rainbow PUSH Coalition rolled into town Tuesday on five buses carrying Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans who were eager to find a place to live and work. But reporters who converged on a Piccadilly restaurant in Metairie to interview the returning residents were surprised to find that some of them were not even from Louisiana, and still others were not hurricane evacuees. Some of them were from Memphis, Tenn., and Chicago. <more> Oct. 12, 2005 The Advocate
River Center residents move on - - Tuesday was moving day for Dwight Rixner, his wife and four children. They got the word over the weekend that the family would be leaving the Baton Rouge River Center and moving to a mobile home in Hammond. It's the next leg of a journey that began when Hurricane Katrina ripped part of the roof off their Kenner home on Aug. 29. They plan to stay in the mobile home about a year as they rebuild their life. <more> Oct. 12, 2005 The Advocate
Mayor: BR needs ignored. Population rise costly - - Mayor-President Kip Holden insisted Tuesday that East Baton Rouge Parish will become home to 100,000 permanent new residents because of Hurricane Katrina -- far more than a business group has estimated for the entire Baton Rouge area. Holden said he bases his estimate on traffic counts and conversations with one evacuee after another who say they like Baton Rouge and plan to stay. But he complained to a legislative panel Tuesday that the federal government still hasn't paid a dime to compensate the parish for the extra costs caused by all those post-storm residents. <more> Oct. 12, 2005 The Advocate
La. seeks to help school districts - - The state is scrambling for ways to bail out public school districts amid a surge of 40,000 displaced students and no easy way to pay for them. East Baton Rouge Parish is tops in the state with an increase of more than 6,000 students from parishes where schools were closed by damage from Hurricane Katrina, according to state figures. <more> Oct. 12, 2005 The Advocate

Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2005

Blanco cool to Nagin’s casino solution - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco apparently will not include in her special session agenda Mayor Ray Nagin’s proposal to turn New Orleans into the Las Vegas of the South. In a statement issued by her office Tuesday afternoon, Blanco reiterated her opposition to gambling as the base of the economy, instead calling for federal tax credits for individuals and businesses and a stronger public education system to attract people to the city. “I know Mayor Nagin is working hard to restart the New Orleans economy, and I am certainly working closely with him to do so,” Blanco said in the statement, released after her daughter, Carmen, underwent emergency surgery in Lafayette Tuesday morning. “I urge caution, however, in looking to the expansion of gambling as a quick fix to our economic problems in the city. I have never believed that gambling should be the base on which to build our economy,” the governor’s statement said. <more> Oct. 11, 2005 Gannett News Service
Blanco gives cold shoulder to Nagin's hotel casino proposal - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco delivered a decisive blow Tuesday to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's proposal to revitalize his devastated city by placing casinos in large hotels, saying gambling shouldn't be the basis for economic development in New Orleans. Nagin said he hoped the governor would include the gambling proposal in a special session scheduled for November. Blanco's office is drawing up the formal outline of legislation that can be considered during the session, and the governor will not include Nagin's gambling proposal, her spokeswoman Denise Bottcher said. <more> Oct. 11, 2005 AP
La. needs to rebuild image. Legislators express frustration at slow pace of recovery effort in south Louisiana - - Lawmakers grilled Gov. Kathleen Blanco's top advisor Monday, alleging a lack of leadership in the state's hurricane rebuilding effort. The state needs to draft a blueprint for reconstruction, appoint a commission to oversee the plan's implementation and name a point man to guard Louisiana's interests in Washington, D.C., the state legislators said at a legislative steering committee hearing. <more> Oct. 11, 2005 The Advocate
Bush Hears Plans for New Orleans Renewal. In fifth trip to the city, the president dines with rebuilding officials. He is told of levee problems. - - President Bush on Monday made his fifth visit to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city, meeting with state and local officials over a private dinner in the French Quarter to review rebuilding plans. Bush dined at Bacco, owned by the family that also owns the landmark Brennan's restaurant, with members of the Bring Back New Orleans Commission, which was set up by Mayor C. Ray Nagin. Also invited were Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, who is in charge of federal relief efforts, and Army Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, who is leading the military's response to Katrina. "The president pledged that he would be a partner as the Gulf Coast region recovered and rebuilds itself," said White House Deputy Press Secretary Trent Duffy. "He looks forward to hearing from the leaders of the communities themselves about how they want to rebuild." <more> Oct. 11, 2005 LA Times
New Orleanians Meet With Bush. Civic Leaders Critical Of Federal Efforts -- At a meeting Monday afternoon, the group of civic leaders chosen to lead rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Katrina discussed shortfalls in the federal government's relief program. Some said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was not acting efficiently enough to provide temporary housing for workers. Some seemed exasperated that too few federal contracts were being won by local companies.And some complained that the Army Corps of Engineers is not building the levees to withstand the worst of hurricanes, and that that might be keeping people out of the city, too. <more> Oct. 11, 2005 Washington Post
Will the Tourists Come Back To New Orleans? Without Them, the City's Businesses Will Lose Their Livelihood -- On Bourbon Street, Red Cross workers are taking a break with a night out. There are firefighters, police officers, National Guard troops, construction workers and contractors of every stripe. But there aren't any tourists or conventioneers, the twin engines that make this city, home to just one Fortune 500 company, economically viable. And many of the Hurricane Katrina rescue and relief workers are heading home. Bars and restaurants that were full a week ago are often close to empty. This is making local business owners wonder whether early stirrings of life in the French Quarter were real -- or a heartbreaking mirage. <more> Oct. 11, 2005 Washington Post
Panel surveys tough task ahead. Midnight curfew to be enforced. Garbage pickup sporadic at best - - The blue ribbon committee charged with crafting a strategy to resurrect New Orleans got a brutal reality check Monday when its members learned that six weeks into the recovery from Hurricane Katrina, the city continues to face daunting obstacles, from bureaucratic inertia in the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the absence of workers to provide basic services like garbage collection. Meeting publicly for the first time, Mayor Ray Nagin’s “Bring Back New Orleans Commission” listened soberly as administration officials painted a grim picture of a devastated city. <more> Oct. 1, 2005 Times Picayune
FEMA to Reserve Contracts For Disadvantaged Companies - - The Federal Emergency Management Agency said yesterday it will set aside several major Gulf Coast reconstruction contracts for small, disadvantaged businesses that will be selected to do the work through competitive bidding. Yesterday's announcement means that smaller firms run by minorities, women, the disabled or others deemed "disadvantaged" by the Small Business Administration will be guaranteed part of the work. FEMA also said it would give preference to firms based in the areas hit hardest by Katrina. <more> Oct. 11, 2005 Washington Post
New Orleans police showing stress. Katrina brings new woes to a troubled department -- Their homes are gone, their families scattered, their reputations sliding by the day. Home for most New Orleans police officers is a cramped cruise ship, and work is 12- to 14-hour days in a wrecked city. When time off does come along, there is nowhere to go and no one to spend it with. Experts say the personal and professional upheaval is catching up with the New Orleans police force in the form of desertions, suicides, corruption and perhaps even the videotaped beating of a retired teacher over the weekend on Bourbon Street. <more> Oct. 11, 2005 AP
Lawmaker to Bush: Help cut Katrina red tape. Louisiana's Jindal urges more FEMA contracts for local firms -- President Bush toured ravaged parts of Louisiana on Tuesday, six weeks after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast. As the president made his eighth trip to the region since the disaster, U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-Louisiana, told CNN's Miles O'Brien that he planned to meet with Bush and suggest how the Federal Emergency Management Agency can cut red tape and help local businesses. <more> Oct. 11, 2005 CNN
Bush: Much recovery work remains. President says local officials will guide rebuilding efforts-- President Bush said a lot of work remains to be done to rebuild the Gulf Coast after Katrina, as he visited the hurricane recovery zone Tuesday and hammered nails into a home being built for displaced residents. "Out of this rubble is going to come some good," the president told several hundred troops at Belle Chasse Naval Air Station in a brief pep talk delivered from the back of a black pickup truck. Earlier, Bush and his wife visited a Habitat for Humanity work site in Covington, a town just north of New Orleans where the nonprofit organization is building houses for those who lost homes. He rejoiced in what he said was a spirit of revival there. <more> Oct. 11, 2005 AP
Clinton, Blanco Visit Red Cross Shelter. Former President Bill Clinton and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco Meet with Hurricane Survivors in Baton Rouge - - Former President Bill Clinton and Louisiana State Governor Kathleen Blanco paid a special visit to the American Red Cross shelter at River Center in downtown Baton Rouge on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2005, to meet with more than 20 of the hurricane survivors who had been staying at the shelter since early September. <more> Oct. 11, 2005 Red Cross.org

Monday, Oct. 10, 2005

Uniform hurricane building code to be in session - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco will propose a new uniform state building code that includes constructing new houses to withstand flooding and hurricane-force winds, her Hurricane Katrina relief chief said Monday. Andy Kopplin, who is on leave as the governor’s chief of staff to coordinate the governor’s hurricane relief efforts, said Monday the tougher construction standards are one of the items on the governor’s agenda for the November special session. “We’ve got to do that in order to get insurance companies to do business in Louisiana,” Kopplin said. “The governor has said we are going to have to have a stronger building code.” <more> Oct. 10, 2005 The Town Talk
Bush dining in French Quarter. White House says hurricane recovery just beginning -- President Bush is showing off the progress in post-hurricane New Orleans, dining with officials in the French Quarter and staying overnight in a hotel, while focusing on a need to speed the building of temporary housing for people who cannot yet go home. Bush was getting an update on rebuilding from Louisiana officials over dinner Monday night in the French Quarter, where there are increasing signs of normalcy. <more> Oct. 10, 2005 AP
Lawmakers worry about coordination of disaster aid spending - - The stories of problems with federal hurricane disaster aid abound: One parish received a $239,000 check and didn’t know why. Another parish asked for and received $10 million without notifying its chief financial officer about the request. A parish sheriff requested $200,000, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency tried to give him $2.9 million. Those stories told by Legislative Auditor Steve Theriot — whose office is trying to closely track the spending of billions of dollars of federal aid after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita — are worrying lawmakers who know if local agencies spend the money improperly, the state ultimately could have to foot the repayment bill to the federal government. <more> Oct. 10, 2005 AP
Lobbyists Advise Katrina Relief. A Senate bill includes billions of dollars in projects for clients of 'experienced experts.' - - Lobbyists representing transportation, energy and other special interests dominated panels that advised Louisiana's U.S. senators crafting legislation to rebuild the storm-damaged Gulf Coast, records and interviews show. The Louisiana Katrina Reconstruction Act — introduced last month by Louisiana Sens. Mary L. Landrieu, a Democrat, and David Vitter, a Republican — included billions of dollars' worth of business for clients of those lobbyists and a total price tag estimated as high as $250 billion. One advisory panel member who discovered that most of his fellow panelists were lobbyists called the resulting legislation "a huge injustice" to the state. <more> Oct. 10, 2005 LA Times
FEMA Director Under Clinton Profits From Experience - - Not long before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, James Lee Witt, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and his colleagues called officials on the Gulf Coast to offer their help. Soon after the storm hit, the State of Louisiana signed up with Witt Associates, a disaster consulting firm. Within days, Mr. Witt had become a fixture at the state's emergency operations center in Baton Rouge, advising the governor and sleeping in a trailer. He even figured out a way for FEMA to reimburse the state for his firm's fees, which the company estimates at $4 million to $6 million over the next year. <more> Oct. 10, 2005 NY Times
Hurricane Dead Stuck in a Logistical Limbo. At the official morgue, frustrations abound. But one Louisiana coroner makes progress. - - Nine people dead of carbon monoxide poisoning. Two people electrocuted, five suicides, three drug overdoses, two drownings and one teenage boy struck and killed by a car. That is the stark accounting of the corpses brought to the Jefferson Parish morgue run here by Dr. Robert E. Treuting, the only coroner in the New Orleans metropolitan area with an operational morgue in the days and weeks after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Louisiana coast. <more> Oct. 10, 2005 LA Times
Lack of Contracts Hampered FEMA. Dealing With Disaster on the Fly Proved Costly- - Among the many failures in government planning revealed by Hurricane Katrina, one was particularly striking: No one, it seems, figured out ahead of time who was going to pick up the dead. When the storm swept through the Gulf of Mexico six weeks ago and left hundreds of bodies to decompose in homes and streets, Louisiana officials looked to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help removing them. But since cities and localities had historically recovered bodies from mass casualties, FEMA says, it had made no arrangements.So a week after the monster storm struck, FEMA hired Kenyon International Emergency Services Inc., a Texas company that specializes in mobile morgues. Within a few days, however, Kenyon officials complained that the company still had no contract and that it was caught in a "bureaucratic quagmire," asked to do far more than was called for in the original agreement. The company spurned FEMA and went to work for the state of Louisiana. <more> Oct. 10, 2005 Washington Post
Immigrants Rush to New Orleans as Contractors Fight for Workers. As many evacuees stay away, Latin American workers move in, lured by soaring pay. They could change the face of the city. - - Most of the signs are handwritten and simply worded, such as "Workers Wanted" or "Need 50 Laborers Now!" Word has gotten out and each morning day laborers — who come from Central America and Mexico by way of California, Texas and Arizona — gather on street corners in the Kenner and Metairie neighborhoods on the western edge of the city. Lured by jobs paying $15 to $17 an hour, the Spanish-speaking day laborers have flooded into New Orleans to haul out debris, clear downed trees, put in drywall and perform other tasks as rebuilding takes hold in the city. Specialized roofers can make $300 a day. <more> Oct. 10, 2005 LA Times
Scattered in a Storm's Wake and Caught in a Clash of Cultures - - Word spread fast after the evacuees arrived. Everyone wanted to see one up close. Soon, the gravel driveways wending through the grounds of the old church mission were backed up with trucks and minivans filled with locals bearing bottled water or leftover clothes or just wanting to talk to the Louisiana people, tell them how sorry they were for what had happened to them. The Methodists brought cribs. A dentist sent a box of toothbrushes. A Presbyterian was recruiting for the choir. Members of the Sequoyah Memorial Hospital Auxiliary showed up to take the evacuees shopping at Wal-Mart. A beautician wanted to do their hair. And someone donated a box of formal wear that, the volunteer sorters noted, the evacuees were not likely to need anytime soon. In the beginning, it seemed that wherever the Louisianans went, people stopped them on the street, figuring that because they were black, they must be from the hurricane. A man went up to one of them, Gerald Cooper, a former merchant mariner, and said, "Here, put this in your pocket," as he stuffed a $20 bill into Mr. Cooper's hand. "It was like we were a fad," Mr. Cooper said. <more> Oct. 9, 2005 NY Times
Signs of life return to New Orleans -- "Help wanted" signs on the windows of New Orleans' restaurants and businesses are slowly replacing spray-painted plywood boards warning looters to stay away. The buzz of activity gave some neighborhoods an appearance of normalcy Saturday even though the city's population remains a fraction of what it was before Hurricane Katrina struck at the end of August. New Orleans now draws more than 250,000 people during daylight hours, according to Mayor Ray Nagin, though the population dips to 60,000 or 70,000 at night. <more> Oct. 8, 2005 Reuters
Mayor moves to heal New Orleans' lifeblood industry. Nagin hopes more casinos will quickly bring back tourists -- Mayor Ray Nagin called Friday for a major expansion of casino gambling in hurricane-hit New Orleans in a desperate attempt to quickly heal its battered lifeblood industry -- tourism. "We will probably limp along for the next three to five years unless we do something bold," said Nagin at a news conference. "And to me, this is a bold statement." <more> Oct. 8, 2005 CNN
Hundreds of Katrina victims remain unidentified -- Officials in Louisiana have identified only about 200 of the more than 1,000 people killed in Hurricane Katrina, and less than half of those have been released to their families, the state's top emergency medical official said Monday. This ratio contrasts sharply with efforts in Mississippi, where almost 200 people have been identified of about 220 who died. In an interview with CNN, Louisiana's emergency medical response director, Dr. Louis Cataldie, said the state is having a tough time identifying many of the dead. <more> Oct. 10, 2005 CNN
Engineers probe New Orleans levees -- Hoping to prevent past mistakes during the rebuilding process, civil engineers gathered in New Orleans to determine how Hurricane Katrina breached the city's levees, flooding 80 percent of the city. The central issue they grappled with: Did Katrina overwhelm the city's flood defenses with a torrent they weren't designed to contain? Or did faulty construction or maintenance cause them to burst open at water levels well within their capacity? "The whole rebuilding of this infrastructure is, I think, a critical issue for us to come to grips with," said Robert Bea, a University of California, Berkeley, civil engineer who is part of an investigation team sponsored by the National Science Foundation. <more> Oct. 10, 2005 AP
Sign of recovery: 'Now hiring'. Gulf Coast employers struggle to find service workers -- The message is clear on storefront marquees, colored banners and the handwritten signs taped by merchants inside windows across this city: businesses reopening after Hurricane Katrina can't find enough workers. The shortage is obvious at the city's fanciest hotels, where a lack of staff means maid service is offered just once a week. It is just as glaring at fast-food restaurants, where long lines of cars snake through parking lots because most have only enough workers to operate drive-through windows. It's virtually impossible to pass through any functioning part of town without seeing "Now Hiring" posted somewhere.<more> Oct. 10, 2005 AP
Amtrak resumes service to New Orleans -- Amtrak resumed passenger rail service to New Orleans on Saturday, bringing mass ground transportation back to the city for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. The train called the City of New Orleans arrived with 29 passengers aboard, greeted by a handful of well-wishers, after leaving Chicago on Friday. Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said he expected more than 30 passengers to arrive Sunday and that "the business will grow steadily but slowly over the next several weeks." Greater numbers of passengers are expected next year, after tracks to the east are repaired. Service to the west should resume before that, he said. <more> Oct. 10, 2005 AP
La. Parish Longs To Get Its Levee. Residents Hope for Post-Katrina Funds -- Louisiana's boot has a hole. This footwear-shaped state's southeastern coast is ringed by hurricane levees, except here in Terrebonne Parish, where Houma, the largest city in the region outside metropolitan New Orleans, is an important center of Cajun culture. For decades, that hole in Louisiana's hurricane defenses -- defenses already proved fallible during hurricanes Katrina and Rita -- has irked leaders of this parish of boom-and-bust oil cycles that also happens to produce one of every five pounds of seafood in the state. But the big storms that bedeviled New Orleans are suddenly seen as an opportunity -- a big opportunity -- for Terrebonne. <more> Oct. 10, 2005 Washington Post

Friday, Oct. 7, 2005

Governor plans special session of Legislature in November - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco will call the Legislature into special session Nov. 6 to deal with urgent law changes needed in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Blanco will set a limited agenda for the session, which could run until Nov. 18, Denise Bottcher, the governor’s press secretary said this morning. “It will be a limited call to recovery measures that are urgent or somehow critical,” said Bottcher. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 The Advocate
Blanco taps Hitachi executive - - Governor Kathleen Blanco has appointed an executive from Hitachi to head her "Louisiana Family Recovery Corps." The yet-to-be funded initiative would help hurricane evacuees learn about and obtain services and benefits that are available. Rod McCowan, senior vice president of human resources at Hitachi Data Systems, will serve as acting CEO of the initiative. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 AP
Louisiana's bipartisan front for Katrina aid crumbles -- Louisiana's bipartisan front in seeking federal help to recover from Hurricane Katrina crumbled Friday as the state's senators - a Democrat and a Republican - fought over whether their local governments should have to repay federal loans to keep essential services operating. Since Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29 and left New Orleans flooded, Democrat Mary Landrieu and Republican David Vitter, along with their House colleagues, have put aside political differences and united in seeking hundreds of billions in federal aid. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 AP
$1 billion sought for roads - - The state is asking Congress for more than $1 billion to improve roads in the Baton Rouge area to help stem traffic problems spawned by Hurricane Katrina. The wish list, which has been sent to the state's congressional delegation, is aimed in part at easing traffic problems caused by a surge of evacuees from the New Orleans area. Other repairs are needed, state officials said, because Baton Rouge will be the chief staging area for the recovery of New Orleans and better roads are needed to make that happen. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 The Advocate
Katrina's death toll in Louisiana officially tops 1,000 - - Louisiana's official death toll from Hurricane Katrina passed 1,000 on Friday. The state Department of Health and Human Services reported that state officials and local coroners had recovered 1,003 bodies — 15 more than the total reported Thursday. Only 73 had been identified and returned to their families Thursday, though Louis Cataldie, the head of the state's recovery and identification efforts, said he expected another 60 to be given to families for burial quickly. A few other bodies have been released by individual parish coroners. Oct. 7, 2006 AP
Coroner Chafes at Morgue Rules. New Orleans official says FEMA is making it harder to clear the autopsy backlog. - - The man in charge of identifying most of those killed by Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans Coroner Frank Minyard, complained Thursday that federal regulations had unnecessarily slowed that process. The Federal Emergency Management Agency — which is responsible for keeping the morgue operational — sometimes shuts it down with hours left in the workday, Minyard said. During an afternoon news conference at FEMA headquarters here, the coroner said that on Thursday, federal officials told his people to stop conducting autopsies at 11:30 a.m., despite a backlog of 300 bodies. Minyard said he needed more pathologists to perform autopsies but FEMA would not allow its doctors to assist. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 LA Times
Lack of Phones and Faxes Is Said to Hamper Coroner - - Two leaders in Louisiana's effort to identify and return Hurricane Katrina's dead said Thursday they had been stymied by a lack of basic equipment like telephones and prevented from working by arcane federal rules. They added that the notification of families had been stalled by technical problems. The acknowledgment of unnecessary delays came amid complaints by waiting families and one day after the New Orleans coroner, Dr. Frank Minyard, revealed that about 100 bodies had been autopsied and identified but not released to funeral homes. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 NY Times
'There's no one left to look for them'. Families scattered, leaving few to clamor for Katrina's dead -- Within weeks of the attack on the World Trade Center, the public knew a lot about many of the September 11, 2001 victims -- their families, their jobs, their commute, even some of the intimate details of their final moments. The victims' families mobilized with remarkable effectiveness to make sure their loved ones were found and their stories told. More than a month after Hurricane Katrina, the vast majority of the nearly 1,000 dead in Louisiana lie anonymously in a morgue -- largely because authorities have released only a few dozen names, but also, perhaps, because many of the victims' families were scattered by the storm and are still picking up the pieces of their lives. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 AP
FEMA Reopening Its No-Bid Contracts. The agency's new chief tells lawmakers that all noncompetitive deals, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, will be re-bid. - - The government is reopening federal contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars handed out with little or no competition in the relief and reconstruction efforts after Hurricane Katrina, FEMA director R. David Paulison told a congressional committee Thursday. "All of those no-bid contracts, we are going to go back and re-bid. We're in the process of re-bidding them already," Paulison said in his first public testimony since succeeding Michael D. Brown three weeks ago as chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 LA Times
Trailer town opens for Katrina victims. Trickle of evacuees begins -- What was to be Louisiana's first great stride in providing temporary housing for Hurricane Katrina victims turned out to be more of a stutter step, with only about 50 new residents arriving to fill a trailer community built for upward of 2,000. Reporters were told Thursday morning that busloads of evacuees from area shelters would be arriving throughout the day. But evacuees only trickled in, most in their own cars. Others stepped off large buses in small groups -- one huge tour bus roared up to a registration tent with only three people aboard. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 AP
Thrilled evacuees trickle into trailers - - Families chosen to live in a travel trailer park for hurricane evacuees trickled into the site Thursday in far fewer numbers than expected, but those who showed up were delighted at their new housing arrangements. One of the early arrivals, Arcenia Crayton, said she misses her destroyed family home in New Orleans, but the trailer will be a significant improvement over shelter life. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 The Advocate
At FEMA's First Big Trailer Park, 'Gold' for One Evacuee - - Arcenia Crayton finally got the opportunity on Wednesday to close a door behind her and experience a rare moment of serenity, five weeks after living shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of other evacuees who escaped the floods of New Orleans. It was in a 28-foot aluminum-sided trailer, set on cinder blocks and surrounded by hundreds like it in the middle of a dirt lot in this small town about 10 miles outside Baton Rouge. It was not as spacious as the house she fled in New Orleans. But it was not a crowded shelter for evacuees like the one she just left behind, and for now, at least, it belongs only to her family. "This is gold," said Ms. Crayton, 38, a licensed practical nurse, clutching the keys to her new home. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 NY Times
New Orleans cops investigated for allegedly stealing cars -- State authorities are investigating allegations New Orleans police officers broke into a dealership and made off with nearly 200 cars -- including 41 new Cadillacs -- as Hurricane Katrina closed in. "It is a very, very active investigation," Kris Wartelle, spokeswoman for the Louisiana attorney general, said Friday. "We expect developments quickly." Wartelle would not comment on why the officers may have taken the cars, or whether they were used in the line of duty. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 AP
Storms' Job Losses Climb to 363,000 - - The number of people put out of work by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita rose to 363,000 last week, and more bad news is expected Friday when the government releases its unemployment report for September. The unemployment report could show as many as 400,000 job losses from Katrina in what would be the starkest sign yet of the economic devastation from the country's most expensive natural disaster. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 AP
Wheels of Government Move Slowly for Owners Who Await Word on Loans - - More than 7,000 businesses battered by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have turned to the Small Business Administration for help - with almost no luck so far. Just 20 business loans had been approved as of yesterday, totaling less than $900,000. And only $8,000 of that has been paid out. The slow pace of the agency's response is stirring up complaints along the Gulf Coast. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 NY Times
Hurricane Evacuees Boost Hotels' Profits - - At this time of year, Jay Poole's two low-budget hotels along the Florida Panhandle are usually about half full. But with hundreds of thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees needing shelter in recent weeks and possibly for months to come, his hotels have been nearly sold out. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 Washington Post
Bankruptcy Rules to Ease For Victims Of Disasters - - The Justice Department said yesterday that it would lift some requirements of the new, more restrictive bankruptcy law for natural-disaster victims. The law, to take effect Oct. 17, will make it harder and more expensive for people to completely wipe out their debts under Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Since Hurricane Katrina, consumer advocates and bankruptcy lawyers who opposed the new law have urged Congress to delay its implementation for hurricane victims for at least a year -- so far unsuccessfully. The financial industry, which pushed for the new law, has said it is flexible enough to accommodate natural-disaster victims. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 Washington Post
Big Easy leaders upset over cleanup jobs -- They clear rotten seafood from stinking restaurant freezers, wash excrement from the floors of the Superdome, rip out wads of soaked insulation. The work is hot, nasty and critical to the recovery of New Orleans. And yet, many of the workers are not actually from New Orleans. <more> Oct. 7, 2005 AP

Thursday, Oct. 6, 2005 6 p.m.

Blanco appeals for relief for New Orleans businesses - - Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco appealed to the federal government on Thursday to help hard-hit local businesses secure quick loans, housing for workers and a bigger share of federal rebuilding contracts as they get back on their feet following two recent hurricanes. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita closed or displaced nearly 85,000 businesses, accounting for 41 percent of the state's economy, Blanco told a gathering of hundreds of business owners at New Orleans' Sheraton hotel. To jump-start the region's growth, Blanco said state businesses and workers needed a bigger portion of the government contracts already awarded to start rebuilding the ravaged area. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 Reuters<more>

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco addresses a business seminar in New Orleans Thursday Oct. 6, 2005. Blanco is addressing the group of business owners on the prospects of doing business in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)
Engineers lack authority to improve New Orleans levees. Corps would need congressional approval for higher levees -- Even though Hurricane Katrina exposed the weakness of the levee system around New Orleans, officials won't rebuild the barriers higher and better -- at least not right away. Col. Lewis Setliff, the engineer overseeing the levee repairs for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the Corps only has the authority to rebuild levees to the strength they were prior to the storms that damaged them. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 AP
Bush's plan allows funds' use for pay -- President Bush is proposing legislation to Congress that would allow local governments facing the layoff of employees because of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to use federal disaster money to cover employee pay. Bush's plan came after he received a plea Wednesday from U.S. Rep. Charles "Charlie" Melancon, D-Napoleonville. Citing the layoff of 3,000 New Orleans city employees, Melancon asked Bush to ease a federal restriction that prevents disaster funds from paying local government employee salaries. Under the Stafford Act, the money that Congress appropriated to the Federal Emergency Management Agency after Katrina can only be used to pay overtime for workers, not base salaries. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 The Advocate
Vitter introduces specific Katrina recovery legislation - - U.S. Sen. David Vitter introduced two specific Hurricane Katrina recovery bills today and outlined two other areas of focus. Vitter’s first bill would create a Louisiana Katrina Recovery Administrator who would be focused exclusively on the efficient and effective use of federal resources for rebuilding southeast Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina. This leader would have the “authority to streamline the federal bureaucracy and cut through red tape, provide the needed leadership to establish a vision and a long-term plan for rebuilding, and ensure full transparency and accountability in spending taxpayer dollars.” The second bill Vitter introduced would severely restrict the Federal Emergency Management Administration in handing out no-bid contracts. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 The Advocate
Federal help to businesses too slow, say N.O. business owners, officials - - Slow action by federal agencies and contractors to help local businesses pushed tempers to a boil Thursday at a “Back to Business” workshop in downtown New Orleans designed to help area businesses grab bigger pieces of the billions of dollars in government aid flowing into the region. “I need you to tell the big contractors that we’re here,” shouted Darrin Blystad from the floor of a ballroom in the Sheraton Hotel near the end of a panel featuring officials from the federal Small Business Administration and city and state economic development offices. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 Times Picayune
Vitter package would give La. $750 million for local governments - - The White House and Senate leaders have agreed to support an emergency $750 million package to enable local governments in six storm-damaged Louisiana parishes to pay their employees over the next two months, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said Thursday. Vitter said the package, which would redirect money already approved by Congress for Hurricane Katrina relief, also could be used by three public or nonprofit hospitals — West Jefferson, East Jefferson and Ochsner Clinic Foundation — to retain crucial personnel. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 AP
As floodwaters dry up, so does tax base. That puts assessors in unique position - - If there's a silver lining for those who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina, it's that tax bills on decimated properties in all likelihood will be small to nonexistent next year. Of course, the sudden collapse of the revenue stream that flows from property tax is not at all good news for the governments that depend on it, particularly at a time when sales-tax revenue, the biggest source of money for most municipalities and parishes, have shriveled to a pittance in the storm's wake. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 Times Picayune
FEMA chief: Loans to cities have limits-- A day after a Louisiana sheriff in a hurricane-devastated parish complained he couldn't meet payroll, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's acting director said Thursday that FEMA could loan communities money to pay law enforcement and other personnel. The FEMA official, R. David Paulison, told a Senate panel that his agency could loan up to 25 percent of a community's taxable revenue but said federal law capped those loans at $5 million. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 CNN
Red Tape Said to Slow Releasing of Bodies - - About 100 bodies have been autopsied and identified at the central morgue for Hurricane Katrina victims and not released, the New Orleans coroner said Wednesday, blaming red tape for the delay. "We've got a whole refrigerator truck full of them and they're not being released," the coroner, Dr. Frank Minyard, said. "And everyone's upset. I'm upset." <more> Oct. 6, 2005 NY Times
State agencies talking layoffs. LSU system could cut 5,000 workers - - With 6,000 state employees still unaccounted for following Hurricane Katrina, agencies across the board have started talking layoffs, citing diminished income and fewer posts available for displaced workers. Among those looking to downsize are LSU's education and hospital facilities in New Orleans, where some jobs have already been cut, officials announced Wednesday. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 The Advocate
Supplies reach teachers. Donated items to be used by displaced kids - - Teachers and principals in East Baton Rouge Parish spent time choosing school supplies from among rows of boxes filled with items donated to help children displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Two weeks ago, some of these same people grabbed supplies at the school system's main warehouse on Choctaw Drive. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 The Advocate
Gulf Coast fears economic storm. Paper reports new financial disasters set to hit area as money for workers, repairs, etc., runs out. - - Hundreds of thousands of businesses and individuals in the region hit by Hurricane Katrina are on the brink of a financial disaster as money to pay workers dries up, banks get tougher on borrowers who were allowed to skip payments immediately after the storm and the flow of government assistance is slowed by bureaucratic snafus, according to a published report. The Wall Street Journal reports that the financial peril represents a second crisis for those forced to abandon their homes and businesses when Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast in late August. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 CNN
Katrina, Rita Cost La. Farmers $1.4 Billion In Lost Revenues- - Combined farm income losses from the two hurricanes that struck Louisiana now total nearly $1.5 billion. Dr. Kurt Guidry, an agricultural economist with the LSU AgCenter, said Thursday losses from Hurricane Rita topped $471 million. The figure represents “lost farm income” to producers, he said. Added to the $1.01 billion farm cash loss from Hurricane Katrina, the state’s ag producers lost nearly 20 percent of the value of commodities produced in 2004. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 Louisiana Farm Bureau
A Barren Port Waits Eagerly for Its People - - Gary P. LaGrange, the exuberant chief executive of the Port of New Orleans, tries to convey the impression of a man at ease. After all, the warehouses and wharf along the Mississippi River that he is in charge of suffered minimal wind damage and flooding from Hurricane Katrina. But the nonchalance is deceptive. More than a month after Katrina struck New Orleans, as much as 80 percent of the port's operations remain shut. And getting them back up is in many ways out of his control: Many of the hundreds of workers needed to run the port are living in other states. Several of the rail lines into the port were torn apart by the storm; road access for tractor-trailers remains limited. Indeed, the port is perhaps the prime example of the conundrum that New Orleans faces as it seeks to restart its economic engines. The city needs the port to begin generating revenue and jobs again. But the port cannot get back on its feet until many of its workers return. And that is not possible until city services are restored and housing built or rebuilt. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 NY Times
Some New Orleanians Declining to Return, Making the Decision to Move On, Not Back - - Some did not go back because they said there was nothing to go back to. Some, who had already seen their damaged homes riddled with mold, did not have the will to take on the problems yet. Some just did not have a ride. Almost every neighborhood in New Orleans was opened up to former residents today for the first time. But here in Baton Rouge, in what has become the state's largest city, thousands of evacuees declined the offer to go home. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 NY Times
Residents Find Both Normality and Ruin - - As most of its neighborhoods opened up to residents Wednesday, this city looked as if it could not make up its mind which way to go. A traffic light on the corner of Esplanade Avenue and North Rampart Street beamed red and green at the same time, a fitting emblem for a street that took cars past the life of the French Quarter and toward the death of the Ninth Ward. The contrasts were evident in private houses. Some residents found lower floors torn up and mottled with mold but upper floors pristine, as did Simone Bienvenu at her home on Canal Boulevard in the Lakeview section. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 NY Times
Effectiveness of Tax Breaks Is Questioned - - Proposals to use tax breaks for rebuilding areas devastated by the recent hurricanes may provide only limited help to people and businesses that suffered actual losses, according to many economists. The biggest beneficiaries could turn out to be companies from outside the devastated areas that have big federal contracts to carry out cleanup and reconstruction work. President Bush has proposed a plan to turn much of the Gulf Coast into a giant "opportunity zone" in which businesses would receive special tax write-offs for new equipment and construction. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 NY Times
Fundraising Phenom -- Red Cross -- Is Under Fire - - Amid the destruction and dislocation caused by Hurricane Katrina, the American Red Cross has undertaken a relief effort unlike any in its history. So far, the charity has spent $811 million on emergency cash aid and $110 million on food and shelter. The results have been mixed. Despite the ambition of the charity's efforts and the money spent, evacuees complain that Red Cross aid has been slow and unreliable. Other charity groups and relief workers contend that the agency is in over its head. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 LA Times
Two New Orleans hospitals beyond help. Head of hospitals: $440 million needed to replace facilities -- Two of the main hospitals serving New Orleans are unsalvageable, and it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to replace them, the head of the hospitals said Wednesday. "The big Charity and University hospital buildings were issued their 'death warrant' by Katrina and the cataclysmic floods it spawned," said Donald R. Smithburg, the chief executive of Louisiana State University Health Care Services Division. "Both facilities are dangerous, dangerous places." <more> Oct. 6, 2005 CNN
Expert: Beware hurricane-damaged vehicles -- Hurricanes Katrina and Rita left in their wake about 350,000 ruined vehicles, and experts warn that some vehicles that should be declared a total loss might find their way back to consumers. CNN anchor Carol Costello spoke Thursday with car expert Lauren Fix about how to avoid purchasing a hurricane-damaged car. COSTELLO: It's just hard to believe that these cars could show up on used car lots or on eBay or on the Internet. I mean, do you have word of that yet? FIX: Well, they are actually showing up already. What's happening is, through some of my contacts down in New Orleans and that area, they have told me that they're actually calling cars scrap right out of the box just to get them totaled. <more> Oct. 6, 2005 CNN

Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2005 2:30 p.m.

Clinton Lends His Expertise and an Ear in Louisiana - - He kissed babies, hugged their parents, felt their pain and smiled for cellphone photos. Bill Clinton was back in his element on Tuesday on a tour of Louisiana, and at times even seemed to forget his status as a former president. "I'll get on that," he assured a man trying to square the abundance of supplies he had seen delivered to the shelter with the paucity of blankets and mouthwash inside. The setting Tuesday was a Red Cross shelter here, not a political rally, and his role was as a budding philanthropist, not a politician. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 NY Times
Clinton reassures BR evacuees. Former president likes Blanco's Louisiana Family Recovery Corps - - Former President Clinton was the go-to man Tuesday for evacuees sleeping on cots at the Baton Rouge River Center. He promised to push the Federal Emergency Management Agency to send someone to Louisiana to make decisions on financial assistance. He agreed that relying on telephones and computers isn't getting evacuees the help they need. He promised to try to get them supplies, including fresh underwear. And he promised to find out why the showers at the shelter aren't open 24 hours a day. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 The Advocate
Blanco urged to supervise funding - - In the scramble for federal hurricane recovery dollars, Louisiana taxpayers are being put on the hook for billions without any oversight or coordination, lawmakers said Tuesday. In addition to the billions being distributed to state and local governments by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a handful of state agencies have sought billions more from Congress, members of the Legislative Audit Advisory Council said. State financial watchdogs know of about $40 billion in requests, but there is no definitive list. "It concerns me that state offices are going outside any kind of structure and that the state is going to be on the hook for the money," said Rep. Rick L. Farrar, D-Pineville. Lawmakers demanded that Gov. Kathleen Blanco start coordinating the requests to protect against honest mistakes and dishonest ones. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 The Advocate
Blanco signs covenant with churches on rebuilding state -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco and other elected officials on Tuesday signed a covenant with religious groups pledging to use Louisiana people to rebuild the entire state, not just New Orleans, better than it was. Pastors and members of more than 100 churches across the state gathered at the Louisiana Leadership Institute to pray, sing, share stories and pledge to work together to restart the state's committees that felt the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. "This covenant could be written as a blueprint of things I truly believe in," Blanco told an appreciative overflow crowd that packed a gymnasium during the gathering focusing on building hope of a better Louisiana. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 The Town Talk
Frustrated landlords can't oust missing tenants. All evictions on hold until October 25 - - With thousands of New Orleans-area renters displaced by Hurricane Katrina, frustration is growing among landlords seeking access to their properties and trying to track down tenants who've been missing since the storm. "The No. 1 complaint I have (since Katrina) is from the landlords in my area," said Rep. Henry "Tank" Powell, R-Ponchatoula, who said the owners are frustrated by their inability to survey their damaged properties until they reach a resolution with their tenants. Their efforts are complicated by a pair of executive orders from Gov. Kathleen Blanco suspending all legal deadlines until Oct. 25, meaning that all legal evictions are on hold until then. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 Times Picayune
Evacuee Hotel Program Extended. Post-Hurricane Lodging Costs U.S. $8.3 Million a Day - - More than 400,000 people left homeless by Hurricane Katrina will remain in hotel rooms beyond the Oct. 15 deadline set for their relocation, the Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency said yesterday, extending a program that is costing an estimated $8.3 million a day. The agencies said the program, which is in effect in 48 states, with most rooms clustered closest to the devastated area, would be extended indefinitely. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 Washington Post
Most New Orleans residents allowed to return home - - Most New Orleans residents were allowed back to their homes on Wednesday, though officials expect few will stay since many homes are not yet livable, there is no drinking water and some areas have no electricity. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Tuesday said the city, ravaged by two hurricanes in late August and September, could accommodate up to 200,000 people, and that about 80,000 of the 455,000 pre-hurricane population was already back in town. "I'm hoping we get a lot more people," Nagin told reporters at a news conference. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 Reuters
Tests find N.O. water less toxic than feared - - More testing on the flood water being pumped out of New Orleans seems to confirm earlier tests showing that the water isn't as toxic as was once feared, according to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. On Tuesday, DEQ released results of recent biotoxicity tests done in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. These tests involve placing aquatic invertebrates and fish in floodwater samples being pumped from New Orleans. The water samples were taken in the canals before they were actually pumped into Lake Pontchartrain, Chris Piehler, a senior environmental scientist at DEQ, said. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 The Advocate
Now New Orleans Is Battered by Layoffs - - Underscoring the difficulties facing this devastated city, Mayor C. Ray Nagin announced with "great sadness" Tuesday that New Orleans would have to lay off half of its municipal workforce because of the financial fallout from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Nagin said cutting about 3,000 workers would save as much as $8 million of the city's $20-million monthly payroll. No police officers, firefighters or emergency medical technicians would lose their jobs, Nagin said, but "nonessential" support workers in those departments would be cut. "We searched high and low," the mayor said at a somber afternoon news conference. "We just can't put together the financing to maintain city staff…. I wish I didn't have to do this." <more> Oct. 5, 2005 Los Angeles Times
Insurers: Katrina losses are worst ever. Survey says storm topped $34B in damages; does not include agriculture or oil drilling losses. - - Insured losses from Hurricane Katrina property damage have reached $34.4 billion, the industry's official statisticians says, confirming it as the most costly disaster in U.S. history. The damage from Katrina exceeded the $20.8 billion in inflation-adjusted losses from Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The Insurance Services Office (ISO) said Tuesday it would do another survey in 60 days, when damage costs could rise even further. The costs of Hurricane Rita, which followed Katrina in September, will be calculated separately. The ISO's report doesn't cover losses to utilities, agriculture or oil drilling. Flood damages, which are covered by federal flood insurance, aren't included, either. Wind and storm damage to private property, as well as damage to cars and commercial property, business interruptions and living costs are included in the report, according to Chris Guidette, a spokesman for the ISO. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 Reuters
Entergy says Rita may cost up to $550M. Utility company says it will try to recover expenses through insurance coverage and federal aid. - - Utility Entergy Corp. said Tuesday it estimates total restoration costs to repair and replace its electric system damaged by Hurricane Rita will range from $400 million to $550 million. New Orleans-based Entergy said in a regulatory filing that power outages caused by Rita will reduce revenues in service areas but, unlike Hurricane Katrina, it does not expect an extended restoration. The utility expects to restore power to 95 percent or more of the customers who lost power at Rita's peak within three weeks of the storm, it said. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 Reuters
New Orleans' tourists head elsewhere. But many long to go back -- Karen Wall had planned to celebrate her birthday in New Orleans later this month. Instead, she and her husband are heading to Orlando, Florida. There they'll dine at Emeril's Orlando -- owned by celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, who has three restaurants in New Orleans -- "as a small concession to having to miss all of the wonderful dining in New Orleans." Wall, of Tustin, California, is among tens of thousands of travelers whose plans to visit New Orleans were disrupted by Hurricane Katrina. Tourism officials are asking leisure travelers to wait until the end of the year before returning, and those forced to find alternative destinations range from brides planning dream weddings to conventions of 20,000 people. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 AP
Katrina aftermath wireless proving ground -- Hours after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast and knocked out telecommunications across much of the region, Mac Dearman visited shelters in northern Louisiana to connect telephones. Dearman doesn't work for a phone company. He owns a local wireless Internet service provider, and the gear he set up doesn't need a traditional phone network. It carries calls -- as well as e-mail and other data -- over the Internet. "In the first 24 hours after we plugged the phones in, there were 11 family members reunited," he said. "We got a hug every time we went into a shelter to make sure things are up and running all right." Just as Katrina proved the vulnerability of traditional telephone and cellular networks, it also showed how Internet-based technologies could be used to speedily re-establish links with the outside world. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 AP
Gulf Coast Lawmakers in Spotlight as Aid Requests Pour In - - Suddenly, just about everyone in the relatively obscure Gulf Coast Congressional delegation has jumped to the top of the A-list on Capitol Hill. The lawmakers are swamped with invitations to meet a variety of individuals and groups, as a parade of representatives for the regional hospitals, farms, fisheries, universities, school districts and credit unions implore them for help in obtaining shares of the billions of dollars in federal aid that Congress has set aside to rebuild after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 NY Times
Since Hurricane Katrina Rolled In, the Cash Has Rolled Out - - Those first few weeks after the storm proved to be exhausting but heady times for Alden J. McDonald Jr., the chief executive of Liberty Bank and Trust, the largest black-owned bank in New Orleans. Two weeks after the storm, Mr. McDonald predicted that within days he would be reopening several of his eight branches in New Orleans. But he never did. Optimism is harder to come by five weeks after Hurricane Katrina. Mr. McDonald and his staff remain stuffed into a makeshift warren of offices here, struggling with the new reality of running a bank where the customer base has scattered and the money seems only to flow out. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 NY Times
Property grabs and the Gulf. Local governments will likely use eminent domain to rebuild; who will that help? - - As Hurricane Katrina-ravaged cities begin the laborious process of rebuilding, there is increasing speculation that government officials may turn to the controversial – and often disparaged – use of eminent domain to revitalize the destroyed region. It's a prospect that's raising eyebrows among critics who fear that land developers will take advantage of the desperation in the region and push devastated homeowners out of their homes in the name of redevelopment. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 CNN
Fast-food restaurants hungry for workers. One store offering $6,000 'signing bonus' - - A cutthroat, post-hurricane labor market has sent wages skyrocketing in the fast-food industry and prompted some of the New Orleans region's biggest chains to offer workers thousands of dollars in signing bonuses, perks typically associated with higher-paying white-collar jobs. Burger King recruiters have been visiting federal disaster recovery centers and newly reopened high schools offering a $6,000 bonus, paid in monthly installments, to anyone promising to work full-time at a metropolitan New Orleans restaurant for at least a year. New part-time workers are being offered $3,000 bonuses. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 Times Picayune
New Orleans airport prepares for crash landing. Cash may dry up in about 60 days - - Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport will run out of cash in about 60 days, and without help it will plan to default on its loans, an airport official told members of Congress on Tuesday. The airport's $70 million annual operating budget depends largely on landing fees and rent from airlines and concessions revenue from passengers - both depressed since Hurricane Katrina struck Aug. 29. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 Times Picayune
News of Pandemonium May Have Slowed Aid. Unsubstantiated Reports of Violence Were Confirmed by Some Officials, Spread by News Media - - Five weeks after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to New Orleans, some local, state and federal officials have come to believe that exaggerations of mayhem by officials and rumors repeated uncritically in the news media helped slow the response to the disaster and tarnish the image of many of its victims. Claims of widespread looting, gunfire directed at helicopters and rescuers, homicides, and rapes, including those of "babies" at the Louisiana Superdome, frequently turned out to be overblown, if not completely untrue, officials now say. <more> Oct. 5, 2005 Washington Post

Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2005

Civic & Community Leaders Tapped for Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation. New Orleans University President to Chair New Foundation -- Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco today announced a first round of board selections for the newly formed Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation (LDRF) and the selection of Xavier University of Louisiana President, Norman Francis, as chairman of the new board, with loaned executive, Dr. Emmett Carson, Chairman of the national Council on Foundations, to serve as interim CEO. The non-profit foundation was established to accept donations that will be used to meet the needs of the thousands of Louisiana citizens whose lives have been devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. <more> Oct. 4, 2005 PR Newswire
Blanco: Parishes may have to lay off firefighters, police - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Monday that many of the Louisiana's parishes devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are "on the verge of financial collapse" and may need to lay off scores of police officers and firefighters. Blanco appealed to the Bush administration and to Congress to amend or suspend a U.S. law that prohibits the use of federal money to cover basic expenses of local governments, including the payrolls of public safety and health departments. <more> Oct. 4, 2005 USA Today
Blanco likely to extend state of emergency -- Louisiana's state of emergency may be extended beyond October, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Monday. "We will do that as need dictates," she said. "It's quite probable." Unless Blanco extends the order, it will expire Oct. 26. <more> Oct. 4 Detroit News Service
Blanco seeks more federal money - - With tax bases obliterated, Louisiana towns and parishes need immediate federal help to fund basic services like police protection and garbage pickup, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Monday. The catch: Federal disaster assistance laws allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay overtime, but it can't pay regular salaries of municipal workers. Blanco said the rules never envisioned a disaster on the scale of the Katrina/Rita/levee breach that literally has left some regions uninhabitable. She pleaded Monday for Congress and President George W. Bush to find a way around the rules before some Louisiana communities become waterlogged ghost towns. <more> Oct. 4, 2005 Gannett News Service
THE BLANCO INITIATIVES - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco is supporting a multifaceted plan for state recovery from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, much of it requiring action from Congress. Here are some highlights of initiatives taken or being considered: <more> Oct. 4, 2005 Times Picayune
Governor hopes tax breaks will jump-start N.O. recovery. Blanco plots tax breaks to spur revival. But where they'll take effect unclear - - Generous federal income tax breaks form the centerpiece of Gov. Kathleen Blanco's initiatives to lure people and businesses back to the storm-ravaged areas of New Orleans, according to documents and interviews with members of her administration. The governor is suggesting a multiyear "tax holiday" for individuals, a house reconstruction tax break of as much as $50,000 and significant changes in accounting rules. <more> Oct. 4, 2005 Times Picayune
New Orleans lays off 3,000 workers -- New Orleans has been forced to lay off 3,000 city workers -- about half the workforce -- because of financial constraints following Hurricane Katrina, Mayor Ray Nagin said Tuesday. The mayor said "with great sadness" that the "nonessential employees" laid off will receive their final paychecks this month. The layoffs are not likely to include public safety personnel, he said. <more> Oct. 4, 2005 CNN
Local Governments Face Bankruptcy, Layoffs or Both - - Officials in this stricken city are considering laying off as many as 3,000 employees - nearly 40 percent of city hall's workforce - to balance the budget. In nearby St. Bernard Parish, 120 municipal employees have already lost their jobs and the parish president is begging for federal assistance to make payroll. The proposed cutbacks and pleas for aid illustrate one legacy of the two hurricanes that lashed the Gulf Coast: with storm losses crippling the economy, municipal governments in southern Louisiana are quickly running out of money and are now seeking federal aid to avoid bankruptcy or huge layoffs and reductions in city services. <more> Oct. 4, 2005 NY Times
Search Ends With 964 Katrina Dead in La. - - The search for Hurricane Katrina victims has ended in Louisiana with a death toll at 964, but more searches will be conducted if someone reports seeing a body, a state official said Monday. State and federal agencies have finished their sweeps through the city, but Kenyon International Emergency Services, the private company hired by the state to remove the bodies, is on call if any other body is found, said Bob Johannessen, a spokesman with the state Department of Health and Hospitals. "There might still be bodies found — for instance, if a house was locked and nobody able to go into it," Johannessen said. <more> Oct. 3, 2005 AP
Population Loss Altering Louisiana Political Landscape - - The two recent gulf hurricanes may result in a significant loss of population for Louisiana, and state officials are now virtually certain that Louisiana will lose a Congressional seat - along with federal financing and national influence - after the 2010 census. Having dislodged more than a million people in southern Louisiana alone, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita are also likely to alter the state's political landscape, demographers and political experts say, reducing the domination of New Orleans over the State Legislature and increasing the influence of suburban and rural areas. <more> Oct. 4, 2005 NY Times
New Orleans to rebuild amid uncertainty. Questions about what can be saved and what must be razed-- How many people in New Orleans will have to make major repairs to or completely rebuild their homes? President Bush told the nation there is a "powerful American determination to clear the ruins and build better than before." New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has what federal officials say is an ambitious plan to bring 180,000 people back to the city. The mayor has said, "I just can't wait for the rhythm of New Orleans and the sounds of New Orleans to come back." At one point, 80 percent of his city was flooded. According to the U.S. Census there were about 213,000 homes in New Orleans parish in 2002. Mike McDaniel, the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said Thursday that between 140,000 and 160,000 homes need to be leveled. And more than 350,000 vehicles are ruined, he added. However, local officials will decide which homes will be razed. <more> Oct. 4, 2005 CNN
'Kick in the Gut' for Black Colleges. Before Katrina, 10,000 students attended three historic campuses in New Orleans. Now traditions are in tatters and futures are in limbo. - - We love thy every blade and tree. The first line of "Fair Dillard," the alma mater of Dillard University, is dedicated to a majestic promenade of trees that locals call the "avenue of the oaks." Generations of students at Dillard, one of the nation's oldest historically black colleges, have walked the avenue on graduation day. The rest of the year, the oaks provide shade and a picturesque backdrop. But on those spring afternoons, in the heart of New Orleans, the limbs seem to beckon young African Americans, coaxing many of them along a path from poverty to the middle class and beyond. Today, the grass is dead and covered with a sludge left by Hurricane Katrina's flood. The oaks are splintered, toppled and rotting. Lost in the madness of Katrina, the nation's black college community has been devastated by the storm. <more> Oct. 4, 2005 LA Times
New Orleans universities work to rebuild -- In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, professors and students from the city's universities took academic refuge in other schools -- some as far away as the University of Haifa in Israel. Now, more than a month after the storm, New Orleans' universities -- including Tulane, Loyola and Xavier -- are putting together ambitious plans to reopen in January. <more> Oct. 4, 2005 AP
Trailers ready for evacuees. 573 hurricane victims start moving into Groom Road park in Baker today - - Evacuees from recent hurricanes are expected to start moving into FEMA-funded travel trailers near Groom Road today, according to state and federal officials. The travel trailers, funded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are available for people who have lost their homes in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. <more> Oct. 4, 2005 The Advocate
Electric shock on utility bills. Entergy warns users to brace for record highs - - Baton Rouge homeowners and businessmen should brace for the highest electric bills in history, utility and regulatory officials warned Monday. The cost of natural gas used to make electricity roughly doubled during the month of September, partly because of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. <more> Oct. 4, 2005 The Advocate
Hurricane evacuees unwelcome in some communities -- When Fresno's mayor decided to travel to Louisiana and invite 400 hurricane evacuees to relocate in California's rural Central Valley, other local officials begged him to reconsider. Mayor Alan Autry's grand gesture seemed impractical at best -- with a quarter of the population in poverty, the unemployment rate set to rise as the fall harvest ends, and 2,000 Hmong refugees still to settle. County supervisors warned that the city -- not the county -- would have to pay for their support. But Autry pressed ahead, paying for the trip himself and vowing to get money for hurricane refugees from church groups. "We are all Americans," Autry said while in Louisiana. "If something happens like this, you put a map of the U.S. up there, and erase all the state lines." Still, several other communities share Fresno's worries. <more> Oct. 4, 2005 AP

Monday, Oct. 3, 2005

US government should help pay Louisiana cops, firefighters: governor - - Louisiana’s governor called on the federal government to help pay local cops and other "critical public safety" workers dealing with widespread hurricane-wrought ruin. Governor Kathleen Blanco publicly urged President George Bush and congressional leaders to modify federal rules to allow federal aid cash to be spent on more than overtime for state employees. "I am asking Congress to make that change within a week," Blanco said in a statement. "The funds are already available. Quick action is critical." <more> Oct. 3, 2005 Reuters

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco listens during hearings conducted by the US Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Blanco called on the US government to help pay local cops and other 'critical public safety' workers dealing with widespread hurricane-wrought ruin.(AFP/Luke Frazza)
Blanco reorganizes her staff after hurricanes - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Monday that she has restructured her staff to deal with the back-to-back hurricanes and the state's massive recovery effort. The administration is broken into "recovery teams" along the following topics: economy and work force, education, environment, family services, fiscal stability, health, housing and transportation and infrastructure, Blanco told a legislative panel. <more> Oct. 3, 2005 AP
Louisiana AG searches Tenet unit. Tenet Healthcare says Louisiana officials removed files from Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans. - - Tenet Healthcare Corp. on Sunday said representatives of the Louisiana Attorney General's office delivered a search warrant and removed files from the company's Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans, where 34 patients died during Hurricane Katrina. Tenet, a hospital and health care center operator, said Louisiana officials removed certain records from Memorial and from an independently owned facility on the same campus that is managed by LifeCare Holdings Inc. Tenet said the company believes as many 11 patients on the Memorial campus died before the hurricane but could not be removed before the storm hit. Representatives of the Louisiana Attorney General's Office searched the campus on Saturday, Tenet said. The campus has a 317-bed hospital that has been closed since Katrina battered the region in late August. <more> Oct. 3, 2005 CNN
New Orleans seafood safe to eat again – experts- - Fish from Lake Pontchartrain, the source of much of New Orleans' famous seafood, is safe to eat again after Hurricane Katrina, but lay off the oysters, state environmental experts said on Friday. They said shrimp, crab and fish could be consumed if they were thoroughly cooked, but oyster beds were closed and could stay that way for months. Full recovery of the beds could take up to two years, said Harry Blanchet of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. <more> Oct. 3, 2005 Reuters
Louisiana Rita, Katrina Equals No Toxic Soup - - As we have recently seen, reason and truth are often in short supply after a catastrophic event. We've heard non-stop stories of violence and "toxic soup" in the Hurricane Katrina-affected areas. In the rush to report the status of air, water and sediment, was there any double-checking, proofing or verification of results? Probably not much. The truth is finally coming to light. Remember the "chemical warehouse" fire? It was actually a warehouse of Mardi Gras floats. Now it's time for some "true facts" about Louisiana's post-Katrina environment. <more> Oct. 3, 2005 Bayoubuzz.com
Parish president: FEMA still fumbling -- The president of St. Tammany Parish accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sunday of continuing to mismanage the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a charge denied by an agency spokeswoman. "I met the president personally," Kevin Davis told CNN's "Late Edition." "I actually drafted a note, and he signed it. It said, 'We are going to help you,'" the parish president said. "I think he was sincere. He hugged me, and I believe in him. There is a disconnect apparently from that point down through the FEMA program." Davis described as "wonderful" the FEMA people who have been assigned to his parish along the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. <more> Oct. 3, 2005 CNN
Katrina scatters New Orleans' complex black community. Many wonder if the multicultural society will change -- As black New Orleanians regroup and put down roots elsewhere -- some temporary, some not -- many wonder: What will become of one of the nation's most complex African-American cultures? Pre-Katrina New Orleans was a majority black city. It also was a poor one, and most of the people hardest hit by the storm were both, as early images showed. But broad descriptions miss the subtleties of race and economics in a place where French, Spanish, Indians and West Africans mixed as far back as the 18th century. This resulted in a rich cultural heritage -- think jazz, for starters -- and a multiracial, sometimes inequitable society organized along lines of color and class. <more> Oct. 3, 2005 AP
'California Angels' Fly Into Face of Disaster. Volunteer nurses help keep a Baton Rouge hospital open, and spirits up - — As the state capital's largest public health hospital, the Earl K. Long Medical Center routinely accepted people other institutions didn't like to, or simply wouldn't. But immediately after Hurricane Katrina struck, the hospital, critically short of staff, began turning away desperate New Orleans evacuees who not only couldn't pay but who had just lost everything. The hospital, whose mission it is to care for those whom no one else does, was forced to close to new patients. Amid the scramble and chaos, hospital officials weren't sure how many were refused aid. Then the California nurses came. <more> Oct. 3, 2005 LA Times
Location, location: For clean water it's key. Jefferson held the right cards during Katrina. State will give all clear following tests - - One month after Hurricane Katrina smashed southeast Louisiana, crews struggling to restore drinking water on the east bank of New Orleans still are digging through mountains of muck-covered vehicles, a forest of fallen trees and homes flooded off their foundations -- just to find and fix the broken pipes that have rendered the water system impotent. <more> Oct. 3, 2005 Times Picayune
Times-Picayune to Return to New Orleans - - The Times-Picayune newspaper, which evacuated New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, announced Monday that it will resume printing in New Orleans within two weeks. Ashton Phelps, Jr., the newspaper's publisher, said in a statement that the newspaper would also invite all its employees back to work. The newspaper, which is owned by the Newhouse family, had moved its operations for several weeks to nearby Baton Rouge as well as to Mobile, Ala. and Houma in the wake of the devastating storm. <more> Oct. 3, 2005 AP
Louisiana wants final say in storm protection. State wants majority on independent board overseeing project -- A $40 billion plan to hurricane-proof the Louisiana coast has ignited a battle over how best to prevent a repeat of this year's double flooding of New Orleans. Endorsed by the state's congressional delegation, the proposal would create a nine-member independent commission that would give Louisiana a large say in how the federal money is spent. The huge sums involved and the measure's plan to waive federal environmental laws underscore the dramatic steps that Louisiana lawmakers say are needed to help the state recover from one of the country's worst natural disasters. <more> Oct. 3, 2005 AP
Storms drive up shipping costs. Paper reports rising expense of moving goods in and out of damaged Gulf ports; could slow growth. - - Hurricane damage to Gulf Coast ports is driving up shipping costs, which in turn could further slow the nation's economic growth, according to a published report. The Wall Street Journal reported that the rising expense of shipping along the Mississippi river and through U.S. Gulf Coast ports from Houston to Mobile, Ala. could hit agriculture, paper, steel and other products that typically flow through the region. The shipping problems mean imported steel that will have to come into the nation through alternative ports could add to the prices paid by U.S. manufacturers, maritime transportation consultant John Martin told the paper. The rising cost of moving forest products like lumber could add to the mounting price tag for rebuilding the region as well, according to the paper's report. <more> Oct. 3, 2005 CNN
Katrina slams Gulf's outdoor industry -- Before Katrina, heaven was as close as the back porch for Tony and Edith Nata. With a wood-frame house on stilts over Lake Pontchartrain, the couple fished without ever leaving home. Louisiana lived up to its "Sportsman's Paradise" nickname every day at sunset. Sadly, paradise got lost somewhere amid the docks, marinas and hunting lands destroyed last month by the monster hurricane. <more> Oct. 3, 2005 AP

Sunday, Oct. 2, 2005 3 p.m.

You've Got to See It to Really Believe It. It's only amid the devastation that the huge job of rebuilding New Orleans hits home. Still, the task defies comprehension. - - On a weekday morning not long ago, two state engineers left Baton Rouge to go hunting for places to deposit the remains of half a city. Before the ruined portions of New Orleans can be reconstructed, they must first be deconstructed and hauled away — an estimated 22 million tons of debris, an amount 15 times more than the World Trade Center's collapse generated. About 40 miles from New Orleans, the pair — 48-year-old Bijan Sharafkhani, who rode shotgun, and the driver, 31-year-old Jason Meyers — began to pass billboards erected after Hurricane Katrina. "NO MATTER WHAT," vowed one, sponsored by a construction firm, "we are moving back to our city NEW ORLEANS." "Hey Louisiana," shouted another, placed by a potato chip maker, "let's build it back EVEN BETTER!" These defiantly upbeat messages echoed the rhetorical flourishes swirling about New Orleans in the last month. Even as the last evacuees were being pulled from rooftops, there was spirited talk of rebuilding New Orleans as a "shining new city," if not on a hill, at least on a swamp with improved levee protection. <more> Oct. 2, 2005 LA Times

Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry, left, hugs Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco during a prayer service at Loyola University in New Orleans, Friday, Sept. 30, 2005. (AP Photo/LM Otero
Blanco postpones elections in parishes hit by Rita - - Elections in five southwest Louisiana parishes have been postponed due to damage from Hurricane Rita, Gov. Kathleen Blanco's office said Friday. The governor ordered the delay for local elections, scheduled for October and November, in Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis and Vermilion parishes. New dates were set for November and December, Blanco's office said. Blanco already had put off October and November elections in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish because of Hurricane Katrina. She has not set new dates for those races. Oct. 2, 2005 AP
Smaller Towns Bore the Brunt of Rita's Force - - There used to be a hardware store here, as evidenced by the paint scrapers, copper pots and pans, random power cords and plungers that are buried in the muck and branches. There were homes, too, where bedsheets are now strung through the trees like Christmas ribbon. There is a disembodied roof, a shrimp boat smashed to bits against a live oak tree, a file cabinet wedged in black mud, its tiny, color-coded tabs intact amid the rubble. They are all that is left of Cameron and nearby Creole. These towns, which opened Friday to residents for the first time, are part of a cluster of settlements in rural Louisiana and Texas that were essentially wiped out by Hurricane Rita, the power of which is only now beginning to reveal itself a week after it struck. <more> Oct. 1, 2005 NY Times
New Orleans pumping almost done. Body found floating outside nursing home -- The Army Corps of Engineers pumped much of the remaining floodwaters out of the city Saturday as tens of thousands of residents continued returning to dry neighborhoods to check on houses and reopen businesses. Water was still being pumped out of the heavily flooded lower Ninth Ward. Officials expected the pumping to be completed by midweek, said Mitch Frazier, spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers. "There will still be some isolated pools here and there that aren't drained that will have to be pumped out individually," said George Stringham, another corps spokesman. <more> Oct. 1, 2005 AP
'We're moving out of this stinking city'. Residents return to find muck, mold and debris in New Orleans -- Some came back to New Orleans to rebuild their lives, others only to pack up and leave. "We're moving out of this stinking city," Billy Tassin snarled. "They can finishing destroying it and burning it down without us." Tassin was loading his daughter's belongings into a truck a day after finding his home fouled with knee-deep mud. Others fared better. Along St. Charles Avenue, its famous streetcars still idle, Maury Strong and her husband were elated to return home and find they had electricity. <more> Oct. 1, 2005 AP
Port of New Orleans Attempting to Put the Pieces Back Together. The key shipping facility for agricultural goods, like many other Gulf Coast harbors, sustained extensive damage from Katrina and Rita. - - Five weeks after the first of two hurricanes annihilated a third of his harbor, New Orleans port director Gary LaGrange is trying to resurrect one of the nation's busiest trade gateways with a skeletal crew forced to live on an old cargo ship. This week, LaGrange left the King Kennedy, the vessel that has been his home since Hurricane Katrina swept ashore, to tell the Senate Finance Committee in Washington how the densest concentration of ports on any U.S. coastline had fared during the hurricane double-header: not very well.<more> Oct. 1, 2005 LA Times
Stumbling Storm-Aid Effort Put Tons of Ice on Trips to Nowhere - - When the definitive story of the confrontation between Hurricane Katrina and the United States government is finally told, one long and tragicomic chapter will have to be reserved for the odyssey of the ice. Ninety-one thousand tons of ice cubes, that is, intended to cool food, medicine and sweltering victims of the storm. It would cost taxpayers more than $100 million, and most of it would never be delivered. <more> Oct. 2, 2005 NY Times
Blanket of Mold Threatens Health and Homes - - As residents of New Orleans begin to re-enter the homes and businesses left standing after Hurricane Katrina, many may face an obstacle more pervasive and possibly more dangerous than mud and rotting wood: mold spores reproducing inside tens of thousands of buildings. Public health experts say mold could present significant risks and may force thousands of demolitions. Trillions of spores, exacerbated by the sultry late-summer weather, could sicken the 20 percent of the population that has allergy problems, experts say, and could also be dangerous for older residents, children and people with weakened immune systems. <more> Oct. 2, 2005 NY Times
Livingston Parish still cleaning Katrina's mess and muck -- People trying to repair their flood-damaged homes in lower Livingston Parish also have other difficulties to battle this weekend -- overflowing debris piles, stench and mosquitoes. The mosquitoes aren't just buzzing around the 1,000 to 1,500 homes that were damaged by Hurricane Rita's flood waters but are biting people across much of the parish, officials said Saturday. "It's like we fertilized them," Parish President Mike Grimmer said. "Even in Walker, they are everywhere." <more> Oct. 2, 2005 The Advocate
Ravaged homes full of mold. Lakeview faces storm's cruelty -- In a perfect world, simple questions would have been answered Saturday. Is my house going to be bulldozed? Can I rebuild? Can I even see my home? What is the city going to do? Friday, as New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin opened up sections of the Crescent City to allow residents a first glimpse of their homes in the wake of the hurricanes -- a dried-up Lakeview was still off the list. <more> Oct. 2, 2005 The Advocate
N.O. residents survey ruin in 'ghost town'; some leave -- As New Orleans residents poured back into their city this weekend, those who planned to stay faced serious obstacles to normal living. With homes damaged, electricity spotty, no schools and an eerie feeling of desertion still plaguing New Orleans, residents expect a long wait before their city feels like home again. Many returnees said they would wait to move back permanently, while others came to collect their belongings and leave for good. <more> Oct. 2, 2005 The Advocate
Let's not let probes divide state more - - Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson says his city got a bum rap. News reports about snarling guard dogs and trigger-happy officers blocking desperate black New Orleans residents from fleeing into his community are "absurd," Lawson says. The chief said his officers, in the middle of their own crisis, actually rescued 6,000 New Orleanians from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina before he felt compelled to close his borders. It didn't take long for race, perhaps the most enduring and most uncomfortable issue in Louisiana history, to rear its head in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Gretna incident was only one example. <more> Oct. 2, 2005 The Advocate
Where to begin? As thousands of people look to rebuild their homes and their lives, that question may be the hardest to answer. 'One of the charms of New Orleans was the irrationality' - - When floodwaters laid waste to Dennis Terry's Lakeview townhouse, his first few steps were obvious ones: Recover anything worth saving. Call the insurance company. Call the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Wait for a check to arrive, hopefully one that reflects the home's true value. Now, though, Terry faces a labyrinth of more complex decisions. So do tens of thousands of owners of uninhabitable homes across a swath of New Orleans and its environs. <more> Oct. 2, 2005 Times Picayune
Call for $40 billion panel prompts debate over storm protection - - A $40 billion plan to hurricane-proof the Louisiana coast has ignited a battle over how best to prevent a repeat of this year's double flooding of New Orleans. Endorsed by the state's congressional delegation, the proposal would create a nine-member independent commission that would give Louisiana a large say in how the federal money is spent. <more> Oct. 2, 2005 AP
Inside a FEMA Search and Rescue Team. TIME's Tim Burger heads into a Louisiana town hit by Hurricane Rita with a disaster relief team - - It's a dark Saturday night in a parking lot in Lake Charles, La. about 12 hours after Hurricane Rita tore through here, and Columbus, Ohio Fire Department Capt. Jack Reall is briefing his 35-person FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Team. "What you see is what you got. We have no idea what's going to happen," except that the promised roof to sleep under isn't going to work out. <more> Oct. 2, 2005 TIME
LOUISIANA DEATH TOLL: 929

POWER

Entergy outages

Louisiana: 263,000*

*Including 156,000 customers who are unable to receive service because of damage to their homes.

Percentage of Entergy customers in the metropolitan New Orleans area without power:

Jefferson Parish 2%

Plaquemines Parish 67%

Orleans Parish 62%

Customers without power because of Katrina:

Orleans Parish 121,785

St. Bernard Parish 26,197

Plaquemines Parish 5,818

Jefferson Parish 2,500

Source: Times Picayune

Friday, Sept. 30, 2005

Panel on New Orleans' Rebirth Is Named, and Gets to Work - - Mayor C. Ray Nagin announced the 17-member commission this afternoon that will advise him as this stricken city begins its long slog of renewal and reconstruction. "It's time for us to focus on bringing in more sunshine into the city," Mr. Nagin said at a news conference inside the heavily fortified Sheraton Hotel on Canal Street, a locale thick with clean-up crews and one where beefy private security personnel armed with weapons guarded the single entrance that was open. "It's time to bring New Orleans back." The commission includes an array of business leaders and community representatives, including the president of Tulane University, Scott Cowen, and the multimillionaire businessmen Joseph C. Canizaro and Donald T. Bollinger Jr., who have close ties to the White House. Also on the list is David White, a business executive often described as the mayor's closest confidant, and the musician Wynton Marsalis. <more> Sept. 30, 2005 New York Times
La. taking measures to offset tax losses - - State economists estimate Louisiana will lose $1 billion in taxes this year due to two hurricanes, and in response some drastic measures are being taken to help offset shrinking tax revenues. Gov. Kathleen Blanco has already ordered a hiring and spending freeze. Commissioner of Administration Jerry Luke Leblanc said the governor will call a special legislative session before the end of the year to deal with some of the issues. On Friday a joint legislative budget committee met to discuss the issue. <more> Sept. 30, 2005 The Advocate
Disaster fund not allotting money. Blanco to name panel to distribute to victims - - More than $6 million has poured into Gov. Kathleen Blanco's Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation in the past four weeks, but hurricane victims have yet to receive any of the money. The holdup? The governor hasn't appointed a committee to distribute the contributions. The foundation's Web site says the fund was established "to help provide immediate assistance." The governor's press secretary, Denise Bottcher, said the foundation actually is meant to meet more long-term needs. <more> Sept. 30, 2005 The Advocate
Rebuilding: Lots of ideas, little focus. Political leaders taking their first steps -- in many directions-- A month after Hurricane Katrina, political leaders are taking their first steps toward rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. But they are heading off in different -- and possibly conflicting -- directions. The mayor of New Orleans is creating one commission to oversee the task. State officials say they are best suited to handle the reconstruction. And some on the Gulf Coast and in Washington want to see a strong federal role to coordinate the huge undertaking and guard against misspending or corruption. "Right now, it's just like our leaders were dazed during the disaster. I think they're still a bit dazed with just the enormity of the situation," said Rolfe McCollister Jr., publisher of the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report. <more> Sept. 30, 2005 AP
New Orleans' Tourist Business Dealing With the Big Difficult. Hotels do well with FEMA renting 20,000 rooms, but other travel-related establishments may be in for tough times. - - Mardi Gras doesn't arrive until Feb. 28, but every available hotel room here is already full. Relief workers, FEMA contractors and utility employees have replaced the tourists and convention-goers who typically ply the French Quarter and Central Business District this time of year. In fact, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency planning to rent 20,000 hotel rooms, the inns of New Orleans are sold out for the rest of 2005, said Donna Karl, vice president of the New Orleans Metropolitan Visitors & Convention Bureau. "The hotels should thank their stars for FEMA right now," said Loren C. Scott, a New Orleans economist. The big question is what happens next, or as Peter Menge, co-owner of the Savvy Gourmet cooking school and catering company in the Magazine Street shopping district asks: "Dude, where are my customers going to come from?" <more> Sept. 30, 2005 LA Times
Residents begin return to ravaged New Orleans. Mayor announces a commission to plan recovery and rebuilding city - - Some of the city’s most popular neighborhoods officially reopened to residents Friday, a move that could bring back about a third of New Orleans’ half-million inhabitants. Suggesting the massive scale of the task ahead, Mayor Ray Nagin announced a commission on Friday charged with coming up with a recovery and rebuilding plan within the next 90 days. The newly opened areas, including the French Quarter and Garden District, all escaped major flooding when the city was devastated by Hurricane Katrina a month ago before receiving a second blow from Hurricane Rita last week. <more> Sept. 30, 2005 AP
Cameron officials warn: 'There's not a lot to look at' -- Hurricane Rita wiped Holly Beach off the map, destroyed more than 90 percent of the homes in the town of Cameron and left 8 to 10 feet of debris on coastal roads that weren't washed away, Cameron Parish officials said at a news conference Thursday to detail the extent of the storm's damage. "There's not anything left, hardly," Cameron Parish Police Jury President Steve Trahan said, summing up damage in the southern half of the coastal parish that suffered the worst of Rita. <more> Sept. 30, 2005 The Advocate
Housing for Storm's Evacuees Lagging Far Behind U.S. Goals - - After Hurricane Katrina left hundreds of thousands of people homeless, the Federal Emergency Management Agency signed contracts for more than $2 billion in temporary housing, including more than 120,000 trailers and mobile homes. But the agency has placed just 109 Louisiana families in those homes. A month after the disaster, the federal government's temporary housing effort is stumbling. The inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that FEMA was freezing many orders for trailers, although the agency disputes that. Members of Congress, complaining that a $236 million deal to lease three ships to house evacuees was far too expensive, are calling for an investigation. And under an alternative FEMA program to give victims cash to find their own housing, 332,000 households have been approved in just a week. <more> Sept. 30, 2005 New York Times
A Police Department Racked by Doubt and Accusations - -They spend their shifts patrolling neighborhoods largely devoid of the people they have sworn to serve and protect. Then many of them collapse in tiny cabins on a cruise ship docked on the Mississippi River, their own homes unlivable, their own families elsewhere, their own reputations in question. The 1,400-plus active city police officers left to protect this gutted metropolis now serve in a department at a low point in its already checkered history, at a time when rebuilding the police force is essential to rebuilding New Orleans. The department struggled to maintain order in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, its superintendent resigned this week, and Thursday its acting superintendent announced the suspension or reassignment of five officers suspected of looting or standing by as looting occurred. <more> Sept. 30, 2005 New York Times

Consumer Spending Report Bares Katrina's Wrath - - Consumer spending plunged in August at the steepest rate since the September 2001 terrorist attacks as Hurricane Katrina slashed Americans' incomes, fanned inflation and caused $170 billion in losses from property damage, the government reported today, in its first tally of the storm's economic effects. The report came a day after the Labor Department said 279,000 Americans have filed new claims for unemployment insurance benefits because of Katrina, which slammed into the Gulf Coast Aug. 29, wrecking homes and businesses, driving up energy prices and forcing a mass evacuation of the region's residents. <more> Sept. 30, 2005 Washington Post
'No Child' Rules to Be Eased for a Year. Schools Would Have to Show That Displaced Students Hurt Test Scores - - Under pressure from hurricane-stressed states, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced yesterday that the agency will for one year relax academic accountability standards under the administration's signature education initiative, allowing schools affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita to recoup without facing penalties for poor annual assessments. The decision marks a significant shift for Spellings, who has said since she assumed office that while she will be flexible in enforcing the No Child Left Behind law, one area of measure is sacrosanct: holding schools accountable for the results of yearly tests. Yesterday's action marks the first time the administration has yielded any ground on this point. <more> Sept. 30, 2005 Washington Post
New Orleans returnees face health risks. Contaminated water, mold among problems -- Doctors prepared for a possible surge in the number of patients in New Orleans on Friday as many residents returned to begin the long process of rebuilding their lives after Hurricane Katrina. Contaminated water, mold and the dusty sediment left behind when the city was pumped dry are some of the key health threats facing residents, according to Dr. Frederick Cerise, the head of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. "We've been testing around the city and it's not consistently clean and that's because there are still leaks in the system," Cerise said. <more> Sept. 30, 2005 CNN
Honore: La. coast's comeback years away -- The coastline of southwestern Louisiana will take years to restore after Hurricane Rita unearthed graves, ripped apart levees and infected farmland with saltwater, the commander of the military relief effort said Thursday. Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore took a handful of reporters along Thursday for a helicopter tour of the area. "How bad is it? You've got saltwater in places that was fresh water. You've got significant impact on the roads, electrical and sewer. You've got levee problems along the coastline," Honore said. <more> Sept. 30, 2005 AP
Shortest cleanup estimate is one year. More than half the La. debris is in Orleans parish. Termite infestation presents unique problem - - It is not, officials handling the task frankly concede, the sexiest task in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. But someone's got to clean up. And it will take a year. At least. "Trash hauling may not sound that exciting, but it's very, very important," says U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen, who heads the federal relief effort in those areas of Louisiana and Mississippi nearly annihilated by both Katrina and Hurricane Rita. <more> Sept. 30, 2005 Times Picayune
Hospitals still closed after Katrina - - Hurricane Katrina closed half of the hospitals in the seven-parish area, including all of those based in New Orleans, and some may not reopen. Several hospitals, most notably the Charity and University hospital campuses operated by a branch of Louisiana State University, will have to undergo intense structural studies before anyone can even talk about reopening them, said John J. Jack Finn, president of the Metropolitan Hospital Council of New Orleans. Of the approximately 4,000 employees both campuses had before Katrina, about 2,500 haven’t checked in since, spokesman ‘Marvin McGraw said, adding that it isn’t certain whether Charity will reopen. <more> Sept. 30, 2005 Times Picayune

Thursday, Sept. 29, 2005

Blanco meets with local business owners - - More than 375,000 Louisianans are out of work following Hurricane Katrina. A day after meeting with Congress, Gov. Kathleen Blanco talked with local business owners about working to reduce that number. Blanco said her plan includes four main objectives, including direct incentives to business owners, $30 billion in tax-exempt recovery bonds, job creation tax credits for major corporations and $10 billion for the Louisiana Development Fund to provide grants to small businesses. <more> Sept. 29, 2005 The Advocate

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, (D-La.), prepares to sit before testifying at the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 28, 2005. Blanco asked Congress for help in rebuilding her devastated state, saying Hurricanes Katrina and Rita 'knocked us down but they did not knock us out.' REUTERS/Larry Downing
Blanco hires business consultant - -Governor Kathleen Blanco says she has hired an international consulting firm to help work on the state's economic and business recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Blanco says McKinsey and Company has done extensive work with New York City officials since the September eleventh terrorist attacks and is working in Indonesia to help with tsunami recovery efforts. She says the consulting firm advises 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies. <more> Sept. 29, 2005 KATC-TV
Katrina, Rita hurt La. economy - - Hurricanes Katrina and Rita knocked out a third of the state's businesses, bringing "our economy to its knees," Gov. Kathleen Blanco told the U.S. Senate Finance Committee Wednesday. It's still unknown exactly what that means for the state's $18.7 billion budget. One budget official estimated the hit could be at least $3 billion. Another wouldn't hazard a guess. <more> Sept. 29, 2005 The Advocate
New Orleans relaunches "repopulation" campaign - - A month after Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans in ruins and less than a week after Rita dealt it a second blow, officials relaunched a "repopulation" campaign on Thursday to get the city back on its feet. They threw open the doors for business owners in some neighborhoods and planned to allow residents to start returning on Friday in a phased effort to bring life back to streets now largely abandoned. <more> Sept., 29, 2005 Reuters
Risk assessment firm puts flood damage in New Orleans at $22.6 billion - -Hurricane Katrina caused at least $22.6 billion in flood damage to commercial and residential property in New Orleans — and nearly that much to private property in other areas hit by the storm last month, according to estimates released Thursday by a major risk assessment company. The total flood damage was more than $44 billion, said AIR Worldwide Corp., a risk-modeling firm based in Boston. <more> Sept. 29, 2005 AP
Fear Exceeded Crime's Reality in New Orleans - - After the storm came the siege. In the days after Hurricane Katrina, terror from crimes seen and unseen, real and rumored, gripped New Orleans. The fears changed troop deployments, delayed medical evacuations, drove police officers to quit, grounded helicopters. Edwin P. Compass III, the police superintendent, said that tourists - the core of the city's economy - were being robbed and raped on streets that had slid into anarchy. The mass misery in the city's two unlit and uncooled primary shelters, the convention center and the Superdome, was compounded, officials said, by gangs that were raping women and children. A month later, a review of the available evidence now shows that some, though not all, of the most alarming stories that coursed through the city appear to be little more than figments of frightened imaginations, the product of chaotic circumstances that included no reliable communications, and perhaps the residue of the longstanding raw relations between some police officers and members of the public. <more>Sept. 29, 2005 New York Times
A Mogul Who Would Rebuild New Orleans- - Many of the business elite of New Orleans seem preoccupied these days by what some here simply call The List - the chosen few Mayor C. Ray Nagin is expected to name on Friday to a commission to advise him on the rebuilding of the stricken city. Almost certain to make the grade is the real estate mogul Joseph C. Canizaro, the man best known for bringing high-rises to the New Orleans skyline. Mr. Canizaro has emerged as perhaps the single most influential business executive from New Orleans. One fellow business leader calls him the local Donald Trump. But Mr. Canizaro derives his influence far less from a flamboyant style than from his close ties to President Bush as well as to Mr. Nagin, and that combination could make him a pivotal figure in deciding how and where New Orleans will be resurrected. Mr. Canizaro has not only secured a coveted spot on the commission, those who have seen the list said, but he has played a critical role in shaping it. At a state Senate hearing held in Baton Rouge on Wednesday, Mr. Nagin confirmed that he would be naming an advisory panel, but that he had not completed a list. <more> Sept. 29, 2005 New York Times
Katrina's Corpses Are Many, IDs Are Few - - A month after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Louisiana coast, coroners have positively identified just 32 of the nearly 800 corpses collected at a temporary morgue, officials said Wednesday. Only about a third of the recovered bodies have been even tentatively identified, underscoring the difficulty of confirming the identities and causes of death for victims of a disaster that left corpses decomposing in floodwaters and scattered survivors across the country. In the first public accounting of the dead, the state's chief medical examiner acknowledged that some victims may never be identified. For many others, he said, the date and cause of death may never be known. <more> Sept. 29, 2005 Los Angeles Times
Few evacuees expected to remain in B.R. - - Thirty days after Hurricane Katrina forced almost everyone out of the New Orleans area, residents in the capital city are getting a better idea of the lasting effects for Baton Rouge. With all the headaches brought on by the sudden population explosion, how many people plan to put down roots and stay? Traffic bas been one major concern, and the serious lack of housing is another -- that means big changes for Baton Rouge residents. The thing many people want to know is how long the situation will last. Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce President Stephen Moret believes that with all the evacuees in town, the inflated population numbers will not remain where they are. <more> Sept. 29, 2005 The Advocate
Lake Charles has long way to go. Officials work on water, electrical systems to make area livable again -- Howard Livingston has lived in Lake Charles for 66 years, and he's not letting a mere hurricane budge him. The city has been without power since Hurricane Rita struck Saturday, and officials say the entire parish of Calcasieu may be largely dark for most of the next month. The water's not drinkable yet, and few gas stations and stores are providing services. <more> Sept. 29, 2005 The Advocate
Some N.O. residents can return home Friday; more on Oct. 4 - - More New Orleans residents can go see their homes Friday, and nearly all will be allowed back into their storm-struck city by Tuesday, Oct. 4. That's still not quick enough for many people who have been living elsewhere since they fled their homes to escape Hurricane Katrina a month ago. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said Wednesday that only the devastated lower 9th Ward, an area east of the Industrial Canal along the Mississippi River, will remain closed to residents indefinitely. <more> Sept. 29, 2005 The Advocate
New Orleans police looking into reports some officers looted - - The police department has launched an investigation into whether officers participated in the giant looting spree that overtook the city after Hurricane Katrina, a spokesman said Thursday. News reports in the aftermath of the storm put officers at the scene of some of the heaviest looting, the Wal-Mart in the Lower Garden District. Some witnesses — including a Times-Picayune reporter — said police were taking items from shelves. <more> Sept. 29, 2005 AP

Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2005 1:30 p.m.

Blanco Asks Congress for Rebuilding Aid - - Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco asked Congress on Wednesday for help in rebuilding her devastated state, saying Hurricanes Katrina and Rita "knocked us down but they did not knock us out." Appearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Blanco in her opening statement did not mention former FEMA director Michael Brown, who on Tuesday had blamed state and local officials in Louisiana for not responding appropriately to the storm. "We are looking forward, not backward, " Blanco said. <more> Sept. 28, 2005 AP Click here to read full text of Blanco remarks

Governor Kathleen Blanco, D-La., testifying before Senate Finance Committee on Capital Hill, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2005 in Washington. Blanco asked Congress for help in rebuilding her devastated state, saying Hurricanes Katrina and Rita 'knocked us down but they did not knock us out.' Blanco in her opening statement did not mention former FEMA director Michael Brown, who on Tuesday had blamed state and local officials in Louisiana for not responding appropriately to the storm. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Louisiana Governor Lobbies for Job Creation. Gov. Kathleen Blanco sidesteps the blame game regarding government response to Hurricane Katrina. - - Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco avoided trading charges today with former FEMA director Michael D. Brown, declining to respond to the pointed criticism he aimed at her one day earlier in congressional testimony on the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. Blanco, appearing before the Senate Finance Committee, said, "I came really to talk about jobs creation. We have a huge mission of rebuilding." The respectful reception Blanco received from the panel stood in sharp contrast to the hostility some members of Congress directed at Brown in a separate hearing Tuesday. <more> Sept. 28, 2005 Los Angeles Times
When Storm Hit, Louisiana National Guard Was Deluged Too - - The morning Hurricane Katrina thundered ashore, Louisiana National Guard commanders thought they were prepared to save their state. But when 15-foot floodwaters swept into their headquarters, cut their communications and disabled their high-water trucks, they had their hands full just saving themselves. For a crucial 24 hours after landfall on Aug. 29, Guard officers said, they were preoccupied with protecting their nerve center from the waves topping the windows at Jackson Barracks and rescuing soldiers who could not swim. The next morning, they had to evacuate their entire headquarters force of 375 guardsmen by boat and helicopter to the Superdome. <more> Sept. 28, 2005 New York Times
La. death toll rises to 896 - - The Louisiana death toll from Hurricane Katrina rose to 896 Wednesday, state officials said. Of the dead, 712 are being kept at a makeshift morgue in St. Gabriel and the other bodies are in coroners’ offices in 13 parishes. East Baton Rouge Parish had the most bodies, 72, while Jefferson Parish had the second most with 30. Source: The Advocate Sept. 28, 2005
Morgue boss: 'These are horrible times'. Katrina qualifies as the third deadliest storm in U.S. history - - Louisiana officials believe they can identify about half of the 783 bodies brought so far to the St. Gabriel morgue. But four weeks after Hurricane Katrina, they have released the remains of just 32 people to family members, the state's chief medical examiner said Wednesday. Dr. Louis Cataldie, Louisiana's emergency response medical director, told reporters in Baton Rouge the process is delayed because autopsies must be conducted on people found in nursing homes and hospitals. <more> Sept. 28, 2005 CNN
Louisiana Counts Storms' Crippling Costs. New Orleans' port and tourism trades may rebound quickly, but the economy took a major hit, and hundreds of thousands are homeless. - - From the air, the coast of Louisiana resembles a broken mirror, slivered in shards of landscape and bands of floodwater. The numbers are incomplete, but taken together, they tell of a state crippled in two staggering blows: more than 500,000 left homeless by Katrina and tens of thousands more by Rita. About 300,000 people out of work and 70,000 living in shelters. At least 200,000 homes destroyed or heavily damaged. At least $1 billion in agricultural losses caused by Katrina and perhaps more by last week's storm. A $2-billion-a-year fishing industry erased. As many as 40,000 head of cattle wiped out. And 885 residents left dead by Katrina. <more> Sept. 28, 2005 Los Angles Times
Lobbies Line Up For Relief Riches. Groups Portray Projects as Storm Aid - - With Congress dangling as much as $200 billion in hurricane-related aid, lobbyists for oil companies, airlines, manufacturers and others are clamoring to get their share. "It's been all Katrina all the time, and now it's Rita, too," said J. Steven Hart, chairman of Williams & Jensen PLLC, a top lobbying firm in the capital. "Except for the Supreme Court, hurricane recovery is what Congress will be up to so we have no choice but to adapt." <more> Sept. 28, 2005 Washington Post
A Hot, Soggy, Grim Homecoming. For residents in one parish near New Orleans, emotions are raw as they venture back to inspect what was lost in the hurricane. - - George LePert pushed a curly, sweat-soaked tendril of hair back from his face and shook his head. The 29-year-old had just hauled a pile of sodden, muddy CD cases out of his house here in St. Bernard Parish, to the east of New Orleans. In the oppressive heat, the stench of rot hung heavy in the air. "I'm not going through this again," he said. LePert gestured back to the mud-blackened interior of his crumpled house on Dubarry Place. "Once I'm done today, I'm leaving for good." Across the way, Linda Griffiths watched her son pull his great-grandmother's photo, caked in sludge, from their home of 12 years. "I'll be back," said the nurse assistant, rubber-gloved hands on her hips. "I was born here, raised here, my daddy is buried here and I will be too. It may take years, but I'm coming back home." <more> Sept. 28, 2005 Los Angeles Times
I-10 through Lake Charles to reopen - - State officials expected to reopen Interstate 10 through Lake Charles by late Tuesday. Motorists will not be allowed to exit in Lake Charles, but through traffic on coast-to-coast highway will be allowed for the first time since Hurricane Rita came ashore Saturday morning. <more> Sept. 28, 2005 The Advocate
17,832 Guard soldiers help across La. - - About 17,832 National Guard troops were working in Louisiana on Tuesday -- an increase of 3,000 since Hurricane Rita -- but still far fewer than the 15,000 additional soldiers Gov. Kathleen Blanco requested last week. Only about 4,000 of the Guard have been assigned to respond to Rita, said Maj. Ed Bush, a spokesman for the Louisiana National Guard. "You put a number on the wall and you probably aim high," Bush said. "I think we'll get what we need." <more> Sept. 28, 2005 The Advocate
COMPASS RESIGNS. Abrupt departure comes as NOPD Katrina response is questioned. Mayor calls Compass a hero - - New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass, whose emotional media appearances since Hurricane Katrina made him one of the city's most recognizable figures nationwide, abruptly announced his retirement Tuesday. The stunning departure of the city's top cop roiled New Orleans leaders, and raised questions of whether Mayor Ray Nagin forced Compass from his job. Earlier this month, on Sept. 9, Compass said, "I want to be police chief here as long as I can and as long as Mayor Nagin will have me." <more> Sept. 28, 2005 Times Picayune
BOURBON BUZZ. Candy may be dandy, and liquor may be quicker, but on Monday, when the juice again began flowing in the French Quarter, it was the power that re-energized happy hour Curfew? What curfew? - - For the first time since Katrina, the streets of the French Quarter didn't go dark Monday as night fell. Streetlamps and neon signs glowed, loud bars stayed open past midnight, and carousing patrons cheered the LSU Tigers on television. Local eccentrics were back in their element. And there were tourists, even if most of them were relief workers or law enforcement personnel. What was strangest about the scene was that it was so strangely normal. But in the wake of two hurricanes, restoration of electricity in the city's oldest and most cherished neighborhood was like finding a pulse on a patient who was thought to have flat-lined. <more> Sept. 28, 2005 Times Picayune
Clinics open to help hurricane victims - - Following Hurricane Rita, the health units in Acadia and Vermilion parishes are temporarily closed. However, health units in five area parishes remain open. In addition, a primary health clinic is in operation at the Lafayette Parish Health Unit for hurricane victims. State health officials announced that the following health units are open to provide such services as WIC vouchers, health services clinics and immunizations: <more> Sept. 28, 2005 The Advocate
Cajundome repaired, refilling -- By Tuesday afternoon, the Cajundome Convention Center was housing 1,200 evacuees -- about 80 percent driven from their homes by Hurricane Rita, the others by Katrina -- but officials were preparing for the possibility the population could grow to at least 2,700. Cajundome officials have been working to quickly dry out evacuees' personal property, which was soaked when two panels were blown off during Rita's passage Saturday, Cajundome Director Greg Davis said. <more> Sept. 28, 2005 The Advocate
BR schools meet with FEMA - - East Baton Rouge Parish school leaders met with representatives from FEMA for the first time Wednesday morning. The two sides got together to discuss the school district's needs after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. With more than 4,000 new students, the district is feeling major growing pains. <more> Sept. 28, 2005 The Advocate

Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2005 9 p.m.

Bush gets close look at Hurricane Rita's damage - - President Bush flew over the largely obliterated Louisiana town of Cameron and circled an offshore oil rig Tuesday in his first up-close look at the devastation that Hurricane Rita brought to the Gulf Coast's oil producing and refining communities. "This area's hurting," Bush said before an hour-long helicopter tour over the debris-strewn communities along the Texas-Louisiana border where Rita blew ashore. "I saw firsthand how it's hurting." <more> Sept. 27, 2005 AP

President George W. Bush walks around with Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco at the Northrop Grumman facility damaged by Hurricane Rita in Lake Charles, Louisiana, September 27, 2005. (Jason Reed/Reuters)
Brown shifts blame for Katrina response - - A combative Michael Brown blamed the Louisiana governor, the New Orleans mayor and even the Bush White House that appointed him for the dismal response to Hurricane Katrina in a fiery appearance Tuesday before Congress. In response, lawmakers alternately lambasted and mocked the former FEMA director. House members' scorching treatment of Brown, in a hearing stretching nearly 6 1/2 hours, underscored how he has become an emblem of the deaths, lingering floods and stranded survivors after the Aug. 29 storm. Brown resigned Sept. 12 after being relieved of his onsite command of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's response effort three days earlier. "I'm happy you left," said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn. "Because that kind of, you know, look in the lights like a deer tells me that you weren't capable to do the job." "You get an F-minus in my book," said Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss. <more> Sept. 27,2005 AP
Brown Defends FEMA's Efforts. Former Agency Director Spreads Blame for Failures in Katrina Response - - Former Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael D. Brown said yesterday that it was not his job to take over the evacuation of New Orleans and rescue the drowning city from Hurricane Katrina, blaming Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin and "dysfunctional" state officials for the government's failed response to the disaster. In Baton Rouge, La., Blanco spokeswoman Denise Bottcher said, "Mike Brown wasn't engaged then, and he surely isn't now. He should have been watching CNN instead of the Disney Channel." Nagin spokeswoman Sally Forman said, "The governor and the mayor were totally on the same page." <more> Sept. 27, 2005 Washington Post
Ex-FEMA Director Says He Issued Early Warnings- - In his much-anticipated appearance before Congress on Tuesday, Mr. Brown continued to place much of the blame for the botched response on Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, the governor of Louisiana. That provoked an angry response from several members of the committee, who repeatedly attacked Mr. Brown's competence. In particular, Mr. Brown recalled what he described as his futile efforts to try to persuade the governor to order an evacuation of New Orleans before the hurricane. He said the failure to evacuate earlier "was a tipping point for all other failures" that followed in the government response. He also suggested that infighting among officials in Louisiana hampered the effort, recalling how he was unable to "persuade" the governor and the mayor of New Orleans, C. Ray Nagin, "to sit down, get over their differences and work together." But lawmakers expressed outrage at his refusal to take greater responsibility for his agency's failures. "I find it absolutely stunning that this hearing would start out with you, Mr. Brown, laying the blame for FEMA's failings at the feet of the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans," said Representative William J. Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana. <more> Sept. 27, 2005 New York Times
Governor says special session may be planned for next month - - A special legislative session to address Louisiana's needs and problems after back-to-back hurricanes could be held as early as the last week in October, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. The governor, who issues the call for a special session, said the date depends on whether enough assessment has been done to determine what type of statutory and legislative changes may be needed because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. But she's working toward the October timeline. "I hope that we can be ready by then. I think it would be very important," she said. <more> Sept. 27, 2005 AP
La. gives back much of FEMA money. Health officials used only about $10 million - - The Department of Health and Hospitals has declined the bulk of $352 million in disaster assistance handed to the state by the Federal Emergency Management Agency late last week, with agency officials saying that they spent only about $10 million during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The $352 million showed up in a list of projects approved by FEMA totaling $457 million, which was deposited by the federal government last week in the state of Louisiana's bank account. But the state health department has taken only the roughly $10 million that they are entitled to so far, said Bob Johannessen, the spokesman for the agency. <more> Sept. 27, 2005 Times Picayune
Blanco's chief of staff to head Katrina recovery effort. Andy Kopplin to keep title in reorganization. All administrative branches refocused on Katrina recovery - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco has named her chief of staff to lead the state's post-Katrina recovery effort as part of a reorganization of her administration to deal with the hurricane's aftermath and set a path for the future. Andy Kopplin will keep his chief of staff title but will take on administrative duties dealing with the recovery, the governor said Monday ."It is the most important job I have right now," Blanco said. <more> Sept. 27, 2005 Times Picayune
FEMA contacting state residents eligible for housing assistance - - Phone calls are going out to 253,000 Louisianians who are eligible for housing grants from FEMA. The people qualifying for the temporary housing grants were identified by matching applications they submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency with satellite photos of the damage to their homes. Applicants will get rental assistance of $2,358, which is the national average fair-market value of renting a two-bedroom apartment for three months. <more> Sept. 27, 2005 The Advocate
New Orleans police chief resigns after four turbulent weeks - - Police Superintendent Eddie Compass resigned Tuesday after four turbulent weeks in which the police force was wracked by desertions and disorganization in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. "I served this department for 26 years and have taken it through some of the toughest times of its history. Every man in a leadership position must know when it's time to hand over the reins," Compass said at a news conference. "I'll be going on in another direction that God has for me." <more> Sept. 27, 2005 AP
Brown Acknowledges 'Specific Mistakes' - - Former FEMA director Michael Brown told Congress on Tuesday he made "specific mistakes" in leading the initial federal government response to Hurricane Katrina. But Brown also blamed state and local officials for government failures. Brown told a special congressional panel that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin were not coordinating their efforts and that he should have done more to persuade them to. He suggested that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had gotten a bum rap because many people incorrectly believe it serves as something of a federal rapid-response force. <more> Sept. 27, 2005 AP
Post-hurricane mold threatens health. 'That mold ... It smells like death' -- Wearing goggles, gloves, galoshes and a mask, Veronica Randazzo lasted only 10 minutes inside her home in St. Bernard Parish. Her eyes burned, her mouth filled with a salty taste, and she felt nauseous. Her 26-year-old daughter, Alicia, also covered in gear, came out coughing. "That mold," she said. "It smells like death." Mold now forms an interior version of kudzu in the soggy South, posing health dangers that will make many homes tear-downs and will force schools and hospitals to do expensive repairs. <more> Sept. 27, 2005 AP
Blanco changes top staff to deal with storm issues - - In the wake of two hurricanes, Gov. Kathleen Blanco shuffled her top staff Monday, assigning her chief of staff to handle rebuilding effort and bringing a longtime friend to run her office. Higher Education Deputy Commissioner Jimmy Clarke, 54, was tapped to "take over the primary day-to-day management of our staff at the Capitol," a job previously handled by Chief of Staff Andy Kopplin. Clarke will be called Director of Operations and keep his present $155,000 salary. <more> Sept. 27, 2005 The Advocate
Blanco turns top aide into top hurricane recovery aide - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco reshuffled her administration on Monday, appointing her chief of staff to oversee the effort to rebuild Louisiana after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The switch for Andy Kopplin was an indication that most of Blanco's efforts for the rest of her term will focus on recovery from the storms, one of which destroyed much of southeast Louisiana, the other causing heavy flooding across the rest of the state's Gulf coast. <more> Sept. 27, 2005 AP
Chief: 249 cops identified as having left posts during storm - - The New Orleans police chief says 249 officers have been identified as leaving their posts without permission during Hurricane Katrina and the storm's chaotic aftermath. Police Superintendent Eddie Compass plans to assemble a tribunal of four of his assistant chiefs to hear the circumstances of each officer. Reports about the missing officers surfaced as looters swept through the city in Katrina's wake. <more> Sept. 27, 2005 AP
FBI becomes newest occupants of LSU's fraternity row - - A new fraternity of sorts has moved in on the Greek row at Louisiana State University: the FBI.About 50 New Orleans agents displaced by Hurricane Katrina will be living in the red-brick home once occupied by a fraternity exiled for hazing violations. "They've been jokingly referred to as Phi Beta Iota," Special Agent in Charge Jim Bernazzani said Monday. "We even had T-shirts made up." <more> Sept. 27, 2005 AP
Ranchers try to save livestock from flood - - Cattlemen on boats, barges and horseback Monday tried to save what's left of their herds after floods unleashed by Hurricane Rita in coastal parishes from Lafourche to Cameron. Their counterparts in St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes - two areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina less than a month before – watched as Rita swept away cattle that survived the first storm. <more>Sept. 27, 2005 The Advocate
Schools, courthouse in Vermilion closed - - In Vermilion Parish, Maurice Elementary, Gueydan Civic Center and Kaplan American Legion are being used as shelters, State Police said. The courthouse in Abbeville will be closed until further notice. All Vermilion Parish schools will be closed until further notice, State Police said they learned from the Emergency Operations Center. <more> Sept. 27, 2005 The Advocate
Agriculture in Louisiana hit hard by Rita - - From sugar cane fields in the south to cotton fields in the north, Hurricane Rita devastated Louisiana agriculture, the state's agriculture commissioner said Tuesday. Winds flattened cane across south central and southwest Louisiana, and rains and storm surge left thousands of acres standing in water below Highway 90, Commissioner Bob Odom said. "If it's salt water from the storm surge then that cane is gone. It can't tolerate salt water," he said. <more> Sept. 27, 2005 AP

Monday, Sept. 26, 2005 6 p.m.

Blanco tours Sulphur; LeLeux: Recovery and clean-up efforts require time - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco arrived by helicopter at the SPAR Aquatic Center today to tour the city and discuss the most pressing needs with Mayor Ron LeLeux. "The Governor is impressed with the organization and efforts of all our people," said LeLeux. "She toured our city, which has obviously been devastated, but she is very impressed with our hard work." <more> Sept. 26, 2005 Southwest Daily News

President Bush speaks after receiving a briefing from FEMA and State Joint Task Force-RITA officials in Baton Rouge, September 25, 2005. Standing from C-R are: Bush, Louisiana's Democratic Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, and Vice Admiral of Coast Guard Thad Allen. (Larry Downing/Reuters)
Blanco: Terrebonne needs higher levees -- After flying over the flooded portions of south Terrebonne Sunday, Gov. Kathleen Blanco told local emergency officials she would do what she can to help bolster beleaguered levees. “We will get the funding to shore up the levees,” she said. That statement was met with thunderous applause by about three dozen emergency officials, several of whom had spent the past 48 hours helping rescue residents from rising flood waters caused in part by breaches to forced drainage levees. Terrebonne has no hurricane-protection levees and has tried unsuccessfully for years to obtain federal money for a series of levees, locks and floodgates. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 Dailycomet.com
La. officials list needs: $32 billion for damage from Hurricane Katrina - - Even as they began assessing damages from Hurricane Rita, state officials said Sunday they are asking the federal government for nearly $32 billion to repair and improve highways and bridges wrecked by Hurricane Katrina. The two storms knocked out electricity for more than million homes and businesses. Nearly 269,000 electric customers in south Louisiana were without power Sunday night. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 The Advocate
Louisiana bails out from Rita, Katrina - - Louisiana reeled Monday from its second hurricane strike in a month, as flooded communities bailed out from Hurricane Rita. Aerial photographs showed the storm had reduced rows of homes along the Cameron Parish shoreline to nothing but splintered remains and empty foundations. The flooded countryside of the largely rural area was dotted by the carcasses of some 4,000 to 5,000 cattle. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 CNN
Police chief: Lake Charles 'not a safe place' -- Calcasieu Parish officials said Sunday residents will not be allowed to return until at least Oct. 3, though they're working with federal officials on a plan for brief property inspection visits. Since Saturday's passage of Hurricane Rita, parts of Lake Charles, where water was up to 6 feet deep, were covered with only to 2 or 3 feet by Sunday afternoon. Most of the parish, and all of Lake Charles, lacks electricity, water and sewage service. Most streets are impassable because of downed trees and power lines. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 The Advocate
Nagin reopens New Orleans' Algiers section - - With Hurricane Rita gone, the mayor picked up where he left off with his plan to reopen New Orleans, inviting people in one largely unscathed neighborhood to come back Monday and "help us rebuild the city." A line extended out of a Winn-Dixie supermarket as locals stocked up on ice, milk and other staples in Algiers, the first New Orleans neighborhood officially opened by Mayor Ray Nagin. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 AP
Governor Blanco Appoints Chief of Staff to Lead, Coordinate Recovery Efforts - - Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco today announced that she has asked her chief of staff, Andy Kopplin, to lead and coordinate the state’s long-term recovery efforts at her direction. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 Gov. Blanco Press Release
Gov. Blanco names recovery czar - - Governor Kathleen Blanco has named her chief of staff to lead the state's post-Katrina recovery effort as part of a reorganization of her administration to deal with the hurricane's aftermath and to set a path for the future. Andy Kopplin will keep his chief of staff title but take the role as Blanco’s point man on the strategic plan and the administrative duties dealing with the recovery, the governor said Monday. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 KATC-TV
Bush Mulls Recovery Plan as Evacuees Begin Long Journey Home - - President Bush said today that he was considering naming a federal "czar" to oversee the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast after the one-two punch of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but only after he heard more from state and local officials about how they would like to see their communities rebuilt. During remarks a day after returning from Colorado, Texas and Louisiana, where he had been briefed by military and other federal officials about the status of Rita, Mr. Bush would not say whether he would make the military the lead agency in charge of future disasters, something he had suggested in the past few days. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 New York Times
Waters Recede, Leaving a Trail of Frustration - - Water began to retreat in the submerged low-lying bayou country of South Louisiana on Sunday, but anger welled as residents and officials of Terrebonne Parish, which includes Houma, began to survey the storm-surge damage. This is one place where Hurricane Rita was the worst recent storm; Hurricane Katrina brought only minimal wind damage to the area. As Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco toured the area and called for $20.2 billion in federal money to strengthen the levee and pumping systems along the state's inundated coastal region, she found herself preaching to a sympathetic, if waterlogged, congregation. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 New York Times
Sept. 26 OEP briefing
Cattle feared dead along flooded Louisiana coast -- The Army used Blackhawk helicopters to search for stranded cattle in flooded sections of southern Louisiana on Monday amid reports that more than 4,000 may have been killed in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita. Thousands more may be at risk. "Take all the coastal parishes, they all had cattle," said Bob Felknor, spokesman for the Louisiana Cattlemen's Association. "My guess is we could be looking at least 15,000. It could be more than 30,000 in trouble." <more> Sept. 26, 2005 AP
FEMA faces hurdles in setting up trailer houses - - More than 96,000 people driven from their Louisiana homes by Hurricane Katrina are spread out among 1,042 shelters in more than 25 states. The Federal Emergency Management Agency wants to find by Oct. 15 more-permanent housing for the evacuees, including 55,000 who are living in Louisiana shelters. While progress has been made, the agency is running into resistance from communities already taxed by refugees or simply fearful of an influx of newcomers. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 The Advocate
New Orleans' drainage chief: 'It's a winnable battle' -- There is a good chance the soggy and flooded sections of New Orleans might get dried out -- for the second time -- within a week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Sunday. "It's a winnable battle," said Col. Duane Gapinski, commander of the Unwatering Task Force for the Corps of Engineers. "We had the city under control before Rita, and I'm pretty optimistic we're going to do it again." Plaquemines Parish on Sunday was another story, Gapinski said. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 The Advocate
Rumors of deaths greatly exaggerated. Widely reported attacks false or unsubstantiated. 6 bodies found at Dome; 4 at Convention Center - - After five days managing near-riots, medical horrors and unspeakable living conditions inside the Superdome, Louisiana National Guard Col. Thomas Beron prepared to hand over the dead to representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Following days of internationally reported killings, rapes and gang violence inside the Dome, the doctor from FEMA - Beron doesn't remember his name - came prepared for a grisly scene: He brought a refrigerated 18-wheeler and three doctors to process bodies. "I've got a report of 200 bodies in the Dome," Beron recalls the doctor saying. The real total was six, Beron said. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 Times Picayune
Thin line separates hope from hell. Jeff getting back on its feet, but Orleans still flat on its back. Neighbors now look nothing alike - - Paramedic Chris Keller puffed on a cigarette as he followed his nose to the twisted pile of trees and debris. "Do you smell that?" he said. "I keep getting a hit here." Certain he had detected a rotting corpse or refrigerator full of spoiled meat, Keller pulled back some branches and leaned in. But the debris was too thick. If a body were there, it would have to wait for the bulldozers, he said. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 Times Picayune
City moves past setback from Rita. Power restored briefly in the French Quarter. N.O. police taking over for National Guardsmen - - New Orleans struggled to regain its footing in the wake of Hurricane Rita on Sunday as Corps of Engineers workers repaired a breach in an Industrial Canal levee, street flooding receded in neighborhoods near the lakefront, and Entergy workers restored power to the French Quarter. As business owners and residents await word from Mayor Ray Nagin on when and how they can return to a city that has faced two hurricanes in the past month, law enforcement officials said there should be enough of a security presence when people return. But there were conflicting reports on the size of the military presence Sunday. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 Times Picayune
Cameron Parish deluged by waters from Gulf. Homes, businesses get a historic pounding - - From several hundred feet above the devastation in Cameron Parish, the rubble from homes and businesses looks like Canal Street at the end of a long and rainy Carnival. Bits and pieces of homes peek above the murky floodwaters, parts of walls roost in trees. Hundreds of homes and businesses deconstructed by storm surge and brutal winds mark a trail of misery near the part of the parish not far from the Gulf of Mexico. Homes have been shoved off their foundations, others crushed with only slabs remaining in a brown soup of floodwaters just north of a now relatively calm Gulf. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 Times Picayune
Hackberry: Population Zero. The residents survived, but their close-knit Louisiana towns are a landscape of rubble. - - Roger Thibodeaux gunned the engine but lowered his voice. "What we're doing here is illegal," he said. "But we need to know what's in there. We need to know what the rest of our lives are going to be like." Thibodeaux, 43, and Mike Daigle, 52 — two grizzled friends who live hard and work hard, one on a drilling rig, the other on a shrimp boat — had driven as close as they could Sunday afternoon to the region where Hurricane Rita cast a wall of water into Louisiana. Like thousands of others, they pleaded and cajoled, but authorities told them they could not go home. So Thibodeaux and Daigle fetched an aluminum skiff and dropped it off the side of the road, just beyond sight of a roadblock. Their voices hushed, they turned left over Choupain Road, then left again over the front yard of Judge Broussard's mama's house. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 Los Angeles Times
New Orleans Creaking Back to Business. As residents trickle home to their city, a few shops are springing to life. But the biggest obstacle is a shortage of people to do the work. - - Scott Boswell has all available hands on deck, and even that, he worries, won't be enough. He and his mother reopened Stella, their French Quarter sandwich cafe, five days ago, scrubbing the narrow, sunny space down, getting the generator up and taping a handmade "open" sign in the window. The news spread. The first day brought a trickle of neighbors, weepy with gratitude that something normal was happening, nevermind the chance to eat a cheeseburger. Two days later, about 200 people — locals, soldiers, journalists, officials involved in the recovery — were streaming through the door. By that time, the staff had doubled to include the sous-chef and the sous-chef's hastily recruited girlfriend. But Boswell, who usually works with a staff of 24, was feeling outnumbered. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 Los Angeles Times
Many Contracts for Storm Work Raise Questions - - Topping the federal government's list of costs related to Hurricane Katrina is the $568 million in contracts for debris removal landed by a Florida company with ties to Mississippi's Republican governor. Near the bottom is an $89.95 bill for a pair of brown steel-toe shoes bought by an Environmental Protection Agency worker in Baton Rouge, La. The first detailed tally of commitments from federal agencies since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast four weeks ago shows that more than 15 contracts exceed $100 million, including 5 of $500 million or more. Most of those were for clearing away the trees, homes and cars strewn across the region; purchasing trailers and mobile homes; or providing trucks, ships, buses and planes. More than 80 percent of the $1.5 billion in contracts signed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency alone were awarded without bidding or with limited competition, government records show, provoking concerns among auditors and government officials about the potential for favoritism or abuse. <more> Sept. 26, 2005 New York Times

Sunday, Sept. 25, 2005 8:45 p.m.

Helicopters scour Louisiana floodwaters. -- For the storm-shattered Gulf Coast, the images were all too familiar: Tiny fishing villages in splinters. Refrigerators and coffins bobbing in floodwaters. Helicopters and rescue boats making house-to-house searches of residents stranded on the rooftops. <more> Sept. 25, 2005 AP

Gov. Kathleen Blanco surveys flooding from Hurricane Rita while flying over Delcambre on Sunday on her way to Lake Charles. Advocate staff photo by Richard Alan Hannon

Blanco asks for $32 billion for repairs - - The governor of Louisiana, whose state was slammed by two powerful hurricanes in less than a month, said on Sunday she was asking the federal government for $31.7 billion to help rebuild the state's infrastructure. Gov. Kathleen Blanco said she would ask Congress for $11.5 billion to rebuild the state's damaged transportation system, including rebuilding spans of a key interstate highway, damaged ports and airports. She said she would seek $20.2 billion to rebuild and upgrade hurricane protection levees and pumping capacity from New Orleans to Morgan City, about 60 miles southwest. <more> Sept. 25, 2005 Reuters

President George W. Bush and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco participate in a briefing on Hurricane Rita at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Joint Field Office in Baton Rouge, Louisiana September 25, 2005. (Eric Draper/The White House/Handout/Reuters)

Blanco encouraged, but no billion-dollar promises from Bush - - After meeting President Bush privately on Sunday, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Bush showed obvious concern for the state but she came away with no promises regarding her multi-billion dollar plans for federally funded recovery and future storm defense. <more> Sept. 25, 2005 AP
Blanco wants 'Family Recovery Corps' to get families back to La.- - Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Saturday proposed creating a nonprofit group, funded with nearly $2 billion in federal money, that would provide services to evacuated Louisiana residents, much as refugees are settled in this country after fleeing political persecution overseas. The Family Recovery Corps would rely almost entirely on federal money, plus some donations, Blanco aides said. It was unclear who would run the nonprofit, which relief groups and government agencies would be involved and how contracts with the relief groups would be arranged. Blanco said the Corps "will certainly not be inexpensive." She contacted President Bush about funding on Thursday, before Hurricane Rita struck, but has not heard back, said Andy Kopplin, Blanco's chief of staff. "I think (Bush) will welcome this idea," Blanco said at a news conference. <more> Sept. 24, 11:15 p.m. AP
Blanco wants to create clearing house for help - – Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Saturday said she wants to create a “Louisiana Family Recovery Corps’’ to help victims of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita get almost $2 billion in job training, educational and job-finding services to put them back to work as soon as possible. “Our people will need help cutting through the red tape,’’ she said. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 11:23 p.m. Times Picayune
Rita floods thousands out of their homes in Terrebonne Parish - - A 9-foot storm surge from Hurricane Rita caused massive flooding in every southern Terrebonne Parish bayou community and likely damaged thousands of homes. Emergency officials estimated Saturday that the storm caused havoc in an 820-square-mile area across the southern portion of the parish. Rita may have caused some degree of flooding to homes or property for up to 15,000 people, almost 15 percent of the parish population. The storm dumped 6 to 8 feet of water in Dulac, Dularge, Chauvin, Montegut, Pointe-aux-Chenes and other low-lying communities. None of those areas had power Saturday night, more than 12 hours after the Category 3 hurricane made landfall near the Texas-Louisiana border. The water overflowed bayous, topped drainage levees and breached at least five levees across Terrebonne. <more> Sept. 25, 2005 The Courier
A look by parishes at damage from Hurricane Rita. Reports of damage from Hurricane Rita in Louisiana - - Lower parts of the parish still had severe flooding Sunday. The parish may experience additional flooding later as water from Hurricane Rita in areas north of Lake Charles head south, said Norman Bourdeau of the Calcasieu Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness. Parts of Lake Charles where water was up to 6 feet deep Saturday were down to 2 or 3 feet, Bourdeau said. "We're not like New Orleans," he said. "We're fortunate in that the water comes in and goes out." <more> Sept. 25, 2005 The Advocate
Delcambre 'Has never had a flood like this' -- As the longtime mayor of the coastal town of Delcambre, Carol Broussard is a man accustom to seeing flood waters in his streets. The surge brought in by Hurricane Rita on Saturday, however, was too much even for him to take. Delcambre, and the area around it for miles, had been turned into a lake. <more> Sept. 25, 2005 The Advocate
Hurricane Rita changes landscape of small-town life in towns such as Mouton Cove -- As Hurricane Rita barreled into southeastern Louisiana earlier Saturday morning, the media reported the destruction in Cameron and floods in Lake Charles, but many overlooked the small communities that bolster the heartland of Cajun country. One such locale is Mouton Cove, a subdivision here that boasts roughly 500 residents. It’s a blue-collar community with cattle ranchers, a few commercial fishermen and a bevy of oilfield workers. <more> Sept. 25, 2005 The Courier
Rita hit Lafittee 'like a bulldozer' -- Mark Naquin thought he'd dodged the bullet after Hurricane Katrina battered much of the Gulf Coast Aug. 29 but left his small hometown unscathed. That all changed about 2:15 a.m. Saturday. Saltwater in Barataria Bayou began cascading over its banks as Hurricane Rita – the second powerful storm to strike the area in less than a month – pushed the waters of the Gulf of Mexico into Lafitte. <more> Sept. 25, 2005 The Advocate
4,000 more Guard troops arrive - - Following Hurricane Rita, National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Pete Schneider said about 4,000 new troops from other parts of the nation have arrived to begin working in hard-hit Vermilion Parish, but the weather has prevented them from moving into Calcasieu and Cameron parishes. He said the 4,000 are among the 15,000 Gov. Kathleen Blanco had requested earlier in the week. He said Guard officials in Washington are considering sending more troops when it can be determined where they can be best used. <more>Sept. 24, 2005 11:25 p.m. Times Picayune
Latest Flooding Called a 'Huge Setback' - - Once again, the water was the villain. Not the hurricanes with the pretty ladies' names, but the water -- rising in Lake Pontchartrain; gushing over makeshift levees; swallowing up small cars, front steps and patches of Interstate 10, just as it did nearly one month ago. <more> Sept. 25, 2005 Washington Post
Rita sets back New Orleans '3-5 days' - - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says Hurricane Rita's damage set back the city's recovery from Hurricane Katrina by only three to five days. Despite water levels as high as 12 feet in the city's Lower 9th Ward, Nagin said a media briefing he intended to resume allowing business owners into drier parts of the city by Monday. <more> Sept. 25, 2005 UPI
The Battle to Rebuild - - In a fierce cultural storm, the future of the Lower Ninth is buffeted by race and politics. <more> Sept. 25, 2005 Newsweek
Liberals and Conservatives Hitch Wagons to Recovery -- Both Democrats and Republicans increasingly view the battered landscape of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast as a giant laboratory for testing their competing domestic policy agendas. Politicians and policy advocates across the ideological spectrum - John Edwards and Newt Gingrich, the Sierra Club and the Wall Street Journal editorial page - are trying to jump-start new ideas, and revive old ones, by linking them to the massive post-Katrina reconstruction. For Republicans, the proposals include initiatives such as tax cuts for business, education aid that would follow students to private schools and the relaxation of federal environmental regulations. For Democrats, the priorities include expanded housing assistance for the needy, more generous income support for the working poor and new efforts to promote renewable energy and mass transit. What both sides share is that they see the massive reconstruction as a way to demonstrate the value of programs they hope will be adopted nationwide. <more> Sept. 25, 2005 Los Angeles Times
Rebuilding plan paving way for conservative goals - - Republican lawmakers in Congress have tried repeatedly in recent years to allow children to use federally funded vouchers to attend private schools. They have been defeated seven times since 1998. At least nine times in the past decade, Republicans sought to repeal or undermine a Depression-era law that requires federal contractors to pay the ''prevailing wage" in the region they are working in. None of the efforts succeeded. But now the GOP is poised to realize both of those goals. President Bush's reconstruction package for the Gulf Coast region devastated by Hurricane Katrina includes nearly $500 million for vouchers that children can use at private schools anywhere in the nation. And Bush declared a ''national emergency" to waive the prevailing wage law during the cleanup, freeing contractors to pay construction workers as little as the minimum wage, rather than the $8 to $10 prevailing wages in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. <more> Sept. 25, 2005 Boston Globe
An Uprooted Underclass, Under the Microscope - - Unexpectedly, the country is embarking on a broad experiment: Will moving the poor out of New Orleans help them rise? For years, academics and poverty researchers have debated whether the poorest Americans would improve their situation if they were simply relocated from the worst neighborhoods and housing projects - where many live in concentrated numbers - and dispersed among middle-class neighborhoods to absorb a different set of cultural norms. The discussion was largely theoretical, because an extensive resettling of the poor would have been expensive, intrusive and racially charged - in short, politically impossible. Then, New Orleans was devastated. Now the very poor make up a sizable portion of the nearly half a million evacuees spread across hundreds of towns and cities, ready to be recipients of a large, focused package of federal and state aid. <more> Sept 25, 2005 New York Times

Saturday, Sept. 24, 2005 7 p.m.

Hundreds rescued from flooded homes in La.- - Hurricane Rita poured more water into New Orleans for a second day Saturday and inundated fishing villages along Louisiana's coast, where hundreds of people were rescued from homes swamped by up to 6 feet of water. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 6 p.m. AP
Lake Charles residents asked to wait - - Lake Charles-area residents should not plan to return home for at least 48 hours, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Saturday afternoon. Crews need time to clear trees blocking streets, and the city has experienced structural damage, rising water and strong winds. At least 41 parishes are without power, and Blanco asks residents to stay posted and await further instructions. Hurricane Rita has "compounded Louisiana’s pain," Blanco said, "And we’re hurting from the west side to the east side." <more> Sept. 24, 2005 6 p.m. The Advocate

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco addresses the media at a briefing held at the Louisiana State Office of Emergency Preparedness September 23, 2005. Blanco pleaded with residents in low-lying coastal communities to head north. REUTERS/The Governor's Office/Kenneth Wilks/Handout
Rita sends residents to the roof. 'Hundreds' saved in coastal Louisiana; Lake Charles under curfew -- Some residents in Louisiana towns near the Texas border who holed up at home as Hurricane Rita blew threw are sitting on their shingles, awaiting rides from boats plying city streets. Rescuers have saved a couple of hundred people in Abbeville, and parts of Vermilion Parish are under 8 to 10 feet of water after Rita pushed the Gulf of Mexico several miles inland. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 6:30 p.m. CNN
Rescues in Vermilion Parish. - - As many as 200 people have been rescued today in Vermilion Parish. Robert LeBlanc, the Vermilion Parish emergency manager, just told me he believes there are up to 1,000 more people who might be trapped in their houses down there. Two days ago, there was a mandatory evacuation. Officials went house-to-house. They knocked on doors. They told people that they needed to get out. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 6:34 p.m. CNN's Stacia Deshishku in Abbeville, Louisiana
Rescues under way in southwest Louisiana. New Orleans recovery set back at least two weeks, engineers say -- Emergency workers in southwestern Louisiana began rescue operations Saturday by getting the first helicopters off the ground since Hurricane Rita barreled ashore hours earlier. The National Hurricane Center has downgraded to a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds near 65 mph. So far, there have been no reports of deaths. The Louisiana National Guard is focusing on getting boats, trucks and high-water vehicles to Cameron, Vermilion, and Calcasieu Parishes, the three hardest hit, guard spokesman Maj. Ed Bush said. <more>Sept. 24, 2005 6:37 p.m. CNN
Louisiana fishing villages badly hit by floods. New Orleans escapes worst of Rita overnight, but levee breaks need fixes - - Hurricane Rita poured more water into New Orleans for a second day Saturday and inundated fishing villages along Louisiana’s coast, where dozens of people were rescued from homes swamped by up to 6 feet of water. “We need help now,” said Sherry Adam of Lafitte, about 20 miles south of New Orleans. Rescuers in boats were pulling hundreds of residents from flooded homes along a remote stretch of swamp land between the city and the Gulf of Mexico. Seawater poured over levees and into homes. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 7:09 p.m. AP
Rita washes away signs of renewal. Water over the levees creates waves of fear. Katrina survivors ride out hurricane- - Water rushed over levees on both sides of the Industrial Canal on Friday, threatening the 9th Ward, just drained from Katrina. But the breaches threatened few lives, as New Orleans, from Lakeview to Uptown and from the Bywater to Mid-City, remained a vacant and scarred place, most residents waiting in exile as the second storm in less than a month bore down on Louisiana. <more> Sept. 24, 6:17 p.m. Times Picayune
In many areas, it’s back to square one. Rita ‘sets us back another month,’ - - For St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, both hit hard by Hurricane Katrina last month, this week had started well. Residents were returning to some areas, federal aid was flowing in, and businesses were reopening or planning repairs. Then came Rita. The storm pushed floodwaters across most of lower Plaquemines and into some parts of St. Bernard, both of which had been submerged by Katrina on Aug. 29, and officials in both parishes said Friday that Rita’s punch will likely knock the air out of their fledgling recovery efforts. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 6:19 p.m. Times Picayune
Sept. 24 OEP briefing from Office of Emergency Operations - - This is Day 25 since Hurricane Katrina hit. The State of Louisiana and the National Guard continue to monitor Hurricane Rita. Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco sent a letter to President Bush requesting an expedited major disaster declaration for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Rita. The full text of the letter is available online at www.gov.state.la.us. To date, there are approximately 16,000 National Guard soldiers on the ground under the command of Governor Blanco. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 6 p.m. The Advocate
'It just kept coming' - Rita swamps Louisiana coast, stranding scores of people - - Hurricane Rita swept ashore Saturday with a powerful surge of seawater that swamped coastal communities and vast stretches of farmland from the Texas line to the mouth of the Mississippi River. Rescuers scrambled into boats and helicopters to reach hundreds of stranded residents who chose to ride out the storm. The hurricane, which struck near the Texas-Louisiana line and weakened as it churned to the north, also inundated small towns, sugarcane fields and marshes with heavy rain. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 6:07 p.m. AP
Latest hurricane sets back city's plan to dry out -- Hurricane Rita left floodwaters lapping at the high-water marks set by Katrina just three weeks ago, raising questions about how swiftly New Orleans can recover from its epic flooding and providing a grim reminder that the city remains in peril even as it seeks to rebuild. Despite the setback, Mayor Ray Nagin said Saturday that he hoped to resume a plan to move residents back into neighborhoods that remained relatively dry, including the city's business district. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 6:10 p.m. AP
Rita's potential victims different from Katrina's -- Hurricane Rita smashed into a region that is wealthier, more mobile and much less densely populated than the one devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Most of Rita's victims are by no means wealthy. But they are less likely to live in poverty, more likely to own a car, and less likely to be a member of a minority group than were Katrina's victims, according to an Associated Press analysis of census data. Experts said the wealth and mobility of people in Rita's path - combined with a new sense of urgency following Katrina - led to a more thorough evacuation. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 6:12 p.m. AP
Texas can use lesson in evacuating a city. Louisiana plan called more efficient, orderly. Many chose hurricane over facing the traffic - - It certainly goes against the current trend among the nation's punditry, but Larry and Monica Ponoroff would like to suggest Mayor Ray Nagin and Gov. Kathleen Blanco as models for hurricane planning. Well, at least for the evacuation stage. The New Orleans couple came to that conclusion about halfway through a 17-hour attempt to evacuate Houston on Thursday as Hurricane Rita headed for the Texas coast. "I think they could have taken page from Louisiana's book on this one," Monica Ponoroff said. "They should have called Kathleen Blanco and Ray Nagin and asked them 'How do we evacuate a city?' because they sure didn't have a clue. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 6:23 p.m. Times Picayune
Evacuation calls in Jeff were a false alarm. Phone program was meant for Jeff Davis Parish - - Some Jefferson Parish residents got a telephone call from Gov. Kathleen Blanco urging them to evacuate for Hurricane Rita on Friday, but the automated calls turned out to be wrong numbers. The company distributing Blanco's message, Voicetouch Communications, which has completed similar notification programs in Florida, inadvertently included Jefferson Parish in calls telling residents to get out of coastal parishes farther west in Louisiana. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 6:27 p.m. Times Picayune

Saturday, Sept. 24, 2005 11: 50 a.m.

Bush: Lake Charles 'hit hard'- - President Bush -- who was tracking the storm's aftermath Saturday at the U.S. Northern Command in Colorado -- said Lake Charles was "hit hard" by Rita. "I just had an assessment by [hurricane relief commander, Lt. Gen. Russel] Honore of Lake Charles, Louisiana," Bush said. "It got hit hard. They've got teams on the ground -- beginning to analyze the situation and prepare the necessary response to stabilize the situation and more importantly, save lives there as well." Louisiana state police estimated that more than 50 roads from Slidell to Lake Charles are closed. State officials said an Interstate 10 bridge over the Calcasieu River in Lake Charles was damaged by barges that broke loose and hit the bridge. Earlier, Honore said there was "significant damage" to Lake Charles' airport and "some of its hangars there, the telephone system, as far as cell towers." The general said he was redeploying 400 troops from New Orleans to Lake Charles to link up with emergency response personnel, as soon as high winds in the area allow safe passage. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 11;34 a.m. CNN
Update on Lake Charles from ABC News: Jim Sciutto of ABC News reported that local police are telling him 10-12 feet of flooding water is present in the southern part of Lake Charles. Although nothing catastrophic yet, the water is beginning to come up near the Civic Center. The concern is that the water will continue to rise and the threat of the storm surge may be the big danger in Lake Charles. The highest point in the area 15 ft above sea level. Surge is still rising. Sept. 24, 2005 11:21 a.m. The Advocate
Rita kicks New Orleans while it's down. Areas flooded again: 'The first time is bad. After that, you numb up' -- Sheets of rain from Hurricane Rita drenched New Orleans on Saturday, straining an already damaged levee system. The rain was periodic but heavy, coming down in waves that lasted several minutes before letting up. The downpours threatened to flood the devastated but largely abandoned city. The National Weather Service said New Orleans was expected to get bands of rain dropping 3 to 4 inches per hour. The rain threatened to increase flooding after parts of the city were submerged again Friday as hurricane-driven storm surges topped one levee, and another levee began to leak. Floodwaters submerged the city's 9th Ward, which was slammed by Hurricane Katrina last month and has been all but abandoned ever since. The water covered piles of rubble and mud-caked cars, rising swiftly to the top of first-floor windows. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 11:38 a.m. AP
Gapinski: 8-feet of water in parts of New Orleans' 9th Ward; pump station 'out of commission' -- Parts of New Orleans' 9th Ward Saturday are under 8 feet of water after Hurricane Rita dumped heavy rains as it made landfall overnight, according to Col. Duane Gapinski of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "It's pretty deep, there are houses where just the roof is exposed," Gapinski told CNN. Hurricane Katrina caused breaches in the Industrial Canal levee protecting the neighborhood, and an 8-foot storm surge Friday started the waters to overflow the breaches, hours before Rita made landfall. Gapinski flew over the neighborhood and reported a 150-foot gap in the southern breach of the levee, near the Lower 9th Ward. "(It was) certainly was deja vu all over again but, again, we have to deal with the situation," he said. "We have to plan and going to get to work today." Waters on the West Bank of the Industrial Canal are about a foot deep and should be pumped out quickly, Gapinski said. Sept. 24, 2005 11:40 a.m. CNN
Floods Reclaim Neighborhoods That Are Already Ravaged - - For rescuers and the Army Corps of Engineers, there was no need for an urgent response to the topping of the levee as a storm surge pushed water from Lake Pontchartrain into the Industrial Canal. The Lower Ninth Ward was desolate. "It's already destroyed," David Wheeler, operations chief for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's urban search and rescue teams, said from the Claiborne Avenue bridge. "The good thing is that virtually all of New Orleans is empty. Hopefully, there is a minimal chance that anyone will be stranded." <more> Sept. 24, 2005 11:45 a.m. New York Times
Early Update from OEP: Rita has not passed over yet.

Early reports of floodwaters:

* St. Bernard Parish is under 4 feet of water in some parts.

* Terrebonne Parish has 6 to 8 feet of water in low-lining areas.

* St. Mary Parish has extensive flooding in lower areas.

* Calcasieu Parish has experienced flooding in downtown Lake Charles.

* Cameron Parish has some parts under 2 feet of water, and other parts under 8 to 9 feet of water.

Emergency officials sent trucks to rescue people in Terrebonne Parish, but they refused to leave, said Col. Jeff Smith of the state Office of Emergency Preparedness. Later, the same people who refused to leave called 911 to be rescued, Smith said.

No injuries or fatalities have been reported to the state OEP yet. Early reports show there have been some 911 calls and some search and rescue efforts, Smith said. Sept. 24, 2005 11;22 a.m. The Advocate
Rita downgraded to Category 1 - - Hurricane Rita was downgraded to a Category 1 storm on Saturday with maximum sustained winds of about 75 mph (120 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) advisory. The storm's slow movement was expected to generate very heavy rains over the next few days, with rainfall totals of 10 to 15 inches possible across eastern Texas...western Louisiana and southern Arkansas, the center said. Sept. 24, 2005 Reuters 11 a.m. Central
Rita downgraded to Category 1 - - Hurricane Rita slammed into evacuated towns and oil-rich swamplands of the Texas-Louisiana border on Saturday, causing widespread damage and power outages and threatening heavy flooding. The powerful storm crashed into the U.S. Gulf Coast with 120 mph (193 kph) winds and punishing rains, then weakened slightly as it moved inland. By 11 a.m. EDT, Hurricane Rita was downgraded to a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of about 75 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. It spared Houston, the fourth-largest U.S. city, a direct hit. But the oil city of Beaumont, Texas and many of the largest U.S. refiners were in Rita's path, and the extent of damage was not yet known. Much of New Orleans was flooded again, less than a month after Hurricane Katrina, as water poured over levees. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 11:10 a.m. Reuters
New Orleans Gets Less Rain Than Expected - - New Orleans escaped the worst of Hurricane Rita on Saturday, getting less rain than expected, but one outlying area was less fortunate as storm surge flooding chased hundreds of people from their homes. Only about 3 inches of rain was expected throughout the day from Rita's outer bands, much less than the initial forecast of 3 to 4 inches per hour, the National Weather Service said. "Overall, it looks like New Orleans has lucked out in that they didn't get the heaviest rainfall," said weather service meteorologist Phil Grigsby. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 11:15 a.m. AP
Widespread flooding, roofs gone as SW Louisiana bears hurricane's worst -- Hurricane Rita flooded coastal communities, tore away rooftops and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across southwestern Louisiana on Saturday. Authorities had trouble reaching some stranded residents because of blocked roads and savage winds, but there were no immediate reports of deaths or serious injuries. Widespread flooding was reported in coastal parishes along the Gulf of Mexico. The region of refineries, ranches and sugarcane fields was largely evacuated ahead of the storm, but some residents stayed behind and were rescued by boat and helicopter. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 11:19 a.m.
Guard units move into place. Rescue crews, supplies head closer; civilians clear out - - Five hundred troops from the Oregon National Guard's 41st Brigade and hundreds of truckloads of supplies have been marshaled for Hurricane Rita recovery work in southwest Louisiana, said Army Lt. Gen. Russell Honore.Honore, who has been leading military relief efforts in New Orleans, arrived in Lafayette on Friday. "Our role will be search and rescue and to assist in saving lives," Honore said. "… I think we have the preparations ready to respond as quickly as we can." Honore said he will be supporting the Louisiana National Guard, which has 5,000 troops available. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 11:25 a.m. The Advocate
Hurricane spending unknown -- Emergency spending by the federal government in Louisiana and two other states battered by Hurricane Katrina has declined from $1 billion a day to $500 million daily, according to Congress members. But pinpointing how much of the money the Federal Emergency Management Agency is spending in Louisiana and where remains elusive. The storm also brought destruction to Mississippi and Alabama. Air Force Capt. Kristy Beckman, a FEMA spokeswoman, said Friday that the figures were unavailable because Hurricane Rita forced FEMA workers to evacuate the Baton Rouge office. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 11:27 a.m. The Advocate
$1 billion plan in works to aid Katrina victims - - The White House is in final negotiations over a $1 billion plan to fund nonprofit groups' efforts to help Hurricane Katrina evacuees relocate, sources involved in those negotiations said Friday. The plan also includes a provision that would enable the evacuees to get help with resettling normally reserved for political asylum seekers. The administration is aiming to serve between 687,000 and 837,000 households through the program, or roughly 1.2 million people, the sources said. <more> Sept. 24, 2005 11:49 .am. CNN

Friday, Sept. 23, 2005 7 a.m.

Hurricane could flood La. coast - - If Hurricane Rita holds course and strikes Texas just west of Sabine Pass, it will flood the coast in southwestern
Gov. Kathleen Blanco tries to comfort a distraught man who told the Governor how he was evacuated from New Orleans to Lake Charles and now he is being evacuated again due to the approach of Hurricane Rita, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005, in Lake Charles. (AP Photo/The Governor's Office, Kenneth Wilks)

Louisiana and other parts of the state, an LSU hurricane expert said. Paul Kemp, director of the Natural Systems Modeling Group at LSU's Center for Coastal, Energy, and Environmental Resources, said Thursday that the storm could put 12 feet of water onto the shore in Cameron Parish. <more> Sept. 23, 2005 The Advocate
Federal, state officials prepare for Rita - - Vice Admiral Thad Allen, principal federal official and federal coordinating officer for the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco assured residents of southwestern Louisiana that federal, state and local agencies are working together to make sure adequate resources are available should Hurricane Rita cause major damage. Allen was joined in a press briefing held today at the Joint Field Office in Baton Rouge by Blanco, who urged residents living on the southwestern coast to evacuate. “I am hoping and praying that people leave. Some people believe they can ride out the storm. Please take heed and go to safe ground,” Blanco said. <more> Sept. 23, 2005 Times Picayune
Mandatory Evacuations
Mandatory evacuations have been ordered in advance of Hurricane Rita's landfall. All residents are ordered to leave the following areas:

Acadia Parish south of LA 92 and all mobile homes

Calcaseau Parish south of I-10

Cameron Parish

St. Mary Parish below the Intracoastal Waterway

Vermillion Parish

Governor Blanco has asked all evacuees to head north, not toward Baton Rouge, which is already crowded with Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
Rita sparks exodus from Texas, La. Coasts - - Hurricane Rita roared toward the Texas and Louisiana coasts early Friday, a major Category 4 storm that spurred a traffic-snarled exodus toward higher ground and fears it could cripple the heart of the nation's petrochemical industry. Forecasters said it appeared Houston could avoid a direct hit as Rita veered slightly to the east, threatening its 140 mph winds at the Beaumont and Port Arthur area about 75 miles east of Houston. An 7 a.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center said the winds remained at 140 mph. <more> Sept. 23, 2005 AP
Hurricane dumps rain on New Orleans - - A steady downpour fell on New Orleans as Hurricane Rita lashed the coast, turning dust to mud, forcing engineers to hurriedly shore up broken levees and interrupting the city's search for its dead. As many as 500,000 people in southwestern Louisiana, many of them already displaced by Hurricane Katrina, were told to evacuate and many jammed roads north to escape. <more> Sept. 23, 2005 AP
Rita chases evacuees out of Lake Charles. Masses again uprooted as hurricane approaches - - Starting over is becoming a habit for Michael Brown. After four years living on the streets of New Orleans, Brown, 50, had just finished a five-month stint in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center and found steady work as a drywall finisher when Hurricane Katrina slammed into his adopted city Aug. 29. With his landlord, a friend and three dogs, Brown rode out the storm at a Baton Rouge truck stop before ending up in a Red Cross shelter at the Lake Charles Civic Center. That's where Brown, and hundreds of other displaced New Orleanians, had spent three weeks trying to rebuild their lives. <more> Sept. 23, 2005 Times Picayune
Voluntary & Precautionary Evacuations
The following areas have issued voluntary evacuations in advance of Hurricane Rita's landfall:

Acadia Parish, low lying areas

Calcasieu Parish

Grand Isle

Iberia Parish

Jefferson Davis South of I-10

Lafayette Parish

Plaquemines Parish

St. Martin Parish, low lying areas

St. Mary Parish

Vermillion Parish

Governor Blanco has asked all evacuees to head north, not toward Baton rouge, which is already crowded with Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
Legislative committees to investigate disaster plans. They will study rebuilding effort - - The state House and Senate have named special committees on disaster planning, crisis management, recovery and long-term revitalization in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The purpose is to study and review issues related to the state's rescue, recovery and rebuilding. The panels can make recommendations for policies and legislation and conduct investigations to try to find solutions to problems related to disaster preparation and response. <more> Sept. 23, 2005 Times Picayune
State police urge northward evacuations -- State police issued a plea for Texans and residents of southwest Louisiana to head north, and not east into Lafayette and Baton Rouge, as they evacuate from the approach of Hurricane Rita. State Police spokesman Lt. Lawrence McLeary said troopers are “seeing a big influx (of drivers) from Texas’’ and highways in Baton Rouge are “jam-packed.’’ “The tendency is for people to come east,’’ McLeary said. “But lodging is at a premium (and evacuees) will deplete gasoline supplies.’’ <more> Sept. 23, 2005 Times Picayune

Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005 7 p.m.

Gov. Blanco urges evacuations - - Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco urged residents in Louisiana's coastal parishes to immediately evacuate northward as a weakened but still powerful Hurricane Rita altered its course Thursday to threaten residents in southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas, where highways were overloaded with frustrated evacuees. "As you know, Rita took a turn to the east last night and southwest Louisiana is now in danger," she said. "I'm urging everyone to evacuate now." <more> Sept. 22, 2005 CNN

Louisiana National Guard Commander Maj. Gen Bennett Landreneau, left, Gov. Kathleen Blanco, center, and State Police Commander Col. Henry Whitehorn discuss evacuation plans for the city of Lake Charles, La., should the measures be necessary due to the impact of Hurricane Rita, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005, in the Governor's mobile office at the Louisiana OEP in Baton Rouge. (AP Photo/Kenneth Wilks/The Governor's Office)
Blanco phone message to southwestern La: Evacuate now - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco late Thursday taped an automated telephone message for residents of nine parishes in southwestern Louisiana imperiled by Hurricane Rita, urging them to leave their homes immediately and head north. Blanco spokesman Roderick Hawkins said the message calls were targeted at more than 400,000 homes in southwest Louisiana. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 Times Picayune
Parishes under evacuation orders or recommendations - - Parishes where evacuation was ordered or recommended, according to the governor's office: <more> Sept. 22, 2005 AP
On the move again: Katrina victims among thousands fleeing Rita - - As many as 500,000 people in southwestern Louisiana, many of them already displaced by Hurricane Katrina, were told to evacuate Thursday as Hurricane Rita headed for a forecast landfall near the Texas state line. Mindful of Katrina's rising death toll in Louisiana — 832 as of Thursday morning — Gov. Kathleen Blanco recommended that those who refuse to flee Rita "write their Social Security numbers on their arms with indelible ink." <more> Sept. 22, 2005 AP
Latest numbers on Hurricane Rita; wind speed slows slightly

(CNN) -- Here are the latest numbers from the National Hurricane Center's 5 p.m. EDT advisory:

Top wind speed: 145 mph, down from 150 mph

Saffir-Simpson scale: Category 4

Location of storm center: 405 miles southeast of Galveston and about 390 miles southeast of Port Arthur

Movement: WNW at near 9 mph

Size of storm: Hurricane-force winds extend up to 60 miles from the center, and tropical storm-force winds extend up to 205 miles

Estimated landfall: Early Saturday between Galveston, Texas, and the Texas-Louisiana border, according to CNN Weather. (Posted 5:20 p.m.)
Rain returns to hard-hit New Orleans as Rita takes aim -- In a grim opening salvo from Hurricane Rita, a steady rain began falling Thursday on New Orleans for the first time since Katrina laid waste to the city, and engineers rushed to shore up the broken levees for fear of another ruinous round of flooding. The forecast called for 3 to 5 inches of rain in New Orleans in the coming days. That is dangerously close to the amount engineers said could send floodwaters pouring back into neighborhoods that have been dry for less than a week. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 AP
NEW -- Hurricane Rita Closings/Postponements - - This file is being updated as new information comes in to 2theadvocate.com and includes school and college closings, city and parish government notices and events that are being closed or postponed in anticipation of Hurricane Rita's impact on Louisiana. Refresh frequently. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 The Advocate
Blanco asks for 30,000 troops - - The state is asking for up to 30,000 additional active duty and National Guard troops to cope with Hurricane Rita, top officials said Thursday. “Rita is a massive storm,” Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. “Heavy winds will rip much of western Louisiana.” Blanco told reporters that she has requested an additional 15,000 National Guard members to assist with security, relief and other issues in southwest Louisiana. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 The Advocate

Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005 11 a.m.

Design Shortcomings Seen in New Orleans Flood Walls - - Along the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, great earthen levees were ample to hold off much of the surging water propelled by Hurricane Katrina. But concrete flood walls installed over the last several decades along the drainage and barge canals cutting into New Orleans were built in a way that by Army Corps of Engineers standards left them potentially unstable in a flood, according to government documents and interviews. The walls collapsed in several places during the storm. A corps engineering manual cautions that such flood walls "rarely exceed" seven feet because they can lose stability as waters rise. But some of the New Orleans canal walls rose as high as 11 feet above dirt berms in which they were anchored. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 11:15 a.m. New York Times
Experts Say Faulty Levees Caused Much of Flooding -- Louisiana's top hurricane experts have rejected the official explanations for the floodwall collapses that inundated much of New Orleans, concluding that Hurricane Katrina's storm surges were much smaller than authorities have suggested and that the city's flood- protection system should have kept most of the city dry. The Army Corps of Engineers has said that Katrina was just too massive for a system that was not intended to protect the city from a storm greater than a Category 3 hurricane, and that the floodwall failures near Lake Pontchartrain were caused by extraordinary surges that overtopped the walls. But with the help of complex computer models and stark visual evidence, scientists and engineers at Louisiana State University's Hurricane Center have concluded that Katrina's surges did not come close to overtopping those barriers. That would make faulty design, inadequate construction or some combination of the two the likely cause of the breaching of the floodwalls along the 17th Street and London Avenue canals -- and the flooding of most of New Orleans. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 11:10a.m. Washington Post

Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005 9:45 a.m.

Southwest La. prepares for flooding -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco, speaking at a hastily called news conference Wednesday night at Lafayette Regional Airport, urged residents in all coastal parishes to closely watch Hurricane Rita and follow any evacuations called for by emergency officials. "We want everybody to protect their lives first, and we will worry about property damage later," Blanco said during a brief stop after touring Cameron and Calcasieu parishes. The governor said she planned to visit coastal Vermilion Parish late Wednesday. "I am encouraging all people in the lower coastal region to make plans and stay safe," Blanco said. "All the coastal parishes need to watch it very carefully to see what's going to happen." <more> Sept. 22, 2005 8:47 a.m. The Advocate
Some in southwest La. Evacuate - - Col. Jeff Smith, deputy director of emergency preparedness of the state Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said that as of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, the only parish in southwest Louisiana under a mandatory evacuation order is Cameron Parish which has a population of 9,700 people. Smith said a decision will be made by Friday on whether other parishes must be evacuated. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 9:20 a.m. Times Picayune
Evacuation update - - Mark Smith, a spokesman for the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said that 2,662 of the 9,113 Katrina evacuees south of Interstate 10 in Vermilion, Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis and Cameron parishes have been evacuated to areas as far north as Alexandria and Monroe. He said that about 5,000 more in low-lying parishes south of I-10 will be moved north of I-10 Thursday. Smith said the 1,397 in Ascension Parish – most housed at the Lamar Dixon Expo Center – will remain in the parish although of it is south of I-10. Sept. 22, 2005 9:25 a.m. Times Picayune
Where Disorder Once Reigned, Efficient Evacuation Now Rules - - Catching a bus at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center to evacuate for Hurricane Rita is a breeze. Six soldiers greet each evacuee who trickles into the processing tent across the street. Those arriving have food, water, medical assistance if they need it and, once they board one of the buses idling in the parking lot, air-conditioning and television. No one has to fight for a seat. "We sent a couple of buses out yesterday with only one person on it," said Sgt. Tim Hohrman, a National Guardsman from Oklahoma manning the tent on Wednesday. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 9:34 a.m. New York Times
Rita threatens New Orleans with flooding -- Rain started falling on New Orleans Thursday for the first time since Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the city nearly a month ago, as another monster storm charged toward the Gulf coast and already frantic repairs to the city's fractured levee system took on even more urgency. <more> Sept. 22, 9:08 a.m. AP
New Orleanians brace for Rita, want city back -- New Orleanian Lee Gary Jr. was understandably high-strung Wednesday while Hurricane Rita barreled through the Gulf of Mexico toward the Texas coastline. Gary's wife and two children -- a 4-year-old and a 4-week-old -- are in Houston, where they evacuated 3‰ weeks ago to get out of Hurricane Katrina's way. On Wednesday, Gary was preparing to rush from New Orleans to Texas to get his family away from Houston and the hard-charging Rita. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 8:49 a.m. The Advocate
Nagin: Search to focus on three hard-hit areas - - Floor-to-attic searches for the dead will begin soon in New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin said Wednesday to politicians and residents of the city. Efforts will focus on three of the hardest-hit neighborhoods, places the mayor says were inundated by the highest water and most intense waves. He left the meeting before identifying the targeted areas. "We're trying to recover as many as possible," Nagin said. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 8:51 a.m. The Advocate
Body hunt turns up children, the elderly. New Orleans search could take six more weeks -- Searchers smashed into locked homes that had been submerged under Hurricane Katrina's highest floodwaters, pushing the overall body count past 1,000 as another hurricane threatens to prolong the hunt for the dead. The death toll in Louisiana stood at 799 on Wednesday, an increase of 153 since the weekend and nearly 80 percent of the 1,036 deaths attributed to Katrina across the Gulf Coast. Officials said the effort could last another four to six weeks. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 9:28 a.m. AP
La. budget hole still uncertain. Feds send $764 million; billions in loss expected - - The state's received $764 million in cash from the federal government in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and hopes to get another $736 million in the coming weeks. Those millions won't help plug a budget hole that is so large that nobody can agree how big it'll be. State officials need federal help to fill the gaps in its $18.7 billion budget but can't use the FEMA money for that. Gov. Blanco said Tuesday she expects the state to lose $750 million to $1 billion in revenue from the southeast region. Blanco is trying to rein in state government expenses by implementing a spending and hiring freeze. She said she expects the first freeze order to save $30 million to $50 million. "We don't know what the impact of Katrina is costing us as we go through these days," she said. "We know that it is costing us money." Blanco said she is also asking state agencies to use displaced state workers creatively so that they can continue their jobs. "We may even offer them opportunities to move to another department if their services can be used in different ways," she said. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 8:56 p.m. The Advocate
La. Museum officials work fast to reopen - - Put the people who run Louisiana State Museum in the optimist category. By Oct. 17 they hope to get some employees back to work in the French Quarter for the first time since Hurricane Katrina struck southeast Louisiana on Aug. 29. By Nov. 1 they hope to reopen the Cabildo, the 18th-century territorial capitol where France turned over the Louisiana Territory to the United States. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 8:58 a.m. The Advocate
Ascension Parish president unaware of order to re-evacuate -- While Ascension Parish President Ronnie Hughes ate shrimp scampi at Ruffino's on Tuesday night, someone in parish government apparently decided to order the re-evacuation of evacuees lodged at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center. The decision to move the evacuees to a shelter in Monroe came without the knowledge of Hughes, Ascension Parish Sheriff Jeff Wiley, the manager of the expo center or parish council Chairman Jerry Savoy, the four men said Wednesday. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 9:02 a.m. The Advocate
More Baton Rouge spending pushed for Katrina fallout - - A Metro Council committee is recommending increased spending to respond to more emergency medical calls, rising real estate prices and a busier airport -- all fallout from Baton Rouge's post-Katrina growth. The council's Finance and Executive Committee is recommending to the full council for next week's meeting. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 9:05 a.m. The Advocate
Many evacuees push for return. Nagin vows quick action to open N.O. - - If Hurricane Rita doesn't hit New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin said Wednesday, he will continue his controversial plan to allow residents back into drier areas despite a seriously weakened levee system and potential health hazards. Nagin said he would soon set a date and form a more-solid plan for re-entry into even the most-devastated neighborhoods, where bodies have not been collected and debris blocks roadways. Some disagreed in the stormy meeting of New Orleans politicians in the State Capitol. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 9:12 a.m. The Advocate
Test results wash away lake pollution fears - - Based on one or two samples taken in dozens of locations around Lake Pontchartrain during the past two weeks, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation said Tuesday that the lake seems fairly healthy. "We've heard a lot during the last 10 days about a toxic soup in Lake Pontchartrain," said foundation Executive Director Carlton Dufrechou. "I'm here today to tell you that there's no toxic soup in Lake Pontchartrain." <more> Sept. 2, 2005 9:15 a.m. Times Picayune
N.O. area hospitals appeal to Congress for funding - - Three of the more than a dozen emergency hospitals in the New Orleans area were able to remain opened as Hurricane Katrina blew through and officials at the facilities now are appealing to Congress and the Bush administration for financial assistance as they struggle to stay in business. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 9:18 a.m. Times Picayune
Predictions of bigger, better New Orleans may be only half right. Nagin foresees dramatic decrease in population. Officials put priority on letting residents back in - – Mayor Ray Nagin said Wednesday he foresees the New Orleans of the near future as a city of about 250,000 people, about half its population before Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in late August. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 9:23 am. Times Picayune
Workers Trying to Rescue Pets Abandoned in New Orleans - - Up North Claiborne Avenue five dogs ran as a pack between the smashed houses under dead power lines, through that twisted junkscape of lumber and tin, toilets in the silt, a wall marked "Possible Body" and the headless Virgin Mary with arms outstretched. The dogs neither fought nor growled. Among their number were a German shepherd, a beagle and a yellow Labrador. They roam this city gaunt and uncomprehending, at turns frightened and menacing, loping directionless between ruined buildings, drinking the muck, staring at cars, waiting to die. They are omnipresent. A week ago, their self-appointed rescuers spoke of the odds of rejoining them as pets to masters, but that talk has ended. Now these dogs make for an infestation, untold thousands unwell, unrestrained, unrecognizable and left to their devices. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 9:32 a.m. New York Times
Blanco calls for Katrina investigation - - Governor Kathleen Blanco has asked President Bush to appoint an independent commission to investigate the preparations for and response to Hurricane Katrina. The governor added her voice yesterday to a chorus of Democrats calling for an independent investigation. <more> Sept. 9:45 a.m. KSLA-TV
G.O.P. in House Plans Inquiry Despite Democrats' Boycott - - House Republicans plan to proceed with a special investigation into the government response to Hurricane Katrina despite resistance by Democrats who say they will not take part and are demanding an independent inquiry. "We have to move ahead while some of the evidence is still fresh," said Representative Thomas M. Davis III, Republican of Virginia and chairman of the select Hurricane Katrina panel that the House approved last week. <more> Sept. 22, 2005 9:37 a.m. New York Times

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005 6 p.m.

Blanco declares state of emergency - - Governor Kathleen Blanco has declared a state of emergency ahead of the possible arrival of Hurricane Rita. <more> Sept. 1, 2005 03:34 AM AP

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco looks on as US Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen and New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin display a map showing the location and distribution of shelter and assistance applicants displaced by Hurricane Katrina throughout the US, during a press conference in New Orleans.(AFP/Robyn Beck)
Rita enters Gulf, Blanco urges residents to prepare - - Hurricane Rita picked up power and roared Tuesday into the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the state barely three weeks after southeast Louisiana was rocked by Hurricane Katrina. Gov. Kathleen Blanco urged residents, especially in southwest parishes, to monitor weather reports on the storm even as it appeared headed for the Texas coast. "At this point in time, know where you are going to go and how you are going to get there," Blanco told reporters during a briefing late Tuesday afternoon. <more> Sept. 21, 5 p.m. The Advocate
Rita swirls into 165-mph monster in gulf - - As many as 1 million people were ordered to clear out along the Gulf Coast, and hospital and nursing home patients were evacuated Wednesday as Hurricane Rita turned into a Category-5, 165-mph monster that could slam Texas by the weekend and inflict more misery on New Orleans. <more> 9/21/2005, 3:35 p.m. CT Associated Press
Governor Blanco´s Katrina And Rita Update - - Here is the latest from Governor Blanco´s Office regarding Hurricane Katrina and now Hurricane Rita “Pelican Task Force“: <more> Sept. 21, 10:30 a.m.
Rita spooks some in N.O.; others staying -- Alex Curtis rode out Hurricane Katrina solo in his apartment above the family business in uptown New Orleans. The thought of doing the same for Hurricane Rita has him on edge, to say the least. "I had a nervous breakdown last night,'' the 31-year-old New Orleans native said Tuesday afternoon as he stood in front of the Brass Menagerie in the historic section of Magazine Street, which is mostly deserted. "I'm just physically drained. It's hard.'' <more> Sept. 21, 2005 5 p.m. The Advocate
It's déjà vu for evacuees in Houston. 4,000 told to leave as Hurricane Rita threatens. Evacuees are offered relocation to Arkansas - - Preparing for the worst, state and local officials Tuesday ordered the mandatory evacuation of about 4,000 evacuees from Houston-area shelters, offering them a chance to relocate to Arkansas as Hurricane Rita swirled toward the Texas coast. <more> Sept. 21, 2005 4:45 p.m. Times Picayune
Witt's firm postpones Allstate job - - The firm counseling Gov. Kathleen Blanco on hurricane relief efforts has temporarily set aside another client -- the nation's largest private insurance company -- to avoid a possible conflict of interest. While working for Louisiana, James Lee Witt Associates will not lobby Congress on behalf of Allstate Insurance Co., company vice president Barry Scanlon said Tuesday. <more> Sept. 21, 2005 4:50 p.m. The Advocate
EPA, DEQ put together household chemical pickup plan - - The one-stop-shopping chemical free-for-all that used to be the cabinet under the bathroom and kitchen sinks is now just one more thing area residents have to clean up as they return home in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality are organizing the curbside pickup of household hazardous wastes and large appliances. <more> Sept. 21, 2005 4:51 p.m. The Advocate
DEQ declares emergency, seeks sites to dump debris - - The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality is looking for places to dispose of the millions of tons of debris and wreckage left behind by Hurricane Katrina. The agency has declared an emergency and can thus waive some of its normal rules and regulations but will try to meet the spirit of environmental regulation as it identifies waste sites, said Chuck Brown, DEQ assistant secretary for environmental services. <more> Sept. 21, 2005 4:53 p.m. The Advocate
Officials: Lake can absorb pollutants - - Lake Pontchartrain is far from "toxic soup," said environmental officials and the executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation. Carleton Dufrechou of the foundation said Tuesday the big lake can absorb the pollutants in the flood waters being pumped into it. There are places where the lake "has taken a few hits." His comments are based on initial and limited water testing results conducted by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the federal Environmental Protection Agency. <more> Sept. 21, 2005 5:10 p.m. The Advocate
La. tourism rebuilding plan revealed - - Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu introduced a comprehensive plan Tuesday to rebuild Louisiana's tourism and cultural industries in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Joined by the nation's leaders in tourism and preservation, Landrieu said that restoring tourism, arts and culture is the "economic engine of social and economic rebirth." The program is not just for New Orleans, Landrieu said. "Three-fourths of Louisiana is open and doing business, and we need to get that word out, presenting a clear message to the world. We are one team to build the soul of America," he said. <more> Sept. 21, 2005 5:05 p.m. The Advocate
FEMA negotiates for hotel rooms - - Thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees could soon swap a shelter cot for a hotel bed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is negotiating with the national hotel and motel industry to find rooms for evacuees, FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said Tuesday. FEMA would pick up the tab for the rooms, Andrews said. <more> Sept. 21, 2005 4:55 p.m. The Advocate
Blanco greets returning troops - - Governor Kathleen Blanco welcomed more National Guard troops today in Alexandria, but she used the occasion to encourage evacuation of low-lying area should Hurricane Rita strike the coast of Louisiana. She welcomed soldiers from the 256th Brigade Combat Teams Second Battalion, 156th Infantry, headquartered in Abbeville in Vermilion Parish. <more> Sept. 21, 2005 1:36 P.M. AP
Blanco issues budget freeze order - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco limited state spending Tuesday, requiring most new hires, travel, supplies and other items to be approved by her top budget official — unless they are needed to help Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 6:06 p.m. AP
No teardowns until houses are checked out - - New Orleanians worried that they’ll come back to the city to find their hurricane-damaged homes demolished can relax, the deputy director of the city’s Vieux Carre Commission told more than 50 people from historic preservation groups and government agencies Tuesday in Baton Rouge. Demolition won’t be considered before every one of an estimated 100,000 homes and other structures - whether or not in an historic district - is assessed by a team of experts. Photos of all the buildings will be posted on an internet site, Dan Brown said. The city plans to deploy about 100 such teams, all under the direction of city Safety and Permits director Michael Centineo, Brown said. Brown, the only city government employee at the meeting, said the city is proceeding carefully, cautiously – and legally: “It will be a methodical, open process,” he said. “The public is concerned about coming home and not finding their houses. That’s not going to happen.” Sept. 20, 4:45 p.m. Times Picayune
FEMA housing aid tops $1 billion - - More than $1 billion has been approved for temporary housing assistance to residents whose homes were damaged in the storm since Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana three weeks ago, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the State of Louisiana. Assistance is in the form of grants for temporary housing for minor repairs to make a home safe and habitable. To date, 818,253 Louisianans have applied for state and federal disaster assistance by calling the toll-free registration line, 1-800-621-3362 (FEMA). The TTY number for speech- and hearing-impaired individuals is 1-800-462-7585 <more> Sept. 20, 2005 3:50 p.m. Times Picayune
Governor wants FEMA to pay for hotel rooms for evacuees - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco asked federal officials on Tuesday to begin moving evacuees from shelters to hotel rooms because she believes it's taking too long to provide them permanent housing. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 AP

Tuesday, Sept. 20, 9 p.m.

Acadiana evacuees may be moved as Rita approaches - - At least 4,200 Hurricane Katrina evacuees probably will migrate again to points farther north, depending on the path of looming Hurricane Rita, a state emergency official said Tuesday. Buses are waiting along Interstate 49 and Interstate 10 to pick up displaced people staying in Lake Charles and Lafayette, said Bill Doran, chief of operations for the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 5:25 p.m. The Advertiser

John Rowland - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco visits with a group of children playing video games Saturday at the Cajundome. As Hurricane Rita approaches the Gulf Coast, Lafayette evacuees may be moved again.
Schools close, and evacuations begin - - Galveston may no longer be the most likely target for Hurricane Rita, but the island remains well within the danger zone. The city and county have begun a voluntary evacuation, with a mandatory evacuation set for Wednesday. Brazoria County is planning a voluntary evacuation. Galveston city officials said today that they have have set the city's first-ever mandatory evacuation for 5 p.m. Wednesday. Evacuation buses are to begin rolling out of town Wednesday morning, with hundreds or even thousands of people on board as shelters open to Galveston evacuees in Huntsville. "You may and should begin to leave the island now," Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said shortly after 11 a.m. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 4:50 p.m. Houston Chronicle
Bush concerned Rita may hit damaged gulf - - Passing by massive piles of debris left by Hurricane Katrina, President Bush said Tuesday that officials were readying for another possible hit - this time from Hurricane Rita in "what we pray is not a devastating storm." Bush received a briefing about Rita aboard the USS Iwo Jima, which is docked near this devastated city's downtown, as the hurricane lashed the Florida Keys and created worry among Katrina victims in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama that it could force more misery on them. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 3:25 p.m. Associated Press
President Bush, center, flanked by Lt. Gen. Russ Honore, left, and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, attends a briefing on Hurricane Rita on board the USS Iwo Jima in New Orleans, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2005.
Fed looks past Katrina, raises rates again. Benchmark pushed up another quarter-point, boosting borrowing costs - - The Federal Reserve raised short-term interest for an 11th straight time Tuesday, saying the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina have increased near-term economic uncertainty but "do not pose a more persistent threat." Policy-makers led by Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan raised the benchmark overnight lending rate by a quarter-percentage point to 3.75 percent, its highest level in more than four years. The Fed also indicated more rate hikes are likely, reiterating its long-standing position that "policy accommodation can be removed at a pace that is likely to be measured." <more> Sept. 20, 2005 3:18 p.m. MSNBC
Bush: Townsend to lead Katrina inquiry - - U.S. President George W. Bush has named his homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend, to lead an internal inquiry into the much-criticized federal response to Hurricane Katrina, the White House said on Tuesday. Townsend will look at "what went right, what went wrong and lessons learned from the federal response to Hurricane Katrina," said spokesman Trent Duffy, who spoke as Bush prepared to make his fifth trip to the disaster zone. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 11:55 p.m. Reuters
Katrina raises voters' doubts about Bush - - Hurricane Katrina and the bungled government response have weakened President Bush, raising questions among Americans about his Iraq and flood-recovery plans and spreading fears among fellow Republicans about next year's elections. An AP-Ipsos poll says nearly six in 10 people disapprove of Bush's job performance, unchanged from the record-low rating he had before last week's televised address from the heart of New Orleans. <more> Sept. 20,2005 3:38 p.m. Associated Press
Group: Protect Katrina victim immigrants - - Illegal immigrants affected by Hurricane Katrina should have "protected humanitarian status," representatives of Latin American and Caribbean communities said Tuesday in an appeal to the White House. The groups said the protection is needed because immigrants fearing deportation, including some with U.S.-born children, are not seeking help at shelters because officials are asking for Social Security numbers in order to enter. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 3:34 p.m. Associated Press
Bush eyes new storm during trip to Gulf Coast. President fears fresh damage from Hurricane Rita to Katrina-ravaged areas - - President Bush on Tuesday embarked on his fifth trip to survey hurricane recovery efforts amid worries that Hurricane Rita, lashing the Florida Keys with 75 mph winds, could bring new misery to the devastated Gulf Coast. A day after helping pressure New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to stop the reopening of the city, Bush was getting an update on Rita and an on-the-ground briefing about cleanup efforts there. He was beginning the tour in Gulfport, Miss., holding a meeting with leaders from local businesses and government. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 12:40 p.m. Associated Press
Galveston calls for voluntary evacuations. 'Today is boarding up and decision day' -- Taking a cue from the suffering in New Orleans, officials called for a voluntary evacuation of this island city as Hurricane Rita threatened to slam into the Texas Coast by this weekend. Officials also took steps to fly some Hurricane Katrina refugees in Texas shelters to Arkansas. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 12:35 p.m. Associated Press

Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2005 10:45 a.m.

Entergy may seek bankruptcy for New Orleans unit -- Utility Entergy Corp. <ETR.N> on Tuesday said initial restoration costs for damage caused by Hurricane Katrina and business continuity expenses could exceed $1 billion, and it is considering bankruptcy protection for its New Orleans unit. Entergy, which provides electricity to much of the Gulf Coast, estimated the costs at $750 million to $1.1 billion. But it said that figure could change because flooding continues to hamper its ability to fully assess the extent of the damage to its infrastructure. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 10:20 a.m. Reuters
House GOP Scraps Plan for Joint Probe on Hurricane Response - - Congressional Republicans signaled today that they have abandoned their plan to conduct a joint House-Senate probe of the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. In announcing a joint probe this month, the Republican leadership had said it would be the most efficient way to investigate the administration's much-criticized initial response to the hurricane. But today, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) conceded that he could not overcome Democratic opposition to a joint investigation. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 10:17 a.m. Los Angeles Times
Former governors offer evaluation plan - - Gov. David C. Treen, Gov. Charles "Buddy" Roemer and Gov. Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Jr. in a letter to the editor today have called upon the presidents of several Louisiana universities to meet and confer for the purpose of facilitating a truly unbiased academic evaluation of what went right and what went wrong, both before and after Katrina made landfall, and what New Orleans, as well as the rest of the state, can do in the future to minimize the shortfalls and to maximize the strengths of Louisiana's preparedness and response to hurricanes. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 10:13 a.m. The Advertiser
Blanco should heed suggestion of ex-governors - - In today's letters to the editor section is a message from three former Louisiana governors: Dave Treen, Buddy Roemer and Mike Foster. It was addressed to "the editor and to the citizens of Louisiana," but it is intended primarily for our present governor, Kathleen Blanco. We suggest you read the letter. We urge that Blanco study it carefully. It outlines a plan for an impartial investigation of the state response to Hurricane Katrina by a panel of university presidents. <more> Sept. 20,2005 10 a.m. The Advertiser
Bush Proposes Vouchers for All Displaced Students - - Under President Bush's plan to cover most of the cost of educating students displaced by Hurricane Katrina, parents could enroll their children in a private or religious school this year at federal expense, even if they had gone to public schools back home, administration officials said yesterday. In proposing $1.9 billion in aid for kindergartners through 12th-graders whose schools were ruined by the storm, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings originally said the administration was setting aside $488 million for private-school tuition and other help, to re-create as normal an environment as possible for the uncommonly large segment of children from New Orleans who had attended Catholic schools. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 9:34 a.m. Washington Post
Federal Contractors Seek Liability Shields. Trade Group Drafting Bill to Protect Storm Cleanup Workers From Lawsuits - - Contractors working on Hurricane Katrina relief efforts for the federal government want Congress to limit their liability from lawsuits and are drafting legislation to seek such protection, industry officials said yesterday. The Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have relied on contractors, including several who started work without a contract, to fix the levees in New Orleans and pump water out of the city. But the companies have become concerned about the liability issue because of lawsuits filed against construction firms that helped clean up the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 9:38 a.m. Washington Post
Contractors Get Affirmative Action Exemption - - The Labor Department has temporarily suspended government requirements that its contractors have an affirmative action plan addressing the employment of women, members of minorities, Vietnam veterans and the disabled if the companies are first-time government contractors working on reconstruction in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. While employment lawyers said it was not clear how strong an impact the exemption would have, the move comes as President Bush has tried to address the perception of unfairness in the government's response to the hurricane. Under the rules that normally apply to companies hired by the government, businesses with more than 50 employees working on contracts for more than $50,000 must develop an affirmative action plan. But according to a memorandum on the Labor Department's Web site, dated Sept. 9, the goal of the exemption in the case of recovery work associated with Hurricane Katrina is to reduce the burden of paperwork on government contractors and so encourage more companies to jump into assisting with rebuilding from the storm damage. The exemption is to last for three months, unless it is extended. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 10:40 a.m. New York Times
Bush eyes Rita while touring Gulf Coast - - President Bush said he was concerned that Hurricane Rita could hit the already devastated Gulf Coast as he prepared for a fifth trip to the region to survey hurricane recovery efforts. A day after helping pressure New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to stop the reopening of the city, Bush on Tuesday planned to get an on-the-ground briefing about cleanup efforts there. He was beginning the tour in Gulfport, Mississippi, holding a meeting with leaders from local businesses and government. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 9:09 a.m. Associated Press
Wary and Weary, Gulf Eyes a New Storm - - A new threat to the battered Gulf Coast emerged on Monday as Tropical Storm Rita approached the Florida Keys, prompting evacuations in Key West and other coastal towns as residents of Texas and Louisiana warily tracked the storm's progress. Forecasters say that if the storm, which is expected to reach hurricane force by Tuesday morning, follows its predicted course, it will strike west of New Orleans - somewhere in southwest Louisiana or along the Texas coast - as early as Friday evening. But even if it does miss New Orleans, its accompanying rainstorms, even if they amount to only a few inches, could cause significant flooding in a city where some neighborhoods have never dried out and the levees have not been fully repaired, officials said. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 9:19 a.m. New York Times
Bush taps Townsend to lead Katrina inquiry. White House tells Cabinet to give investigation 'the highest priority' - - President Bush has tapped homeland security adviser Frances Townsend to head up the internal inquiry into the White House's Katrina response, a White House official confirmed Tuesday. Townsend will follow up on Bush's promise two weeks ago to figure out what went wrong. White House spokesman Scott McClellan tells CNN that White House Chief of Staff Andy Card sent a memo late last week to all Cabinet secretaries telling them Townsend would be heading up the internal investigation looking into what went wrong, and had asked them to "give participation in the inquiry the highest priority." <more> Sept. 20, 2005 9:12 a.m. CNN
Contract details between state, Witt unclear - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco is paying a disaster counseling and lobbying firm to advise her on Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, but her staff could not provide the contract or payment details until after deadline Monday. The state has agreed to pay Washington-based James Lee Witt Associates an undisclosed hourly rate, though the firm's leader and namesake continues to work for free, according to company spokeswoman Kim Fuller. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 8:18 a.m. Baton Rouge Advocate
Blanco urges coast to evacuate - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco urged storm-weary residents of coastal Louisiana to leave their homes and shelters for the second time in less a month. Blanco said late Monday that she is concerned the state is once again in the path of a deadly storm. This time it's Tropical Storm Rita that's threatening to strengthen into a hurricane and enter the Gulf of Mexico. The storm is expected to make landfall by Saturday. "I want citizens in coastal parishes to start making preparations to leave now," Blanco said at a press conference Monday night. The state is urging evacuation of the parishes that are roughly south of Interstate 10. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 8:20 a.m. Baton Rouge Advocate
Kennedy asks for safeguards on contracts - - State Treasurer John Kennedy wants the governor to prevent officials and their families from profiting off hurricane rebuilding. Kennedy on Monday asked Gov. Kathleen Blanco to prohibit companies from participating in the contract process if officials or their families own more than 5 percent of the business. "We're going to be held to a higher standard, I think everybody can see that coming," he said. "We're better than our reputation, and this is a chance to demonstrate that." <more> Sept. 20, 2005 8:24 a.m. Baton Rouge Advocate
The Forms Have Gone Out, but the Help Will Take Longer - -Here’s one way of measuring the need for disaster help: through last week, the Small Business Administration distributed 741,917 loan applications for those hurt by Hurricane Katrina. Here's one way of measuring the recovery: as of last week, about 2,400 applications had been filed, and so far none have been approved for small businesses. Even so, federal and state agencies, legislatures and private groups are putting in place a wide range of assistance for small businesses. But right now, the businesses themselves are assessing what they need. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 9:23 a.m. New York Times
Office tracks funds for storm aid - - Because getting aid quickly to victims of Hurricane Katrina poses potential for waste and fraud, the Department of Homeland Security set up a special oversight office to audit what could eventually amount to $200 billion in spending. DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner said the need for a special oversight office has nothing to do with any history of corruption in Louisiana. "This is one of the things we learned after any disaster, no matter where it is," he said Monday. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 8:28 a.m. Baton Rouge Advocate
FEMA cuts housing plan in half - – As unexpected numbers of Hurricane Katrina evacuees are leaving emergency shelters and finding temporary housing on their own, federal officials Monday downgraded their estimate for how many trailers will be needed in Louisiana for people displaced by the storm. Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman David Passey said the agency is now planning to bring about 50,000 trailers to Louisiana, down from last week's estimate of 100,000. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 8:30 a.m. Times Picayune
Debate grows over how to pay for Gulf Coast rebuild - – The staggering cost of rebuilding New Orleans and other hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast communities is sparking a debate over whether the United States must go further into debt or can offset the spending through cuts in discretionary spending, temporary repeal of some tax cuts passed in Bush's first term, or some combination of the two. The Bush administration so far has ruled out any tax increases, including a temporary or permanent repeal of its first-term tax cuts, while Democrats have warned that Republicans will face a fight if they target for cuts programs that benefit the poor and middle class. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 8:34 a.m. Times Picayune
State emergency officials prepare to move thousands of evacuees - - With the growing threat of Rita hitting the southwest Louisiana coast, state officials are preparing to move 13,000 Katrina evacuees into more secure shelters, Col. Jeff Smith, deputy director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness, said Monday. The state is looking to shift the evacuees in flood-prone areas south of Interstate 10 northward as Rita moves closer, Smith said, Smith said there are about 22,000 beds available in shelters north of I-10. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 8:37 a.m. Times Picayune
St. Bernard halts re-entry, calls for evacuation - - St. Bernard Parish officials on Monday halted the return of parish residents and called for a mandatory evacuation starting tomorrow, as Tropical Storm Rita churned into the Gulf of Mexico and threatened to affect the parish. Officials made the decision after a conference call in which Corps of Engineers officials said Katrina’s damage to the parish’s levees means the area is vulnerable to even a small surge. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 8:40 a.m. Times Picayune
Cash Now, Questions Later - - In the period that some simply call "before," employees working at the Liberty Bank and Trust Company headquarters, a six-story glass box in eastern New Orleans, sat at brand-new workstations in a building they had occupied only this past spring. Now, the head office for this $350 million bank is a cramped branch here, a homely brick building with a corner of its corrugated tin roof missing. Two bank employees, seated on beat-up borrowed chairs behind a pair of folding tables, serve as the loan department for the bank's 13 branches. The table beside them is the one-employee insurance department. Four tables pushed together in the room's middle accommodate a makeshift call center. <more> Sept. 20,2005 9:06 a.m. New York Times
Tangipahoa official: FEMA not buying land - - The Federal Emergency Management Agency is not purchasing large tracts for temporary housing in the parish, Parish Council officials said Monday. The remarks came in response to a question from resident David Anastasio, who said he lives on a large tract in a rural area and is worried that FEMA will place temporary housing there. <more> Sept. 20, 2005 10:35 a.m. Baton Rouge Advocate

Monday, Sept. 19, 2005 8:25 p.m.

Florida Keys evacuated as Rita closes in. Louisiana governor warns of possible danger to state: ‘Prepare your family’ - - Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco warned residents of her already sodden, beleaguered state to “prepare your family, prepare your house for the possibility of evacuation” in advance of Rita. At a Monday evening news conference in Louisiana, Blanco said “we are taking Rita very, very seriously,” despite not having a conclusive track on the storm now approaching the Keys. Blanco echoed updated storm track forecasts that predicted Rita would move in a more easterly direction than originally projected, closer to an already soaked Louisiana. “It's been moving into the Gulf of Mexico,” Blanco said. “Predictions are that the storm could reach Category 3 by the time it makes landfall later in the week.” “I want citizens in the coastal parishes to start making preparations to leave now,” Blanco said. “Make your preparations, make thoughtful preparations, think about keeping your families together. Make sure your homes are secure and yards are clear of any flying objects. Prepare your family, prepare your house for the possibility of evacuation.” <more> Sept. 19, 2005 8:25 p.m. MSNBC
Rita nears hurricane strength - - Officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for residents of the Florida Keys today as Tropical Storm Rita neared hurricane strength. Rita's top sustained winds are up to 70 mph -- just 4 mph short of hurricane strength. Rita could become a hurricane in the next 24 hours, according to forecasters, and it could threaten areas recovering from Katrina. "There is deep concern about this storm causing more flooding in New Orleans," President Bush said today. <more> Sept. 19, 2 p.m. CNN
New Orleans mayor halts city’s reopening. Nagin says threat posed by Tropical Storm Rita forced him to reconsider - - Under pressure from President Bush and other top federal officials, the mayor Monday suspended the reopening of large portions of the city over the next few days because of the threat of a new round of flooding from a tropical storm. “I am concerned about this hurricane getting in the gulf. ... If we are off, I’d rather err on the side of conservatism to make sure we have everyone out,” Mayor Ray Nagin said. The announcement came after repeated warnings from top federal officials — and the president himself — that the city was unsafe. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 5:17 p.m. Associated Press
Rita may cause evacuation problems - - If Tropical Storm Rita hits southwestern Louisiana, the state will be hard-pressed to find vacant beds for evacuees, a top official of the state Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness said Monday. Bill Doran, operations division chief of the agency, said that although present projections have Rita hitting the Texas coast by the end of the week, Louisiana officials remain on high alert in case the storm shifts its course. “It is still a concern,’’ Doran said of the tropical storm, which is keeping OEP officials at the highest level of alert. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 3:50 p.m. Baton Rouge Advocate

St. Bernard Parish residents must have ID to enter, officials said - - St. Bernard Parish residents returning to assess damage from Hurricane Katrina must show appropriate identification listing the address of the residence that will be visited, St. Bernard Parish officials said. Clarifying the rules governing a re-entry process that began Saturday, officials said returnees may bring other people along to help remove personal items. But only one vehicle per ID is being allowed to enter, they said. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 3:55 p.m. Baton Rouge Advocate
Blanco budget freeze order still not issued - - Three weeks after Hurricane Katrina ravaged southeastern Louisiana, Gov. Kathleen Blanco hasn't formally required any state agencies to limit spending and focus on essential needs only, including the rebuilding and recovery. The governor told lawmakers in a special meeting last week that she was issuing an executive order to rein in unnecessary spending, but by Monday the order still was being written and agencies were left to determine whether they wanted to cut back on travel, equipment purchases and other items to respond to Katrina. "They've been working on it. It's not ready right now," Blanco spokeswoman Denise Bottcher said. The governor's Division of Administration said the order likely would be out Tuesday. <more> Sept. 19,2005 5:25 p.m. Associated Press

Monday, Sept. 19, 2005 11:50 a.m.

Bush urges Nagin to be cautious on New Orleans - - President George W. Bush urged New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Monday not to let people return to New Orleans yet because of fears there could be flooding from a new storm. "The mayor is working hard. ... He's got this dream about having a city up and running, and we share that dream. But we also want to be realistic about some of the hurdles and obstacles that we all confront in repopulating New Orleans," Bush told reporters. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 11:50 a.m. Reuters
New Orleans Should Be Dry by End of the Week. Pumping progress by the Army Corps of Engineers has beaten all estimates. Now mud, downed trees and debris are primary obstacles. - - The vast floodwaters that inundated four-fifths of New Orleans have been almost entirely pumped out of the city, with the remainder expected to be gone by the end of the week, the Army Corps of Engineers said Sunday. The corps estimated that it had pumped out 87% of the water from within the city, representing much faster progress than the agency had previously reported. Some areas outside the city remain flooded. Col. Duane Gapinski, who is leading the effort to drain the city, said the situation was helped dramatically by three weeks of little or no rainfall since Hurricane Katrina ruptured the city's levee system. The corps estimates that about 2,700 acres of the city remain flooded, down from 27,000 acres immediately after the hurricane. The water is concentrated in three large pools, 2 to 4 feet deep — in East New Orleans, the northern section of the central city, and the 9th Ward — and should be gone within five days, Gapinski said. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 11:25 a.m. Los Angeles Times
U.S. Had Plan for Crisis Like Katrina - - A government-funded crisis exercise last year produced a strategy to prepare for and respond to a Katrina-like hurricane in New Orleans, but state, local and federal officials were still finalizing the plan when just such a storm hit. Warning that tens of thousands of stranded individuals would have to be evacuated by bus and airlift, the plan's 200-page preliminary recommendations were distributed Jan. 5 to state emergency planners and officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Army Corps of Engineers, Coast Guard and other agencies, according to the contractor that drafted the document. Dozens more copies, including 200 updated pages and annexes, were requested by federal officials in the days and hours before Katrina made landfall Aug. 29. A copy of the 448-page "Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Plan," which hasn't been made public, warned that "a substantial portion'' of city residents wouldn't be able to evacuate, and that "a major limiting factor in executing this plan would be the shortage of transportation facilities." The document added that because of lack of transport, "delivery of water and possibly food to victims ... will be crucial to minimize deaths." Previous drafts of the document, but not the comprehensive version, have been cited earlier in news reports. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 11:18 a.m. Wall Street Journal
Political clout could steer relief - - Hurricane Katrina knew neither state boundaries nor political precinct lines as it washed across the Gulf Coast. Yet as the emotional wallop of the storm's human cost recedes and Congress gets down to doling out rebuilding funds, some observers expect sharp divides to surface as the two hardest-hit states vie for relief. Because when it comes to clout on Capitol Hill, Mississippi and Louisiana are not in the same boat. "I can't imagine the stars being better aligned for the purpose of access and everything Washington has to offer" than it is for Mississippi, said Marty Wiseman, director of the Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 USA Today
Money, Money, Everywhere. Check, please: Louisiana cheered. Democrats—and some tightfisted GOPers—jeered. How we will pay for the Katrina cleanup—and the political costs for Bush. - - Newsweek analysis of the budget challenge facing the Administration on Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 10:50 a.m. Newsweek
What went wrong in hurricane crisis? Why did it take so long for help to arrive? Were warnings ignored? - - Looking back at it now, at the devastating destruction across the Gulf region, at one of America’s most beloved cities under water, at all the unimaginable human anguish, it’s hard to conceive that events unfolded as painfully as they did. Just as in the aftermath of 9/11, tough questions are being asked. How much of the damage done by this catastrophic storm could have been prevented? What did the government know before Katrina hit? What went wrong? And who is accountable? "Dateline" talked to some of those who say Hurricane Katrina didn’t have to turn out the way it did. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 10:30 a.m. Dateline NBC
Blanco speaks out on recovery's progress, regrets - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who has taken waves of criticism for the state's response to Hurricane Katrina, talked about what she thought went right and wrong during the storm's aftermath in the following interview. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 10:10 a.m. Louisiana Gannett News Service

Gov. Kathleen Blanco talks with Verlinda Wagner on Saturday during a visit to the shelter in the Cajundome Photo by John Rowland/Louisiana Gannett News Service
Superdome could be saved after all, official says. 2nd inspection shows damage not as bad as originally thought. Maintenance firm has removed mounds of debris - - Cancel the wrecking ball. The Superdome might be salvageable after all. A second inspection over the weekend revealed the damage to the 30-year-old stadium isn't as bad as first thought, said Doug Thornton, regional vice president of SMG, the company that manages the Superdome. <more> Sept. 19,2005 9:55 a.m. Times Picayune
Temporary housing planned for 1 million. FEMA to create miniature towns - - Officials have announced an aggressive plan to find federally funded temporary housing for the more than 1 million Louisiana residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina -including more than 100,000 still in shelters - that could create new miniature towns throughout the state. The plan, which would be financed completely by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, would include about 200,000 manufactured homes and camping trailers, thousands of prefabricated apartment complexes and single-family homes and several cruise ships, said Jerry Jones, the director of facility planning and control for the state Department of Administration. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 9:50 a.m. Times Picayune
Katrina's La. death toll rises to 646 - - As of Sunday, the confirmed death toll by state officials and local corners for Hurricane Katrina was 646. That figure includes:
- 490 bodies at the St. Gabriel morgue
And the following number of bodies were reported in parish coroner's offices:
- Assumption Parish: 2
- East Baton Rouge Parish: 63
- Iberia Parish: 6
- Jefferson Parish: 30
- Livingston Parish: 4
- Plaquemines Parish: 3
- St. Charles: 5
- St. Tammany Parish: 7
- Tangipahoa Parish: 20
- Terrebonne Parish: 14
- West Baton Rouge Parish: 2
Source: Times Picayune
Officials rethinking Uptown return plan. Reopening may be too soon for parts of area, some worry. Some Uptown residents already have returned - - New Orleans officials said Algiers residents will be allowed to return home today, but said they will reassess a preliminary plan for reopening parts of Uptown later this week. Mayor Ray Nagin and Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen, federal head of New Orleans' hurricane recovery effort, are meeting this afternoon with other state and local officials. <more> Sept. 19,2005 9:45 a.m. Times Picayune
With gates opens, Metairie returns home - - Ernest and Rose Landry have lived in their house in Metairie since the road out front was made of gravel and shells. All through those 49 years, they said, their home never flooded. That was, of course, until Katrina. They returned Sunday for the first time since the Aug. 29 hurricane, along with dozens more Jefferson Parish residents, and inside their house found mold flourishing and puddles of water still standing after a flood that apparently reached almost a foot deep. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 9:35 a.m. Times Picayune
Disaster recovery center opens today in Slidell - - A new FEMA disaster center opens today at 9 a.m. at the recreation center of John Slidell Municipal Park, 105 Robert Road. This is the 12th such center to open. <more> Sept. 19,2005 9:30 a.m. Times Picayune
Scientists measure hit to barrier islands - - The barrier islands along the Louisiana coast are the first protection against the force of hurricanes. State and federal officials, as well as interested scientists, are now looking at how those islands fared in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Kirk Rhinehart, administrator of the state Department of Natural Resources Coastal Restoration Division, said that by looking at how the islands survived, the department can better plan for future restoration projects. "It's a real opportunity to refine our models and make better projects," he said. The information also will help officials determine how the barrier islands and other restoration projects mesh with the need for greater hurricane protection. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 9:30 a.m. Baton Rouge Advocate
DEQ says air quality not a concern in N.O. - - Air quality in the New Orleans area is not of great concern to state environmental officials, except in areas where there have been oil spills or areas affected by the plumes of fires. "The air is not a concern right now," said Chris Roberie of the Department of Environmental Quality. "Pathogens and molds are a different issue, as well asbestos and lead as demolitions begin," he said. The DEQ and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have been conducting air samples in and around New Orleans, Roberie said. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 9:25 a.m. Baton Rouge Advocate
Katrina evacuees return home to La. suburb -- Thousands of residents began returning to homes in the New Orleans suburbs on Sunday to find debris-strewn yards and homes without power or working sewers. But amid the damage, a few gas stations were open, along with a handful of coffee shops and burger joints and signs of rebuilding. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 9:15 a.m. Associated Press
Stores, restaurants hampered by lack of staff, supplies -- As residents returned for the official reopening of Metairie this weekend, they found many stores open to serve them as they cleaned up yards, bleached flooded homes and restocked new refrigerators. What restricted business hours for most retailers wasn't storm damage or lack of electrical power, but a shortage of the workers who staff the stores. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 9:10 a.m. Baton Rouge Advocate
Clinton Levels Sharp Criticism at the President's Relief Effort - - Former President Bill Clinton, asked by President Bush to help raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, offered harsh criticism of the administration's disaster-relief effort on Sunday, saying "you can't have an emergency plan that works if it only affects middle-class people up." Mr. Clinton's comments in an interview on the ABC News program "This Week" could prove awkward for the White House, given President Bush's eagerness to involve his Democratic predecessor in a high-profile role to raise money for the hurricane's victims. His remarks came days after the president gave a televised speech from New Orleans, trying to seize the momentum amid other attacks on the administration's performance. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 8 a.m. New York Times
Caution Urged for Reopening of New Orleans - - Sharpening his earlier warnings, the top official in charge of the federal response to the Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts again urged a delay on Sunday to a plan that is bringing people back to a city largely without power, drinking water or a working 911 system. The official, Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard, stopped short of saying that the government would try to halt the plan, which has been put in motion by Mayor C. Ray Nagin. But in several televised interviews on Sunday, Admiral Allen, who is scheduled to meet Mayor Nagin to discuss the plan on Monday, said the city was moving too fast and sketched a set of rudimentary needs he said had not been met. "I wouldn't want to attach a time limit to it, but it includes things like making sure there's potable water, making sure there's a 911 system in place, telephone, a means to notify people there is an approaching storm so you can evacuate it with the weakened levee situation," he said on the NBC News program "Meet the Press." "We can do that, and we can do that fairly soon, but it's very, very soon to try and do that this week." <more> Sept. 19, 2005 8:55 a.m. New York Times
For New Orleans, 2 Storms Brewing. - - With almost 90% of Hurricane Katrina's floodwater gone from New Orleans, Mayor C. Ray Nagin and the U.S. Coast Guard admiral overseeing the federal relief effort disagreed Sunday on how quickly the city can be brought back to life, and will meet today in an effort to narrow their differences. But even as the mayor defended his plan to allow residents to return ZIP Code by ZIP Code, the federal government's chief argument for slowing down — the possibility of another storm — was bolstered Sunday. State and U.S. hurricane experts were closely watching Tropical Storm Rita, which was situated south of the Bahamas. Though a storm's path is difficult to predict precisely, officials said, computer models suggest that the storm could pass between the Florida Keys, which are under a hurricane watch, and Cuba. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 8:50 a.m. Los Angeles Times
Experts size up contaminants. Water full of bacteria, no 'toxic soup' - - An LSU expert working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's science advisory board on how to sample sediments said the agency needs to be sampling inside as well as outside the flooded homes in the New Orleans area. As floodwater recedes, residents will be faced with a layer of muck. Exactly what is in that sediment may determine to what substances people cleaning up are being exposed. The EPA, in conjunction with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, has sampled only outside the homes. LSU chemistry professor Louis Thibodeaux said sediment-laden floodwater "comes through the front door and it settles out in the house because" the water is still, and really fine particles fall out of the water. "That's where the contamination is going to be," he said. But, he said, the EPA seems to be reluctant to go into the houses. "Inside, you are going to get it all over you" as people clean up, he said. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 9:20 a.m. Baton Rouge Advocate
Hurricane exposes government's shortcomings. System not tailored to respond quickly -- The muddled federal response to Hurricane Katrina has exposed a simple truth well known among government insiders: For reasons that run deep and probably can't be fixed, Washington has difficulty making long-range plans, coordinating its actions and tackling the tough political decisions required for swift disaster response and other critical responsibilities. <more> Sept. 19, 2005 10 a.m. Times Picayune

Sunday, Sept. 18, 7:15 p.m.

Jefferson Parish springs to life. Residents come back, businesses reopen - - Backing away from a phased return order that had stretched through next Wednesday, Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard announced that all Jefferson Parish residents are welcome to return this weekend. "He feels the parish has come back enough," said Walter Maestri, the parish's Director of Emergency Management. "That was his commitment that he could bring more and more people in as the infrastructure would admit." <more> Sept. 18, 2005 Times Picayune
EMPTY HANDS, BROKEN HEARTS. St. Bernard dwellers return to collect belongings and find there's little left.'It's only going to get worse,' sheriff says - - The once-tidy cottage on Lebeau Avenue in Arabi had been home to five generations of Susan Probst's family, from her grandparents to her 9-year-old grandson. So Probst made sure she was among the first in line Saturday at dawn when St. Bernard Parish officials allowed residents in her neighborhood to return and salvage the few possessions that Hurricane Katrina had spared. Despite dire warnings about the devastation throughout the parish, Probst and her husband, Tony, held out hope and had even rented a small moving van to haul away their possessions. But that all changed with one glimpse through the home's windows. "Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" she screamed as she fell to her knees and her words dissolved into a piercing wail. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 6:30 p.m. Times Picayune
State looks at ways to keep folks in La. Businesses, homeowners could receive tax credits. - - State officials are working on an economic development package they want Congress to consider to help jump-start businesses in New Orleans, as well as encourage people to rebuild their homes in the area, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said in an interview Saturday. Based on the tax breaks and other incentives that were created for New York City after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the state is trying to craft "sellable" tax credits program for homeowners and businesses that would benefit anyone who rebuilds in the 10-parish area affected by the storm, Blanco said. The package is still in its conceptual stages, Blanco said, being worked out in partnership with Mississippi officials, who will have similar problems rebuilding along the coastline. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 6:20 p.m. Times Picayune
Get insurance squared away before filing for FEMA aid. Grants issued for various expenses. FEMA fills in insurance gaps - - Making a claim on your insurance policy, if you have one, should come before filing for FEMA assistance, insurance industry representatives said this week. As a rule, individuals should get insurance settlements first and then talk to FEMA "to determine if you qualify for government public assistance," said Jeff Albright, chief executive of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of Louisiana in Baton Rouge. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 Times Picayune
Evacuees spreading out from Houston's shelters. 1,449 remain at Reliant Arena and just 362 at the convention center - - "We think the major shelters will be closed next week," said Frank Michel, a spokesman with Mayor Bill White's office. After a dramatic drop in the number of evacuees at Reliant Park Saturday, officials finished moving the remaining residents into Reliant Arena. They said 1,449 evacuees remained at the arena this morning, a decrease of more than 1,000 in the complex since Friday morning. In downtown Houston, the population at the George R. Brown Convention Center had fallen today to 362 residents, down from 816 on Friday before. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 6 p.m. Houston Chronicle
Hospital official: New Orleans health care infrastructure 'does not exist' -- This city's health care facilities have been shattered to an extent unmatched in U.S. history, and its hospital system faces grave challenges as residents begin returning, the vice president of the national hospital accreditation organization said today. The official, Joe Cappiello, said several hospitals were probably damaged beyond repair by Hurricane Katrina, while some may try to rush back into business before conditions are safe. Others, while rebuilding, may lose doctors and nurses to communities elsewhere. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 5:55 p.m. Associated Press
Katrina survivor found as officials clash - - Rescue workers combing hard-hit New Orleans neighborhoods found a survivor on Sunday who had camped out in his home since Hurricane Katrina, while officials clashed over when residents should return to the devastated city. The discovery of survivor Reyne Johnson nearly three weeks after Katrina ripped southern Louisiana and Mississippi relieved the search crews, who had been finding more and more corpses as floodwaters that forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee the historic city recede. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 5:45 p.m. Reuters
Evacuees quiz Blanco. Governor has few answers for displaced residents - - Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco talks Saturday with New Orleans evacuee Joeliene West at the Cajundome. Verlinda Wagner asked the question every New Orleans resident wanted to ask Governor Kathleen Blanco as she met with evacuees at the Cajundome. "When will the people of New Orleans be able to go home?" Her answer was "not yet," and the governor explained that rebuilding efforts have been going on in the Crescent City. "A lot of people are pressing hard to get back in but they won't be able to stay, not yet. It's just not safe right now. There's no electricity, no water for them but we're working on it," Blanco told the crowd of people. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 3:30 p.m. Lafayette Daily Advertiser
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco talks Saturday with New Orleans evacuee Joeliene West at the Cajundome. John Rowland/jrowland@theadvertiser.com
Feds, locals clash on return to New Orleans - - Federal and local authorities clashed on Sunday over whether New Orleans was ready for residents to return, putting in doubt efforts to quickly resettle the devastated city. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, head of the federal recovery efforts in New Orleans, said the city lacked most basic services -- such as drinkable water, sewage and electricity. Its protective levees remained vulnerable, and the city lacked a plan to respond to any new emergency Mayor Ray Nagin has been encouraging many to return this week, but Allen said he was far more cautious after consulting with the heads of the Environmental Protection Administration and the Centers for Disease Control. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 4:11 p.m. Reuters Link to Admiral Thad Allen's comments from Meet the Press.
Need and response proved out of sync. Initial confidence rooted in ignorance - - As surely as water seeks the lowest level, Katrina was about to lay bare the shortcomings of disaster plans by local, state and federal officials. And as levees were breached around a city resting mainly below sea level, years of disaster planning gave way to finger-pointing, legal wrangling and denial that things were as bad as they clearly were - even as residents suffered through unimaginable conditions just to survive. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 6:05 p.m. Times Picayune
Governor tells nation: our people will return. Radio address promotes state-federal teamwork - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco was tapped to deliver the Democratic Party's weekly radio address Saturday, using the national forum to thank people around the country for their generosity to Louisiana citizens in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Blanco said the state is expecting to bring back residents who have been scattered across the nation - an exodus that some have called the greatest U.S. population shift since the end of the Civil War. "Accept our thanks and hear our resolve: We will bring our people home as soon as we can," she said. "We need and want our people back." <more> Sept. 18, 6:15 p.m. Times Picayune
Military May Play Bigger Relief Role - - President Bush's push to give the military a bigger role in responding to major disasters like Hurricane Katrina could lead to a loosening of legal limits on the use of federal troops on U.S. soil. Pentagon officials are reviewing that possibility, and some in Congress agree it needs to be considered. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 7:15 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 18, 2005 3 p.m.

Blanco says feds pledged buses - - Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Katrina raged ashore, Gov. Kathleen Blanco still wants one question answered. Where were the buses? Hours after the hurricane hit Aug. 29, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced a plan to send 500 commercial buses into New Orleans to rescue thousands of people left stranded on highways, overpasses and in shelters, hospitals and homes. On the day of the storm, or perhaps the day after, FEMA turned down the state's suggestion to use school buses because they are not air conditioned, Blanco said Friday in an interview. Even after levees broke and residents were crowding the Louisiana Superdome, then-FEMA Director Mike Brown was bent on using his own buses to evacuate New Orleans, Blanco said. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 12:45 p.m. Baton Rouge Advocate
Louisiana must use storm aid perfectly - - Gov. Blanco heads a government that invests most power in its chief executive. So she is the most-important factor in whether Louisiana cleans up its act and deserves the aid that she demands and that Bush seems eager to give. Blanco's deep, almost religious commitment to her state and its people is obvious. And her personal integrity has rarely been questioned. But she has showed occasional blindness to conflicts of interest -- such as Witt's "free" employment. She tends to hire old acquaintances. She plays favorites, awarding political friends and denying enemies. And she has found it hard to say "no;" the bloated state budget is evidence of that. There's no room for any of that now. Louisiana government must be highly disciplined and highly principled, and that must start with her. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 2:18 p.m. Baton Rouge Advocate
Time Magazine: Vice President squashes talk of a "hurricane czar" - - Time Magazine is reporting that Vice President has squashed talk of naming a “hurricane czar" to take charge of the Katrina aftermath and Administration officials are considering be appointing a less powerful official—a commissar just to oversee rebuilding. That would leave the Coast Guard's Vice Admiral Thad Allen, according to a White House official, "in charge of recovery operations and stabilizing the situation on the ground." Administration officials say they have talked to potential redevelopment chiefs. Possibilities include former Louisiana Senator John Breaux, retired General Tommy Franks and General Electric's ex-CEO Jack Welch. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 2:10 p.m. Time Magazine
Lack of Cohesion Bedevils Recovery - - Three weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck, red tape and poor planning have left thousands of evacuees without basic services, according to local and state officials, public policy experts and survivors themselves. Hundreds of thousands of people from New Orleans and Gulf Coast communities have fled, sometimes to neighboring states and beyond, moving in with friends and family or into shelters, public housing and hotels funded by the Red Cross. With little guidance from federal and state governments -- and no single person or entity in charge of the overall operation -- cities and counties have been left on their own to find survivors homes, schools, jobs and health care. A patchwork of policies has resulted, causing relief agencies to sometimes work at cross-purposes. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 12:30 p.m. The Washington Post
Rebuilding plans confront turf wars, political strife. Racial tension mars initial discussions - - Twelve days after Hurricane Katrina, as the worst of the storm's physical perils subsided, about 60 business people and public officials from New Orleans gathered in Dallas with Mayor Ray Nagin to discuss the future of the city. The room full of "type A" personalities, as one participant described them, showered advice on the mayor. But it was New Orleans-born trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, one of several people participating by phone, who passionately made the point that seemed to resonate most with the group: New Orleans must rebuild its cultural, as well as its economic, strength. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 12:35 a.m. The Times-Picayune
Business Owners Trickle Back in. New Orleans Unsafe, FEMA Official Says -- Business owners trickled into New Orleans on Saturday, poking through glass shards and musty offices as the head of the federal relief effort warned in the strongest terms yet that the city is still unsafe for the 180,000 people being invited to return this week by Mayor C. Ray Nagin. The dire assessment by Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, appointed by President Bush to oversee the Federal Emergency Management Agency's recovery program, places him at odds with a mayor under increasing pressure from the business community to demonstrate New Orleans is on the mend. "The return of the general population to the city of New Orleans is problematic," Allen, the Coast Guard's chief of staff, said in an interview. The mayor announced on Thursday a phased-in return beginning this weekend with businesses followed soon by three neighborhoods with minimal damage. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 12:40 p.m. Washington Post
Business Owners Start to Return to New Orleans - - The official in charge of the federal recovery effort, Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard, said today that business owners were being allowed to return to New Orleans under tight supervision to make assessments, but the timeline for repopulating the city with the general public was still under discussion. A lack of potable water, standing contaminated water and weakened levees were still issues to be dealt with, Admiral Allen said. Infrastructure needs to be inspected as well, he said. "Those plans need to be locked down," he said on "Fox News Sunday." He added that he would give the mayor, C. Ray Nagin, an "unvarnished" assessment in a meeting on Monday of what he thinks the best time would be for the general public to re-enter the city. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 12:50 p.m. New York Times
FEMA's Woes Were Merely the Beginning. The trouble at federal agencies extends beyond emergency response. Aid is abundant, but prompt and accurate delivery is a problem. - - The federal government's efforts to help victims of Hurricane Katrina have been hobbled by inadequate planning and coordination, troubled computer systems and confusion over who will pay the costs. Interviews with federal officials indicate that recovery difficulties have gone beyond the Federal Emergency Management Agency and span key agencies in Washington, where top officials are trying to respond to a huge reconstruction problem for which they had no policies or plans. Large contracts are pouring out of agencies, but the task ahead involves issues Washington hasn't thought seriously about since the 1960s. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 12:55 p.m. Los Angeles Times
Logic of FEMA trailer park plan questionable. Katrina camps could delay survivors' return to their normal lives - - Could the government's main plan for housing the victims of Hurricane Katrina -- the creation of a vast network of rapidly constructed trailer parks in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi -- actually delay survivors' return to normal life? Aren't there less heavy-handed types of federal housing assistance that might work better? Nor surprisingly, given the shakiness of the federal response so far, the answer to both questions appears to be "yes." News reports have only begun to reveal the sheer scale of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's moves to create dozens of new mobile-home cities of as many as 25,000 units around the Gulf. <more> Sept. 18, 2005 1:10 p.m. San Francisco Chronicle

Saturday, Sept. 17, 2005 4 p.m.

Blanco meets evacuees at shelter- - An abandoned State Farm office complex is now home for Barbara Robert and her three daughters. Her children can catch the school bus here. Within the walls of the sprawling American Red Cross shelter, there is a post office, barbershop, pharmacy and infirmary. This is the kind of "community" shelter that Gov. Kathleen Blanco is pushing as the housing solution for thousands of evacuees for the indefinite future. <more> Sept. 17, 2005 4:30 p.m. Baton Rouge Advocate

Associated Press photo Margaret Fridley, left, of New Orleans reaches out to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco as the governor tours the Red Cross Shelter in Monroe on Friday. Although Fridley is an evacuee, she is not a shelter resident. She came to the Red Cross looking for help when she saw Blanco touring the facility.
State treasurer suggests hiring accounting firm to oversee aid - - The state should hire the Louisiana office of a major accounting firm to help keep track of federal aid that will flow into Louisiana to recover from Hurricane Katrina, State Treasurer John Kennedy said Friday. "The amount of federal aid that we have been promised, and I believe that we will receive, is unprecedented -- in the billions of dollars," Kennedy in a news release. "The whole world will be watching how we handle that money, and we are all aware of Louisiana's reputation. We are much better than our reputation, and this is a chance to prove it," he said. <more> Sept. 17, 2005 5 p.m. Baton Rouge Advocate
Transportation system damage estimated at $2.3 billion - - State and local roads and bridges suffered at least $2.3 billion in damage from Hurricane Katrina, a spokesman for the state transportation department said Friday. The tally includes $1.5 billion to repair roads eligible for federal aid and $775 million for parish and other local arteries, said Mark Lambert, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation and Development. State officials did not provide a list of specific repair needs. "This figure is very preliminary," Lambert said. <more> Sept. 17, 2005 5:05 p.m. Baton Rouge Advocate
Sediment left by water may be health hazard. Drying sludge may contain petroleum, fecal matter - - The sediment left behind by floodwaters in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish contains bacterial and petroleum contamination in amounts that could pose a health risk for returning residents, officials with the Environmental Protection Agency and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said Friday. And the material may be dangerous in the weeks and months ahead as it dries and becomes airborne, they added. The most immediate concern is with residents returning today to St. Bernard, where a major oil spill at Murphy Oil in Chalmette left contaminated sediment in homes and yards, said DEQ Secretary Mike McDaniel. <more> Sept. 17, 2005 5:15 p.m. The Times-Picayune
Blanco: No partisan politics - - Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco says there's no room for partisan politics as the Gulf Coast rebuilds from what she calls the "unforgiving winds and wrath" of Hurricane Katrina. In the Democratic response to the president's weekly radio address, Blanco thanked President Bush and asked for federal help in the "epic task" of reconstruction. <more> Sept. 17, 2005 5:10 p.m. Associated Press
Admiral asks New Orleans residents to delay return - - New Orleans business owners started trickling into the city on Saturday and residents were expected to return next week, but the head of the federal government's response to the storm said he wished they wouldn't. "I urge all residents returning to use extreme caution if they return and to consider delaying their return until safer and more livable conditions are established," Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen wrote in a statement. Allen said that water, sewage, electric and safety systems were not available to meet basic human needs. "There are health issues that people should be aware of, and the absence of drinkable tap water will contribute to unsanitary conditions," he wrote. <more> Sept. 17, 2005 5:40 p.m. CNN
FCC proposes free cell phones - - The Federal Communications Commission has proposed distributing cell phones and 300 free minutes of call time to Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Louisiana. The move came after the state Public Service Commission asked FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to use his influence with the wireless telephone industry to help out the 1 million people evacuated from the parishes around New Orleans. "It wasn't what we asked for, but it's a good start," state PSC Commissioner Foster Campbell of Elm Grove said Friday. He sponsored the motion that became a letter sent Thursday to Martin from all five Louisiana commissioners. <more> Sept. 17, 2005 5 p.m. Baton Rouge Advocate
Animal rescues examined - - Thousands of cats and dogs are dying needlessly because authorities have not made the rescue of household pets part of their post-hurricane mission, the president of the Humane Society of the United States said Friday. "We want a policy that says the federal and state and local responders should actively assist in animal rescue," said Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive officer of the group. Pacelle said he believes that about 50,000 household pets were left behind in the New Orleans area when Hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29. State and federal officials said Friday that about 4,000 or 5,000 animals have been rescued, which they called a big success. <more> Sept. 17, 2005 4:50 p.m. Baton Rouge Advocate
FEMA, Slow to the Rescue, Now Stumbles in Aid Effort - - Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Katrina cut its devastating path, FEMA - the same federal agency that botched the rescue mission - is faltering in its effort to aid hundreds of thousands of storm victims, local officials, evacuees and top federal relief officials say. The federal aid hot line mentioned by President Bush in his address to the nation on Thursday cannot handle the flood of calls, leaving thousands of people unable to get through for help, day after day…While the agency has redoubled its efforts to get food, money and temporary shelter to the storm victims, serious problems remain throughout the affected region. Visits to several towns in Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as interviews with dozens of local and federal officials, provide a portrait of a fragmented and dysfunctional system. <more> Sept. 17, 2005 5:20 p.m. New York Times
A disturbing view from inside FEMA. Worker: Decision-makers lack disaster experience - - As Hurricane Katrina bore down on the Gulf Coast three weeks ago, veteran workers at the Federal Emergency Management Agency braced for an epic disaster. But their bosses, political appointees with almost no emergency management experience, didn't seem to share the sense of urgency, a FEMA veteran said. "We told these fellows that there was a killer hurricane heading right toward New Orleans," Leo Bosner, a 26-year FEMA employee and union leader told CNN. "We had done our job, but they didn't do theirs. <more> Sept. 17, 2005 5:45 p.m. CNN
Louisiana Officials Indicted Before Katrina Hit - - Senior officials in Louisiana's emergency planning agency already were awaiting trial over allegations stemming from a federal investigation into waste, mismanagement and missing funds when Hurricane Katrina struck. And federal auditors are still trying to track as much as $60 million in unaccounted for funds that were funneled to the state from the Federal Emergency Management Agency dating back to 1998. In March, FEMA demanded that Louisiana repay $30.4 million to the federal government. The problems are particularly worrisome, federal officials said, because they involve the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, the agency that will administer much of the billions in federal aid anticipated for victims of Katrina. <more> Sept. 17, 2005 5:25 p.m. Los Angeles Times.
Rain, Pollution Feared as New Orleans Reopens - - Even as they prepared to welcome businesspeople back to their stricken city, New Orleans officials Friday said the flood-protection system that failed during Hurricane Katrina now is so weak that three inches of rainfall would trigger another deluge. <more> Sept. 17, 2005 5:30 p.m. Los Angeles Times
Katrina damage adds to harvest concerns - - Farmers are facing a double whammy as the harvest begins. The record yields of last year are a faded memory, replaced by crops parched, browned and thinned by months of drought. And now, damage done by Hurricane Katrina threatens to push up the cost and create delays in getting this year's crop to export terminals down the Mississippi River. Many farmers look to store much of their new crop until December or January, when they could get a better price. Protracted river traffic jams at New Orleans could force shippers to rely on rail or trucks -- more expensive options, notably with fuel costs soaring. <more> Sept. 17, 2005 5:30 p.m. Associated Press
Far From Home, They Feel They've Arrived. In shelters across the nation, grateful New Orleans evacuees aren't looking back. Instead they're relishing the chance for a fresh start in a new city. - - Most of the 430 evacuees bunking in a former Air Force barracks here never would have left New Orleans, given the choice. Many lived in rough neighborhoods where decent jobs were hard to come by, but they were deeply rooted. Forced out by Hurricane Katrina, they were airlifted to this city that sprawls across the treeless plains east of Denver. Acres of newly built identical homes; strip malls with signs in Korean, Spanish and Arabic; cool, dry air and distant mountains — nothing like the Delta. Yet many say, with a trace of wonder, that they like it here. Struggling residents from one of the poorest cities in America say New Orleans no longer looks like a good place to rebuild their lives. They see an opportunity for a second chance elsewhere. <more> Sept. 17, 2005 5:35 p.m. Los Angeles Times
Action urged to save La. medical services. Company fears health-care workers won't return -- The head of a Lafayette-area business that provides emergency medicine doctors in medical centers throughout 16 states says he's worried that medical workers -- from doctors and nurses to lab technicians -- will not come back to Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. William Schumacher, CEO of the Schumacher Group, said he'd like to see some federal action to try to hold the working members of the New Orleans-area's medical field displaced by the storm. He said he's already heard from several of the doctors his company employs in that area that they don't plan to go back even after the city is re-opened. <more> Sept. 15, 2005 5:50 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 16, 2005 2 p.m.

Corruption a worry as Katrina aid flows -- The sudden flow of billions of dollars in hurricane relief aid into New Orleans has raised fears that some of it is going to be lost to graft and sticky fingers in a state with a long and rich history of corruption. A group of current and former state officials is calling for more safeguards, more transparency in spending and the appointment of independent analysts to avoid corruption and keep the state out of trouble. "If we don't do this properly, we're going to see the second looting of areas impacted by this horrible storm," said Louisiana Treasurer John Kennedy. <more> Sept. 16, 2004 4:50 p.m. Associated Press
State officials still trying to track down missing children -- Nearly 2,000 parents still can't locate their children after Hurricane Katrina forced hundreds of thousands of people to scatter across the country, and Louisiana officials said Friday they can't find about 500 foster kids who are under the state's care. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has received 2,463 reports of parents who can't track down their children, and more than 600 matches have been made, according to Marketa Garner Gautreau, an assistant secretary with the Louisiana Department of Social Services. But Gautreau said in many of these cases, the children may be with one parent and their noncustodial parents simply haven't been able to track them down yet. <more> Sept. 16, 2005 4:45 p.m. Associated Press
Bush rules out tax hikes to pay for Katrina - - President George W. Bush, facing alarm from conservatives over the soaring cost of post-Katrina rebuilding, said on Friday the U.S. budget could handle the expense and he would not raise taxes to pay for it. "It's going to cost whatever it costs," Bush said at a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin as estimates circulated in Washington the cost could hit $200 billion, exceeding the cost of the Iraq war. Responding to concerns among fiscally conservative Republicans, Bush said his administration would work with Congress to make sure the money was wisely spent and that he would look elsewhere in the budget to make offsetting cuts. "But I'm confident we can handle it, and I'm confident we can handle our other priorities. It's going to mean that we're going to have to cut unnecessary spending," Bush said. <more> Sept. 16, 2005 4:40 p.m. Reuters
Bipartisan Group of Senators Visit New Orleans - - A bipartisan Senate delegation visited this storm-battered and still-powerless city this morning and echoed sentiments expressed by President Bush here Thursday night that focused on a $62 billion federal relief package rather than on assigning blame for what went wrong in the response to Hurricane Katrina. The visit by the 14 senators came as city officials continued to press ahead with a plan to partly reopen four sections of the city by Monday, including the central business district and the French Quarter. About 1,000 workers from the major electricity provider here, Entergy, worked in dry parts of the city today, from Uptown to the Algiers section across the Mississippi River, to repair substations and distribution lines. <more> Sept. 16, 2005 4 p.m. New York Times
FEMA Official Says Agency Heads Ignored Warnings - - In the days before Hurricane Katrina hit land, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, FEMA Director Michael Brown and other top Homeland Security officials received e-mails on their blackberries warning that Katrina posed a dire threat to New Orleans and other areas. Yet one FEMA official tells NPR little was done. <more> Sept. 16, 2005 2 p.m. National Public Radio
New Orleans Close-up Satellite Images Before and After Katrina - - NASA has released pre and post-Katrina satellite photos. Click here to view photos.
FEMA under fire for slow Katrina aid - - The U.S. agency that made a mess of rescue operations when Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast now is coming under fire for slow distribution of aid to storm survivors. The massive recovery effort was bound to put a strain on the Federal Emergency Management Agency but critics say it is loaded down with bureaucracy and simply not flexible enough to deal with a crisis of this size. "We have had no help from them for our citizens," said Ben Morris, mayor of the town of Slidell outside New Orleans, which suffered major damage in the storm. "It is criminal." <more> Sept. 16, 2005 3:15 p.m. Reuters

Friday, Sept. 16, 2005 1 p.m.

Fewer than half of New Orleans evacuees plan to move back - - Fewer than half of all New Orleans evacuees living in emergency shelters here said they will move back home, while two-thirds of those who want to relocate planned to settle permanently in the Houston area, according to a survey by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. The wide-ranging poll found that these survivors of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath remain physically and emotionally battered but unbroken. They praised God and the U.S. Coast Guard for saving them, but two weeks after the storm, nearly half still sought word about missing loved ones or close friends who may not have been as lucky. Most already know they have no home left to return to. The overwhelming majority lack insurance to cover their losses. Few have bank checking accounts, savings accounts or credit cards that work. Still, nearly nine in 10 said they were "hopeful" about the future. And while half said they felt depressed about what lies ahead, just a third said they were afraid. <more> Sept. 16, 2005 11:39 p.m. Washington Post
Katrina tax relief passes House, Senate bills expected to cost $82 billion over 10 years Penalties waived; deductions, incentives added -- The U.S. House and Senate passed tax-relief bills Thursday in the continuing barrage of legislation aimed at helping victims of Hurricane Katrina. Yet the partisan bickering still rages over how to handle the post-storm investigation. Estimated to cost $82 billion over 10 years, the tax bills were passed unanimously by the House and Senate, and contain minor differences that will have to be reconciled. Both chambers waived tax penalties on early withdrawal from 401(k) retirement accounts, created tax deductions for those housing evacuees and businesses willing to hire them, and approved tax incentives for charitable giving to relief and recovery efforts. <more> Sept. 16, 2005 11 a.m. The Times-Picayune
Bush Pledges Federal Role in Rebuilding Gulf Coast - - President Bush called Thursday night for the rebuilding of the devastated Gulf Coast through the creation of a Gulf Opportunity Zone, a government enterprise that he said would provide help on taxes, housing, education and job training for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. "The work that has begun in the Gulf Coast region will be one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen," Mr. Bush said in remarks delivered in Jackson Square against the brightly lighted backdrop of St. Louis Cathedral, a symbol of the heart and soul of New Orleans for almost three centuries. <more> Sept. 16, 2005 9:40 a.m. New York Times

President George W. Bush shakes hands with Louisiana's Democratic Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco as he arrives aboard the USS Iwo Jima before his nationally televised speech about Hurricane Katrina damage to the nation in New Orleans September 15, 2005. From L-R are: Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin (Larry Downing/Reuters)
Bush Pledges Historic Effort To Help Gulf Coast Recover - - President Bush, summoning the American spirit and "a faith in God no storm can take away," vowed from the heart of the Hurricane Katrina disaster zone Thursday night to rebuild this devastated city and the rest of the Gulf Coast with "one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen." In a prime-time address televised from the storm-battered French Quarter, the president appeared without coat and tie to mourn "a tragedy that seems so blind and random" while promising to help its victims with unprecedented federal assistance to secure homes, jobs, health care and schooling. <more> Sept. 16, 2005 10 a.m. Washington Post
Blanco rebuts ex-FEMA chief's criticism - - Gov. Kathleen Blanco sharply disputed criticism Thursday by the former chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency that Blanco and her staff were incapable of mounting an effective response when the agency came to help with the unfolding disaster wrought by Hurricane Katrina. "The simple fact is that we needed something as simple and basic as buses delivered in a timely fashion from FEMA in order to save lives. They didn't do that," Blanco said in a written statement rebutting comments made by former FEMA chief Michael Brown in an interview with The New York Times. "The president addressed that issue when he removed Mr. Brown, and I thank him for that," Blanco said. <more> Sept. 16, 2005 10:45 a.m. The Times-Picayune
Bush Vows Federal Government Will `Do What It Takes' to Rebuild Gulf Coast - - In the enterprise zone he proposed, small businesses, which can now write off the first $100,000 of a new equipment investment in one year, would be allowed to double that. Larger businesses would be allowed 50 percent bonus depreciation on investments in new equipment. The incentives echo provisions of an economic stimulus bill Congress adopted after the 2001 terror attacks. To promote the building of permanent housing, Bush proposes an Urban Homesteading Act that would provide federal land to individuals in exchange for their promise to build on it through a mortgage or the assistance of charitable organizations such as Habitat for Humanity. He also suggested the government provide vouchers to let displaced families enroll their children in private schools, a longtime goal of the president's. <more> Sept. 16, 2005 Bloomberg
GOP lawmakers urge cuts to offset storm-relief costs - - A group of Republicans yesterday challenged President Bush to propose spending cuts to cover some of the cost of aid for Hurricane Katrina, saying now is a time for him to show leadership. "We just can't throw money at the problem, and if we do throw money at the problem, which seems to my way of thinking some of what we're doing today, we better figure out how we're going to handle the financial difficulties that come from that," said Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican. He joined Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and leaders of the House conservative caucus in saying that the hurricane offers a chance to cut parts of the federal budget. The lawmakers said the government should spend what is needed to aid hurricane victims, but also must be worried about a deficit that the Congressional Budget Office says would reach $331 billion this fiscal year even without including hurricane spending. <more> Sept. 16, 2005 10:30 a.m. The Washington Times
'There's going to be a Mardi Gras' Many floats unhurt by Hurricane Katrina - - Though electric company trucks with telescoping arms and camouflaged Humvees are the attention-grabbing vehicles plying New Orleans streets these days, people involved with planning Mardi Gras predict that beginning in February they will have been replaced by convoys of colorful Carnival floats. They believe there will be a Mardi Gras next year, though the exact state of the celebration remains a question. <more> Sept. 16, 2005 11:15 a.m. The Times-Picayune
Lawsuit aims to force insurers to cover damage. Floods not included in most policies - - In an attempt to force insurance companies to cover billions of dollars in hurricane damage instead of foisting it on the federal government, a group of 15 families from the New Orleans area filed suit Thursday asking a state judge to rule that any flooding from Katrina should be covered by homeowners policies. <more> Sept. 16, 2005 11:20 a.m. The Times-Picayune

Thursday, Sept. 15, 2005 5 p.m.

Mayor Plans to Reopen Parts of New Orleans by Weekend - - New Orleans "will breathe again," beginning this weekend. Mayor C. Ray Nagin said today that on Saturday, officials will allow residents and business owners to return to the city, ZIP Code by ZIP Code, with the French Quarter fully open for business a week from Monday. The reopening of the devastated city, he said, is being made possible through the coordinated efforts of federal, state and local authorities who are working closely to monitor water quality, provide security to the reopened areas and provide access to health care as residents are allowed to gradually repopulate the only American city ever to be evacuated on such a scale. .The mayor said law enforcement officials would strictly enforce a curfew of dusk to dawn as they allow people to return into various sections of the city. Residents and business owners will be required to show ID cards with their home or business addresses to be allowed into the reopened areas. <more> Sept. 15, 2005 4:45 p.m. New York Times
Senator wants EPA rules eased for Katrina - - Legislation that would allow the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily suspend or relax its rules because of Hurricane Katrina is being prepared by the Republican chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The proposal is being readied despite EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson's assurance he has no immediate need for any regulatory waivers. Johnson gave a closed-door briefing Wednesday to the committee's chairman, Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, and other committee members. <more> Sept. 15, 2005 Associated Press
Bush speech details discussed - - Bush will say the scale of the disaster means a massive reconstruction project is required. But he will stop short of offering a dollar commitment that some members of the U.S. Congress say could reach $200 billion, exceeding the cost of the Iraq war, says Press Secretary Scott McClellan. The initiatives Bush would outline included programs such as education, job training, help for small businesses including minority-owned businesses and measures to address the housing needs of those displaced by the storm. Bush would again take responsibility for any failures in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, as he did at a news conference on Tuesday. And he will wade into the issue of race relations after charges from black leaders that the federal response to the crisis was slow because many of the victims were poor and black. <more> Sept. 15, 2005 3:25 p.m. Reuters
Katrina response funds flow on Capitol Hill -- Congress is moving quickly to provide tax cuts and health care benefits to victims of Hurricane Katrina as government money continues to flow in response to the devastation. Lawmakers were working on that aid as President Bush planned his fourth trip to the region to give a nationally televised address Thursday night on his recovery and reconstruction plans for New Orleans and other stricken areas. An amendment adopted Wednesday by the Senate on a voice vote would provide more than 350,000 families left homeless by Katrina with emergency housing vouchers averaging $600 a month for up to six months. Any displaced family, regardless of income, would be eligible for the program, which is slated to cost $3.5 billion over six months. <more> Sept. 15, 2005 3:10 p.m. Associated Press
Landrieu: Locals will rebuild Louisiana - - Louisiana senators and representatives met on Thursday to announce plans for rebuilding south Louisiana. Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu emphasized the delegation's focus on rebuilding the state’s devastated areas Louisiana rather than partisan interest. She also said locals need to be involved in getting the state back on its feet. "Louisiana will be rebuilt by Louisianans," Landrieu said. "New Orleans will be rebuilt by New Orleanians, and the parishes around New Orleans will be rebuilt by leaders in those parishes. <more> Sept. 15, 2005 3:05 p.m. Baton Rouge Advocate (Click here for transcript of press conference)
Blanco gives thanks, acknowledges mistakes - - With comments meant to neutralize nay-sayers and rally support among those left homeless and unemployed by Hurricane Katrina, Gov. Kathleen Blanco promised to bring Louisiana residents home and to rebuild New Orleans. “As your governor, I pledge that I will not rest until every Louisiana family and community is reunited,” Blanco said, speaking Wednesday afternoon to a joint meeting of the Louisiana Legislature. Interrupted repeatedly by applause, Blanco thanked President George W. Bush for his help and acknowledged that, in response to the storm, mistakes were made on the state, federal and local level, and vowing to learn from the errors, the governor shouldered the blame. “At the state level, we must take a careful look at what went wrong and make sure it never happens again,” Blanco said. “The buck stops here, and as your governor, I take full responsibility.” <more> Sept. 15, 2005 11:55 a.m. Louisiana Gannett News

Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco tells a joint session of the Legislature that the state will rebuild its Hurricane Katrina damaged areas better than before, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2005, in Baton Rouge, La. (AP Photo/Rogelio Solis)

Corps of Engineers admits sandbag error - - The government should have pre-positioned more sandbags and helicopters in the New Orleans area before Hurricane Katrina struck so that repairs to broken levees could have started sooner, the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday. "In retrospect I would say yes, we could have, we should have, in anticipation of this," Lt. Gen. Carl Strock told a Pentagon news conference. <more> Sept. 15, 3 p.m. Associated Press
Katrina expense accounts draw criticism -- Lawmakers and watchdog groups worry that allowing federal employees to charge up to $250,000 on their government-issued credit cards for Hurricane Katrina-related expenses will lead to a repeat of past abuses. Some of the cards in the past were used to pay for prostitutes, gambling activity, even breast implants, government audits have shown. <more> Sept. 15, 2005 3 p.m. Associated Press

Thursday, Sept. 15, 2005 11:30 a.m.

Mayor: Parts of New Orleans to reopen Friday -- For the first time since Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast on August 29, significant areas of New Orleans will be reopened, beginning Friday, Mayor Ray Nagin said. Thursday's announcement was part of Nagin's plan to allow some 182,000 residents to return to their homes and businesses after the storm forced them to evacuate. By September 28, the city's historic French Quarter will be open for business, the mayor said during a news conference. "The French Quarter is high and dry, and we feel it has good electricity capability," Nagin said. <more> Sept. 15, 2005 11:30 a.m. CNN
‘Buck stops' with Blanco. Governor takes the blame, outlines plan for rebuilding - - Taking a cue from the president, Gov. Kathleen Blanco took responsibility Wednesday for the breakdowns in responding to Hurricane Katrina. Blanco didn't focus for long on her failures, though, in a rare joint meeting of the Legislature. Instead, she quickly launched into a broad outline of how the state will achieve her goal of bringing people home. <more> Sept. 15, 2005 9 a.m. Baton Rouge Advocate

Gov. Kathleen Blanco shakes hands at a special joint meeting of the Legislature on Wednesday night. (Advocate staff photo by KERRY MALONEY )
Blanco admits 'failures at every level'. Governor, like Bush, takes responsibility for missteps - - Acknowledging that state errors contributed to the suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Gov. Kathleen Blanco told state lawmakers Wednesday night that "there were failures at every level of government" and pledged to examine the missteps that crippled the response to the storm. <more> Sept. 15, 2005 9:10 a.m. Times-Picayune
Blanco takes 'responsibility' for problems in Katrina response - - Echoing the words of President Bush a day earlier, Gov. Kathleen took responsibility Wednesday for failures and missteps in the immediate response to Hurricane Katrina and pledged a united effort to rebuild New Orleans and the surrounding parishes ravaged by the storm. "We all know that there were failures at every level of government: state, federal and local. At the state level, we must take a careful look at what went wrong and make sure it never happens again. The buck stops here, and as your governor, I take full responsibility," Blanco told lawmakers in a special meeting of the Louisiana Legislature. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 9 p.m. Associated Press
Lawmakers praise Blanco speech - - Louisiana lawmakers are praising Governor Kathleen Blanco's bipartisan tone during her address to a special meeting of the Legislature tonight. They say there'll be time later to debate who was to blame for the slow response to Hurricane Katrina and the stranding of thousands of people in a city under a mandatory evacuation order. <more> Sept. 14, 8:30 p.m. KATC Channel 3 TV News
Speech Is Expected to Focus on Vision for Reconstruction - - President Bush is to pledge in an address to the nation from New Orleans on Thursday night that the federal government will provide housing assistance to victims of Hurricane Katrina and also help reimburse the states for costs they have absorbed in taking in evacuees, a White House official said Wednesday…Republicans said Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff and Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, was in charge of the reconstruction effort, which reaches across many agencies of government and includes the direct involvement of Alphonso R. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development. <more> Sept. 15, 2005 10:10 a.m. New York Times
Bush's vow: To rebuild better - - In a prime-time speech from New Orleans, Bush also will pledge more federal help providing housing, health care and education to evacuees. "We want to see a region that is better and stronger than before," said Bush spokesman Scott McClellan. Two Bush advisers with direct knowledge of the speech said the president is considering the appointment of a high-profile "czar" to oversee recovery efforts. But one said the White House is checking whether that would be allowed under federal law. The aides insisted on anonymity to avoid pre-empting Bush's remarks at 9:02 p.m. ET. The speech is expected to be about 30 minutes long and will be aired by the major networks. <more> Sept. 15, 2005 10:15 a.m. USA Today
Speculators Rushing In as the Water Recedes. Would-be home buyers are betting New Orleans will be a boomtown. And many of the city's poorest residents could end up being forced out. - - Brandy Farris is house hunting in New Orleans. The real estate agent has $10 million in the bank, wired by an investor who has instructed her to scoop up houses — any houses. "Flooding no problem," Farris' newspaper ads advise. Her backer is a Miami businessman who specializes in buying storm-ravaged property at a deep discount, something that has paid dividends in hurricane-prone Florida. But he may have a harder time finding bargains this time around. In some ways, Hurricane Katrina seems to have taken a vibrant real estate market and made it hotter. Large sections of the city are underwater, but that's only increasing the demand for dry houses. And in flooded areas, speculators are trying to buy properties on the cheap, hoping that the redevelopment of New Orleans will start a boom. <more> Sept. 15, 2005 8:35 a.m. Los Angeles Times
Ex-FEMA Chief Tells of Frustration and Chaos - - Hours after Hurricane Katrina passed New Orleans on Aug. 29, as the scale of the catastrophe became clear, Michael D. Brown recalls, he placed frantic calls to his boss, Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, and to the office of the White House chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr. Mr. Brown, then director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said he told the officials in Washington that the Louisiana governor, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, and her staff were proving incapable of organizing a coherent state effort and that his field officers in the city were reporting an "out of control" situation. "I am having a horrible time," Mr. Brown said he told Mr. Chertoff and a White House official - either Mr. Card or his deputy, Joe Hagin - in a status report that evening. "I can't get a unified command established. "By the time of that call, he added, "I was beginning to realize things were going to hell in a handbasket" in Louisiana. A day later, Mr. Brown said, he asked the White House to take over the response effort. <more> Sept. 15, 2005 8:11 a.m. New York Times
'It Was as if All of Us Were Already Pronounced Dead'. Convention Center Left a Five-Day Legacy of Chaos and Violence - - For five eternal-seeming days, as many as 20,000 people, most of them black, waited to be rescued, not just from the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina but from the nightmarish place where they had sought refuge. During that time, the moon that hovered over the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center seemed closer than anyone who could provide those inside the center with any help. On the fourth day, after TV had been filled with live reports from the center describing sexual assaults, robberies and gunfire, single mothers desperately seeking help for their children and fathers doing their best to protect them, the federal official charged with leading the hurricane response, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, responded to an interviewer's question by saying it was the first he had heard that people "don't have food and water in there." <more> Sept. 15, 2005 10:30 a.m. Washington Post
Is the Orleans Levee Board doing its job? Critics allege corruption, charge the board with wasteful spending - - The unveiling of the Mardi Gras Fountain was celebrated this year in typical New Orleans style. The cost of $2.4 million was paid by the Orleans Levee Board, the state agency whose main job is to protect the levees surrounding New Orleans — the same levees that failed after Katrina hit. "They misspent the money," says Billy Nungesser, a former top Republican official who was briefly president of the Levee Board. "Any dollar they wasted was a dollar that could have went in the levees." Nungesser says he lost his job because he targeted wasteful spending. "A cesspool of politics, that’s all it was," says Nungesser. "[Its purpose was to] provide jobs for people." <more> Sept. 14, 2005 9 p.m.
N.O. residents find wiggle room in police directive. Compulsion to see house trumps stay-away order. Some want to clean up, others want to save items- - Among sections of Uptown New Orleans that suffered a relatively mild blow from Hurricane Katrina, streets and yards saw the beginnings Tuesday of what promises to be a cleanup frenzy, with military and utility convoys blending with a smattering of private vehicles headed to individual houses or businesses, testing the limits of government directives that citizens should be leaving, not returning. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 9 p.m. Times Picayune
Company Hired to Handle Katrina's Dead Has Tainted History - - On Wednesday the official death toll from Katrina jumped to 474. More than 400 of those bodies are now being held for autopsy at two locations in the Baton Rouge area. All those bodies are now producing a brand new public relations nightmare for state officials. This time, it involves the hiring of the world's largest funeral corporation to handle the job of recovering the dead. But it's a company we've learned has a tainted history of legal troubles. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 9:18 p.m. WAFB-TV Channel 9

Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2005 5 p.m.

Blanco to address joint meeting of the Louisiana Legislature Wednesday 6:30 p.m.-- Louisiana lawmakers, many of whom have complained about sluggish responses to Hurricane Katrina and a lack of information from emergency officials, get an outline from Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Wednesday about her initial plans for rebuilding southeast Louisiana. Blanco's proposal for rebuilding comes as thousands of displaced evacuees remain in shelters around the state and country, environmental officials test air and water to determine which storm-ravaged areas are safe for residents to return and emergency workers continue to collect bodies. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 3:50 p.m.

The speech can be seen at 6:30 p.m on these TV stations

Lafayette: KLFY KATC KADN

Lake Charles: KPLC KVHP

Alexandria: KALB KLAX

Monroe: KNOE (delayed 7p.m.) KAQY

Shreveport: KSLA KTBS KMSS

Baton Rouge: WBRZ WAFB WGMB WVLA

New Orleans: WWL

National Print

Senate Kills Bid for Katrina Commission - - Senate Republicans on Wednesday scuttled an attempt by Sen. Hillary Clinton to establish an independent, bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate what went wrong with federal, state and local governments' response to Hurricane Katrina. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 3:10 p.m. Associated Press
La. Drawing Up Charges for Flood Deaths - - The arrest of two nursing-home owners in the deaths of 34 people marked the beginning of what prosecutors said Wednesday is a large- scale investigation into whether New Orleans-area hospitals and other institutions neglected their patients during Hurricane Katrina's onslaught. The Louisiana attorney general's office said all of its investigators have been pulled from other tasks to work on the Medicaid Fraud Unit, the team whose work led to homicide charges Tuesday against the husband-and-wife owners of the flooded-out St. Rita's nursing home in Chalmette. Kris Wartelle, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Charles Foti, said the office is looking into other allegations of neglect that may have led to injuries or deaths at nursing homes and hospitals. "Reports are flooding in. It just depends on what's legitimate and what is not," Wartelle said Wednesday. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 3:05 p.m. Associated Press
HAVEN TURNED TO HORROR. Grieving families ask why St. Rita's Nursing Home didn't evacuate their loved ones; 34 died. - - St. Rita's was supposed to be a place where patients could live out their final years in comfort and peace. Instead, it had become a scene of horror — elderly and disabled patients abandoned in floodwaters that rose nearly to the ceilings. In a city where hundreds of people recently lost their lives and thousands lost their homes, the tragedy at St. Rita's seems particularly incomprehensible and acute. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 3 p.m. Los Angeles Times
More New Orleans water test results released. Two new rounds of sampling corroborates bacteria, chemical concerns - - The floodwaters in New Orleans still pose a health risk because of dangerous levels of sewage-related bacteria and toxic chemicals, according to government test results released Wednesday. A minimal number of air pollutants, such as methanol, isobutylene and freon have been found, but at levels Environmental Protection Agency officials say do not worry them. Federal agencies aren’t predicting when the city will be habitable again. <more>Sept. 14, 2005 2:30 p.m.
9/11 commissioners say Katrina response shows lack of action on its report -- Members of the former 9/11 commission blasted Congress and the Bush Administration Wednesday for inaction on some of its recommendations, which the former chairman said could have saved lives in the aftermath of the Katrina hurricane. "If Congress does not act, people will die -- I cannot put it more simply than that," said former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, referring to what could happen in the next major disaster or terrorist attack. He said it is a "scandal" that more has not been done to improve the job of first responders in the four years since the terrorist attacks of September 2001. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 1:42 p.m. CNN
Nonpartisan congressional research report finds Louisiana governor took necessary steps - - The Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued a report Tuesday afternoon asserting that Louisiana governor Katherine Blanco took the necessary and timely steps needed to secure disaster relief from the federal government, RAW STORY has learned. The report, which comes after a request by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) to review the law and legal accountability relating to Federal action in response to Hurricane Katrina, unequivocally concludes that she did. "This report closes the book on the Bush Administration's attempts to evade accountability," Conyers said in a statement. "The Bush Administration was caught napping at a critical time." <more> Sept. 13, 2005 2:33 p.m. The Raw Story Click here to download report (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

State Print

Housing to boom for a while, then drop, analyst says - - The hundreds of thousands of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina should cause home sales to spike across Louisiana and in Southern cities, such as Houston and Birmingham, Ala., said the president of the National Association of Realtors. Al Mansell, the current head of the 1 million-member organization, said the short-term surge in sales and prices will lead to a soft market in cities such as Baton Rouge, once Katrina evacuees start to head back to metro New Orleans in two or three years. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 4 p.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 14, 11:15 a.m.

State Print

Victims 'deserve more respect,' governor says - - The state is making its own arrangements to retrieve victims of Hurricane Katrina because of needless delays by federal officials, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Tuesday. "I am angry and outraged about this situation," Blanco said. "In death, as in life, our people deserve more respect and dignity than they have received." <more> Sept. 14, 2005 10:18 a.m. The Baton Rouge Advocate

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco (C) prays with her husband Raymond 'Coach' Blanco (L) and her daughter Karmen (R) during services at St. Joseph Cathedral in Baton Rouge. Blanco has accused the federal government of moving too slowly to recover the bodies of hurricane victims, saying her state would hire a private company to do the work (AFP/File/Paul J.Richards)
Man, wife each booked, charged with 34 counts of negligent homicide - - Louisiana authorities have arrested the owners of a St. Bernard Parish nursing home where 34 people drowned in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and are investigating a New Orleans hospital in which 44 bodies were discovered earlier this week. Salvador A. Mangano Sr. and his wife, Mable B. Mangano, both of Chalmette, surrendered Tuesday afternoon and were booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison. Each is charged with 34 counts of negligent homicide. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 10:20 a.m. The Baton Rouge Advocate
Nagin foresees early return to parts of city. Optimistic mayor sets Monday as possible date. 'I'm tired of hearing these helicopters. I want to hear some jazz,' Nagin says - - Unflooded portions of New Orleans may be opened to residents, perhaps as early as Monday, Mayor Ray Nagin said in an upbeat and wide-ranging news conference Tuesday afternoon. The possibility of repopulating areas of the city so quickly marked a stunning turnaround from earlier predictions that New Orleans could remain uninhabitable for months. Nagin said the final decision on the date would hinge on pending results of federal tests measuring the toxicity of the city's air and water, but he said initial reports are turning out much better than expected. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 10:30 a.m. The Times Picayune

National Print
Second wave of Katrina-related legislation hits snags-- A spate of bills to cut federal red tape and otherwise make it easier to get aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina has hit a slow patch as lawmakers wrestle over how to shape their response. Congress zipped through bills providing $62 billion in emergency aid to hurricane victims but the broader legislative response is a work in progress. Included in this second phase are proposals to provide Medicaid health benefits to those made homeless by Katrina, lift work rules for welfare recipients, and implement tax changes to help hurricane victims and charitable donors. More comprehensive bills are to follow. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 11:20 a.m.
Official Vows Investigation of No-Bid Relief Contracts -- The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that his office had received accusations of fraud and waste in the multibillion-dollar relief programs linked to Hurricane Katrina and would investigate how no-bid contracts were awarded to several large, politically well-connected companies. The inspector general, Richard L. Skinner, who serves as the department's internal watchdog, said in an interview that he intended to be "extremely aggressive" in monitoring the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which will receive most of the $62 billion in disaster-response financing approved by Congress last week. Mr. Skinner's remarks came as the secretary of homeland security, Michael Chertoff; Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales; and Republican Congressional leaders said Tuesday that they also were concerned about the potential for abuse, given the amount of federal money and private charity committed to the hurricane-relief effort. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 10:15 a.m. New York Times
DeLay ignores Democrats' panel demands. The minority party wants it to be modeled after 9/11 commission - - Shrugging off Democratic calls for an independent panel, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said Tuesday that Republicans will take steps to convene a House-Senate commission to investigate the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina. In his weekly meeting with reporters, DeLay mocked Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who have threatened to boycott the panel unless its composition is altered. Under the GOP plan, the committee would have a Republican majority, which Democrats fear could result in their concerns and ideas getting voted down. The Democrats want to see a panel modeled after the 9/11 commission, which was split between Democrats and Republicans who were not sitting members of Congress. DeLay said: "We will go forward. I think (Democrats) will be incredibly embarrassed if they don't participate." A resolution to create the joint commission could come up for a vote in Congress by the end of the week, DeLay said. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 10:09 a.m.
Democrats and Others Press for an Independent Inquiry - - As Congress prepares to take its first tentative steps toward evaluating the government response to Hurricane Katrina, Democrats and others are pressing for an independent inquiry, saying lawmakers cannot be trusted to assess their own complicity in the failures. "I don't think the Congress can investigate ourselves," Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, said Monday. Mrs. Clinton, a chief proponent of forming an outside commission similar to the one that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks, is seeking a vote Wednesday on creating such a panel. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 10:05 a.m. New York Times
Disaster veterans will give advice to senators today - - Veterans of floods, earthquakes and tsunamis will offer advice today to a Senate committee looking into how to help victims of Hurricane Katrina in the first of an expected multitude of congressional inquiries into the disaster. “We're going to hear from experts so we can assess what steps we should be taking right now to assist,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Pete Wilson, who dealt with 22 natural disasters when he was governor of California, and Marc Morial, a former mayor of New Orleans who now heads the National Urban League, will testify. So will Patricia Owens, the former mayor of Grand Forks, N.D., who successfully evacuated 50,000 people when the Red River flooded in 1997. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 10 a.m. USA Today
Homeland boss had power to deliver help but didn't. - - The federal official with the power to mobilize a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not the former FEMA chief who was relieved of his relief duties and resigned, federal documents reviewed by Knight Ridder show. Even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Chertoff could have ordered federal agencies to act without requests from state or local officials. Former FEMA director Michael Brown had only limited authority to do so until about 36 hours after the storm hit, when Chertoff named him the ''principal federal official'' in charge. Chertoff -- not Brown -- was in charge of managing the national response to a catastrophic disaster, according to the National Response Plan, the federal government's blueprint for how agencies will handle major natural disasters or terrorist incidents. An order issued by Bush in 2003 also assigned that responsibility to the homeland security director. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 9:35 a.m. Miami Herald
President’s Thursday Speech previewed - - Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), a Bush ally, said the recovery effort provides conservatives with an unusual opportunity to test ideas that have been hard to sell on a national scope, including vouchers to cover education for dislocated students and tax incentives for business investment. "There are a whole host of ideas being looked at," Kyl said. In what may become the next major post-Katrina policy, the White House was working yesterday to suspend wage supports for service workers in the hurricane zone as it did for construction workers on federal contracts last week, administration and congressional officials said. This possible move, described by administration officials as being under debate, already provoked preemptive Democratic protests. At tomorrow's speech, the president is to outline his vision more comprehensively than he has to date. A top aide said he will stress that New Orleans officials will dictate how the city will be rebuilt, but will also make plain the reconstruction should reflect his vision of government -- including reducing regulatory obstacles and emphasizing entrepreneurship over big government, the aide said. He will discuss plans to provide health care, education, jobs and housing assistance to flood victims, another aide said. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 9:05 a.m. Washington Post
President Says He's Responsible in Storm Lapses - - President Bush said on Tuesday that he bore responsibility for any failures of the federal government in its response to Hurricane Katrina and suggested that he was unsure whether the country was adequately prepared for another catastrophic storm or terrorist attack. "Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Mr. Bush said in an appearance in the East Room with President Jalal Talabani of Iraq. "I want to know what went right and what went wrong." <more> Sept. 13, 2005 9 a.m. New York Times
Bush Accepts Blame for Slow Hurricane Response. President acknowledges flaws at all levels of government. - - President Bush took responsibility Tuesday for breakdowns in the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina, saying the massive storm had "exposed serious problems in our response capability." Although personally shouldering blame for the first time, Bush also insisted that flaws occurred "at all levels of government," and said he wanted more cooperative relations with state and local officials to aid dispossessed Gulf Coast residents. He plans a fourth post-hurricane trip to Louisiana on Thursday to deliver a national address on the crisis. As Hurricane Katrina's death toll in Louisiana rose to 423, bureaucratic infighting raged as the governor traded charges with federal emergency officials over bogged-down efforts to retrieve the bodies of flood victims. Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said Federal Emergency Management Agency officials had jeopardized the massive body recovery effort by failing to renew a temporary contract with a Houston mortuary firm. Blanco said the state would try to rehire the company on its own, and accused FEMA of shirking its financial oversight for the retrieval process. FEMA officials insisted that they had no decision-making role, but later tried to reassure Blanco. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 8:52 a.m.
Ex-Louisiana governors urge outside oversight of how funds used. Louisiana's past is prompting fears of waste and fraud - - Long before Hurricane Katrina filled New Orleans to its roofs in foul water, the city was struggling with violent crime, poverty and long-standing notoriety for corruption. Now that it's going to take billions of dollars and an army of contractors to rebuild New Orleans, three former Louisiana governors fear that their state's reputation for under-the-table deals and FEMA's credibility problems may impede the reconstruction effort. Former Republican governors Buddy Roemer, Mike Foster and David Treen are working up a plan to present to President Bush calling for a regional commission of private citizens, rather than state or local politicians or the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to administer the recovery effort and its treasury. They are prepared to discuss their plan with Democrat Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Roemer said, but attempts by Roemer and Foster to reach her by phone have been unsuccessful. <more> Sept. 14, 2005 8:39 a.m.

National TV
Amid Katrina Chaos, Congressman Used National Guard to Visit Home - - Two Heavy Trucks, Helicopter Were Involved in Lawmaker's Trip at Height of Crisis - - Amid the chaos and confusion that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, a congressman used National Guard troops to check on his property and rescue his personal belongings -- even while New Orleans residents were trying to get rescued from rooftops, ABC News has learned. On Sept. 2 -- five days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast -- Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., who represents New Orleans and is a senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was allowed through the military blockades set up around the city to reach the Superdome, where thousands of evacuees had been taken. <more> Sept. 15, 2005 11:15 a.m. ABC News Nightline
NETWORK MORNING NEWS SHOWS- September 14, 2005 Top stories from 7:00-7:30 AM ET Today

  NBC Today Show: Katie Couric and Matt Lauer anchoring

  3. In New Orleans, rescuers are still plucking survivors from their homes. This elderly man was stranded for two weeks after Hurricane Katrina.

(Lester Holt REPORTING): "The death toll rising to 659. Here in Louisiana that number is 423 as searchers get into more areas where the water is receding. In terms of positive news, officials say the French quarter and the downtown business area could reopen soon. With the city's levees still vulnerable, FEMA must plan for future storms and the unthinkable: a follow-on disaster. But FEMA’s biggest challenge is regaining the trust of local officials."

  8. INTERVIEW with Charles Foti, Louisiana Attorney General about the prosecution of nursing home owners

9. As the water levels drop in New Orleans, more and more residents are being allowed back to see their flooded out homes. Some are finding signs of life. But they are not happy about it.

  ABC Good Morning America: Charlie Gibson and Robin Roberts anchoring.

   2. The nursing home tragedy in Louisiana. The owners stand accused of criminal homicide for failing to evacuate the residents. The elderly patients didn't have a chance and the authorities said they should never have been at Saint Ritas.

6. A new side of the Katrina disaster, the harrowing calls for help made to 911. Hearing them gives you some sense of the raw fear that thousands of people, as the floodwaters were rising were expressing.

7. INTERVIEW with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. He acknowledged yesterday responsibility for federal mistakes.

Q. Do you take responsibility for what failures the city may have made?

NAGIN: Absolutely. I said that all along. I stood up and said look, I’m going to b a man about this. Whatever I did, you know, that could have done better, I’m going to stand up and history will why be accordingly. Let's make sure as we analyze what Ray Nagin as mayor did, let's look at everybody in authority so this never happens again in this country.

Q. Correct me if I’m wrong, I don't take the definition of evacuate to take them some place in the city. When you told people 20 hours before the storm hit evacuate, you meant get out of town, didn't you?

NAGIN: We tried to get as many people out with the full understanding there's going to be some people who stay. Normally we get about 60% of the population out. This time around we got about 80% out initially. Then we try to deal with the remainder.

CBS Early Show: Harry Smith and Julie Chen anchoring

  2. The mayor of New Orleans says some parts of the city may be reopened as early as next week. Meanwhile, homicide charges have been filed against the owners of a nursing home where dozens of patients died when Katrina hit. The President says he is responsible for the failure of the government's response.

(Randall Pinkston REPORTING): "In the past 72 hours, the death toll, the official state death toll, jumped from 279 to 423. Now add into the agony as prosecutors start charging at least 34 of those deaths weren't caused by the storm. The victims were elderly and helpless -- and they all drowned at St. Rita's nursing home in St. Bernard parish, a flood damaged area outside New Orleans... Just 24 hours after that reaction to allegations of a botched federal response to the flood victims, Mr. Bush was surprisingly apologetic."

<<Quotes from Closed Captioning>>

Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2005 8 p.m.

Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco to address a joint session of the Louisiana Legislature - - Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco will address a joint session of the Louisiana Legislature at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 14, 2005, in the chamber of the Louisiana House of Representatives. The Governor will speak to the Legislature and to the citizens of Louisiana and the United States about her initial proposals for rebuilding southeast Louisiana. “I have called for this special meeting to begin immediately the work of rebuilding our state and restoring our people,” Governor Blanco said. “We are one people, united in our resolve to rebuild, restore and recover from this tragedy. At this time of great uncertainty and despair, our people must know that all our leaders are united and dedicated to this important work.” MEDIA ADVISORY

National Print

La. death toll from Katrina climbs to 423. Governor lashes out at FEMA, says body recovery too slow - - Hurricane Katrina’s death toll in Louisiana climbed to 423 Tuesday, up from 279 a day before, the state Health Department said. Details on where the dead were found were not immediately released. Hours earlier, Gov. Kathleen Blanco lashed out at FEMA, complaining the agency was moving too slowly in recovering the bodies of those killed by the hurricane. The dead "deserve more respect than they have received," she said at state police headquarters in Baton Rouge. She said the Federal Emergency Management Agency still had not signed a contract with the company hired to handle the removal of the bodies, Houston-based Kenyon International Emergency Services. Kenyon is working without a contract but threatened to pull its workers out of Louisiana unless either the state or the federal government offered it a signed agreement, the governor said. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 Associated Press 4 p.m.

Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater, left, listens as Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco lashed out at FEMA for their 'lack of urgency and lack of respect' in the recovery of corpses from Hurricane Katrina during a press briefing in Baton Rouge, La., Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2005. (AP Photo/Rogelio Solis)
FEMA response to Blanco - - However, Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman David Passey said the state asked to take over body recovery last week. Passey said he did not understand the governor's remarks. "The collection of bodies is not normally a FEMA responsibility," he said. Passey said FEMA had an oral agreement with Kenyon last week, but the company decided not to sign a written contract. He said he did not know the reason, and calls to Kenyon were not immediately returned. Sept. 13, 2005 4:18 p.m. Associated Press
Nursing home owners face charges. Couple charged with 34 counts of negligent homicide - - The owners of St. Rita's Nursing Home in St. Bernard Parish, where 34 people drowned as Hurricane Katrina hit, have been charged with negligent homicide, Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. said Tuesday. Foti told reporters that Mable B. Mangano and Salvador A. Mangano Sr. surrendered to Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigators in Baton Rouge, where they charged with 34 counts of negligent homicide and jailed prior to posting bond. Each count carries up to five years in prison. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 CNN
Nonpartisan congressional research report finds Louisiana governor took necessary steps - - The Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued a report Tuesday afternoon asserting that Louisiana governor Katherine Blanco took the necessary and timely steps needed to secure disaster relief from the federal government, RAW STORY has learned. The report, which comes after a request by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) to review the law and legal accountability relating to Federal action in response to Hurricane Katrina, unequivocally concludes that she did. "This report closes the book on the Bush Administration's attempts to evade accountability," Conyers said in a statement. "The Bush Administration was caught napping at a critical time." <more> Sept. 13, 2005 2:33 p.m. The Raw Story
'People making decisions hesitated'. More officials' jobs may fall to Katrina response criticism -- Michael Brown may have been the first official to lose his job to Hurricane Katrina, but he might not be the last. Even after Brown's departure as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, criticism of the government's response to the disaster keeps rising like the unstoppable floodwaters. It threatens to swamp other officials involved in the recovery effort. Blame is being directed at every level of government -- federal, state and local. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 2:52 p.m. CNN
Hurricane may end up costing La. a House seat - - The mass evacuation of coastal Louisiana triggered by Hurricane Katrina will likely cost the state one of its House seats, according to election officials. Even before the devastating storm ripped through the Gulf Coast, Louisiana officials said their representation in Congress was in doubt. “We were concerned about that anyway because of outmigration,” said Jennifer Marusak, a spokeswoman for Louisiana’s secretary of state. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 2:27 p.m. The Hill
Democrats Invoke Katrina at Roberts hearing - - It took less than an hour before Senators considering federal Judge John G. Roberts Jr.'s nomination to the Supreme Court fell into disagreement over Hurricane Katrina. In their opening remarks, the two top Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee invoked the tragedy as a reminder of the gap between rich and poor and the need for a Supreme Court that wants to close that gap. "Today, the devastation, despair facing millions of our fellow Americans in the Gulf region is a tragic reminder of why we have a federal government, why it's critical that our government be responsive," said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat and ranking minority member of the panel. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 Washington Times
Investigators to monitor Katrina contracts - - A team of investigators is being sent to the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast to follow the money - namely, billions of dollars in relief aid the federal government is pouring into the region without normal contracting safeguards. The 30 Homeland Security Department investigators and auditors are part of what officials call an unprecedented effort to ensure federal funds are properly distributed in a rescue, relief and rebuilding process expected to exceed $100 billion. The team is being dispatched to monitor government contractors' work in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi as critics call the spending deluge a disaster in waiting if not properly controlled. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 3:41 p.m. Associated Press
Energy secretary worried about natural gas shortages - - Senior Bush administration officials touring the Gulf Coast area devastated by Hurricane Katrina expressed concern today about possible shortages of natural gas, saying that the region's production may not recover for months. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said there is less known about the damage to the natural gas supply system than about the effect on crude oil production. He said in addition to possible pipeline damage, the hurricane also shut down gas processing facilities on-shore. "The great concern is about natural gas," Bodman told reporters as he flew to Louisiana from Houston. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 4:38 p.m. Associated Press
Evacuees Grow Anxious in Houston. Nearly 4,000 evacuees remain in shelters. - - Of the 150,000 storm victims who fled to Houston from Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Coast since August 31, 27,000 were deposited in Houston's largest shelters. As of Tuesday morning, 3,760 are still here. Although they're grateful for the material and emotional support they've received, many evacuees are also growing increasingly frustrated with red tape and disorganization they encounter as they try to rebuild their lives, find jobs, obtain insurance and other benefits, and secure more permanent shelter. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 6:33 p.m. Times Magazine

State Print

Parts of New Orleans may be reopened next week - - Mayor Ray Nagin said Tuesday he is anxious to start reopening parts of the New Orleans to residents, possibly as soon as next week. An EPA report on airborne toxins and the now septic water that continues to sit in many city neighborhoods is expected to be delivered to Nagin soon. Should that report be as promising as the mayor believes it will be, Nagin said he would begin to allow residents to return by zip code. The return, which the mayor hopes to launch early next week, would involve Algiers, the French Quarter, Central Business District and Uptown, Nagin said. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 5:16 p.m The Times-Picayune
Three New Orleans suburbs to reopen Wednesday - - Three suburbs of New Orleans announced they will reopen on Wednesday, saying residents have safe water, electricity and sewer service 15 days after Katrina struck. The cities of Gretna, Westwego and Lafitte, Louisiana, said residents could come back starting at 5 a.m. on Wednesday morning but cautioned that they would face a strict curfew. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 Reuters
Florida dairy losses will top $21 million - - During a special meeting held in Baton Rouge Monday a Farm Bureau dairy specialist said early estimates of Louisiana dairy farmer losses have already topped $21 million. "The cost of lost milk and animals will top $5 million, while physical damage to buildings, dairy parlors and equipment is around $11 million," said Dr. Ron Harrell, commodity director for the Louisiana Farm Bureau. "When you take into consideration animal health costs, forage losses and loss of future milk production, losses will likely exceed $21 million." <more> Sept. 13, 2005 3:11 p.m. Beauregard Daily News

Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2005 1:47 p.m.

National Print

Bush takes full responsibility for Katrina blunders - - President Bush said Tuesday that "I take responsibility" for failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader questions about the government's ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terror attacks. "Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of Iraq. <more> Sept. 12, 2005 12:22 p.m. Associated Press
Governors handle crisis in own ways - - In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has prayed for the dead, comforted the living and defended her leadership after an abrupt emergence onto the national stage. How does she cope? Her answer spills out rapid fire: "I have to tune out the political talking heads. The blame game can get in the way of protective efforts. It can sap your vitality. It's the vulture mentality. Woulda coulda shoulda, sitting in their clean spaces, not knowing what's going on in the trenches. They know not of what they speak." <more> Sept. 13, 2005 9 a.m. USA TODAY
Bush to address nation from Louisiana Thursday - - Under heavy fire over his response to Hurricane Katrina, President George W. Bush will address the nation from devastated Louisiana on Thursday at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT), the White House announced. "The president will talk to the American people about the recovery and the way forward on the longer-term rebuilding," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters. Earlier this week Bush made his third trip to the disaster zone, riding in an open, flatbed military truck through the flooded streets of New Orleans. The president's overall job approval ratings have tumbled amid charges he was slow to respond to the hurricane. <more> 8:30 a.m. Sept. 13, 2005 Reuters
Much Wider Damage to Levees Is Disclosed. Miles of barriers designed to protect the city from storm surges have been washed away. - - The massive levee system protecting New Orleans has sustained heavy damage well beyond the five breaches that are widely known to have caused flooding after Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers said Monday. The loss of the levees has left portions of New Orleans with little or no protection midway through the hurricane season, senior Army officials said. And rebuilding the levees will be a massive undertaking that could take years, meaning the city could be vulnerable for a long time. <more> Sept. 12, 2005 9 a.m. Los Angeles Times
Save Yourself. New Orleans had a plan to warn the poor, but it sat on a shelf in L.A. - — After years of warnings, community leaders this summer prepared a video guide to hurricane evacuations with a stark message: Many of this city's poor, including 134,000 without cars, could be left behind in a killer storm. But the 30-minute DVD still has not arrived. Some 70,000 of the newly minted videos that were to be released this month remain on warehouse shelves in Los Angeles. Their warning: Save yourself, and help your neighbors if you can. The program, titled "Preparing for the Big One," was one of several related but incomplete plans aimed in particular at the one-quarter of the city's population that did not own cars or have ready transportation out of town in the event of evacuation orders. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 9 :05 a.m. Los Angeles Times
Lack of Clout in Congress May Hurt Louisiana's Recovery - - Not long ago, Louisiana had one of the most influential Congressional delegations in the Capitol. In the last decade, Louisiana has provided the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee; the chairman of the House energy committee; the senior Democrat on the Senate energy committee and the water development subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee; and the Democratic chief deputy whip in the Senate. But these powerful senators and representatives, who could be counted on to pull strings and twist arms, have recently retired from Congress, and the Louisiana delegation today, in the face of perhaps the state's worst calamity, has no one in a position of authority. No one can say specifically what the diminished influence will mean for the state's efforts to get hurricane relief from Washington, but no one who follows Congress doubts that sooner or later the ramifications will be felt. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 9:18 a.m.
Bush's Approval Rating Drops To New Low in Wake of Storm. He Says Race Didn't Affect Efforts; Blacks in Poll Disagree - - Touring devastated portions of New Orleans yesterday, President Bush sought to reassure the public that the government is responding to Hurricane Katrina with equity and dispatch, even as his standing hit record lows amid broad support for an independent investigation of the federal response to the storm. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll found that clear majorities of Americans disapprove of the way officials at all levels of government are handling the recovery from Katrina. A 54 percent majority disapproved of Bush's response to Katrina, while an even larger majority -- 57 percent -- say state and local officials should bear responsibility for the problems. Attitudes toward Bush and the government's overall response to Hurricane Katrina fracture along clear racial lines. Nearly three in four whites doubted the federal government would have responded more quickly to those trapped in New Orleans if they had been wealthier and white rather than poorer and black, the poll found. But an equal share of blacks disagreed, saying help would have come sooner if the victims had been more affluent whites. More than six in 10 blacks -- 63 percent -- said the problems with the hurricane relief effort are an indication of continuing racial inequity in this country, a view rejected by more than seven in 10 whites, according to the poll. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 9:40 a.m.
A Major Test for FEMA And Its Contracting Crew. Sheer Scale of Katrina Awards a Concern - - The Federal Emergency Management Agency will receive most of the $62 billion Congress has approved for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, setting up a major test of the agency's ability to distribute the cash and monitor the private contractors who will do much of the work. FEMA's track record in managing much smaller amounts of money has raised concerns. It made millions of dollars in questionable payments to South Florida residents after Hurricane Frances last year, investigators found, in part because the agency's contractors had hired inspectors who lacked training or oversight. A recent audit by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general questioned whether FEMA's acquisition workforce was qualified. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 9:47 a.m. Washington Post
Documents Reveal Extent of Fumbles On Storm Relief. Katrina Victims Got Delayed Aid, Documents Show - - As the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency stepped down yesterday, government documents surfaced showing that vital resources, such as buses and environmental health specialists, weren't deployed to the Gulf region for several days, even after federal officials seized control of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Michael Brown, a Republican lawyer who has headed FEMA since January 2003, resigned just 72 hours after he was reassigned from his post spearheading relief operations on the Gulf Coast. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had dispatched Mr. Brown back to Washington to oversee the government's response to other disasters -- a move that was widely viewed as temporary given that Mr. Brown had been blasted for his handling of the Katrina crisis. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 Wall Street Journal
Bush Plans Katrina Recovery `Czar' to Regain Trust - - President George W. Bush, seeking to restore public confidence in his ability to handle a crisis, may appoint a high-profile ``czar'' to oversee the Gulf Coast recovery…Bush will address the nation Thursday on U.S. efforts to help the Gulf Coast states recover, spokesman Scott McClellan said. He will speak from Louisiana at 8 p.m. local time, McClellan told reporters at the White House. He wouldn't preview the speech except to say it would spell out ``the groundwork for the longer- term rebuilding'' of the region. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 10:22 a.m. Bloomberg Online
Assessing Katrina's impact - - Hurricane Katrina will have a bigger impact on the national economy than previous disasters because of its effect on energy and shipping and its widespread destruction of homes and businesses. Economists predict that gross domestic product could decline by one-half to one full percentage point as a result of Katrina this year but rebound by that much or more next year as rebuilding gets under way. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 400,000 jobs could disappear, at least temporarily. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 10:28 a.m. San Francisco Chronicle.

National TV
Blanco lashes out at FEMA over "lack of urgency" over recovery of bodies - - Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco lashed out at FEMA on Tuesday for what she said was a "lack of urgency and lack of respect" involving the recovery of bodies of Hurricane Katrina victims. Blanco said she ordered the state to sign a contract with Kenyon International Monday, after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff failed to live up to a promise to sign a contract with the organization. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 CNN

Here is news about Hurricane Katrina culled from NETWORK MORNING NEWS SHOWS- September 13, 2005
7:00-7:30 AM ET Today

NBC Today Show:
Katie Couric and David Gregory anchoring.

1. In New Orleans, they expect to resume flights here in just a few hours. The water level continues to drop in New Orleans. October 8th is the target day if the fragile levee system holds.

(Lester Holt REPORTING): "The receding waters are unmasking the human toll of the disaster. The bodies of 40 patients were recovered from this New Orleans hospital on Sunday and brought the death toll in Louisiana to 280. FEMA is housing 200,000 people in the region for five years in temporary housing."

2. While New Orleans tries to bounce back, the Bush administration is also trying to do the same after the resignation of FEMA Chief Michael Brown.

(Kelly O'Donnell REPORTING): "Senior advisors say this big move shows that the white house and the administration are able to be both serious and adapt to the needs of Katrina. But was also careful to point out this was Michael Brown's decision giving the President distance. The White House says President Bush did not ask for the resignation of FEMA director Michael Brown. While in Mississippi Monday, Mr. Bush was not eager to give the matter any more attention."

8. INTERVIEW with Michael Beschloss, NBCs presidential historian

Q. Will the damage done in terms of the slow response haunt this president?
BESCHLOSS: "It depends on what he does with it. If he rebuilds New Orleans, that could help. But this could hurt. I go back to 1957 the first year of Eisenhower's second term. Americans said what is going on? Maybe you have been playing too much golf."

Q. You think it will hurt the Republican Party in general or do you think they can bounce back from this?
BESCHLOSS: "They can only bounce back from this if their president is seen again as a strong leader. If not it grows. It hasn't happened yet. But if it goes down, he may have a hard time influencing who his successor will be in 2008."

9. INTERVIEW with Dr. Frank Minyard, New Orleans parish coroner

ABC Good Morning America:
Charlie Gibson and Robin Roberts anchoring.

1. After the storm: is anyone to blame? FEMA director Mike Brown has resigned. Is he really the reason so much went so wrong after Katrina hit?

(Lisa Stark REPORTING): "Well, in less than a week Mike Brown went from being praised by the President to shoved aside as head of the relief effort and finally to resigning. That's a clear indication of the furor over FEMA's response to hurricane Katrina. Hours after he resigned, brown told ABC in an exclusive interview that he had become a distraction... State emergency managers say a big part of the problem is that FEMA was put under the massive department of homeland security two years ago and that department, they say, is more focused on terrorism than natural disasters."

2. Yesterday President Bush got the closest look yet at the hurricane zone touring New Orleans for the first time on the ground.

(Dan Harris REPORTING): "There has been so much talk in days about the ways in which New Orleans is turning around. This morning, however, a sobering reminder of the gravity of the situation here. The largest single discovery of bodies thus far: 40 elderly patients found floating in ad intoed-out hospital... Two weeks ago, the city was 80% under water. Now the army corps of engineers sometimes it is 60% under water. Practically anywhere you go in New Orleans these days you can find ways to measure the receding water line."

7. After Katrina, even President Bush is now openly raising the question whether this country is well prepared should another major disaster strike. Consider this. Experts predict a magnitude seven earthquake has a 62% chance of hitting San Francisco or Los Angeles in the next 30 years. How would a federal governor that struggled with Katrina handle that?

(Claire Shipman REPORTING): "Katrina has been a shocking wakeup call about the US level of preparedness, turmoil at the top of FEMA of course, a reflection of that. A leadership swap alone is not going to fix what many people think is the country's most critical problem, a complete lack of coordination and planning for monumental disasters, something that could have horrendous consequences. In the wake of Katrinas devastating assault, the specter of another national body blow is clearly very much on the President's mind."

8. As North Carolina gets ready for Ophelia, its newest residents have already had enough bad weather. 225 Evacuees have come to Wilmington.

CBS Early Show:
Harry Smith and Julie Chen anchoring

1. In New Orleans, Armstrong international airport is being reopened this morning for limited passenger service. On Sunday, 45 bodies were recovered from this hospital. And each day, more victims are found. CBS news obtained exclusive access to recordings of hundreds of stranded residents who thought they were going to die.

2. Embattled director Mike Brown resigned days after he was replaced as the head of Katrina relief operations. Replacing Brown, a longtime FEMA official with decades of emergency management experience.

(Jim Stewart REPORTING): "Rarely has a White House favorite fallen so far so fast. Little more than a week ago FEMA director Mike Brown was lavished with praise for his job on hurricane Katrina. The President even called him by nickname... The President was facing an avalanche of personal criticism he responded too slowly to the crisis and Monday Brown took a political bullet for the white house with a short resignation announcement." It's been an honor and privilege to serve this president with the hard working men and women of FEMA," his statement read. In New Orleans on his third visit to the disaster site president bush claimed not to know anything of the resignation and bristled when asked if he felt brown and FEMA had let him down."

3. The Carolinas are keeping a careful watch on Ophelia. The slow-moving tropical storm could strengthen into a hurricane later today as it moves closer to shore.

5. INTERVIEW with CBS news consultant Colonel Randy Larsen, president of homeland security associates

Q. President Bush, his approval rating right now is at an all-time low. Do you think that has anything to do with why mike brown resigned?

LARSEN: "I think it has to do with the response, actually, of FEMA. But let me also point out, in l fairness, it's like a quarterback in football. When the team wins he generally gets too much credit, and when the team loses he gets too much blame. But that's life in the big city. If you're the leader of a big organization that's stumbling, you'll probably get relieved."

Q. Is Brown in your opinion to blame for the slow response FEMA had to the disaster or is he a scapegoat here?

LARSEN: "Well, first, we have to talk about his qualifications for the job. I mean, let's face it, would a president appoint an attorney general who wasn't a lawyer, a surgeon general who wasn't a doctor? A chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who wasn't a general? I think we should use the same standard for FEMA directors. It is a profession and he did not have a background like the new gentleman, Paulison, that's been appointed."

<<Quotes from Closed Captioning>>

State Print

Officials: N.O.'s rebuild should be locally based. Washington-run redesign remains a big worry - - Local residents and civic and political leaders, not Washington policy-makers, should take the lead in charting the future for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said Monday. "We know how people like to have their houses built and where they want to stay," Landrieu said after a press conference with Louisiana clergy. "While we appreciate the help in rebuilding and expect attention and support unprecedented in the nation, it will be led by the people of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama." <more> Sept. 13, 2005 12:47 p.m. The Times-Picayune
Most St. Bernard homes will be bulldozed, residents told. Homeowners can't return for at least six months -- Scattered across the Gulf South by Hurricane Katrina's near total devastation, about 3,000 St. Bernard Parish residents filled the Louisiana Capitol on Monday for a town-hall meeting marked by tearful reunions and a no-punches-pulled assessment of the damage. Officials said that virtually all of the parish's 27,600 houses will have to be bulldozed and that it will be more than six months before the lucky few whose homes can be repaired are allowed to return. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 12:34 p.m. The Times-Picayune
Runways reopen today to passenger flights. Below-normal traffic expected through 2007 - - With armed military personnel roaming the grounds and one concourse still serving as a hospital, Louis Armstrong International Airport reopens today to passenger traffic, 16 days after the last commercial flight took off. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 12:37 p.m. The Times-Picayune
Port prepares to open for business this week. Housing a problem for returning workers. - - Many truckers reportedly lost everything in storm - - Not a single ship has been unloaded at the port in two weeks because there's nobody left in New Orleans to unload them, and because the trucks and trains that transport cargo entering the port can't get through. That could change Wednesday, when the port is scheduled to unload its first ship. Within a month, after rounding up workers and borrowing much-needed equipment from the federal government, LaGrange said, business will bounce back as much as 50 percent. He's betting the port will reach at least 80 percent of capacity in three months. <more> Sept. 12, 2005 12:40 p.m. The Times-Picayune
City needs to control recovery, Bush says. President tours N.O. with governor, mayor. Feds now responding quickly, Nagin says - - President Bush got his boots on the ground of New Orleans on Monday, touring some still waterlogged areas in the 7th Ward and Mid-City before conducting an ad-hoc press conference under the elevated Interstate 10 at Cleveland and South Claiborne avenues. Flanked by Mayor Ray Nagin and Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Bush said the federal government is prepared to offer whatever assistance Louisiana's leaders require but that the design and implementation of the Hurricane Katrina recovery plan would be led locally. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 12:30 p.m. The Times-Picayune
Mystery surrounds floodwall breaches. Could a structural flaw be to blame? - - One of the central mysteries emerging in the Hurricane Katrina disaster is why concrete floodwalls in three canals breached during the storm, causing much of the catastrophic flooding, while earthen hurricane levees surrounding the city remained intact. <more> Sept. 13, 2005 10:24 a.m. The Times-Picayune

Miscellaneous

Melancon applauds Bush visit to St. Bernard. Forgotten Parish' Deserves Attention At The Highest Levels U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon issued a statement today after President George Bush visited St. Bernard parish. Melancon's district, including St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, was particularly hard hit by Hurricane Katrina. <more> Sept. 11, 2005 Rep. Melancon Press Release

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Monday, Sept. 12, 2005 as of 5:15 p.m.

National Print

Blanco defends state response to hurricane

Sept. 12, 2005 2 p.m. - - President George W. Bush (3rd R) tours the French Quarter in a military vehicle in New Orleans September 12, 2005. Also touring with Bush are (L-R) Vice Admiral of Coast Guard and official in charge of of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Thad Allen, Louisiana's Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Bush is visiting the area for the third time since the hurricane slammed into Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Bush, stung by criticism over the government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, on Monday took his most extensive tour of waterlogged New Orleans, ruined by the storm two weeks ago. REUTERS/Larry Downing

Governor Defends Louisiana's Exit Plan

AP via Yahoo! News - Sep 11 6:57 PM

Louisiana had a "well thought-out exit plan" in the days before Hurricane Katrina, and many more lives would have been lost without it, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Sunday.

Did Kathleen Babineaux Blanco make every effort to get federal help? - - Early Wednesday morning, Aug. 31, two days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans, Blanco was frantic. Without any aides along, she and her husband had made an unannounced visit to the Superdome the night before and seen how desperate the situation there was becoming. The arena was teeming, its roof was leaking, and people had begun dying. "They were scared; they were upset. A lot of emotions were coming from them. Some were sick. They needed their diabetes medicine," the Governor told TIME in an interview. "What we were dealing with was a minute-by-minute life-or-death situation." <more> Time Magazine Sept. 12, 2005
Embattled FEMA Director Mike Brown resigns. - - Federal Emergency Management Agency director Mike Brown said Monday he has resigned "in the best interest of the agency and best interest of the president," three days after losing his onsite command of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. "The focus has got to be on FEMA, what the people are trying to do down there," Brown told The Associated Press. President Bush said he had not yet spoken to Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff about Brown. <more> 12:03 pm PDT Sept. 12, 2005 Associated Press
Paulison named acting FEMA head - -President George W. Bush on Monday named David Paulison, a top official in the Homeland Security Department, to replace Michael Brown on an acting basis as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Bush moved quickly to put Paulison in charge of FEMA after Brown resigned the position under fire for the slow federal response to Hurricane Katrina that killed hundreds and displace 1 million people.
Put to Katrina's Test. Rebuilding hard-hit parts of New Orleans will be an epic national challenge. - - Even with much of the city still covered by tainted waters and its population dispersed, even with the power still out, the communication systems in shambles and soldiers and police officers posted on seemingly every corner, a precaution against looters and potshot artists, the work began. So monumental was the task ahead that those who would rebuild New Orleans could not wait until the last drop of the floodwater unleashed by Hurricane Katrina was pumped back into Lake Pontchartrain. Almost as soon as the catastrophic dimensions of the damage became clear, some government and business leaders began to contemplate just how the city might be rebuilt. <more> Sept. 11, 2005 Los Angeles Times
Breakdowns Marked Path From Hurricane to Anarchy - - The governor of Louisiana was "blistering mad." It was the third night after Hurricane Katrina drowned New Orleans, and Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco needed buses to rescue thousands of people from the fetid Superdome and convention center. But only a fraction of the 500 vehicles promised by federal authorities had arrived. Ms. Blanco burst into the state's emergency center in Baton Rouge. "Does anybody in this building know anything about buses?" she recalled crying out. <more> Sept. 11, 2005 New York Times

Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News, via Associated Press

Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco discussed floodwater with National Guard generals on Aug. 30.

National TV

Miscommunication delayed response - - CNN news clip with footage of Denise and Governor Click here for transcript
Is the 'Cajun Grandma' Getting a Bad Rap?
ABC News - 2 hours, 53 minutes ago
Gov. Kathleen Blanco's Emotional Appeals Questioned

State Print

Blanco says Louisiana had good response efforts

New Orleans Times-Picayune - Sep 11 4:32 PM

HOUSTON (AP) — Louisiana had a "well thought-out exit plan," in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina and many more lives would have been lost without it, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Sunday.

Louisiana governor in hurricane mode New Orleans Times-Picayune - Sep 11 5:47 PM

SLIDELL, La. (AP) — "I've probably been to hell and back," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said as she traipsed back to a military helicopter that would lift her from this hurricane-ravaged city back to Baton Rouge.

In Katrina s aftermath, spotlight shines on governor s response

The Daily Comet - Sep 11 1:04 PM

BATON ROUGE -- No matter what she might do from this day forward, Gov. Kathleen Blanco has already secured her spot in Louisiana history books. Historians, pundits and public opinion, however, are still crafting the exact verbiage and tone of the words that will ultimately define her.

Some Blanco requests for federal help still unmet

The Daily Comet - Sep 08 6:11 PM

Nearly a week after they were requested and with emergency systems taxed, the radio equipment and portable generators that Gov. Kathleen Blanco asked federal officials to supply have yet to arrive.

Blanco defends state's hurricane preps

KRON 4 Bay Area - Sep 11 7:16 PM

HOUSTON Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco is defending her state's preparations in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. Blanco says Louisiana had, in her words, a "well thought-out exit plan" in the days leading up to the storm.

Another Bush visit...Blanco defends.

KVAL-TV Eugene - Sep 12 2:20 AM

NEW ORLEANS President Bush is back in the hurricane zone, where he'll get a look Monday at damage in the New Orleans area and Gulfport, Mississippi. He's spending the night on a Navy ship. Soon after arriving in the area, Bush visited firefighters

Miscellaneous

Katrina might affect Louisiana politics. Texas could see influx of Democrats, analysts say -- Population shifts caused by the exodus of hurricane victims from the Gulf Coast could have ripple effects for years to come in Louisiana political races and perhaps beyond. Sept. 9, 2005 CNN

TIMELINES