Planning process puts residents on edge

When a few dozen residents gathered Saturday at the Gert Town Community Center, they sought two things: federal rebuilding money and a voice in how it will be spent.

Meeting with a professional planner hired by the City Council, the residents finalized a plan calling for street and drainage repairs, removal of abandoned houses, creation of a building-trades school, landscaping along Earhart Boulevard.

Several meetings after the start of their own planning effort, the residents are pleased to be participating. But they remain unsure of how much of their vision will make it from paper to reality.

from the Times Picayune

A 'Build-Blitz' for Single Moms

HomeAid, the country's leading nonprofit developer of transitional housing, and Beazer Homes USA, one of the nation's leading homebuilders, are wrapping up a five-day blitz build of the New Orleans Family Center during Aug. 25-29 to provide housing for single mothers and their children who are still homeless a year after Hurricane Katrina. Tulane University, under the direction of architecture professor Stephen Verderber, initiated and developed the architectural design of the project, including incorporating sustainable and green design elements that were conceived through a design/build class at the Tulane School of Architecture.

The 4,400-square-foot Family Center, located on the site of the historic New Orleans Mission, is being built by HomeAid's Gulf Coast Rebuilding Fund, which was created in partnership with Ameriquest Mortgage and its affiliates, Argent Mortgage and AMC Mortgage Services.

"The addition of a national homebuilder like Beazer to this partnership underscores the enormous significance of this sustainable build project in the city's overall rebuilding effort," Verderber says. "The Family Center's green design will set the benchmark for smart rebuilding."

from Tulane Daily News

Mental illness up among Katrina survivors, study finds

Hurricane Katrina doubled the rate of serious mental illness in areas ravaged by the storm but the urge to commit suicide fell, partly because survivors bonded with each other, a Harvard-led study said Monday.

Billed as the biggest mental health study yet after Katrina killed about 1,500 people along the Gulf Coast, the survey showed that 15 percent of 1,043 survivors were found to have a serious mental illness five to eight months after the storm.

That figure suggests about 200,000 people from Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi face serious mental illness because of Katrina, with about a third suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome and the remainder depression, said Ronald Kessler, the study's lead researcher.

Nearly 85 percent of the survivors faced a major financial, income, or housing loss, and more than a third endured extreme physical adversity after Katrina struck a year ago and flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, the survey showed. Nearly 23 percent encountered extreme psychological adversity.

About 25 percent reported having nightmares about their experiences -- a figure that rises to nearly 50 percent for people who lived in New Orleans.

from CNN

Flood protection plans lacking

Although the Army Corps of Engineers has spent more than $352 million to bring levees, floodwalls and drainage systems in the New Orleans area back to where they were before Hurricane Katrina hit a year ago, crucial improvements aimed at upgrading the system to the level long ago authorized by Congress are barely past the planning stages.

At a mid-August open house attended by more than 500 building contractors, corps managers Tom Podany and Rick Kendrick unveiled dozens of levee, levee wall and pump station projects that will begin construction during the next four years. The projects will eat up a considerable chunk of the $5.7 billion already appropriated by Congress for levee and pump repairs.
from The Times Picayune

Outlines Emerge for a Shaken New Orleans

At one edge of this city’s future are the extravagant visions of its boosters. Awash in federal cash, the New Orleans they dream of will be an arts-infused mecca for youthful risk-takers, a boomtown where entrepreneurs can repair to cool French Quarter bars in ancient buildings after a hard day of deal making.

At the other extreme are the gloomy predictions of the pessimists. New Orleans will be Detroit, they say, a sickly urban wasteland abandoned by the middle class. A moldering core will be surrounded by miles of vacant houses, with wide-open neighborhoods roamed by drug dealers and other criminals. The new New Orleans will be merely a grim amplification of its present unpromising self, the pessimists say.

Somewhere between these unrealistic visions lies a glimpse of the city’s real future a year after Hurricane Katrina, say many planners, demographers and others here who have been deeply involved in rebuilding. Like a half-completed drawing in a child’s coloring book, the picture is starting to fill in. There are shadows and firmer outlines, a few promising, some of them menacing.

from the NY Times

Rebuilding New Orleans

From the concrete porch of her 7th Ward shotgun -- cracked now, thanks to Katrina's filthy floodwaters -- Alice Soublet has an unobstructed view of New Orleans' future.

Or, more accurately, its possible futures.

"That one's been fixed up, this one . . . the one down there," Soublet said, ticking them off as she looked down Republic Street at the properties being actively revived.

Most of the doubles across the street are gutted and tidy. The debris has been cleared, and at least three homes on Soublet's block, between Abundance and Treasure streets near Interstate 610, are renovated and occupied. Five trailers, three of them next to her house -- which has been cleaned but not fully repaired, because of a dispute between Soublet and her insurer -- offer further evidence of Republic Street's resurgence.

But the house two doors down from Soublet's could portend a grimmer future. With a fallen tree atop the carport, a moldering van beneath it, and a jungle of weeds in the front yard, the property could serve as a monument to Katrina's devastation. Save for towering weeds, it looks much the way it did when the floodwaters subsided 11 months ago. There's a similar eyesore catty-corner to Soublet's place, although the weeds were trimmed last week, much to her relief.

from the Times Picayune

view an interactive graphic (flash file) showing rebuilding activity from the Times Picayune

progress in St Tammany parish from the Times Picayune

Can we handle a big flood?

A year after the haunting images of Hurricane Katrina, Sacramento remains at serious risk for a similar disaster.
It is hard to fathom, especially on summer days like these when Sacramento's two rivers, the American and the Sacramento, appear as sparkling ribbons flowing between levees covered in grasses and cottonwood trees. But the dangers are grave, and solutions elusive.

With the one-year anniversary of Katrina approaching, The Bee asked state and federal hydrologists last week to describe what the water flows and river heights would be if floods of certain magnitudes arrived in Sacramento. It was a departure from the more common practice of talking about floods in terms of their likelihood, such as 100-year events (those with a 1-in-100 chance of happening in any given year.) The estimates, which engineers dug out of recent and complex hydrological models by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, are chilling.

from the Sacramento Bee

Most say U.S. isn't ready for disaster

Their confidence shaken by Katrina, most Americans don't believe the nation is ready for another major disaster, a new AP-Ipsos poll finds.

The survey, conducted one year after the devastating hurricane and with much of New Orleans still in shambles, found diminishing faith in the government's ability to deal with emergencies. It also gave President Bush poor marks for his handling of the storm's aftermath.

Fifty-seven percent in the poll said they felt at least somewhat strongly the country was ill-prepared _ up from 44 percent in the days after the storm slammed ashore on Aug. 29, 2005. Just one in three Americans polled believe Bush did a good job with Katrina, down from 46 percent a year ago.

"Nobody actually realized soon enough what the scope of this thing was," said Frank Sheppard, a 63-year-old retiree in Valrico, Fla., who considers himself strongly Republican.

from the AP via the Houston Chronicle

Climate change? Desert grapples with floods

One of world's biggest solar bowls the Thar desert which basks an average of 320 days in sunshine has transformed into a trough of death and destruction after three days of downpour left it with double the rain it normally gets in a year.

The border district of Barmer is drowning under 577 mm of rainfall, which has submerged over 800 villages with an approximate population of about 20 lakh.

This is at least 300 mm more that 277 mm of rainfall that the region receives annually. The official death toll so far is 85 and likely to climb as the receding waters reveal bodies of those trapped between sand dunes.

the Times of India

Climate Change: Storm warning

From his throne on the shore at Bosham, Sussex, Canute, the 11th-century Danish king of England, addressed the sea: "You are subject to me, as the land on which I am sitting is mine, and no one has resisted my overlordship with impunity. I command you, therefore, not to rise on my land, nor to presume to wet the clothing or the limbs of your master."

Inevitably, his feet got wet. And thus began the British battle with the sea, one that the waves have won time and again.

from the Independent (UK)

Despite Steps, Disaster Planning Still Shows Gaps

As Tropical Storm Beryl whipped up the seas along the mid-Atlantic coast this summer, officials monitoring the storm inside the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters could watch both sides of the action.

On one computer monitor was the National Weather Service image of the storm, spinning slowly toward New England. Nearby was FEMA’s high-tech counterpunch: a digital map of the United States with a swarm of Pac-Man-like dots representing FEMA trucks moving disaster relief supplies toward the expected impact zone.

The tracking system is a concrete sign of progress for an agency that, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, became an international symbol of dysfunction and incompetence. But the system is set up for only a sliver of the country and includes just a fraction of the aid sent to the field. It is emblematic of how inconsistent progress has been in preparing the nation for disasters, one year after the hurricane and five years after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

from the NY Times

Centuries of missteps sealed city's fate

When the shock began wearing off -- when the scenes of New Orleans under water had become accepted as fact instead of nightmare -- the anger set in. Who to blame for the disaster Hurricane Katrina visited on the city?

Many turned with hostility to the Army Corps of Engineers, which had planned and built the defenses that collapsed. Others raged at public agencies and officials, saying they should have been more vigilant. Some pointed to environmentalists as the culprits. Still others -- most living far from New Orleans -- blamed the city's founder for choosing to build below sea level in the heart of hurricane alley.

They all can claim a slice of the truth.

from the Times Picayune

Progess report: rebound slow but steady

The numbers tell the story of a painful, clawing, slow-motion recovery from Katrina.

Statistics gleaned from around New Orleans offer snapshots of hope and determination nearly a year after the storm: Schools and businesses reopening here and there; thousands of residents signed up for the Road Home grant program that will dole out billions of federal dollars; a torrent of building permits; repaired traffic signals.

The population is rising, albeit slowly.

from the Times Picayune

New Orleans Ready for Recovery

New Orleans is making a comeback from Hurricane Katrina's floods, but its progress could be impeded by a lack of affordable housing and other challenges, a demographer said in a report presented Friday.

Average rents have risen about 40 percent, and the average selling price of homes in areas not affected by flooding rose about 25 percent since the storm, wrote Greg Rigamer, chief executive officer of GCR & Associates Inc.

Rigamer reported that the city is making a comeback and addressing "fundamental" recovery issues, including infrastructure. Sales tax collections in several neighboring parishes are above pre-Katrina levels; in the city, they're at about 75 percent, the report said.

from the AP via Forbes

Overhaul system or New Orleans will suffer again

"We must place the protection of public safety, health and welfare at the forefront of our nation's priorities. To do anything less could lead to a far greater tragedy than the one we have witnessed in New Orleans," a report issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers External Review Panel said.

More than 150 engineers and scientists contributed to the panel's report analyzing what happened in New Orleans.

from CNN

from the Times Picayune

Post-Katrina New Orleans proves pricey

Like many repatriated New Orleanians, Lolita Barber has noticed that it's gotten a lot more expensive to live in the New Orleans area than it was before Hurricane Katrina.

While she and her family are fixing their flooded home in eastern New Orleans, they're living in an apartment in Metairie, so they're paying rent while carrying a mortgage note. She's driving her Chevy Blazer twice as much as she used to, at a time when gas is $3 a gallon, and using more mobile phone minutes as she confers with contractors and talks with displaced friends. In addition, the homeowners insurance bill for her house nearly doubled, from $1,071 last year to about $2,000 this year.
from The Times Picayune

Katrina's Economic Impact: One Year Later

When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast last summer, it caused immediate and significant damage not only to that region's economy but to the country's as well.

But one year later, the nation's economy has absorbed the shock from the storm and returned to growth mode. But many in the hurricane's path weren't so lucky.
from ABC News

After Katrina, black family warily adjusts to Utah

Nearly a year ago, the three Andrews bothers and their sister were shocked to learn the jet evacuating them from flooded New Orleans was flying to Utah, a Western state with very few black residents.

Fast forward a year, and their bewilderment has eased but not disappeared. All four are still adjusting to life in a conservative state settled by white Mormon pioneers in the 19th century. They say economic opportunity and lower crime rates there are offset by subtle racism the black family encounters
from Reuters via the Washington Post

After Katrina, Baton Rouge Weathers a Storm of Its Own

When Hurricane Katrina walloped New Orleans, this quiet capital city 80 miles to the northwest suffered only minor damage from howling winds. There were inconvenient power outages. Townsfolk felt fortunate.

It was, however, a cruel mirage. Things turned chaotic and challenging quickly, as tens of thousands of New Orleanians fled up Interstate 10, taking refuge here. That was nearly one year ago, and thousands of those evacuees are still here.
from Washington Post

New Orleans Shops Struggle to Survive

For all the cheerful displays of Louisiana’s best-known hot sauce and all the pepper-shaped and pepper-flavored products on the shelves, the Tabasco Country Store is in deep trouble.

The shop, at the airport, was closed for months after Hurricane Katrina, and sales remain down 45 percent. The owner, Laura Y. Drumm, has mortgaged her house to the hilt; she has borrowed from her in-laws; her insurance will not pay for her losses, and neither will the government. Her one employee did not return after the storm, and her husband, Hughes, is running the store’s cash register seven days a week.
from The New York Times

Some Who Returned to New Orleans Consider Leaving

ack Sutton's family has sold antiques and art in New Orleans's French Quarter for three generations, but if things don't getter better soon, the clan may head to Las Vegas.

Every day life in New Orleans brings more recovery from Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the city a year ago on August 29. But some long-time residents feel they may be forced to move if the improvement does not accelerate, and they could take an important part of the culture -- small shops and neighborhood professionals -- with them.
from Reuters

Storm’s Escape Routes: One Forced, One Chosen

The small van, painted a heraldic bright green, is planted like a flag amid the frenetic commerce of Midtown, claiming a speck of territory for Louisiana. Customers line up at the window to order New Orleans-style snowballs: fluffy concoctions of ice, flavor and condensed milk so delicate they immediately begin to puddle in the heat
from The New York Times

Hurricane Katrina's Ecological Legacy: Lost Swamps, Crops, Islands

A year after Hurricane Katrina hammered the U.S. Gulf Coast and spurred massive flooding in New Orleans, the ecological impacts are still being felt throughout the region.

In particular, human-driven coastal erosion and saltwater intrusion—issues that have long been damaging the region's natural storm buffers—were made worse by the powerful hurricane.
from National Geographic

Rebuilding by the book

On a recent hot day, the new phone book landed with a thud on the stoop of a house that one year ago lay underwater, a notable sign of normalcy.

The phone book's arrival is a mark of progress here, but it's also a window into how much has changed. With nearly half the city's population gone, two swollen books have shrunk to one, after a decision by the phone book's editors to fold the white pages into the rest of the book.
from The Houston Chronicle

FACTBOX-Katrina by the numbers

Hurricane Katrina changed the face of New Orleans when it struck the U.S. Gulf coast on Aug. 29, 2005. Here are some facts and figures about Katrina's impact on the famed U.S. birthplace of jazz music.
from Reuters

One year on: Katrina's legacy

New Orleans sells itself to the world as the Big Easy. But one year after Hurricane Katrina there's nothing easy about life in New Orleans.

The hurricane swept past the city in a matter of hours, but New Orleanians will be living with its legacy for years to come.

from BBC

In New Orleans, Knives, Forks and Hammers

Every morning Leah Chase hobbles out of her FEMA trailer and crosses the street to check on the tortuous effort to rebuild her historic restaurant, Dooky Chase.

Mrs. Chase, 83, is the nation’s most revered Creole chef. Since Hurricane Katrina soaked her restaurant with five feet of water, people with the best intentions have held gumbo fund-raisers for her. Volunteers from Viking, the stove company, sanitized every pot and spoon. Insurance checks, such as they were, have been cashed.

Mrs. Chase is picking out fabric for her chairs and plotting the menu, but the truth is, she has months to go. Things like removing mold and rewiring a kitchen take a long time in this new New Orleans.

Even if Mrs. Chase gets the doors open, there is no telling where she will find waiters, cooks or customers. The housing project across the street is sealed with steel plates, and most of the houses in her neighborhood are empty, still bearing spray paint from the search for bodies.

“I know people say, ‘My God, a year later and you’re not any further than this?’ ” Mrs. Chase said. “They just don’t understand. We’re all taking a whipping down here.”

from the NY Times

A New Orleans Home Is Reborn, With Grit and Persistence

It no longer stinks at 7023 Fleur de Lis Drive.

There are plenty of awful smells in the ruined houses nearby — the ones still showing high waterlines and fluorescent orange door scrawls that announce whether corpses were found inside.

At No. 7023, though, the lawn is green with neatly trimmed centipede grass, and the flower beds burst with pansies, impatiens and marigolds. There is no mud inside or out, not a trace of a waterline, and the front door is, simply, white.

It looks as if the house had somehow been untouched by the waters that, one year ago, burst with fury through a breach just three blocks away in the 17th Street Canal and inundated the affluent Lakeview neighborhood. But in fact, there was no escape for this house, or for 134,000 others in New Orleans.

from the NY Times

Local inertia dooming recovery, report says

The lack of a comprehensive rebuilding plan and shortages of housing and labor are crippling New Orleans' recovery from Hurricane Katrina, while other communities in the Gulf Coast region are coping with a windfall of economic growth, according to a storm-impact study released today by independent researchers.

The first in a series of reports by the Rockefeller Institute of Government of the State University of New York and the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana is critical of leadership in New Orleans for failing to articulate a plan for the future.

"New Orleans has no plan at the moment, and the excruciatingly slow pace of the recovery bears witness to that," PAR President Jim Brandt said. "What seems to make the difference is the ability of local officials to take clear, decisive steps to get the planning process under way as well as provide an opportunity for as many members of the public to participate as possible."

from the Times Picayune

read the full report

Entergy data shed light on N.O.'s population

Nearly a year after the flood scattered its residents across the country, New Orleans' population now approaches half its pre-Katrina level, according to statistics released by Entergy on Tuesday.

To be precise, the new figures -- which show that the utility's has about 52 percent fewer electrical customers than it did a year ago -- suggest a current population of 219,390, in the same range as several recent estimates.

Shreveport demographer Elliott Stonecipher thinks Entergy's figures represent the most accurate estimate of city population since the storm.

from the Times Picayune

Katrina recovery: poll of Gulf Coast residents

As the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches next week, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of those hit by the storm finds that just 16% say their lives are back to normal.

While most people are still in their homes and back on the job, many report they are struggling with finances, battling with contractors and facing emotional strains. Among those with children under 18, 56% say their kids have been affected in negative ways.

"You take 10 steps forwards and 50 steps backwards," says Brandi Traylor, 26, of Pass Christian, Miss. She and her husband finally moved from a FEMA trailer back into their house last week.

The massive migration the storm prompted isn't over. About a third of those who have returned to their communities say they may move away. Half of those who haven't moved back say they probably won't.

from USA Today

read the poll results

In Katrina, compassion met adversity

Former presidents Bush and Clinton made a joint statement related to recovery from last year's disaster.

from USA Today

New Orleans' recovery slow and slippery process

A year ago, an American city almost drowned.
As New Orleans slowly sank beneath the brackish floodwaters unleashed by Hurricane Katrina, the nation watched in horror and wondered what the future held for the dying city.

A year later, New Orleans is in the midst of a halting, sloppy recovery. But it is recovering, despite dire predictions last September that the city was gone and admonitions that it should not be rebuilt. For better or for worse, five or 10 years from now, New Orleans will be pretty much what it was before the storm hit, with many of the same charms — and many of the same problems.

from USA Today

Katrina recovery has "gross inequalities": Oxfam

Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts show "gross inequalities" in treatment of rich and poor, aid agency Oxfam America said in report released on Wednesday.

Oxfam studied three communities outside of New Orleans and found that neither Mississippi nor Louisiana had set aside enough money for affordable rental housing.

"For some of the region's poorest residents, things have only gotten worse in this recovery," Minor Sinclair, the director of Oxfam's U.S. regional office, said in a statement.

from Reuters

Oxfam's briefing paper and a link to the report

Reports Document Failures Post-Katrina

No less than a half-dozen reports on the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort are being released to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the storm _ and nearly all criticize the sluggish pace of the response.

The reports document a host of problems, from the still-unfinished levees to the plight of small businesses and the city's continuing racial divide.

"It's a pretty bleak picture," said Minor Sinclair, who heads the U.S. regional office of Oxfam America, a charitable organization.

Many of the reports focus on the failure of federal dollars to reach their intended targets. Oxfam's report points out that although $17 billion has been approved by Congress to rebuild homes in Louisiana and Mississippi, not one house has been rebuilt with that money in either state.

from the AP via the Washington Post

BP well hit by Hurricane Katrina is still leaking

P suffered another blow on Tuesday when it admitted to the Financial Times that oil was still leaking from one of its wells that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina a year ago.

BP estimated that oil has slowly escaped from the leak, located under a platform at its Grand Isle field in the Gulf of Mexico.

It said the leak was dormant for four months before starting again in late May, with the biggest release being about 25 barrels on August 15.

Although the total amount of oil involved is not large, at 93 barrels, the fact that the leak remained unrepaired for so long could renew questions about the safety culture at BP's US operations. In the past two years, BP has suffered an massive oil spill in Alaska and a refinery explosion in Texas that killed 15 people. Grand juries in Texas and Alaska are looking into whether criminal charges should be filed against the UK company.

from the Financial Times via MSNBC

Opportunity, adventure lure newcomers to New Orleans

Gene and Laura Hindeland moved to New Orleans to party. Antonio Santos came for better wages that will help him get home to Guatemala. Mike and Diana Appel felt God called on them to help rebuild the city.

From around the United States and beyond, an adventurous group of people is moving to devastated New Orleans, and the city they raise may be different from the one at felled by Hurricane Katrina a year ago.

Some of these risk-takers are looking to do well, others want to do good, and many want both.

from Reuters

Poll: Not Ready for Disaster

People tend to think they will be lucky. Wind, rain and fire happen to other, less-fortunate individuals. In a new TIME poll of 1,000 American adults taken on the eve of the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, fewer than one in five (16%) said they are personally "very well" prepared for a natural disaster or public emergency. Of the rest, about half explained their lack of preparation by claiming they don't live in an area at risk for disasters. Even among Gulf Coast residents, a mind-boggling 43% said they don’t face much risk.

The truth is humbling: About 91% of Americans live in places at a moderate-to-high risk of earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, wind damage or terrorism, according to an estimate calculated for TIME by the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute at the University of South Carolina. We increasingly live in dense, coastal cities and consequently get hit by more frequent, more costly disasters.

But our curious confidence in our own safety keeps us from planning for the predictable catastrophes we know are coming.

from Time online

American opinion poll links Katrina, wildfires, and global warming

Close to the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a Zogby America poll of adults in the U.S. says that a majority believe that global warming has had at least some influence in stronger hurricanes and more frequent wildfires. Additionally, 72% surveyed believe that restrictions on carbon dioxide could be enforced without real harm to industry. The survey was sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation.

read the survey report

UK 'could suffer Katrina-style flooding'

Experts today accused ministers of ignoring the lessons of Hurricane Katrina, warning that the kind of deluge that overwhelmed New Orleans a year ago could not be ruled out in Britain.

Although the UK was likely to be spared the effects of a category five hurricane, the experts said the possibility of flooding caused by storm surges, high tides and heavy rain was real and likely to increase due to the effects of climate change.

from the Guardian online

Worst is yet to come, US hurricane chief says

If you thought the sight of the great American jazz city New Orleans flooded to the eaves -- its people trapped in attics or cowering on rooftops -- was the nightmare hurricane scenario, think again.

Max Mayfield, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center, says there's plenty of potential for a storm worse than Hurricane Katrina which killed 1,339 people along the U.S. Gulf coast and caused some $80 billion in damage last August.

"People think we have seen the worst. We haven't," Mayfield told Reuters in an interview at the fortress-like hurricane center in Florida.

"I think the day is coming. I think eventually we're going to have a very powerful hurricane in a major metropolitan area worse than what we saw in Katrina and it's going to be a mega-disaster. With lots of lost lives," Mayfield said.

from Reuters

Rough Start for Effort to Remake Faltering New Orleans Schools

On Debra Smith’s third attempt to enroll her younger sister in a public high school here last week, patience evaporated. For the student, disappointment turned into tears.

Ms. Smith said the school her sister, now a 10th grader, attended before Hurricane Katrina — one of just five the city is still operating — turned her away because of poor grades. Two other options were full.

from the NY Times

A New Look at New Orleans

This month marks the publication of Tulane geographer Richard Campanella's third book about the City of New Orleans. Entitled Geographies of New Orleans: Urban Fabrics Before the Storm (Center for Louisiana Studies, 2006), Campanella says this book is the most thorough of the three he has written about the Crescent City.

"While my previous books were more about physical geography, this book focuses more on people--on ethnic geographies," Campanella says. "It explains why people lived where they did in the city, over time."

Campanella is associate director of the Center for Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane and Xavier Universities and a research professor in the earth and environmental sciences department. A geographer by training, Campanella conducts his investigations through archival research, by mapping out historical census data, and by exploring the streets of New Orleans on bicycle or foot.

from Tulane Daily News

Damage and Doubts Linger After Katrina

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.

from the Washington Post

Officials nail down storm plans

The first post-Katrina hurricane season has, so far, prompted little more from southeast Louisiana residents than a giant sigh of relief. With more than a third of the season gone, nary the hint of a catastrophic weather system has blown toward New Orleans, sparing residents the harrowing question of whether to evacuate.

But historically speaking, the curtain is just now rising on the main attraction. Today marks the beginning of a six-week period ending Oct. 1 that usually is the most active part of hurricane season. With memories still fresh of the tremendous suffering of people who rode out Katrina almost a year ago, officials said they are close to nailing down plans to assist those who lack the resources to get out of harm's way.
from the Times Picayune

New Orleans port regaining most of pre-Katrina cargo

The Port of New Orleans, which sustained heavy damage from Hurricane Katrina, had regained nearly 94 percent of its pre-storm cargo by the end of May, according to figures released by the port Friday.

The port went through a dismal four-month stretch following Katrina's strike on Aug. 29 that included a 12-day shutdown, the loss of about one-third of its operating capacity and the rerouting of cargo to other ports by several shipping lines.
from The Times Picayune

Scientists Disagree On Link Between Storms, Warming

A year after Hurricane Katrina and other major storms battered the U.S. coast, the question of whether hurricanes are becoming more destructive because of global warming has become perhaps the most hotly contested question in the scientific debate over climate change.
from the Washington Post

Who's to Blame for Katrina's Aftermath?

In many ways, New Orleans is a huge crime scene, with bodies and victims and fingerprints -- many, many sets of fingerprints. But who did it? Who is responsible for this mess, for a barely functioning city with large swaths still uninhabited -- or uninhabitable -- a year after Hurricane Katrina?
from the AP via The New York Times

Katrina cleanup trip an eye-opener for Iowans

It's called a muck-out.

Seven missionaries from Clive's Faith Lutheran Church drove down to New Orleans on July 29, donned coveralls, boots, gloves, hard hats and respirators, and stripped a Katrina-ravaged house down to the studs before returning home on Aug. 5.

Nobody could believe what they saw.

"I've actually had dreams about it," said Dave Abrams, 71, a retired pastor and Army chaplain who went on the trip. "I didn't think it would affect me that way, but it has. They aren't even close to repairing what happened down there. ...What hit me is the paralyzation of the people."

from the Des Moines Register

Is the Government 'Hurricane Ready'?

The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said today that the agency is "better prepared" for hurricane season, but he also acknowledged that its hiring needs have still not been met since Hurricane Katrina.

One of the most significant issues facing the agency is its inability to fill all its authorized 2,400 staff positions, said FEMA Director David Paulison. Currently, FEMA has filled 2,000 of 2,400 positions. That's 83 percent of capacity.

from ABC News

Report raps nursing homes' emergency plans

Gulf Coast nursing homes that removed patients as a result of hurricanes experienced a range of problems, including transportation agreements that fell through, long trips, and a lack of food, water, and medicine, according to a report released yesterday.

Meanwhile, nursing home administrators who decided not to move residents reported fewer problems, particularly when it came to the health of the residents, according to the report by the inspector general for the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The report called on the federal government to strengthen certification standards for nursing homes' emergency planning.

from the AP via the Boston Globe

Levee suit cites global warming

Environmental groups plan to file a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court today claiming that flood-control officials violated state law by allowing major levee modifications in San Joaquin County without considering the effect of global warming.

The groups, led by the Natural Resources Defense Council, assert that the sea level rise associated with climate change could eventually overtop those levees, putting thousands of people at risk.

from the Sacramento Bee

Final EPA report deems New Orleans safe

Wrapping up the agency's 11-month effort to pinpoint chemical contamination of soil and water following Hurricane Katrina, Environmental Protection Agency officials Friday gave most of New Orleans and surrounding communities a final clean bill of health, while pledging to keep watch over a handful of toxic hot spots and the million-gallon Murphy Oil spill in St. Bernard Parish.

In the end, federal and state officials said the contamination they found was typical of many cities. They rebuffed calls by residents and environmental groups to scrape up the roughly 3 million cubic yards of mud left by the storm.

from the Times Picayune

Guard Unable to Deal With 2 Hurricanes

Strapped by war and equipment shortages, the National Guard will find it difficult to deal with two or more major hurricanes if they sweep ashore in different regions around the same time, Guard leaders say.
from the AP via Forbes

Report Calls for Tighter Rules in Nursing Home Evacuations

Frail elderly residents who were evacuated from nursing homes in the Gulf States suffered more than the vast majority of those who were not moved during last year’s hurricanes, according to a report to be issued today by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services

from The New York Times

FEMA backs mental health program

n the second-largest grant of its kind ever, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has earmarked more than $34 million to finance mental health counseling in Louisiana for residents traumatized by Hurricane Katrina.

Only the $132 million appropriated for mental health counseling in New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks tops Thursday's grant, officials said. The money will be funneled first to the office of mental health within Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals, and then to an organization known as "Louisiana Spirit," which was set up by DHH for this purpose, according to a FEMA press release

from The Times Picayune

A year after Katrina hit, baby boom in the Big Easy

When Kim and Brian Sevin were temporarily displaced to Florida by Hurricane Katrina, there was little to do but sit around, watch the news, and find comfort in each other's arms.

That's when baby Cameron Casey was conceived.

"She is a Katrina evacuation baby," said Kim Sevin, 35, of the infant who was born May 29, exactly nine months after the storm. "It was absolutely a blessing, but it was not planned, not expected."

from Los Angeles Times via The Philadelphia Inquirer

Filmmakers trickle back to Katrina-devastated New Orleans

The Mississippi River, usually coursing with scores of ships carrying cargo and people, was nearly deserted. Coast Guard boats blockaded a half-mile stretch that runs alongside the city. But it had nothing to do with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. On this day, Hollywood needed to borrow the river: Director Tony Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer were in town shooting their upcoming action movie Deja Vu, and it was time to blow up a passenger ferry.

from The LA Times via The Arizona Republic

New Orleans pained, proud of documentary

They came from down the block and from hours away to see director Spike Lee's view of how Hurricane Katrina changed their lives, and New Orleanians were sad and proud of what they viewed.

"Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans? We do," Gerry Carter said early on Thursday after joining thousands who watched the premiere of Lee's film "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts."
from Reuters

Public Service Group Considers 'Government After Katrina'

The nonprofit Partnership for Public Service is launching an initiative called "Government After Katrina" to look for ideas that can help the government operate more effectively and polish an image that was tarnished by a sluggish response to the hurricane.

"We need to leverage the occasion of Katrina's anniversary to focus new energy to the issue of improved government performance," said Max Stier , president of the partnership, a nonpartisan group that seeks to revitalize federal service and encourage young people to take up careers in government.
from the Washington Post

Son sues over Katrina wheelchair death

The son of an 91-year-old woman who died slumped in her wheelchair after Hurricane Katrina _ an image that came to symbolize the government's slow response to the catastrophic storm _ sued the city and state Thursday.

Herbert Freeman Jr. accuses numerous state agencies and the city of New Orleans of gross negligence and willful misconduct in the death of his mother, Ethel Freeman. He claims he was ordered by New Orleans police to seek shelter at the city's convention center, even though no aid was available and there was no way out.

from AP via the Houston Chronicle

New Orleans' Fire Department sounding its own alarm

Nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Fire Department is in bad shape and getting worse, the City Council was told Thursday.

The department has "a rapidly deteriorating morale problem" and post-Katrina personnel losses are undermining its ability to do its job, District Chief Tim McConnell said.

"I am here in a crisis mode," Fire Fighters Association Local 632 President Nick Felton told the council, pointing to what he said was firefighters' anger about the city's failure to include most of them in recently announced raises for police officers.

from the Times Picayune

250,000 Katrina evacuees seen as "climate refugees"

Some 250,000 evacuees from last year's Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast may never return permanently and should be considered "climate refugees," whose ranks around the world could grow until global warming is mitigated, an environmental expert said.

The number of "climate refugees" will grow unless the world cuts the amount of greenhouse gases it releases, said Lester Brown, president of Earth Policy Institute in Washington D.C.

from Reuters

Spike Lee's Katrina Documentary Opens

andid, and at times graphic, Spike Lee's documentary on Hurricane Katrina captured people's desperation and their ability to keep smiling no matter what.

"There are some jokes and humor," Lee told the thousands of people gathered inside the New Orleans Arena for the premiere of the documentary "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" on Wednesday night. "So feel free to laugh."

from The Washington Post

Global warming affects hurricane intensity: study

Global warming is affecting the intensity of Atlantic hurricanes, according to a new study by a university professor in Florida who says his research provides the first direct link between climate change and storm strength.

James Elsner of Florida State University said he set out to perform a statistical analysis of the two theories in a raging debate within the scientific community: Whether recent intense hurricanes are the result of climate change or natural ocean warming and cooling cycles.

from Scientific American

Katrina and Rita triggered significant oil spill, report says

When hurricanes Katrina and Rita swept across the Gulf of Mexico last year, they destroyed scores of offshore oil and gas rigs, damaged hundreds of pipelines and spilled 741,384 gallons of petroleum products into the sea, federal records show.

A damage assessment released this week by the U.S. Minerals Management Service said the largest of the spills poured about 76,000 gallons of condensate, a toxic form of liquefied gas, into Gulf waters.

from South Florida Sun Sentinel via The Houston Chronicle

Immigrants Hired After Storm Sue New Orleans Hotel Executive

In a new twist on the labor problems bedeviling New Orleans, a group of guest workers from Latin America, brought in to maintain some of the city’s hotels after Hurricane Katrina, filed a lawsuit yesterday complaining that they were being shortchanged by a prominent hotel executive and developer.

target="_blank">from The New York Times

Judge Rules for Insurers in Katrina

A federal judge in Mississippi sided with home insurance companies yesterday and ruled that they did not have to pay for the flooding that destroyed tens of thousands of homes in Hurricane Katrina.

Insurers have already paid $17.6 billion for damage to homes from Katrina that was attributed to wind only. But this was a victory for the companies, because they could have been forced to pay out untold billions more if they had been required to cover damage from flooding caused by the storm. Several hundred thousand homes were damaged or destroyed by Katrina.


from The New York Times

East N.O. landfill ordered to close

Debris disposal continued Monday at a controversial landfill in eastern New Orleans as Mayor Ray Nagin's administration handed its operator a legal order to shut down the site before the clock struck 12:01 a.m. this morning or be considered in violation of city law.

After faxing a cease-and-desist order to Waste Management of Louisiana on Monday about 2 p.m., City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields said the company had not applied to the City Council for a conditional use permit needed to continue running its Chef Menteur landfill, which opened in April with permission that Nagin granted through emergency powers.

from The Times Picayune

Researchers Probe What Spawns Hurricanes

Every hurricane season, clusters of showers and thunderstorms roll off the coast of Africa and head over the Atlantic toward America. Most of these 60 or so tropical waves never do any harm. But about 10 eventually grow into tropical storms or monster hurricanes like Katrina and Andrew.

Researchers don't know exactly why some of these waves become menaces and others peter out.

So starting this week, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will try to find out by studying these tropical systems as they make their way west from their breeding ground in Africa.

from Fox News

Study: Katrina evacuees who fled on their own faring better

Evacuees who got out of Katrina-flooded areas on their own early and those who landed in parts of the country with fewer other evacuees are faring better almost a year later than the thousands rescued and dumped in cities saturated with evacuees, according to a report released Monday.

The study conducted by seven law firms enlisted by the Appleseed Foundation, a nonprofit social advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader, also found that local and state governments and nonprofit and faith-based groups acted more quickly and efficiently than the federal government in providing for evacuees.

from The Times Picayune

FEMA has key concern with its trailers

What began as a problem with a single travel trailer has mushroomed into yet another trailer fiasco for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and now the front door locks on as many as 118,000 of the temporary units might have to be changed.

What happened was FEMA learned the keys to one trailer can open as many as 50 others, a problem the agency attributed to the fact that only three companies manufacture the trailer locks in the United States. It didn't, however, learn of the issue through some crime spree, but through a report on potholes plaguing the Renaissance Park trailer lot, the biggest trailer park that FEMA operates in Louisiana with more than 570 units, authorities said.

from The Times Picayune

24 hours in New Orleans

NPR spent a day in New Orleans last week. This audio report profiles several locals and their efforts to rebuild their homes and lives. It starts with the Rebirth Brass band playing at the Maple Leaf (if you are from New Orleans you know that means Tuesday night) and ends a full 24 hours later at the same bar, interviewing its owner.

download the mp3 file

Hurricane Katrina was a man-made disaster

Michael Grunwald has written a detailed essay-review of several of the recently published Katrina books for the New Republic. He covers many details well, and offers a perspective very critical of the Army Corps of Engineers.

download a pdf of the article

Corps rethinking floodgate plans

A massive floodgate blocking waterways that converge near the Paris Road bridge would almost certainly prevent the kind of storm surge that blew apart the Industrial Canal during Hurricane Katrina, killing hundreds. But what if the gate just sloshes more ruinous surges into St. Bernard Parish and eastern New Orleans?

That concern has federal officials reconsidering plans for a Paris Road gate to plug a glaring hole in the region's hurricane defenses, an area east of New Orleans dubbed "the funnel."
from The Times Picayune

Corps racing against time, red tape

Six months after the Army Corps of Engineers was given about a billion dollars to raise sinking levees and rush unfinished hurricane protection and flood prevention projects to completion by September 2007, none of that construction has started anywhere in the metropolitan New Orleans area.

Corps managers say the scale and complexity of decision-making, problem-solving and documentation involved with spending this kind of money -- it's only part of the $5.7 billion Congress has provided since Hurricane Katrina -- is taking longer than many had anticipated.
from The Times Picayune

Typhoon season 'unusually' harsh

Global warming is contributing to an unusually harsh typhoon season in China that started around a month early and has left thousands dead or missing, government officials and experts say.

"The natural disasters caused by typhoons in our country have been many this year," the head of the China Meteorological Administration, Qin Dahe, said in recent comments on his organisation's website.

"Against the backdrop of global warming, more and more strong and unusual climatic and atmospheric events are taking place.

from Independent Online from South Africa

FEMA releases flood maps

Despite more than $100 million and two years' worth of levee improvement work, much of south Yuba County was included in a flood zone map released this week by the federal government.

The areas affected are Plumas Lake, Linda, Arboga and Olivehurst. These communities, especially Plumas Lake, are experiencing explosive growth and could see higher flood insurance rates if they remain in the federally mapped flood zones.

from the Appeal-Democrat of CA

Report: Global warming real threat to California

Increasing temperatures will transform California, threatening some of its most valuable resources in coming decades. That's the primary message of a new state publication that summarizes 17 scientific studies examining how global warming is expected to play out in California.

“The potential impacts of global warming are unmistakable, adding more days of deadly heat, more intense and frequent wildfires, shorter supplies of drinking water and serious public-health risks,” Linda Adams, the state's secretary for environmental protection, said yesterday during a news conference at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla.

from the San Diego Tribune Union

read the report from the state of California

Recovery remains slow year after Katrina

They said she was too frail. That the mold growing on the warped walls of her flooded house would make her ill. That she shouldn't bother since her mottled, mud-filled home would likely be bulldozed anyway. But Willie Lee Barnes, who recently turned 94, didn't listen.

Standing outside her flooded house in the Louisiana sun, she clasped her rosary in her frail hands and prayed. "Lord," she said, "I'm not asking that you climb the mountain for me. I'm only asking that you give me the strength to do it myself."

from AP via Houston Chronicle

Typhoon Saomai weakens but leaves at least a hundred dead

Dark clouds from Typhoon Saomai, which weakened yesterday to a tropical depression, cast a shadow over Fuzhou, the capital of the southeast China province of Fujian. The fading typhoon, which had been the strongest storm to strike China in 50 years, drenched the South as it moved inland — and is forecast to continue doing so over the weekend.

It has killed at least 104 people, blacked out cities and wrecked 50,000 houses. Another 190 people were missing after the typhoon had battered areas from which more than 1.6 million people had been evacuated. Hardest-hit was Wenzhou, a coastal city in which at least 81 people were killed as gusts reached 170mph. In Cangnan County, on the outskirts of Wenzhou, 43 bodies, including those of 8 children, were found in the debris of houses that had collapsed after they sought shelter.

from the Times Online (UK)

Family-friendly eastern New Orleans seen

In a Katrina recovery plan to be unveiled today, a tattered and torn eastern New Orleans that soaked in floodwaters for weeks would arise as a land of bicycle paths, lush landscaping and vibrant neighborhoods with a resurrected Lincoln Beach, a family entertainment district and a pedestrian-friendly town center for upscale shopping.

The plan, which will be presented today for public review and feedback, advocates restrictions on dense apartment complexes, construction of three lengthy bicycle paths, and replacing The Lake Forest Plaza with a town center offering open-air shopping and dining.

from the Times Picayune

Testing of FEMA trailers pressed

Rep. Charlie Melancon and another House Democrat are pressing the federal government to speed testing for formaldehyde in travel trailers being used by hurricane evacuees along the Gulf Coast after an environmental group reported finding high rates of the dangerous gas.

Melancon, D-Napoleonville, and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., also have demanded an explanation from FEMA Director David Paulison about what he plans to do for the thousands of evacuees in trailers if formaldehyde levels are found to be as high as detected in a Sierra Club survey this spring.

"In providing housing for evacuees, FEMA has a responsibility to ensure that such housing does not threaten the health and safety of evacuees by exposing them to unnecessary health risks," the two congressmen wrote Thursday.

from the Times Picayune

read the Sierra Club report

ACLU report tells of prison terrors

At least two miscarriages for inmates who didn't get medical help. A sheriff's deputy who lost a toe because of an untreated injury. Frequent volleys of rubber bullets and bean bags fired at inmates by overwhelmed deputies. Exaggerations by Orleans Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman about his preparations and performance as Hurricane Katrina swamped the 6,400-inmate lockup.

Those are some of the findings and allegations by the American Civil Liberties Union in a 140-page report on the chaotic evacuation of Orleans Parish Prison after Katrina. The report, released Thursday, repeats many previously reported findings about the emptying of the flooded prison complex, but offers a new level of detail through dozens of first-hand accounts from deputies and inmates.

The prison, made up of 10 separate lockups, lost electricity and backup generators when it was inundated by floodwater. Stuck without food or water, inmates broke windows, burned blankets and rammed holes in buildings. Thirteen escaped before the State Department of Corrections sent guards to restore order and assist in a challenging three-day evacuation in which the prisoners were fished out by boat.

from the Times Picayune

read the full ACLU report

FEMA sends El Paso damage report to Bush for decision on disaster declaration

Federal Emergency Management Agency representatives have finished their assessment of storm damage in El Paso and sent their report to President Bush, who will now determine whether the area is eligible for federal assistance, officials said Thursday.
Even if El Paso's flood devastation does not meet FEMA's guidelines, the region can still be declared a disaster area at the discretion of the president.

"It is time for every elected official to write a personal letter to the president so that we can put a face to the disaster," said state Rep. Norma Chávez, D-El Paso.

from the El Paso Times

Mud Flow Breaches Dam in Indonesia

Hot mud flowing from a gas well in Indonesia that has inundated a large swath of Java island breached a dam on Thursday, damaging more homes and threatening a key rail network, a government official said.

"People panicked as if a tsunami was coming," said district chief Mochammad Pain in the affected district of Sidoarjo. "In a second, my office was flooded as were other people's houses around here."

The mud began flowing from the well just outside the major industrial city of Surabaya on May 29.

It has since inundated 25 square kilometers (10 square miles) of land, forced more than 10,000 people from their homes, closed a major highway and caused breathing difficulties in scores of villagers.

from the AP via MSN

Prisoners of Katrina

In September 2005, long after most people had fled a devastated city, inmates of Orleans Parish Prison - many of them shackled - were still waiting to be rescued from the blazing heat and the stinking floods.

"They basically abandoned the prison," says Vincent Norman, a chef arrested for an unpaid fine who found himself locked in a cell for days. Norman should have been there no more than a week. Instead, abandoned without food, drink or sanitation as the waters rose, he was in prison for 103 days. "We were just left there to die," said Cardell Williams, a prisoner who spent two months in jail without ever being charged.

In the days before the hurricane, when other citizens of New Orleans were ordered to leave, city leaders were asked: "What about the prisoners in the jail?"

"The prisoners will stay where they belong," replied Marlin Gusman, the criminal sheriff in charge of the city jail. But it was a gamble he would regret.

from BBC News

Door-to-door post-Katrina counseling critical to recovery

The long haul is here. Every day, teams of counselors and social workers with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New Orleans visit hurricane-devastated neighborhoods and go door-to-door asking people simple questions related to complex problems.

Behind every door is a Katrina survivor with his or her sobering story. The stories haven't changed much since Katrina hit nearly a year ago, and that is perhaps the saddest indicator of a community in the midst of a collective mental health crisis. By early July, social workers and counselors with Catholic Charities' Louisiana Spirit outreach program, had personally visited 65,000 people and reported spikes in domestic violence, child abuse, substance abuse, depression and suicidal tendencies.

from Catholic News Service

Katrina kids can recover

Hurricane Katrina splintered their homes, scattered their friends across the United States and forced them to attend new schools in distant parishes, or even different states.

Nevertheless, children whose lives were turned upside down by the killer storm can regain their psychological equilibrium if they can settle into comfortable routines and surroundings, make and maintain connections with family members and friends, and get professional help if they need it, a team of Louisiana State University mental health professionals said Thursday in New Orleans.

Acknowledging symptoms such as anxiety and frequent weeping, and then seeking aid for a distressed child, are vital if the youngster is to make any progress, said Dr. Howard Osofsky, chairman of psychiatry at LSU Health Sciences Center.

"When we cover over the symptoms, the kids suffer," he said during a panel discussion about building resilience in children who have been through trauma.

from the Times Picayune

Ghost of the Hurricane: Suffering Still Strong

Almost a year after hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast, mental-health issues still remain a critical and unmet challenge for those who live in the region.

The lingering problems were ironically spotlighted this week by the plight of John McCusker, a photographer for 20 years for the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper, who was arrested by police after being stopped for erratic driving. McCuster had lost his home and all his possessions during Katrina, but had stayed to photograph the storm and its aftermath.

According to the story in his own paper, McCuster begged officers to kill him and was finally subdued with a Taser gun.

"The individual is a really fine professional who was so depressed that he set out today to commit suicide by cop," the Times-Picayune quoted James Arey, commander of the police negotiation team during SWAT and other emergency situations.

And that one incident focuses in microcosm what so many Gulf Coast residents are feeling a year after their hometowns were devastated.

from Forbes

Help call over climate-change fires

Growing pressure on fire and rescue services caused by climate change is being ignored by the Government, a leading trade union has warned.

The Fire Brigades Union has called for an immediate end to cuts in personnel and for an immediate cash injection of £60 million to be distributed fairly between fire authorities, in recognition of the additional pressures and substantial costs increases they are now facing.

FBU General Secretary Mat Wrack said: "The dry and warm weather has created the perfect conditions for the huge increase in the number of major fires so far this summer."

from the Guardian, UK

Million Chinese flee worst typhoon for 50 years

The strongest typhoon to hit China in 50 years slammed into the southeast coast today, sending 1.3 million people fleeing from their homes.

Typhoon Saomai has made landfall near the booming city of Wenzhou between Hong Kong and Shanghai. It was packing winds of 134mph, outpacing forecasts, and may have been fuelled by the remnants of tropical storm Bopha, which is weakening and moving westwards.

from the Times Online (UK)

Study: Katrina Recovery Is a Mixed Bag

The city is showing signs of rebirth nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina, but a lack of health care and other services and a dearth of affordable housing could stymie a full recovery, according to a study released Wednesday.

The Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, D.C., said positives include signs of a turnaround in the housing market and increased tourism and business travel.

"I think there are really some signs of promise, but many trends remain troubling," said Amy Liu, deputy director of Brookings' Metropolitan Policy Program.

from AP via ABC News

You can find a link to the full report from the Brookings Institution on the KERRN reports page

A need for care in New Orleans

Nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the city faces a shortage of doctors, nurses and hospital beds for the most vulnerable: the poor, the uninsured and those who are grappling with mental illness and substance abuse.
While the well-insured may eventually locate a doctor, even if they have to leave the city, patients without resources may miss out on care, says Frederick Cerise, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

The loss of health services for the needy is keenly felt in this city, where the storm destroyed thousands of homes and livelihoods and left many people with deep psychological wounds, says Karen DeSalvo, chief of general internal medicine at Tulane University Health Sciences Center.

The five conditions most often diagnosed in the uninsured in 2005 involved mental illnesses and substance abuse, according to a new report from the Louisiana health care Redesign Collaborative, which advises the governor on a plan for the region's medical care.

from USA Today

Stress in New Orleans Keeps Police Busy

Like many other New Orleanians nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina, John McCusker was experiencing the overwhelming stress of rebuilding his life.

McCusker, a photographer who was part of The Times-Picayune's 2006 Pulitzer Prize-winning staff, was seen driving wildly through the city Tuesday, attracting the attention of police.

He eventually was arrested, but not before he was subdued with a Taser and an officer fired twice at his vehicle. During the melee, he begged police to kill him. One officer suffered minor injuries.

from the AP via the Washington Post

The long, strange resurrection of New Orleans

Ruthie Frierson's dining room does not look like the birthplace of a populist rebellion. The room is quiet, insulated from any street noise, with treatments in heavy fabric around the windows.

Asian paintings in elegant frames hang on the walls. The ceiling is gilt - not painted gold, but proper gilt, rectangles of gold leaf so thin that a brick of 100,000 sheets would be less than an inch thick.

Yet it was here, late last year, that Frierson and several women of her acquaintance first planned to attack the powers that be. In this case the powers were the political establishments in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Washington, D.C. - establishments the women believed bore much of the responsibility both for the city's collapse before Katrina last August 29 and for the paralytic pace of rebuilding.

Thin, blond, and blue-eyed, Frierson bears some resemblance, in her blazer and scarf, to a younger Nancy Reagan. For people who don't live in New Orleans, her place in society might be summed up by her reputation as the city's most successful residential real estate broker - the person to see about buying and selling its finest homes. Or one might note that at its annual Mint Julep Party the Junior League anointed Frierson the 2006 "Sustainer of the Year."

from Fortune via CNN

New Orleans' best defense, dissolving into the sea

Generally speaking, Foster Creppell is not out to change the system. His main gripe about corporate America is that not enough of it stays at Woodland Plantation, the antebellum mansion in Plaquemines Parish that he has transformed into an elegant country bed-and-breakfast. (You may know what Woodland looks like: Its portrait adorns the label of Southern Comfort liqueur.)

Nonetheless, Creppell has recently found himself producing eco-warning videos and attending a lot of meetings with people who are much more discontented with things as they are than he. "Nader voters," he says. "People who are Not From Around Here." The reason for the meetings? Plaquemines Parish, an hour southeast of New Orleans, is vanishing into the sea.

from Fortune via CNN

Hurricane development is studied

U.S. scientists want to learn why, of about 100 storms forming near Africa each hurricane season, only a few become tropical depressions or hurricanes. University of Utah Meteorology Professor Ed Zipser is chief scientist of a NASA mission to study why some African weather disturbances become storms and hurricanes, many of which hit the United States.

from UPI

Evacuation of people near Mayon, Philippines

The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) on Tuesday said it hopes to finish the evacuation of 7,000 families or 34,000 persons living near Mayon Volcano in Albay later on Tuesday.

Authorities began evacuating the residents around 8 a.m. Monday after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) raised the alert level on Mayon from Alert Level 3 to 4 after noting signs of its imminent hazardous eruption in the coming days.

from the Sun Star, Manila

National survey: New Orleans not forgotten

The media may have shifted its attention to the Middle East and politicians are thinking about November's elections, but the nation hasn't forgotten about those still struggling in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to a new survey.

The fear of storm victims is that nearly a year after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, the rest of the country has moved on or, at worst, Americans are sick of hearing about the region's problems, especially if it means spending more money.

But a study released Tuesday by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation suggests that most Americans aren't afflicted with Katrina fatigue and they still possess a deep reservoir of empathy and a willingness to help. The survey was released at a forum meant to highlight the shortage of health professionals in south Louisiana and the obstacles hindering the rebuilding of the region's medical system.

from the Times Picayune

Eight New Orleans Schools Start a New Year

Carrying a heavy book sack on his shoulders, 12-year-old Jermaine Gibson wasn't complaining a bit about the first day of classes Monday.

''The summer was boring. There was nothing to do. I'm glad to be back,'' he said as he arrived at William J. Fischer Charter Elementary School.

Fischer, one of the city's low-performing schools before Hurricane Katrina, was among eight public schools that reopened Monday, giving more than 4,000 students an early start on the school year and advancing a reform movement that blossomed after the storm devastated the city almost a year ago.

A uniformed sailor from a nearby Navy support station blew ''Reveille'' on his trumpet near the school entrance as students and parents walked down freshly painted hallways adorned with colorful murals and saw the new computer lab.

More than 40 other public schools are scheduled to open by mid-September for an estimated 30,000 students in what is planned as a rebirth of one of the nation's worst school systems, which had about 60,000 students before the storm.

from the NY Times

New population statistics gloomy

After a string of encouraging months, the return of New Orleanians to the metro area seems to have slowed to barely a trickle in the second quarter of 2006, an analysis of change-of-address forms filed with the U.S. Postal Service shows.

The number of people who lived in the region before Hurricane Katrina and had come back as of June 30 rose by only 2,000, or less than two-tenths of a percentage point, compared with three months earlier, according to the data. If extrapolated, the figures suggest the metro area's population stood at less than 1.1 million at the end of June, compared with the region's pre-Katrina population of 1.5 million.

The estimates include 171,000 pre-Katrina New Orleanians who have returned to the city. Current estimates from city officials and others claim that a total 210,000 to 250,000 people are living in New Orleans, though they don't say how many of them were here before the storm and how many are workers who have come for the rebuilding.

from the Times Picayune

Some in Katrina-trashed community still looking for trailers

It has been 11 months since Hurricane Katrina hit and Janice Tambrella still does not have a home. She doesn’t even have a trailer of her own. Tambrella is currently jammed in with 10 other relatives in a single trailer delivered to a luckier relative. Sleeping on the floor, living out of cars surrounded by overgrown grass and storm-felled trees, she sighs, “I need a place to stay.”

Nearly 1,200 St. Bernard Parish families are still waiting to get into trailers that sit locked on their home sites but need utilities or other services; another 400 families waiting for trailers have none at all, FEMA said. St. Bernard Parish President Henry “Junior” Rodriguez is often the one people ask for help. While he doesn’t have the authority to get them trailers, they figure it’s worth asking him since countless calls to the Federal Emergency Management Agency have failed to help. “The trailer situation is ridiculous,” he said.

from the Boston Herald

New Orleans Moves to Repair Its Legal System

After months of chaos in the criminal justice system here, Mayor C. Ray Nagin announced the first steps Monday to replace the city’s missing prosecutors, public defenders and police officers, along with its ruined courtrooms.

A neighboring parish is lending prosecutors to New Orleans to help its overburdened district attorney’s office deal with a significant backlog of cases, Mr. Nagin said. Pro bono assistance for poor defendants is on the way from the State Bar Association, which is also paying for a new system to coordinate and track cases. Courtrooms and jail cells are being rebuilt and brought into service.

And, Mr. Nagin said, the city has established a system for contacting and issuing subpoenas to New Orleans police officers who have been scattered across the country since Hurricane Katrina. The displaced officers have been desperately needed to testify in scores of criminal cases that have been unable to proceed for a lack of witnesses.

from the NY Times

In New Orleans, Each Resident Is Master of Plan to Rebuild

Rebuilding a city, it seems, is too important a task to be left to professional planners. At least that’s the message behind a decision to place one of the most daunting urban reconstruction projects in American history in the hands of local residents.

Ever since a botched attempt to develop a comprehensive plan for New Orleans fell apart last winter, city and state officials have been straining to avoid the sticky racial and social questions that are central to any effort to rebuild and recover after Hurricane Katrina.

Their solution, hammered out in July, was to turn the planning process over to a local charity, the Greater New Orleans Foundation. On Aug. 1 the foundation opened a series of public meetings in which groups representing more than 70 neighborhoods would begin selecting the planners to help determine everything from where to place houses to the width of sidewalks.

Mayor C. Ray Nagin has referred to the process as “democracy in action.” And, superficially, it sounds like one of the most stirring grass-roots planning movements imaginable, one that would help preserve the rich heterogeneity that gives the city its vibrant urban character.

Yet this freewheeling approach has shifted attention from the critical and more daunting challenge of reimagining the city’s infrastructure, from levees to freeways to its ecological footprint. It is the failure of that infrastructure, after all, that exposed the inequities that have been eating away at New Orleans for decades.

from the NY Times

Betsy prompted levee upgrades

When Hurricane Betsy bore down on Louisiana in 1965, federal levees and floodwalls to block storm surge were rare in the metropolitan New Orleans area.
Instead, most residents and businesses put their faith in levees built by local government agencies.

Nearly 41 years after Betsy, one of the worst hurricanes to hit Louisiana, hurricane protection has been beefed up. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has overseen construction of at least $900 million in federal hurricane protection projects, such as levees and floodwalls, in the metro area.

But since 1965, some parts of the metro area continue to lack hurricane protection built to federal standards.

from New Orleans City Business

Crisis Not Over for Hurricane Victims

Thousands of Gulf Coast families displaced in 2005 by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are the victims of an unprecedented epidemic of chronic medical and mental health problems, yet are receiving little appropriate care, reveals a report released 17 April 2006 from the Mailman School of Public Health. "A year after Katrina, over half of the New Orleans population has not returned—perhaps as many as three hundred thousand people," says principal investigator David Abramson, acting director of research at the Columbia University National Center for Disaster Preparedness. Many families still live in FEMA-subsidized trailer parks.
from Environmental Health Perspectives

Delaware at great risk from Katrina-size storm

Hurricane storm surges weren't on Patricia Drummond's mind when she moved from northern Virginia to a three-bedroom home near a picture-postcard stretch of Red Mill Pond west of Lewes.

"We are on a pond, and that's one of the reasons we moved here, but I didn't think we were in an area that would be affected by a hurricane," said Drummond, whose Overbrook Shores neighborhood is one of four clustered around the water.

But updated maps produced by the Army Corps of Engineers come to a different conclusion.

from the Delaware News-Journal

New Evacuations Ordered for El Paso

Forecasters expected more rain Saturday in the drenched El Paso area, where a week of storms forced hundreds of people from mountainside neighborhoods and caused flash floods and rocks slides.

A new round of evacuations was ordered Friday after a downpour flooded homes and streets around El Paso for the sixth straight day. Nearly 1,000 residents who sought refuge in the city's convention center Thursday were allowed to return home Friday. Later, the convention center was closed and about 30 people were placed in hotels by the American Red Cross.

The downpour that forced residents in central El Paso and in outlying areas to seek emergency shelter came shortly after city officials rescinded a mandatory evacuation order for low-lying areas downtown.

from the AP via the Washington Post

La. Police Who Turned Away Katrina Victims Face Inquiry

A grand jury will investigate last year's blockade of a Mississippi River bridge by armed police officers who turned back Hurricane Katrina evacuees trying to flee New Orleans. Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan declined to reveal any details of the investigation on Thursday.

The grand jury will not begin the investigation next week, but it will start soon, said Leatrice Dupre, spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.

from the AP via the Washington Post

Could New Orleans Happen Here ?

London could face a flood like New Orleans. London and the whole Thames Estuary have an uneasy relationship with water. There's either too little of it, or potentially way, way too much - it's a situation that climate change only promises to make worse.The same environmental forces that make droughts increasingly likely in southern England are also responsible for raising sea levels, which in turn increase the chances of flooding, according to Sarah Lavery, of the Environment Agency.

Green Building Press

Storm prods makeshift levee repairs

Corps-led crews fix up Jeff sheet-pile sections.

The Times Picayune

Researchers Evaluating Grass For Levee Protection

Scientists from the LSU AgCenter this week started planting grass as the first step in a research project designed to evaluate its ability to protect earthen levees on the Gulf Coast.

sttammany.com

Agony of New Orleans, Through Spike Lee’s Eyes

Film director, Spike Lee, captures the story of Hurricane Katrina and it's victims.

The Times Picayune

Preparing For Hurricane Season

Evacuating New Orleans

The Times Picayune

When a hurricane threatens

The Times Picayune

If evacuation is advised

The Times Picayune

During the hurricane

The Times Picayune

Flood Safety

The Times Picayune

After the hurricane

The Times Picayune

BGR proposes limiting City Council's role in land-use decisions

A New Orleans governmental watchdog group Thursday proposed revising the City Charter to limit the City Council’s role in land-use decisions, increase neighborhoods’ voice in such decisions and create a city master plan with the force of law.

The Times Picayune

Orleans likely to adopt FEMA rules

New Orleans officials and their counterparts at FEMA and the Louisiana Recovery Authority have apparently struck a compromise on new advisory building elevations, albeit one New Orleans leaders aren't entirely thrilled with.

The Times Picayune

Task force to uphold home-gutting rules

In the face of a fast-approaching Aug. 29 deadline for owners of flooded New Orleans homes to clean, gut and board up their buildings, Mayor Ray Nagin's administration announced for the first time Wednesday how it plans to enforce the controversial law while making sure citizens know their rights.

The Times Picayune