Word: flooding
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...weeks before the lights come back on and months before New Orleans is mopped out, a year before the refugees resettle in whatever will come to function as home, even without anything precious from the days before the flood. But it may take even longer than that before the nature of this American tragedy is clear: whether the storm of '05 is remembered mainly as the worst natural disaster in our history or the worst response to a disaster in our history. Or both...
...Among other things, it pays for all kinds of invisible but essential safety nets and life belts and guardrails that are useless right up until the day they are priceless. Furious critics charged last week that the government had not heard the warnings. Instead it cut the funds for flood control and storm preparations, mangled the chain of command, missed every opportunity. And an angry debate opened about how much the demands of the Iraq war, on both the budget and the National Guard, were eating into the country's ability to protect itself at home. Louisiana Republican Congressman...
...have been expensive--in the billions, most likely. But certainly less costly than the Katrina recovery will turn out to be. Preventive work, however, would have had to start in the 1990s. That's how long the improvements would have taken. In 1996, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project to upgrade levees and drainage and pumping stations along the Mississippi River. But Congress and successive Administrations were never willing to fund the project fully. Under George W. Bush, the shortfall was acute: from 2001 to 2005, the Corps asked for almost $496 million, according to figures supplied...
...every hurricane, not everybody would be leaving. In truth, few U.S. cities have good plans for taking out the sick, the elderly and those without cars of their own. The situation in New Orleans, though, was particularly dire. Officials knew that the least mobile residents lived in the most flood-prone part of town. But they had no solution. "When I asked that question, I got a lot of unsure looks," says Brian Wolshon, an engineer with the L.S.U. team who helped design the evacuation plans with state police and transportation officials...
...neared New Orleans, the Voodoo Child touched down in a tiny field next to an apartment building whose residents, many of them physically and mentally disabled, were trapped inside by the flood waters. As they filed into the helicopter with the most meager of belongings, the emotional pain of the adults contrasted with the excitement of children like Dawonne Matthews, 11, who was taking his first 'copter ride, joyfully sporting the helmet that crew chief Cpl. Jessica Buckley, 25, had given him to wear. "We've never felt so forgotten in our lives," said Dawonne's mother, Trinise Henry...