Sad but Resurgent, New Orleans Marks Katrina's Fourth Anniversary

AALP started Hands Around the Dome in 2006 as a way of celebrating the resilience of the people of New Orleans and held the ceremony again in 2007, but it was cancelled in 2008 because of Hurricane Gustav. No hurricane is forecast to disrupt this year's event.

Rising flood waters inundate downtown New Orleans and surround the Superdome, August 31, 2005. (U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate Airman Jeremy L. Grisham)

Dr. Mtangulizi Sanyika, AALP project manager, said, "The Hands Around the Dome Ceremony is our way of remembering the human suffering and pain caused by the unexpected flooding of the city, the human errors and the failure of the emergency response system to adequately respond to the crisis."

In addition to the ceremony, Hands Around the Dome participants will discuss three issues: how safe are the levees? what is the state of the recovery? and what did Katrina and Gustav teach us about our readiness for the next one?

While the Atlantic hurricane season is forecast to be only moderately active this year due to the warm waters of El Nino in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, Gulf Coast residents know there will always be a next one.

Following the dialogue, participants will march from the council chambers to the Superdome, and circle it in a hand-held vigil of reflection and remembrance.

The largest fixed domed structure in the world, the Superdome was the "shelter of last resort" for 30,000 desperate New Orleans residents unable to flee the hurricane.

On the morning of August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm with winds of 175 miles per hour. The final death toll was 1,836 people, which made it the third deadliest hurricane in U.S. history.

Katrina's storm surge led to 53 breaches in the federally built levee system around metro New Orleans. The entire population of New Orleans was displaced as a result of Hurricane Katrina and the breaks in the levees which flooded most of the city and surrounding communities, especially St. Bernard Parish.

On Saturday, St. Bernard Parish will hold a ceremony at the Katrina Monument at Shell Beach, which bears the names of St. Bernard's 163 storm deaths. Parish President Craig P. Taffaro Jr. said these events commemorate the storm's aftermath and celebrate the "citizens' zeal about day-to-day steps in the parish's recovery."

In Orleans Parish, the city of New Orleans is holding the annual ceremonial bell ringing at 9 am, symbolizing the moment the levees breached. Mayor Ray Nagin and City Council members will be present to unveil a plaque for the Katrina Memorial, which serves as a burial place for unidentified and unclaimed victims of the storm. An outdoor festival in Congo Square, Armstrong Park will begin after the ceremony.

Houses in the Lower 9th Ward, New Orleans, March 6, 2006. (Photo by Ed Yourdon)

In the 9th Ward, the New Orleans Katrina Commemoration Foundation is holding a march beginning at 10 am from the Lower 9th Ward Levee Breach at Jourdan and North Galvez. Eighty Tulane University students will volunteer at the commemoration march from the 9th Ward to the 7th Ward, as part of the university's annual day of service. The march will be followed by a block party and health fair in the 7th Ward.

Mayor Ray Nagin said, "As we gather this weekend to commemorate the storms of 2005, New Orleanians will remember their family members and friends that were lost and those who remain displaced and have not been able to return home. But they will also be encouraged by the progress that we've made in four years and the recovery that continues. We are rebuilding a city that will be better and stronger than ever before."

The City of New Orleans has begun infrastructure construction projects that will total more than $1.2 million, including more than $640 million that is being spent to restore streets and roadways throughout the city. The city is repairing public buildings, playgrounds and parks and plans to construct five new libraries.

On Tuesday, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal marked the opening of the first newly constructed public school completed in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina, the Langston Hughes Academy Charter School, an open-enrollment public charter school serving more than 400 students in grades K-7.

"The partnership of federal, state and local government was able to cut through the bureaucracy and make government work to fit the real needs of Louisianians," said the governor. "There is no doubt that we need to see more of this teamwork at all levels of government as we continue to rebuild and recover from the effects of four hurricanes."

A new report from New Orleans consultants GCR and Associates finds that "the most striking aspect of the region's recovery over the past four years is how quickly it has proceeded." The population is at nearly 80 percent of pre-Katrina and the population for the New Orleans region is 88 percent of what it was before the storm. A total of $26 billion in construction is either completed, underway or in final design in New Orleans.

However, GCR expressed concern about the number of vacant or abandoned properties in many neighborhoods. "We estimate this number to be 67,000 – nearly 20,000 vacant pre-storm locations and over 46,000 directly related to the storm's impact and flooding," GCR said in April.

Sculpture at Heritage Park near the Convention Center commemorates the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina. (Photo by ArtbyMags)

Improving access to mental health care services is a critical issue in post-Katrina New Orleans where an estimated one in three people have battled symptoms of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder in the four years since the storm.

REACH NOLA, a nonprofit partnership of local health and social service agencies, Tulane University and the RAND Corporation, is bringing together mental health care providers and community organizations for a conference on Thursday. A primary panel will focus on a program that offers free training to mental health care providers helping people recover faster from behavioral health issues related to the disaster.

President Barack Obama is not scheduled to visit New Orleans for the anniversary, but he has put his Cabinet to work to speed recovery.

In an Oval Office interview ahead of the fourth anniversary of Katrina, President Obama said, "In terms of rebuilding, two of my best Cabinet members, Secretary [Janet] Napolitano of Homeland Security and HUD Secretary [Shaun] Donovan, have been spending an extraordinary amount of time thinking about how to deal with the blockage of assistance in the region."

"As a consequence of their efforts," the President said, "we have already seen a billion dollars that had already been appropriated, but was stuck, now released. Projects like Southern University of New Orleans now getting million of dollars for reconstruction. Schools, they are now getting the help they need, police departments, fire departments, infrastructure projects finally getting on line."

But many believe that more federal help is needed in the form of the job creation that would be authorized if the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act (HR 2269) is enacted. The bill would create 100,000 prevailing-wage jobs for Gulf Coast residents and displaced survivors to rebuild the public infrastructure and restore the environment that was damaged in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

On Friday in Washington, DC, activists will rally in front of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office to seek her support for the bill. They will deliver to Pelosi more than 10,000 signed petitions in support of HR 2269, and an open letter to the Speaker.

In the open letter, the advocates ask that Pelosi require the chairs of the five House committees where the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act appears stalled to report back to her on the bill before the Congressional winter recess. Their only other request is that the Speaker sign on as a co-sponsor to the bill.

The Gulf Coast Civic Works Act has 30 bi-partisan co-sponsors, and the support of 240 community, faith, environment, labor and student organizations, the New Orleans City Council, the Bayou Parishes of Lafourche and Terrebonne, the Louisiana Republican Party, and the California and Missouri Democratic Parties.

Fragile vanishing wetlands separate the MRGO, left, from Lake Borgne, right. (Photo courtesy Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Conservation and Restoration Task Force)

A coalition of 17 advocacy groups today urged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to honor President Obama's priority in his budget and campaign "to restore nature's barriers - the wetlands, marshes and barrier islands that can take the first blows and protect the people of the Gulf Coast."

Members of the MRGO Must Go Coalition held a news conference and media tour to show the slow progress in restoring wetlands east of New Orleans along the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, MRGO. Once restored, these wetlands would protect the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish, where Katrina did the most damage.

"The more vulnerable coastal communities are to hurricane damage, the more it costs the federal government - and taxpayers - to help those communities recover after a storm," said Pam Dashiell, co-director of the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development. "Katrina devastated both the Gulf Coast and the U.S. economy, causing nearly $90 billion in property damage alone."

Four years after Katrina, Congress has been unable to fund major coastal restoration projects it authorized in the 2007 Water Resources Development Act because the Corps has not completed the projects' design and engineering. Completion of the Corps' MRGO Ecosystem Restoration Plan is estimated for March 2011, nearly three years after the deadline required by Congress.

Copyright Environment News Service, ENS, 2009. All rights reserved.