Last January, at the age of 15, Jermaine Howard stopped going to school. Attendance seemed pointless: Jermaine, living with his father and brother in the evacuee trailer park known as Renaissance Village since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, had not managed to earn a single credit in more than two years. Read More...

Even before the storm, they were some of the country's neediest kids. Now, the children of Katrina who stayed longest in ramshackle government trailer parks in Baton Rouge are "the sickest I have ever seen in the U.S.," says Irwin Redlener, president of the Children's Health Fund and a professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Read More...

BILOXI, Miss. -- Following Hurricane Katrina, more than 6,000 Mississippi residents received a three-year, FEMA-funded group flood insurance policy. Each applicant that received federal assistance following Katrina was issued a certificate of insurance for the total amount of disaster assistance received up to a maximum of $26,200. The Group Flood Insurance Policy (GFIP) will expire on October 28, 2008.
Applicants who received federal disaster assistance for damage to their uninsured home, business or other personal property were automatically issued coverage under the GFIP. They received notification of the coverage at the time payment was received. Because a GFIP is non-renewable, grant recipients were also notified that they must purchase an individual flood insurance policy upon expiration of the GFIP. The policies were funded by FEMA and administered by the State of Mississippi.
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NEW ORLEANS—After a three-year absence spent wallowing in guilt for killing several hundred Louisiana residents and leaving the city in shambles, Hurricane Katrina returned to New Orleans Tuesday to beg the Crescent City for forgiveness, destroying everything in its path and killing hundreds.


"I've had a long time to think about what I've done to you all, and I realize now that it was wrong," Hurricane Katrina reportedly told residents. "I knew I shouldn't have been coming in so fast, but I guess I didn't know my own strength. A lot of people have blamed the levees, but if I'm truly honest, I knew they wouldn't hold. It was stupid of me, and for that, I apologize."

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Hurricane Gustav gave the state of Louisiana a test for which it had
> three years to prepare. There were thousands of poor, sick, disabled
> and elderly people who could not get out on their own. They needed to
> be rescued with dispatch, and sheltered in safety and dignity.
>
> One simple test. The state flunked.
>
> Three years to the week after Hurricane Katrina's landfall, Louisiana
> executed a fundamentally unfair evacuation plan and did it badly. It
> relied on dividing the population into separate streams: People with
> their own cars were directed to shelters run by parishes, churches
> and the Red Cross. People with medical problems not requiring
> hospitalization were taken to special shelters. Sex offenders had a
> shelter to themselves.
>
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More than a week after Hurricane Gustav pushed water over the ring levee protecting the island in south Terrebonne Parish, where descendants of several American Indian communities still live, Naquin, chief of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians, declared: "This is my last one. I'm not going to keep doing this."

Naquin says it is time for the island's remaining residents to move farther inland, surrendering their way of life to the twin threats of storm surge and coastal erosion.

Even as he spoke, another reminder of the island's vulnerability was closing in. Hurricane Ike brought a 9-foot storm surge a little more than a week later, overtopping the island's 6- to 7-foot levee and swamping homes again. The exasperated chief reiterated what he said after Gustav: This is the last hurricane season he will seek relief for those who refuse to move off the island. Read More...

Pierre and Marilyn Naquin stand on the deck of their home on Isle de Jean Charles Wednesday. The couple said they wouldn't relocate off the island, no matter what.

Jean Charles, leaving splintered wood, twisted metal, wrecked homes, water and
mud in their wake.
The generations of people who have lived and died on the narrow, one-and-a-half-
mile-long marshy ridge in southeast Terrebonne have just as faithfully slogged
through the muck, climbed up rickety staircases, patched roofs, replaced windows
and rebuilt their homes.
But these days, the islanders returning to reassemble their houses and lives are
older. And there are fewer of them than ever before.
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Tropical Storm Gustav drifted away from Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Wednesday after killing 22 people and was set to become a dangerously powerful hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico oil fields.
A woman crosses a street during rains caused by tropical storm Gustav in Port-au-Prince August 26, 2008. (REUTERS/Evens Felix)

Oil prices rose as Gustav appeared likely to be the first serious storm in three years to threaten U.S. energy facilities in the Gulf, home to a quarter of U.S. oil production and 15 percent of its natural gas production.

While the storm's eventual U.S. landfall could be anywhere from the Florida panhandle to Texas, Gustav's most likely track is directly toward New Orleans, the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
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Thee years after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the New Orleans area, there is indisputable evidence of recovery.

Houses are being repaired or built. New and long-established restaurants are seeing busier days. Health care institutions are reopening. Music is pouring out of crowded clubs lining Frenchmen Street. Streetcars are clattering once again along the entire St. Charles Avenue line.

And sales of cafe au lait and beignets at Cafe du Monde's legendary French Quarter stand have climbed back to about 80 percent of what they were before the storm struck on Aug. 29, 2005, said Jay Roman, vice president of the business.
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Three years—more than a thousand days—have passed since Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans on August 29, 2005.

For a thousand days displaced residents have wondered when they would be able to move back into their old homes. For a thousand days, business owners have dreamed of the day that their establishment could be as successful as before Katrina. And for a thousand days, the outpouring of emotion and support for Katrina victims has met its match in the anger and frustration of the sluggish and careless responses from governmental agencies.
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George W. Bush's New Orleans was a photo opportunity: floodlights glaring on him in New Orleans's historic Jackson Square as he promised that the city would be stronger than ever after Hurricane Katrina. Nearly three years later, the scene remains a grim reminder of failure at the federal, state, and city levels—especially for those of us who have been to New Orleans.

I've visited New Orleans many times as both reporter and tourist. My New Orleans? Meals at Brennan's, Galatoire's, and Commander's Palace. Or walks through the French Quarter at night, listening to the jazz or just taking in the sounds and smells of the place.
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NEW ORLEANS, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Three years after Hurricane Katrina wrecked parts of New Orleans, all that separates the biggest successes and failures in the city's revival is a short drive.

Fifteen minutes by car takes you from the elegant streets of a French Quarter once more bustling with tourists -- albeit fewer than pre-Katrina -- to areas like New Orleans East, where Ronald Wattigny is still at work.

Wattigny's home was flooded by 4 feet (1.2 metres) of water when the Katrina-lashed levees broke in August 2005, flooding 80 percent of New Orleans and killing almost 1,500 people. The category 3 hurricane caused $125 billion in wind and flood damage along the Gulf of Mexico coast. Read More...

First he lost his home, then his ability to walk. Nearly three years later, he has them both back.

The morning before the storm, George was working his seasonal job at the Hickory Hill Golf Course in Gautier. He wasn’t too worried; the weather reports were saying Katrina was aimed straight at New Orleans.

A few hours later, now heading straight toward Mississippi, the storm had changed course. George didn’t have much time to do the same.

“I didn’t have time to get anything out but me, my dog and a couple changes of clothes,” he said.
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As Tropical Storm Eduardo brushes the Louisiana coast on route to Texas, the event underscores the lack of readiness of Louisiana on many fronts even three years post-Katrina.

Without doubt, the communications systems are in better shape than they were before Katrina and Governor Jindal has certainly crossed the state urging everyone to make a plan should the horrible occur.
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On his newest CD, City That Care Forgot, pianist and New Orleans native Dr. John is unsparing in his criticism of politicians' incompetence, disregard and occasional malice toward his hometown in the wake of Katrina. As always, though, his music channels the life-affirming spirit of the Crescent City's rich traditions and the end result is celebratory rather than gloomy. Read More...

Long-term devastating effects from Hurricane Katrina are still being felt in the southern United States, even as we approach its third anniversary, Northumberland Habitat For Humanity executive director Cathy Lyons said.

Interviewed following her return from the fourth build in Katrinaaffected areas in which Northumberland volunteers have participated, Ms. Lyons said progress in Mississippi is continuing steadily. As for progress in New Orleans, that's another story.

Ms. Lyons and local volunteers first went to the New Orleans area in April 2006, and again in December that year. A build in Biloxi, Mississippi, took place in October 2007, and Ms. Lyons has just returned from the 25th annual Carter Work Project -- the yearly project in which Habitat's most prominent volunteers and supporters, former presidential couple Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, will be participating.

Formerly known as the Jimmy Carter Project, Ms. Lyons said, it has been renamed the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Project -- or, as it is more commonly known, the Carter Work Project -- to honour the former first lady's participation and support every step of the way. It's a move of which Ms. Lyons highly approves.

This year, the Carter Project took place along the Gulf Coast between Houston, Texas, and Gulfport, Mississippi. Team Canada was in Louisiana, with 45 members from across the country.

As they drove around, they found that certain areas (including parts of Slidell) still have no electricity or phone service. However, asked how progress is coming in New Orleans, Ms. Lyons is not as pessimistic as she once was. Even since she was down last fall, she is seeing more activity and efforts -- especially in St. Bernard Parish.

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CHALMETTE, La. (AP) — Nearly three years after Hurricane Katrina, shifting demographics and the loss of community touchstones have rendered tight-knit St. Bernard Parish almost unrecognizable to those who cherished life here before the storm.

By one estimate, less than half the 67,000 pre-storm population is back in this New Orleans suburb, and residents are now poorer and more reliant on services from the cash-strapped parish government, St. Bernard President Craig Taffaro said.

There is no hospital, shopping options are limited, and teachers are in short supply. Many returnees cling to the life they once knew at remnant neighborhood hangouts. Read More...

NEW ORLEANS (BP)—When ABC network television’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition producers brainstormed about the 2008 season finale, their thoughts turned to New Orleans.

On Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, a family—in this case, the Noah’s Ark Missionary Baptist Church family—receives a new or renovated home at no cost.

The family—in this case, Pastor Willie Walker, his wife, Veronica, and their three children—is sent on vacation for a week.
Extreme Makeover star Ty Pennington shows Pastor Willie Walker and his wife, Veronica, the fully stocked kitchen that came with the rebuilt church.
Watch the video.


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On a sunny Saturday in New Orleans, Joy Hines-just in from the snowy Midwest-spent the better part of her day on the floor of an elementary school building, surrounded by paper, paints, and brushes (Figure 1). In fact, some 55 attendees of the TMS 2008 Annual Meeting in March started their trip to Louisiana, not with dining or shopping or socializing, but working to beautify the campus of the flood-ravaged Mary D. Coghill Elementary School. The project was organized by Hands on New Orleans, a nonprofit group that coordinates the efforts of volunteers who want to help in Katrina recovery efforts. All day, TMS members such as Hines, who is chair of the Materials Processing & Manufacturing Division, worked alongside Material Advantage members and other volunteers to paint, build, and plant some life into the drab school campus. When the work was done, TMS had left its mark on the school and the event left its mark on the volunteers. (And, as can be seen on the cover, the students of the school left their mark on JOM.)

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If government agencies are to avoid the kind of flawed responses that exacerbated racially disparate conditions in the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, they must take steps beforehand to address historic patterns of discrimination and inequality.

That's the message conveyed in three reports commissioned by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and released at a national conference on disaster mitigation on May 15-17 at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in New Orleans.

The conference, "Race, Place, and the Environment in the Aftermath of Katrina: Reclaiming, Rebuilding, Revitalizing," was sponsored by the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) at Dillard University in New Orleans. Participants examined the progress of rebuilding efforts in the Gulf Coast region and took a closer look at the state of the recovery in New Orleans.

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