5 Years Post-Katrina, President Obama Applauds Resilience, Reform, & Recovery

By Miles Wolf Tamboli - The Talk Radio News Service

President Obama travelled to New Orleans, Sunday, to deliver an address to a city that, five years earlier, experienced the catastrophic effects of a category five hurricane, named Katrina, which changed the lives of millions along the Gulf Coast. 

In his address, the President focused on the progress the city has made since the disaster, and the inimitable resilience of the Coast’s residents.

“We’ve seen many return to their beloved city with a new-found sense of appreciation and obligation to this community,” said the President.

Obama detailed the recent achievements and successes of New Orleans’ housing system, justice system, and the recent re-opening of Charity Hospital, and specifically mentioned the hard work of New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) for striving to build the city’s infrastructure to a level higher than it had been before the disaster.

The President also enlightened residents on a decision the administration adopted on Friday to direct $1.8 billion to Orleans parish schools so that they may continue to become, “a model of innovation for the nation.”

“You’re not just rebuilding,” said the President; “you’re rebuilding stronger than before.”

The administration promises to have rebuilt the levees by next year, and pledges to improve emergency planning and response so that, “never again in America is somebody left behind in a disaster because they are living with a disability, or because they’re elderly, or because they’re infirm,” assured the President.

President Obama also remarked on his continued commitment to holding BP accountable for the oil spill that has made recovery from the prior disaster that much more difficult.

Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast on April 29th, 2005, taking the lives of nearly 2,000 and leaving over $81 billion in damage in its wake.

FEMA Recovery Slow, Says D.C. Delegate

By Laura Smith, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held a meeting on the status of the recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita four years ago called “Final Breakthrough on the Billion Dollar Katrina Infrastructure Logjam: How is it working?”

However, according to Chairwoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) some of the new ideas proposed to help with the recovery of Katrina are just now coming to fruition.

She said FEMA resisted efforts to break the logjam preferring its own traditional devices. She also discussed HR 3247, which the house passed in October 2007 encouraging the use of third parties to review and expedite public assistance appeals, as well as for projects up to $100,000.

“We passed this bill, which also raised the federal contribution of certain projects from 75 percent to 90 percent, not once but twice. It is sad the administration wasn’t able to pass this legislation,” Norton said during a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing Tuesday.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) said he’s experienced working with FEMA and seen great success with them alongside the delays that may occur.

“We all know addressing the delays in public assistance ... is critical in the recovery process following a major disaster like a hurricane. Unfortunately delays have plagued the recovery process in Louisiana, and also in other states that were impacted by Katrina and Rita,” he said.

He said that since then Congress has taken a number of steps to strengthen FEMA and to try to ensure that Louisiana and other states can recover. Still, Diaz-Balart said delays still persist.

FEMA deputy administrator Dave Garratt said he’s recognized there’s still steps that must be taken in regard to recovery in states like Louisiana and that they are at no means able to say 'mission accomplished.'

“We recognize that there’s still much to do, and we intend to work with our partners to make sure it happens,” Garratt said.

Recent disasters challenging and improving FEMA

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery held a hearing on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) performance in handling disasters since Katrina. Chairwoman Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said there have been 169 major disasters and 250 federal emergencies since Katrina.

David Maxwell, Director of the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, said he was very pleased with FEMA’s creativity in responding to storms in his state, but said the Administration took fourteen days to respond to a request for assistance. James Bassham, Director of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, said that after several tornadoes hit in his state, a FEMA liaison arrived in two hours and a response team arrived the next morning. Stephen Sellers, Deputy Director in the Regional Operations Division for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, said local responders worked side by side with FEMA to provide assistance after wildfires.

Admiral Harvey E. Johnson, Deputy Administrator at FEMA, said the Administration took a lot of criticism and scrutiny after Katrina, but has improved greatly since then. FEMA has increased cooperation and collaboration with local and state responses, creating a national response framework that dictates how each level works together. Regarding recent disasters, Johnson said FEMA worked with local responders after tornadoes in Tennessee to reach rural areas and register victims. Now, FEMA is responding to flooding in the Midwest. Johnson said FEMA is working hard to build a response system free of bureaucratic red tape that may impede response times.

White House Gaggle

Briefer: Tony Fratto,

President’s Schedule:

At 9.45 am, President Bush is briefed on the Midwest flooding situations. At 10:20 am, the President meets with the Former Commander of the International Security Assistance Force in the Oval Office of the White House. This afternoon, President Bush will make remarks in honor of Black Music Month.

Deputy White House Press Secretary Tony Fratto will brief the press at 12.30 pm today.

Flooding in the Midwest

Fratto was asked if they know what kind of economical impact this will have; and he said that the President will hear about this in this morning’s meeting and Fratto will get a readout from it that will give us a better view. “Obviously the human cost is something that you cannot put a value on … the impact on agriculture is also very substantial.” It has been a very well integrated effort both on federal and local levels, Fratto said.

The President is traveling to the region on Thursday but no exact itinerary has been announced yet.
When asked about the 27 levees that are said to be at risk, Fratto was questioned about the President’s confidence in the job of the Army Corps of Engineering’s. He responded that the Corps takes this very seriously and maintaining levees around the country is one of their top priorities. We will wait to see what will come out of the meeting and the Corps will report on those levees and the ones that have broken this morning.

When asked about the impact on food cost that are already high, Frattos said that food prices are very volatile and it is too early to speculate, but Ed Lazear of the White House Economical Council as well as the Department of Agriculture are looking at this right now.

Fratto was asked if the President has been told by Administrator Paulison or others, that this flooding is on the scale comparable with Hurricane Katrina, and he responded that he had not heard that comparison. “I am not sure that anyone would make those kinds of comparisons between really different kinds of natural disasters. …It is a very large significant scale affecting tens if not hundreds of thousands of people, and we’ve got life lost and money lost. He continued: “Katrina and the hurricane that followed …was one of the all time unusual natural weather events that this or any country ever had to deal with. This flooding is significant and has been referred to as one in 500-year-flood.” Fratto also said; “I think that the team that is involved in this, clearly learned lots of lessons from Katrina, and I think that those lessons appear to be paying off.”

Furthermore, Fratto talked about the importance of communication, integration and being able to anticipate what the needs are going to be, in dealing any kind of natural disaster.


Israel and Hamas
When asked about a peace agreement between Israel and Hamas, Fratto said that he had not heard that.

Red Cross: Not ready for nature’s potential

At a congressional briefing, Red Cross Disaster Services Senior Vice President Joe Becker said that, in the event of the worst potential disaster, the Red Cross would not be fully prepared. He said that the Red Cross is completely prepared to handle the kind of disasters experts have predicted, even one that is worse than hurricane Katrina. He said that the Red Cross is currently dealing with at least 15 crises all over the country. He said the Red Cross has the potential to deliver up to four thousand volunteers per day depending on the severity of the disaster and the need for intervention.

Becker said that the hurricane season lasts from June to November and there is a 70 percent chance that at least a category three hurricane will hit the east coast sometime this year. He said that currently the Red Cross has the ability to serve one million meals per day for as many days as is necessary. Becker said that the red cross has over 49,000 buildings it can use as shelters during a disaster, and these buildings can hold up to 5.3 million people.

One of the major problems, Becker said, was a failing IT system used during hurricane Katrina. He said that the new IT system currently in place can hold up to ten million cases and there only 2.3 million in the database at this time. He also said that only eight to ten percent of Americans have taken the necessary precautions against severe weather.