Katrina

One Year Later

It’s been a year since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the coast of New Orleans, devastating everything in her wake. The recovery was plagued by incompetance, fraud and negligence. A year after the disaster, the area is struggling to its feet, but there is still a long way to go. And judging from recent stories, the government may not have learned from many of its mistakes. Here’s your Big Issue Toolkit: The Anniversary of Katrina.

Facts For The Good Fight

ONE — PEOPLE NOT COMING BACK

New Orleans remains smaller than it was, with repopulation “well under half its prestorm population of 460,000.” It could be that rents remain sky-high; a new report from demographer Greg Rigamer finds that “average rents have risen about 40 percent, and the average selling price of homes in areas not affected by flooding rose about 25 percent.” [NY Times; Think Progress]

TWO — NOT READY FOR STORM SEASON

A year after the disaster struck, the head of the Army Corps of Engineers said this weekend that that the partially repaired levee system in New Orleans may not hold up if another hurricane hits. Bad news, with Hurricane Ernesto powering up. [CBS]

THREE — RECOVERY AID COMING AS A TRICKLE

Congress has passed four emergency spending bills to rebuild areas hit by hurricane Katrina; federal agencies have only managed to spend $44 billion. Example: Although $10 billion has been approved for small business loans to people hit by Katrina, only 20% of that has gone out. Experts blame red tape, no coherent rebuilding strategy and poor oversight. [LA Times]

FOUR — CORRUPTION

According to a new report by the House Committee on Government Reform’s minority office, “The government awarded 70 percent of its contracts for Hurricane Katrina work without full competition, wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in the process.” Out of “$10.6 billion in contracts awarded after the storm last year, more than $7.4 billion were handed out with limited or no competitive bidding.” But don’t wait for lessons learned – even though government audits showed three companies — Bechtel, CH2M Hill and Fluor – had wasted government money in the hurricane efforts, FEMA for recently gave them a sweet new $400 million contract for future disaster work. [Boston Globe]

FIVE — POLL NUMBERS

People aren’t satisified with the job the government has done to help the area get back on its feet. According to new polls, 57% of people in the 91 affected counties in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama say the $44 billion spent on hurricane recovery was wasted money. In New Orleans, one of the hardest hit areas, that’s true of 66%. More than 80% of New Orleans residents are frustrated with the recovery process, and 78% say they aren’t confident the government could handle another disaster. [ABC News]

FINAL FACT

U.S. school children raised $10 million for Katrina relief, “more than [the amount] almost every major U.S. corporation gave.” (Only Wal-Mart, Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati, Exxon, Freddie Mac, and BP Amoco gave more.) [ABC News blog]