August 29, 2007
Hurricane Katrina, Two Years Later
UPDATED.
Commemorating the moment Hurricane Katrina smashed the levees protecting New Orleans on this day in 2005, a huge crowd of people rang individual bells for two minutes at an event this morning. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (D) addressed the assembly, saying, "We ring the bells for a city that is in recovery. It is struggling and performing miracles on a daily basis."
"We ring the bells for hope that the promise that was made at Jackson Square will become a reality and will restore a confidence in government at all levels," Nagin said, referring to President Bush's assurances of federal assistance during a September 2005 speech at the French Quarter landmark.
Those bells rang out as Bush himself touched on a similar topic before a different crowd in New Orleans. Speaking at a charter school, Bush also took up bureaucracy and the divide between the levels of government, saying that after the storm, people in New Orleans "probably wondered whether those in the federal government... would pay attention to whether or not progress is begin made. And I hope people understand we're still paying attention. We understand."
(NPR's coverage used Nagin and Bush's separate events to point out a microcosm of the lack of coordination between the levels of government: At roughly the same time that Bush observed a moment of silence to commemorate the victims of Katrina, Nagin presided over the tolling of the bells -- distinctly un-silently.)
The president gave a nod to rebuilding, wetlands restoration and cooperation with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D), who slammed Bush for his response to the disaster two years ago -- and recently announced that she will not run for re-election.
But most of the president's speech focused on education. He praised the principal of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology and called the school a "beacon for hope" and a "tribute to the fact that there's teachers who taught in makeshift classrooms during the renovation."
Today marks the 15th time Bush has visited New Orleans since the disaster hit. It's probably safe to say that his appearance today was more shrewdly staged than his infamous fly-over of the area after cutting his 2005 vacation short to survey the damage -- a trip that opened the floodgates (so to speak) of criticism about his handling of the disaster.
Those floodgates still haven't really closed. Polls show dismal numbers for the president and his administration on their management of the disaster, although most Americans don't give high marks for the performance of state or local government officials, either. More than 1,800 people were killed in Louisiana and Mississippi and nearly 300,000 were displaced during the storm, and many people blamed officials' lack of a coordinated response for the devastation and haunting images of desperate people trapped on the roofs of their houses and inside the sweltering Superdome.
Officials are still hoping to regain some public trust through recovery efforts. Bush's Gulf Coast rebuilding chief, Don Powell, told the Associated Press that the feds have dedicated $114 billion to the region, $96 billion of which is already disbursed or available to local governments -- but Powell again poked at the discordance between the levels of government and "implied it is local officials' fault, particularly in Louisiana where the pace has been slower, if money has not reached citizens."
As for the levees themselves, Powell said they aren't prepared for another storm but are scheduled to be strengthened by 2015 -- a full decade after Hurricane Katrina hit. Billions of dollars will be requested for the project.
Events will continue all day: Thousands of people gathered this morning for sunrise services, the dedication of a new memorial and a slew of other commemorations, two years after Hurricane Katrina made landfall and devastated sections of the Gulf Coast. Bush and the first lady will head to the Mississippi coast later this afternoon.
NPR and CNN have extensive coverage of the anniversary, and the Washington Post has a video tour of New Orleans.
Posted at 11:55 AM
Posted to:
Bush Administration, Katrina, President Bush
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