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Houses hold up Katrina recovery- Bloggers Respond

by René | April 18, 2007 at 02:33 pm

629 views | 2 Recommendations | 2 comments

Houses hold up Katrina recovery

By Brad Heath, USA TODAY

NEW ORLEANS — An ambitious effort to bulldoze more than 9,000 rotting houses still standing after Hurricane Katrina has slowed sharply this year, prolonging the city's attempts to rebuild blighted neighborhoods, city and federal records show.

The homes — some almost untouched since Katrina struck a year and a half ago — are a lingering icon of the storm's devastation and one of the biggest obstacles to New Orleans' rebirth. More than half of the houses ruined during Katrina haven't been razed, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates that the debris from them would fill several times the volume of the Empire State Building.

A comment posted a few days ago says it all:

7d ago

Some
of these comments disgust me. Some of you folks are just plain
clueless. Except for some who got insurance money, and the majority of
our claims were DENIED, most people got some help from FEMA from
Louisiana but we have received NONE of the "freebie" Federal dollars
yet. You are completely clueless if you think we (the people) have
gotten ANY of the billions that we were supposed to get to rebuild.
Haven't you heard that only 2300 of over 350,000 people have received
some form of Federal grant money thus far. These monies by the way are
LOANS unless all requirements are fulfilled over a 5 year period and
then they may be forgiven. Pay attention. Mississippi had less than 1/2
of the people displaced than Louisiana and they got their money very
quickly. We are still fighting for FEMA to pay for the debris removal
and sewerage removal they are supposed to pay for. The debris
contractors haven't been paid by FEMA in over 11 months.
Inspector...you show your true ignorance. Plenty of us are cleaning up
but we don't have a DUMP to bring the debris to. We don't have phone
service, sewer service as the infrastructure is destroyed, many places
still have no electricity, again, infrastructure destroyed. We're not
lazy, give us the RESOURCES to do it and we'll be happy to.

Thanks Katrina Local blogger from the New Orleans area provided this video link to the Times-Picayune Neighborhood Videos: Neighborhoods-StrongRoots

Third Battle of New Orleans with comments on the Media 'Flog' on recent happenings in Virginia, along with several contributors views on New Orleans and Recovery

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

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recommend This comment thread is now closed

Brian A Kennedy

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 03:28 on April 19th, 2007

René, you've convinced me you've done the work - it's authentic. I also think that you've been fair and thorough. I didn't get the sense that you were hiding your biases, or passing off other's work as your own. Or worse -- getting paid by those you cover -- so it's transparent and independent. I also think you deserve praise for being an eyewitness, and for your investigative efforts. Good stuff.

René

at 15:28 on April 22nd, 2007

Thanks, New Orleans, for adding all those so personal photos.

When I was in New Orleans for five months this year, I found it very difficult to travel just through Mid-City and document the destruction. I found I could only handle taking photos of the most beautiful parts that survived.

It's not just the Ninth Ward that was destroyed. All the low and mid range rental places in Mid-City were also made uninhabitable. All the places local owners would rent to out-of-towners coming for Mardi Gras, JazzFest, and other events. And all services, utilities in that area is still sporadic and often service is interrupted with resultant damages.