Obama's growing New Orleans controversy

by smkovalinsky | October 15, 2009 at 10:14 am
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Obama's Katrina Controversy

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Obama's Katrina Controversy

One of today's front page Now Public stories, on Obama's Town Hall in New Orleans (see it at:   http://my.nowpublic.com/world/barack-obamas-town-hall-new-orleans-little-more-gumbo-run?)  rightly called the President's meeting there "little more than gumbo run".  The visit continues to draw controversy:

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- President Obama, who as a candidate lambasted the federal government for its response to Hurricane Katrina, is visiting New Orleans, Louisiana, as president for the first time Thursday, and is attracting some criticism of his own.

Four years after Katrina, evidence of the storm's devastation still lingers. About 60,000 properties in New Orleans are still abandoned, and 1,500 people in Louisiana are still living in temporary housing, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The Army Corps of Engineers is only a third of the way through a $15 billion system to provide 100-year flood protection for the city.

However, the agency says 76 disputed projects in Louisiana have been resolved since Obama took office, and more than $1.4 billion in aid has been sent to Louisiana, along with more than $160 million to Mississippi. And it says that more than 89,000 Louisiana households and 45,044 Mississippi households displaced by Katrina -- and by Hurricane Rita, which hit a month later -- have found longer-term housing solutions.

The emergency agency also says more than $1 billion from the stimulus program has been targeted forNew Orleans.

The administration's efforts have received praise. In August, on the fourth anniversary of Katrina, the Times-Picayune quoted Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, as saying he had a lot of respect for emergency management Administrator Craig Fugate and his team.

"There is a sense of momentum and a desire to get things done," the newspaper reported Jindal as saying.

Still, the length and nature of Obama's visit are drawing ire.

Obama will spend less than four hours in New Orleans -- visiting a charter school and holding a town hall meeting -- before flying to a fundraiser in San Francisco, California. He will not be visiting other areas of the Gulf Coast that suffered damage from Katrina in 2005, such as the Mississippi Coast.Still, the length and nature of Obama's visit are drawing ire.

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a211423

Both Mayor Nagin of New Orleans and Govenor Jindal a Republican praised the effforts of the Obama administration, and said they were moving forward.

According to FEMA, 76 of the 120 Louisiana reconstruction projects that were stuck at the beginning of his presidency have been resolved, sending more than $1.4 billion in additional federal aid to Louisiana.  This is in addition to the stimulus money.  Granted the total damage is estimated at 40 billion, and it's going to take a lot more than what the federal government has commited.  

There has been discontent about the slowness of getting projects started.  The projects that have moved forward after having been stalled by disagreements over whether the state or federal government would foot the bill. FEMA is working  to eliminate bureaucracy on backlogs that go back years.

As the storm season approaches much of the U.S., perhaps this visit is an affirmation that what happen in New Orleans will not happen again.

1
Roy C

And it certainly will all happen again when another Katrina comes. Just a matter of time.

Bush's administration handled the last hurricane well. So well that we have forgotten about it.


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