On Hurricane Katrina's Anniversary, 5 Themes Emerge
Hurricane Katrina laid bare a whole host of unseemly truths about our nation, many which we would have continued to blissfully ignore had the waters not broken through New Orleans' levees five years ago today.
As it happens, this summer's oil spill hit the region at the worst time -- not when it was on its knees, but when it already had one knee up, poised to push itself into a standing position.
Everyone from President Obama to Spike Lee is reflecting on the anniversary this week; The media is bursting with stories of hope and despair, of progress and setback, of inspiration and anger. So it's pretty clear this is a story with no ending yet. Here are five major themes that I take away:
1) New Orleans' new levees are a big improvement, but the Gulf is still losing 32 football fields of wetlands every day.
The big story on this 5th anniversary is that the Army Corps of Engineers is well on its way to building a massively improved protection system for New Orleans, one that has residents' and advocates' approval. About half of the work is complete, and the rest should be finished this summer. One highlight is a $1.3 billion, 26-foot high wall that will supposedly protect the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish from experiencing Katrina-scale devastation ever again. One portion, the "Great Wall of St. Bernard" includes enough steel to build 28 Eiffel Towers.
But much slower progress is being made in restoring Louisiana's disappearing wetlands and barrier islands, which once were natural infrastructure that protected the coast. Every day, the Gulf loses 32 football fields of these marshes. Some groups are hopeful the Corps -- which traditionally went with a "drain first, think later" approach -- is coming around with a new attitude, but urgency there is not.
2) Gulf residents have triumphed in the face of adversity.
Quick, google the Gulf. Most any other day, this might be asking for a dose of depression. But as we tend to on special occasions, reporters and Obama administration officials are out in force gathering anecdotal leads of what's good and inspiring amid the muck.
Take 87-year-old Leah Chase, who is still serving homestyle cooking at Dooky Chase's restaurant, like she has for the last 65 years. She considers herself lucky. Or take Cynthia Morrison, who purchased her first home in New Orleans one month before Katrina only to see it destroyed. She returned to the city within 5 months to rebuild and help others. She began working at a group called Katrina Aid Today and has moved up as a leader in community recovery efforts with the Red Cross. And at Change.org, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson tells the inspiring story of the recovery of her own childhood community at Pontchartrian Park.
3) Despite hopeful stories, the city has far from bounced back.
New Orleans' population is still at 80 percent what it was post-Katrina. In the St. Bernard parish, where almost every building flooded, the population is down by 35 percent and less than 60 percent of buildings are restored. Blight lingers, largely in minority neighborhoods, and poverty remains high, as it was before the spill (23 percent compared with 13 percent nationally). Yet there were pluses that have come with all the rebuilding. Before the oil spill, New Orleans' unemployment rate was the lowest of any large city in the nation, and the city has made benchmark-setting strides in improving the public education system. The long-term impact of the oil spill, however, is still unknown but is sure to be substantial.
As Katrina scholar Jed Horne writes, "Now comes the hard part. Finishing a job that’s no longer glamorous. Call it Recovery 2.0. Sustaining the momentum as money dries up, interest fades, goals become incremental and friends turn fickle. (Please don’t.)"
4) A greener New Orleans?
Rarely does an entire city, let alone one that's more than 250-years old, have the opportunity to re-envision itself. And in many cases, New Orleans is rebuilding itself in a truly green image. More than 200,000 homes were destroyed, and the city has become a "laboratory" for green building groups, such as Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation and the U.S. arm of the international non-profit Global Green USA, an environmental group founded by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, which is in the midst of building a new "sustainable village" in the Lower Ninth Ward.
5) As a poster child for global warming, Hurricane Katrina long ago ran out of its 15-minutes of fame.
Hurricane Katrina became the poster child of global warming for a nation that had been dead-set on ignoring its risks for so long. The aftermath stoked a heated academic debate over whether rising temperatures were in fact causing more frequent or more devastating tropical storms. Five years later, most scientists now believe that, due to warmer sea surface temperatures, climate change will continue fueling more intense tropical storms. That means the Gulf can expect more frequent devastation and much costlier rebuilding efforts. Have we done much to act on our nation's new awareness since the storm? Not really. Have we entirely lost the immediate sense of urgency? Pretty much.
At the very least, federal and private money will pay to build a new climate change education center in the Lower Ninth Ward, in part funded by economic stimulus dollars.
If you would like to help the Gulf in its continuing recovery efforts, Takepart.com lists five ways to take action. Lowernine.org is one organization that seems worthy of a boost. Its workers are teaching carpentry and home building and repair to unskilled residents and volunteers, and has created a prioritized wish list of materials they need.
Photo credit: CogDogBlog via Flickr
Jess Leber
is a Change.org editor. She most recently covered climate and energy issues as a reporter in Washington, D.C
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