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November 2005 Katrina Fatigue - After three months so much remains to be done to bring this city back to life. As we move through November 2005, it seems that Washington wishes New Orleans was off its radar scope. 1,000 people are dead and Mayor Nagin reports 4,000 are still missing.

Power is still off in most of the flooded areas including mid-city as well as Lakeview, the East and the 9'th ward. Entergy New Orleans is bankrupt and the feds say this time they wont provide a bailout. The unflooded areas including Algiers, Uptown, the CBD, Quarter and Metairie are up and running. Over 300 restaurants are open. The twin spans are half open. Tolls are back in force. The shopping season is well under way. New Orleans still has a curfew even in the unaffected areas.

Debris is everywhere. Although millions of cubic yards have been collected, the efforts are slowing down, but there is still plenty left. West End Blvd has been cleared of construction debris from Vets to Harrison. There is still plenty of vegetation debris stacked from Harrison north. We continue to hear that the contracts are going through so many levels that $40 paid by the feds to remove a yard of debris ends up as $6 in the hands of the company actually doing the work.

FEMA still pays for 150,000 New Orleanians in hotels and motels around the country and they want them out. They have extended the deadline once and may have to do it again as they don't know where to put them. FEMA also extended the one way return ticket offer until Feb '07.

FEMA still hasn't been able to place many trailers although a few are cropping up. A few more cropped up and neighbors complained that FEMA was crowding too many in too small a space, inviting problems. FEMA moved half.

Nobody eats MRE's anymore or even talks about them.

The legislature held a 17 day emergency session. They balanced the budget and took over the NO public schools but they didn't fix the levee boards and no one mentioned the Bond Commission's approval of $45 million of pork projects. Algiers charter schools opened and the first NOPS school is open.

The Corps of Engineers is continuing with their plan to restore the levees to their pre-Katrina state although this is obviously inadequate. It's just a plan though as no contracts to actually move dirt have been let. The National Science Foundation and some Dutch engineers have come and gone (Mary Landrieu still has a trip to the Netherlands planned. Perhaps she'll put her finger in a dike).  The Corps pulled up four sheet pilings and found them to be 23 feet six inches, as specified. I thought they went to seventeen feet below sea level, 23 feet would be seventeen feet below grade, weren't those earthen berms about seven feet tall before they added the sheet piling?

Now it's up to Congress. They are on recess. The President has other problems. The mayor is on vacation. There is a select committe hearing and its time for Congress to recess again until February.



  • Debris Removal : A tale of two cities. :: Continue reading...


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    Created : 11/26/2005 5:15:02 PM Updated: 2/19/2007 9:41:37 PM

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