Katrina's Legacy
Two years after the violently punishing catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina up-ended life in New Orleans, the city is still struggling to become what it once was. By all accounts it is so bogged down in its efforts to regain itself that it doesn't appear likely it ever will, entirely.Where once it was a largely black city, it is now a pale imitation of itself. Where once the city's fabled high life and celebrated music had earned it wide admiration and a booming tourist trade, it now boasts but a feeble resemblance to its former glory.
Determined New Orleans residents returned from their hurricane-imposed exile and their ongoing attempts to resurrect that which once was have reached some modicum of success, but they're hampered by many things beyond their control.
Basic services are not yet completely restored, and the rate of violent crime, always a background problem, has soared. Law and order capabilities still lag, and local health care clinics struggle.
Some areas of the city have recovered a mere 10% of their original inhabitants, the destroyed and decaying houses still boarded up, the scant residents who returned making do as best they can in a nightmare vision of recalling what once was and is no longer.
Returned residents elsewhere have been in the process of restoring their homes, investing in their futures, still awaiting the release of promised funding, held up in a dispute between the State and federal authorities.
And then there are an estimated 195,000 Gulf Coast families living in FEMA's famous trailers. The squalid FEMA parks are scattered throughout Gulf Coast communities, encircled by chain-link fencing with single exits and entrances and located in areas unsuitable for human habitation; isolated, beside airports, giving little environmental comfort to their dwellers.
They can be likened to industrial chicken batteries where poultry is cooped in close quarters, in too-close proximity for comfort and health, both physical and mental. Trailers stand side by side, separated by a few metres, without any semblance of normal habitude for families with children, with privacy issues, totally psychologically debilitating to the residents.
Children living in FEMA housing; ghettos for the underprivileged and the helpless, are more susceptible to chronic medical conditions, many do not attend school; health care is not available to families, who also feel themselves completely abandoned by a country and an administration disinclined to deal with their problems.
Violence is prevalent, family break-downs as well. People are bereft of the assurance that all people require wherever they live, that their lives and those of their children are safe from harm. Many of the trailers, lined with wood panelling, are tainted with formaldehyde, leaving some of the people living within their confines with severe respiratory problems.
The traumatic events following on August 28, 2005 when families lost their homes, their sense of belonging, their security, properties, opportunities for education and employment - live still with them. These people have gone from desperately bereft to permanent desolation, with no surcease of their agony in clear sight.
Funds have been approved by the federal government to allow for the production of alternative and affordable housing units but red tape and disagreements between contractors and levels of government ensure that no quick and easy fixes are in the offing. Priorities once again gone astray.
Is this to be believed, in a country as strongly resolute, wealthy and proud as is the United States?
Labels: Environment, Political Realities
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, August 28, 2007
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