Katrina: 5 Years Later

[Dave]

Hard to believe its been 5 years already from the tragedy that happened
in New Orleans and elsewhere on the Gulf Coast. I believe the biggest
lesson learned was that all the government agencies need to be on the
same page and that they all have to work together. Blame for the number
of deaths that occurred, particularly in New Orleans can be spread
around a bit although IMO, plenty of that blame goes to the local and
state government. They waited to long to give the order to evacuate and
did not use every means possible to get people out (i.e. we all remember
the parking lot full of school buses that were not used). Obviously,
the federal government had their issues too... mainly with FEMA. At the
point of time prior to the hurricane hitting the gulf coast, the guy in
charge of FEMA had already been through 3 hurricane situations and
handled them with little problem. His leadership with the Katrina event
though was woefully slow and in the end cost him his job.

The gulf coast is still recovering, in particular New Orleans, and it will
probably take years still for a complete recovery. They do have better
defenses against the storm surge but still have other things to do to
help make the levees more secure, making sure they will hold up to
another strong storm. Hopefully the lessons learned will actually be
remembered by those with capability to do something should the situation
happens again!

[Edie Lindsey]

The Corps of Engineers have done a few projects to make it less likely to happen , but we can only wait and see what might happen if another Cat 4 or worse hits there again. Terrible place to have a city.

I think LA's governor will have a better clue as to what needs to be done, but this year's gulf oil problem shows that the Federales have a lot to learn in managing emergencies.

[Sweater Cows!]

How about. Don't build a city(or add neighborhoods) in a flood plain.

Seems simple enough for me to figure out.

[Dave]

True True... building a city that actually sits lower then sea level near a very large body of water doesn't exactly make a lot of sense.

[Mary A.]

That's my feeling, too. It seems to me that those who have now moved back to the areas that were destroyed by Katrina did not heed the wake up call. Same as when the Mississippi River wreaked havoc not that many years ago. Common sense gets clouded by emotional attachment to a place. I know I've never been in those shoes before, but as a taxpayer I get frustrated at having to bail my fellow Americans out only to see them decide to rebuild in the same place.