The Shame of Katrina - 10 Years Later

Yes, it has been 10 years since Hurricane Katrina hit Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and most specifically and directly, the city of New Orleans. Levees failed and New Orleans was suddenly under water. Many of us watched and we saw all of the death and misery. People were standing on roofs pleading for help. We saw the flooding, the lack of planning, escape vehicles staged in areas under water. A stadium as a refuge but lacking food, water and infrastructure, filled with parents, children and grandparents for days. Hospitals becoming islands, again without necessary infrastructure and doctors and nurses being forced to make decisions about who would live and who would die. Nursing Homes and their operators unprepared for the emergency and people dying. Neighborhoods wiped out and homes floating by became a regular sight that we all shared. And through it all - no even before - government failed everyone, failed us all. It failed in the preparation, the planning and the response.

Ten years later, two Presidents arrive in New Orleans and celebrate what has been accomplished. Much I'm sure, but the reality is, people are still without their homes - 10 years later. This is the shame of Katrina. It's hard to imagine that people have continued to persevere, living in FEMA housing and waiting for decisions and work to take place. So government continues to fail and hardly anyone notices. The spin is on the success of the French Quarter, a resurgence in tourism and the turn around of local schools. All wonderful, but the slow response in the rebuilding of neighborhoods and homes should be unacceptable to everyone, including the two Presidents who paid a visit last week.