Hurricane Katrina Aftermath (and other stuff I find interesting)

Former Gov. Buddy Roemer: Elected officials largely failed LA

Blanco's summary of her actions re: Katrina to Senate Homeland Security committee

1500 register for Algiers charter schools during first week of registration

Uproar ensues over possibility of delayed elections

Toledo OH paper points out that the rest of the country has a short memory on Katrina

San Antonio Express-News - From Fury of Katrina, Opportunity May Arise - and they're not even mentioning the opportunity of them stealing the Saints

Fun editorial on "Spot the next Brownie"

The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, which came to the Gulf Coast in September to collect Hurricane Katrina artifacts, plans another trip in December to seek more.During the initial trip, staff members took more than 900 photographs and collected 20 objects related to the hurricane, including a cot and a New Orleans Hornets basketball banner from the Superdome, which served as an evacuation center for thousands, a sign reading "Have We Been Forgotten" from Houma and a kitchen clock that stopped at 9:25 that was found in a field in Waveland, Miss.

More here

BATON ROUGE (AP) — The state's top election official recommends that the New Orleans' mayoral and city council elections should be delayed because of Hurricane Katrina. more here

Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, which bills itself as a nonpartisan, nonsectarian group, released a statement today that says the group “will campaign for political unity and levee board reform with a day of massive petitioning.” The rally is scheduled at 10:30 a.m. at the Crescent City Farmers Market, 700 Magazine St., in New Orleans. More here

BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Recovery Authority announced it will work with a team of nationally recognized consultants to help hurricane-damaged communities develop their long-term recovery plans. Calthorpe Associates of Berkeley, California; Urban Design Associates of Pittsburgh and Duany Plater-Zyberk Associates of Miami will begin work immediately to develop a comprehensive regional vision for South Louisiana. More here

WESTMINSTER, Md. An act of kindness in Westminster, Maryland, was supposed to help a Louisiana family displaced by Hurricane Katrina -- but the story didn't end happily.

The Reverend Tom DiMaggio of the Firm Foundation Worship Center and his wife Marge donated a home to Sandra and Keith Brown and seven of their eight children. But after the Browns moved out last weekend, the DiMaggios found the house had been trashed and the words "MD sucks" had been spray-painted on the siding.

full story here

This is in the quick hits below, but it deserves a 2nd mention. The quotes from the people returning to their tight-knit community are very moving:
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On Aug. 28, when Mrs. Butler fled the oncoming storm with nothing but an overnight bag, she left the house built by her late husband, Cherry Field Butler, in the care of a guardian angel made of stone. One hundred and one days later, on Thursday, she found a way to focus her grief. "My angel," she said, her voice breaking. "My angel is gone."
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"It's just like going to a funeral," said George Hill, 66, who surveyed his wrecked house on Delery Street with a pinched face. "We're coming to view the body. "
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"What are you going to do, drive down from Houston every few weeks to stock up on red beans and butter beans and pickle meat?" Ms. Gutelius asked him. "You ain't going nowhere. You're homegrown. You were raised up here, and this is your neighborhood."
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"How you doing, neighbor?" she called to Mr. Hill. The little green house that belonged to her mother, Mabel, 82, had sailed off its foundations, landing a couple of blocks away, but Ms. Jones was taking it in stride. "We don't got no house," she said, "but we're all alive and well."
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Mrs. Butler said she could not bear to be away from New Orleans when her family relocated to Myrtle Beach, S.C. after the hurricane. She lasted there about two weeks, then took a bus home and stayed at the Marriott Hotel with her niece, who is a housekeeper there. Thursday, she fought back tears repeatedly. "It hurts so bad," she said, "to look at everything we built gone. I just don't know what I'm going to do now."

Full article here

23 days 'til Christmas ya'll

Months after Katrina, Bittersweet homecoming in the 9th ward

Old computers can get new life with Katrina evacuees

Some residents being forced out of apartments

LSUHSC opening temporary dental center in Baton Rouge

Arnaud's re-opening today

Go make your voice heard

Memphis, Tenn., Sunday, Dec. 4, at University of Memphis (time to be announced)

Dallas, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 6:30-9:30 p.m., Fellowship Bible Church, 10310 N. Central Expressway

Atlanta, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 7-10 p.m., Loudermilk Center, 40 Courtland St.

Fort Worth, Texas, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 6-9 p.m., Will Rogers Memorial Center Auditorium, 3401 W. Lancaster Ave.

Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, Dec. 8, 6-9 p.m.. Mount Zion Baptist Church. 356 East Blvd.

Houston, 9 a.m.-noon, George R. Brown Convention Center, 1001 Avenita de las Americas Blvd.

"It's really hard for them. No food. No homes. They have to like run off to wherever they can go. It would stink to be one of them." - from a kid in Chicago who raised money distributing flyers door-to-door to help Katrina victims

Nagin urges Katrina evacuees to come home

Chicago donations fund Gulfport Park, Bring New Orleans Back project

Interesting commentary from a former Tulane professor

Gifted young New Orleans musician making new start in Portland

This is a big step forward for our city:

The Wireless Fidelity, or Wi-Fi, network will allow residents with a computer and wireless card to tap into the Internet at speeds up to 512 kilobytes per second. The network, which was developed using more than $1 million in donated equipment, is available in the French Quarter and Central Business District and will expand into Algiers in the coming months, said Mayor Ray Nagin. “If you are in business, you can use our network until your business class Internet is back up and running,” Nagin said.

More info here

139 Katrina-related bills, 15 signed into law, 0 helping our levees

Audubon Zoo has 56,000 more visitors this Thanksgiving weekend than previous year

Red Cross says it gave gift cards after Katrina (Michael Brackney, manager of the American Red Cross client services program development, said the organization used the pre-printed gift cards from Discover Card when its own stock of debit cards "ran dry.")

Vacation, Personal, and Sick days can be converted into cash donations for disaster relief (if your employer doesn't mind the extra paperwork)

I'm personally glad we just switched to them.

NEW ORLEANS— After Hurricane Katrina, flood-damaged cars in Louisiana's hardest-hit parishes were left sitting in water for up to four weeks before insurance companies could get in and start pulling them out.

The Progressive Group of Insurance Companies, the third largest auto insurance group in Louisiana and in the U.S., made an unprecedented decision to scrap the more than 5,000 vehicles it insured that were declared total losses as a result of flood waters in St. Bernard parish and parts of Orleans parish.

"The reasons are simple," said Juan Andrade, claims general manager for the region. "We don't want our people working around those cars and we don't want them back on the road."

Source story here