THIS IS WHAT I DID TODAY? WHAT DID YOU DO?
Hundreds of school girls protest city's lack of storm defenses
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - In the spot where four months ago President Bush declared that this city's passionate soul would return, hundreds of Catholic school girls donned life jackets, goggles and inner tubes Thursday to symbolize their flooded homes and protest the city's lack of defense against future storms.
Chanting cheerleader-style slogans, the girls, ages 13 to 18, pumped fists in the air and held up signs that warned if the city's levees are not fixed and the Gulf Coast's wetlands not restored, the city would flood once more - like it did after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans on Aug. 29.
The event, which drew about 300 people, coincided with Bush's ninth visit to the city since the storm.
"I think the city will disappear if the levees aren't fixed," said 15-year-old Maddy Jennings, a freshman at the Academy of the Sacred Heart, an all-girls Catholic school that took the morning off to allow its 200-plus students to attend the rally at historic Jackson Square.
Jennings wore a cutout of a yellow submarine around her neck and held up a sign that read: "We can't all live in a yellow submarine."
The president, who also visited the hard-hit Mississippi Gulf Coast, signed a major spending bill last month that contained $29 billion in hurricane relief funds, primarily for Louisiana and Mississippi. It included $2.9 billion to repair and restore failed levees and speed work on hurricane protection around New Orleans.
Speaking to New Orleans officials and business leaders, Bush reiterated his pledge to help the city recover, but he chided Congress for diverting another $1.4 billion initially earmarked for New Orleans to other, unrelated business.
"In order to make sure this city gets the money necessary to make sure the levees are stronger and better, Congress needs to restore that $1.4 billion directly to projects for New Orleans," Bush said.
Post-Katrina flooding caused by broken levees submerged 80 percent of the city. Even now, more than four months after the storm, local officials estimate two-thirds of the city's 460,000 pre-storm population is living elsewhere.
"My dad's house was destroyed," said Maddie Applewhite, 16, a Sacred Heart sophomore who wore a bright orange life jacket. "If the levees hadn't broken, it would have been fine. This issue - it's very important to me. It's like, 40 percent of my friends lost their homes."
Other students wore rubber boots and blue raincoats, decorated with cutouts of starfish and octopi. One wore a shirt that read: "C'est Levee," a pun on the French expression, "C'est la vie," which means, "That's life."
In September, just two weeks after Katrina made landfall, Bush stood in Jackson Square and vowed the city would witness "one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen."
While many issues in the rebuilding have proved contentious, such as which neighborhoods should be resurrected, the need for stronger levees has been a rallying point.
Rally organizer Shawn Holahan said the cry for stronger flood protection has come from residents of all parts of the city, from all walks of life.
"The point here is that we represent many political views," Holahan said. "We want Congress and the president to see us together without political divide on this issue."
(article coppied from the times picayune)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - In the spot where four months ago President Bush declared that this city's passionate soul would return, hundreds of Catholic school girls donned life jackets, goggles and inner tubes Thursday to symbolize their flooded homes and protest the city's lack of defense against future storms.
Chanting cheerleader-style slogans, the girls, ages 13 to 18, pumped fists in the air and held up signs that warned if the city's levees are not fixed and the Gulf Coast's wetlands not restored, the city would flood once more - like it did after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans on Aug. 29.
The event, which drew about 300 people, coincided with Bush's ninth visit to the city since the storm.
"I think the city will disappear if the levees aren't fixed," said 15-year-old Maddy Jennings, a freshman at the Academy of the Sacred Heart, an all-girls Catholic school that took the morning off to allow its 200-plus students to attend the rally at historic Jackson Square.
Jennings wore a cutout of a yellow submarine around her neck and held up a sign that read: "We can't all live in a yellow submarine."
The president, who also visited the hard-hit Mississippi Gulf Coast, signed a major spending bill last month that contained $29 billion in hurricane relief funds, primarily for Louisiana and Mississippi. It included $2.9 billion to repair and restore failed levees and speed work on hurricane protection around New Orleans.
Speaking to New Orleans officials and business leaders, Bush reiterated his pledge to help the city recover, but he chided Congress for diverting another $1.4 billion initially earmarked for New Orleans to other, unrelated business.
"In order to make sure this city gets the money necessary to make sure the levees are stronger and better, Congress needs to restore that $1.4 billion directly to projects for New Orleans," Bush said.
Post-Katrina flooding caused by broken levees submerged 80 percent of the city. Even now, more than four months after the storm, local officials estimate two-thirds of the city's 460,000 pre-storm population is living elsewhere.
"My dad's house was destroyed," said Maddie Applewhite, 16, a Sacred Heart sophomore who wore a bright orange life jacket. "If the levees hadn't broken, it would have been fine. This issue - it's very important to me. It's like, 40 percent of my friends lost their homes."
Other students wore rubber boots and blue raincoats, decorated with cutouts of starfish and octopi. One wore a shirt that read: "C'est Levee," a pun on the French expression, "C'est la vie," which means, "That's life."
In September, just two weeks after Katrina made landfall, Bush stood in Jackson Square and vowed the city would witness "one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen."
While many issues in the rebuilding have proved contentious, such as which neighborhoods should be resurrected, the need for stronger levees has been a rallying point.
Rally organizer Shawn Holahan said the cry for stronger flood protection has come from residents of all parts of the city, from all walks of life.
"The point here is that we represent many political views," Holahan said. "We want Congress and the president to see us together without political divide on this issue."
(article coppied from the times picayune)