Sticking a Happy Face on Katrina

[omgangiepants]

The most upsetting statement that I'd seen in the news since I'd come back to the Gulf Coast was made by a reporter who (like many others) glibly declared that three months into the Deepwater Horizon debacle, "the real difficulty" BP and the Coast Guard were experiencing was "finding any oil to clean up." That was until last weekend, when a

Comments

[wrestlingdog]

[arisma]

'Reality is what I say it is regardless of actual reality' needs to go away now.

[sentinelsoul]

Has anyone else seen the Top Gear episode where they end up in New Orleans? They were horrified at the destruction they saw a year later, Jeremy wondering how the most powerful nation on earth could have a city still so damaged after a year.

It's not hard to imagine what their reaction would be to this, five years on. It's probably similar to mine. New Orleans is bouncing back, fighting back, but here's the thing-- five years later, they shouldn't have to be. Everything should have been cleaned up, fixed, or at least on its way to full repair by now.

Five years, and still so much destruction and suffering. I wish I could say that I couldn't believe it, but I'm too cynical these days for that to happen.

[juliet316]

I saw the YouTube of that somebody put up (right in this very comm I believe).

It's so very sad.

[guard_the_cards]

My cousins are from england and that was the only thing they knew about my city, not the music, or the culture, or even the civil rights issues. THey know that one episode and wonder how i can live here. Most people do. They ask "Why can you live here outside the quarter" and I have to explain that I do not like the quarter, I don't live there, I live in my neighbor hood and have to go into the quarter because well you kinda have to work.

Its not just the quarter we have so much more.

[thelilyqueen]

Oh, for the love of... by all means, let's celebrate the tenacity of New Orleans' residents and the progress that has been made, and similarly what's been accomplished in terms of the oil spill cleanup, but they really do need to cut it out with this 'everything's fine!' crud.

[crazyventures]

I haven't been there since 2007, but I can't imagine much progress has been made in the outlying residential areas. Following Katrina, a lot of people pointed to the regeneration of the French Quarter as a sign of progress, but if you ventured out into the lower ninth ward where the majority of poorer residents lived, very little had changed. There were blocks and blocks of debris from houses that looked untouched two years on.

Organizations like Habitat for Humanity have limited resources and funds to help rebuild and the government seems to be doing little to help.