Project Katrina

How some equal time for the Lady Tigers, who edged Stanford 62-59 on Monday to advance to the Final Four for the third straight season. Lets hope both the men and women can both advance to the title game.

U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle’s ruling today opens the way for New Orleans’ April 22 mayoral election. Although more then 150,000 plus individuals have not returned and it will be a logistical nightmare, this is the most important time in New Orelans history and the residents deserve to be able to chose the individual they want to take the lead for the next four years.

The candidates include Mayor Nagin, Ron Forman, CEO of the Audubon Nature Institute, and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu. Is is a debate tonight at 7:00 PM CST that you can watch right here.

You can also find our polling location through this interactive database.

Glen “Big Baby” Davis cuts down the net after LSU (27-8) beat the Texas Longhorns 70-60 in overtime to win the Atlanta Regional and earn a meeting opposite UCLA next Saturday in the Final Four in Indianapolis. This is LSU’s first time back to the Final Four since 1986. What great news for LSU, New Orleans, and the state of Louisisana.

There are several interesting data points in this article from MSNBC. First the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) review of 13 major contracts found the government had wasted millions of dollars, due mostly to poor planning by FEMA. Among the 13 were three of the four no-bid contracts mentioned below for temporary housing, worth up to $500 million each. Plus, and what upsets me the most, is that he GAO found an additional $1.5 billion in contracts promised to small businesses has yet to be awarded.

On to the other point, acting FEMA Director R. David Paulison promised last year to rebid four no-bid contracts that were awarded to Shaw Group Inc., Bechtel Corp., CH2M Hill Inc. and Fluor Corp. Yet FEMA announced:

In fact, they have been extended, in part because of good performance, said Michael Widomski, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “They are continuing the work,” Widomski said, and the agency is now focused on competitive bids for disaster relief contracts for the next hurricane season beginning June 1.

Both of these issues are simply not acceptable. Our government has very specific procurement regulations and they are not being followed. This mean that money is wasted and large firms with political connections get the lion-share of work, while smaller/local firms are locked out.

This article in the Houston Chronicle is depressing, but not totally unexpected. Although 99 plus percent of New Orleans residents are honest, law abiding citizens, it only take a few to ruin the image of the entire city. And that appears to be what is happening in Houston.

Amid growing concern about the city’s homicide rate and overburdened social services, a new poll finds Houstonians increasingly weary and wary of the 150,000 Louisiana evacuees who landed here after fleeing Hurricane Katrina. Three-quarters of Harris County residents surveyed by Rice University sociologist Stephen Klineberg say the influx of Katrina evacuees, many of whom remain seven months after landfall, has put a "considerable strain" on the Houston community. Additionally, two-thirds say evacuees bear responsibility for "a major increase in violent crime," and twice as many local residents believe Houston will be "worse off" rather than "better off" if most evacuees remain here permanently.

My only other comments is that Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston but what to rethink this quote, "I think the percentage of people unhappy with the deadbeats from New Orleans would be larger but for the big hearts of Houstonians who want these folks to get back on their feet, as I do." Nice, real nice.

Why New Orleans Matters
Tom Piazza
Regan Books/HarperCollins
Hardcover; 192 pages
ISBN: 0061124834
2005

Why New Orleans Matters is Tom Piazza’s ode to, and lament for, his adopted home. All the sights, sounds, smells, history, and people of New Orleans are imparted in this post-Katrina book. From the introduction:

New Orleans is not just a list of attractions or restaurants or ceremonies, no matter how sublime and subtle. New Orleans is the interaction among all those things, and countless more. It gains its character from the spirit that is summoned in the midst of all these elements, and which comes, ultimately, from the people who live there …

Piazza moved to New Orleans in 1994 and has explored it extensively, getting to know its out-of-the-way restaurants and clubs, its diverse neighborhoods, most of all its people—the people who over the generations created the culture that is totally unique to any other US cities.

The people, he argues convincingly, must not be left out as the city slowly regains life. The people are the city.

Piazza’s knowledge of New Orleans is stunning. You can practically taste the muffuletta from Central Grocery, the shrimp and oyster dishes at the late lamented Uglesich’s, or the taste of a Pimm’s Cup at the Napoleon House, or a steak at the Port of Call as you read Piazza’s descriptions.

And you can practically hear the music, the brass band blaring out of the wide open doors at Tipitina’s Uptown, or Ellis Marsalis’ piano bewitching the hushed crowd at Snug Harbor. There is even an entire chapter on Jazz Fest, the annual springtime extravaganza that I prefer to Mardi Gras.

This book doesn’t gloss over the city’s problems. Piazza discusses New Orleans grinding poverty, crime, drugs, corruption, and open racism. The people of New Orleans “have given love and beauty to the world, a precious spiritual resilience in the form of music, cuisine and spirit that is recognized around the world,” he writes.

The second half of the book starts with Piazza returning to the waterlogged city and the utter devastation he found. It’s painful to read. At points I had to set down the book as tears welded up in my eyes.

Of course there is plenty of blame to go around, as we all know, and the author doesn’t hammer at the usual suspects so much as he skewers them with humor—especially those who thoughtlessly dismiss the storm’s most vulnerable victims as barely worth worrying about. He sees Mayor Nagin as well-meaning but ineffectual and cries out for bold new leadership. He almost doesn’t mention Bush.

The book ends with Piazza’s prescription for rebuilding the city, not as a nightmare vision of Jazzworld, an Atlantic City of the South, a caricature of its former self. It’s the people, all of them, who made New Orleans the great, welcoming, beloved town it was (and will be again I hope), and the people, all of them, must be welcomed back to a place with hurricane-proof levees, good jobs in the hospitality industry or at an expanded port, and affordable housing built to last.

“Maybe next year, or the year after,” he tells his readers, “we will pass one another on Mardi Gras Day, with the sound of a parade in the distance, or a gang of Indians (Mardi Gras Indians that is) coming down the street, and we can stop and give thanks once again for this beautiful day, this life, this beautiful city, New Orleans.”

This is a wonderful book that should be read by anyone that cares about the future of New Orleans. I pray that our leaders in Louisiana and Washington, D.C. will listen.

I’ve have written again and again about how Bush’s statement, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees” is just false. The evidence was there. Government organizations raised a “red flag” many times. Scientific America did a long feature story on the topic. Heck, ask anybody that has lived in New Orleans that has a brain bigger then an acorn and they knew the danger. And now we have yet more evidence.

More then 20 years ago: “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ built a levee and floodwall system to test a design similar to the 17th Street Canal in 1985, which indicated that failure was imminent, according to a statement from Raymond B. Seed and Robert G. Bea, in charge of the National Science Foundation’s Independent Levee Investigation Team.”

On Friday, according to USA Today, the Corps said the breach at the 17th Street Canal was the result of water working its way between the floodwall and the earthen levee into which it was set, and of soft subsurface clay. Once the levee split, the force of the high water pushed the floodwall, and the half of the levee behind it, backward on the clay, the corps task force said.

Do I think Bush and his staff should have known all of this info off the top of their head? Of course not. The government produces thousands, if not million of reports a year. But when it was clear Katrina was about to hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, you’d think mid-level staffers would have accessed this data and passed it up the chain of command.

The government wasted millions of dollars in its award of contracts, including spending $10 million to renovate and furnish 240 rooms in Alabama that housed only six occupants before being closed. The Associated Press reports that the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) review of 13 major contracts—many of them awarded with little or no competition—offers one of the the first analysis of the post-Katrina Hurricane procurement process. Some of the findings include:

• Nonexistent communication with local officials led to misjudgments on the need for temporary housing. They included $3 million that FEMA spent for 4,000 base camp beds that were never used and $10 million to renovate and furnish 240 rooms in Alabama that housed only six occupants before being closed.
• Poor coordination between FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers contributed to waste in an Americold Logistics LLC’s contract for ice. “The local Corps personnel were not always aware of where ice might be delivered and did not have authority … resulting in inefficient distribution,” it said.
• Inadequate planning led to the award of a Mississippi contract for classrooms without competition. “Information in the contract files suggests the negotiated prices were inflated.” A review of that specific contract, with Akima Site Operations LLC, was continuing.
• FEMA had only 17 of the 27 monitors it deemed necessary to oversee the installation of temporary housing in four states, leading to inadequate controls.

The 13 Katrina contracts reviewed by the GAO include: C. Henderson Consulting; Americold Logistics; Clearbrook LLC; CS&M Associates; Gulf Stream Coach Inc.; Morgan Building & Spas Inc.; Bechtel National; Fluor Enterprises Inc.; CH2M Hill Constructors Inc.; E.T.I. Inc.; Ceres Environmental Services Inc.; and Thompson Engineering Inc. You can download a copy of the report here (PDF format).

This Newsweek article from last September needs much more media coverage. I am often asked, through this blog and in face-to-face conversations why I think New Orleans should be rebuilt. The reasons are numerous, many of which are emotional. The history, the culture, food, music, and because our fellow American ought to be able to return to their homes if they choose.

But I prefer to explain that what Wall Street is to money, or Hollywood is to entertainment, the Gulf Coast is to energy and transportation.

In 2004, Gulf ports handled 22 percent of U.S. wheat exports, 71 percent of corn exports and 65 percent of soybean exports, according to the Agriculture Department. A total of 25 percent of all our oil and natural gas is either produced or arrives in Gulf Ports. In fact:

New Orleans remains a major port city due to its location near the Gulf of Mexico and along the Mississippi River , making it a hub for goods which travel to and from Latin America . The rigs are located in the Gulf. The Port of New Orleans is the largest U.S. port for several major commodities including rubber, cement and coffee. The Port of South Louisiana is based in the New Orleans metropolitan area and has been ranked the fifth largest port in the world in terms of raw tonnage, and among the largest U.S. ports for exporting grain. The two ports together would be the fourth largest port in the world.

This is why we need to rebuild New Orleans. For thoughts on the cultural reason we need to rebuilt New Oreleans, see the this wonderful book by Tom Piazza, Why New Orleans Matters.

Below are numbers released by FEMA:

• There are 2,997 federal housing units occupied by hurricane evacuees in the State of Louisiana alone.
• Federal housing or housing vouchers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and others were offered to displaced hurricane victims.
• The U.S. Small Business Administration has approved 9,242 businesses for disaster assistance loans. Total: $833.6 million.
• FEMA`s Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, working in the immediate response and for a record number of days into the recovery, provided care to 49,000 patients. The teams gave 65,000 immunizations and provided crisis counseling to 5,800 individuals, as well as other medical services.
• LA Swift, the free emergency bus system between Baton Rouge and New Orleans for displaced residents, has served 55,650 passengers. It has operated seven daily round trips since October 31, 2005.
• More than 81,000 damaged roofs that have been temporarily covered under FEMA`s “Blue Roof” program, operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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