Project Katrina

It will take years, if not decades for us to know the true mental health damage Katrina caused. As this article highlights, in the aftermath of Katrina there were "dire warnings of cholera and typhoid outbreaks." Thankfully they never happened. But what seems to have been forgotten by many are the mental health issues that arise then people lose family members, everything they own, and their way of life.

But amidst the sobriety and the hoopla, the state-funded Central City Mental Health Center has chosen a more practical way to mark the anniversary of the nation’s biggest natural disaster—one that may well be the most fitting. Free testing for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will be conducted all day on Aug. 29, punctuated by a lunch at which overburdened staff members will reminisce about the tumultuous year that was.

In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, talking head “health experts” took to the airwaves in droves and issued dire warnings of cholera and typhoid outbreaks. They never came, of course, and, not surprisingly, the most serious health problems directly attributable to the storm have been mental, not physical. In the four months between Aug. 29 and the end of 2005, the Orleans Parish coroner’s office “conservatively” estimates that the suicide rate tripled.

The Washington Post reports that President Bush’s trip to Biloxi, MS, yesterday was "carefully scripted by the White House" and "left little possibility of the president encountering much anger over the federal reconstruction efforts." Several of the people with whom he met were "clutching pictures of themselves being consoled by the president in the aftermath of the storm last September." This man is a national disgrace. Bush doesn’t even have the "balls" to deal with his fellow Americans he is supposed to serve.

Standing in Jackson Square on Sept. 15, President Bush stated, "This government will learn the lessons of Hurricane Katrina" and promised to "get the work done quickly." But on the eve of Katrina’s one year anniversary, here’s a snapshot of the current state of New Orleans:

• Less than half of the city’s pre-storm population of 460,000 has returned, putting the population at roughly what it was in 1880.
• Nearly a third of the trash has yet to be picked up.
• Sixty percent of homes still lack electricity.
• Seventeen percent of the buses are operational.
• Half of the physicians have left, and there is a shortage of 1,000 nurses.
• Six of the nine hospitals remain closed.
• Sixty-six percent of public schools have reopened.
• A 40 percent hike in rental rates, disproportionately affecting black and low-income families.
• A 300 percent increase in the suicide rate.

On top of all of that close to 90 percent of New Orleans residents rate the government’s recovery efforts negatively, while 66 percent believe the recovery money has been "mostly wasted." Mr. Bush you have failed to do what you said you would do. You have failed across the board. You have NO right to come to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast for the one year anniversary of Katrina so you can have a nice photo-op. Sir, you should be ashamed of yourself and your administration.

In the aftermath of Katrina we have seen, at all levels of government, that we were not prepared.

We were not ready for the inital diaster, nor the long-term requirements needed to rebuild the region. Case in post is that FEMA, a year after Katrina hit, has delivered 19,000 trailers to displaced homeowners in New Orleans. But many others are still waiting, including 4,200 in New Orleans and nearly 4,000 in neighboring parishes. My math ain’t great, but we’re talking about only addressing the needs of a little more then 50% of the population. Not acceptable!

Which is why when I see articles like this I have to step away from the computer and take a walk around the block.

But the federal government has spent less than half the rebuilding funds that it amassed for Katrina recovery, which has raised sharp questions about the Bush administration’s stewardship of the Gulf Coast’s reconstruction and has provoked a chorus of complaints about excessive delays and government sluggishness.

Despite four emergency spending bills approved by Congress to provide more than $110 billion in aid, federal agencies have spent only $44 billion. Even as President Bush insisted last week and in his radio address Saturday that $110 billion was a strong commitment, he conceded that the recovery effort was plagued with bureaucratic hurdles.

What the hell are we doing? A year later we’ve still not figured out how to allocate the funds approved, much less how to monitor that those that have been allocate are used as proposed.

$10 million. That is the amount of donations raised for Katrina relief by U.S. school children—"more than the amount almost every major U.S. corporation gave." The only companies to give more where Wal-Mart, Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati, Exxon, Freddie Mac, and BP. The $10 million is more than what AT&T and Verizon gave combined. And it’s more than major brand name corporations like GE and Coca-Cola gave. Among the country’s top corporate donors to Katrina relief, Wal-Mart is number one at $17 million, followed by Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati ($15 million), Exxon ($13 million) and Freddie Mac and BP Amoco (just over $10 million each), according to the Foundation Center. So our children can break open their piggy banks and give more then multi-nation, billion dollar US-based companies.

The Times-Picayune is reporting that the Army Corps is:

Arguing that it can’t be held liable for damage caused by flooding and that Congress allows it discretion to choose construction methods, the Army Corps of Engineers has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that blames the agency for flooding that destroyed homes in eastern New Orleans, the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish after Hurricane Katrina.

The lawsuit was filed in April by WDSU-TV anchorman and eastern New Orleans resident Norman Robinson, a Lower 9th Ward couple and two St. Bernard residents.

They charge that corps negligence since 1958 in the construction, design, operation and maintenance of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet eroded wetlands, which had slowed storms down, and turned the ship channel into a superhighway that funneled Katrina’s powerful tidal surges toward them, breaking levees along the way.

Neglect is neglect. When you are tasked with an important job and you don’t do it there is liability. Plus factor in a story I heard on NPR the other day. Some of our most senior officials that manage combating large forest fires are getting liability insurance, so if a person that works for them is hurt they’ll be covered. So let me get this right, a worker of a government agency can sue his boss, but citizens can’t sue a government agency where neglect has already been demostrated, even if it wasn’t anything close to intentional.

Four no-bid contracts awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to house Hurricane Katrina victims have ballooned in value from $400 million to more then $3.4 billion. This increase has prompted renewed scrutiny from Congress and auditors about the disaster agency’s management (or lack there of) of the aftermath of Katrina.

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general is, for at least a second time, reviewing the contracts with construction and engineering firms Bechtel Corp., CH2M Hill Inc., Fluor Corp., and the Shaw Group Inc. to provide 150,000 trailers for hurricane victims, even as FEMA still expects to competitively award at least $1 billion for similar work in future contingencies within days.

A review is underway into how the contracts were awarded, the parties involved and their support materials. The concern is the dollars and risks associated with sole source contracts of this manner.

The contracts, which were quickly awarded as Katrina approached and hit the Gulf Coast, have been repeatedly faulted by congressional auditors and a Senate investigation for poor safeguards and high costs. FEMA valued the contracts at $2 billion last fall and winter, but the agency has raised the limit for each firm over the past several months time and time again.

Lets look at the background and the numbers in more detail.

The initial contracts began under murky circumstances to say the least. Two FEMA officials have told the New York Times (behind their subscription wall) that the four firms were tapped even before Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

The Shaw Group announced on Aug. 30, one day after Katrina hit, that it was in contact with FEMA to mobilize assistance. Its stock rose 21 percent in two days and 32 percent the week after their news release.

FEMA didn’t publicly announced contracting with these firms for housing until September 8th, in what company and government officials have said were letter contracts or agreements worth as much as $100 million. FEMA has said recently that the initial contracts had a ceiling of $500 million each, and were awarded Sept. 3 to Fluor and Sept. 30 to the other three companies.

FEMA then raised the ceilings of the contracts to $950 million for Shaw in February ‘06, to $1.4 billion for Fluor in March ‘06 and to $575 million for Bechtel just last month. It expects to raise the CH2M Hill contract to $530 million. FEMA has already paid the firms $1.9 billion, and obligated $1 billion based on new company charges, whose payment is subject to negotiation.

Now, FEMA Director R. David Paulison and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff promised Congress last October to re-bid the pacts and spun off $3.6 billion in maintenance and future dismantling of the trailers to 36 small and minority-owned firms in March ‘06, but the agency’s critics say that has not addressed the entire problem.

As a person that did procurement research for a firm for the better part of a few years, no-bid contracts are a bad thing. At times they are required of course. And this would be an instance where they are. But the question that needs to be asked is what were the terms of the contracts? How fast did the trailer need to be in place and how fast did they get their. From everything I read it took months, not days or weeks, which then begs the question, why was a quick, none competitive no-bid process!