Project Katrina

Clearly a much larger sample size would be nice, but I fear this is just the first of many reports we’ll see that indicate what happened in the Gulf is far, far worse then we understand:

This month, the Louisiana Environmental Action Network released the blood test results from 12 Gulf residents between the ages of 10 and 66 that were taken in September, November, and December of 2010. According to Treehugger, these people consisted of cleanup workers, crabbers, and people living along the coast. The study consisted of six women, four men, and two boys, aged 10 and 11.

Four of the people had unusually high levels of benzene, which, according to the ISS, is a highly toxic chemical from crude oil. It has been linked to many health problems, including anemia, leukemia, irregular menstrual periods and ovarian shrinkage. Those four were all crabbers from the Biloxi area, and consisted of three adults and one 10-year-old boy.

Ethylbenzene was detected in all 12 blood samples from Gulf residents at high levels and 11 of the 12 individuals had relatively high concentrations of xylenes. Ethylbenzene can cause damage to hearing and to the ear, dizziness, kidney damage, and may even cause cancer. Xylene can cause dizziness, headaches, skin irritation, confusion, and a whole slew of other ailments.

Most everybody, if they even just skim the news, is aware that New Orleans changed dramatically after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, but the national media has largely overlooked one of the city’s most  stunning changes. Before Katrina hit New Orleans had an African American mayor, police chief, district attorney, and black majorities on the city council and the school board. Or put another way, the elected leaders reflected the majority of the residents. Today, though still a vastly African American city, New Orleans has a white mayor, district attorney, police chief, and white majorities on the city council and the school board. Justin Vogt at the Washington Monthly has a very interesting and insight article, A Time Against Race, that talks about how this occurred and how things are working out. Really a must read.

No wonder people, even raging liberals like myself, often have close to zero faith our government can’t get anything right.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency hasn’t tried to recoup about $643 million in improper payments made to victims of Hurricane Katrina and other disasters in the wake of a judge’s order more than three years ago, according to a government audit issued Monday.

[....]

The federal agency has distributed more than $7 billion in disaster assistance payments since hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast in 2005. An estimated 160,000 applicants received about $643 million in improper payments resulting from fraud, FEMA errors or other mistakes.

In June 2007, a federal judge in New Orleans ordered FEMA to halt its debt collection activities until the agency made certain changes to its collection process. Government lawyers drafted a new process designed to comply with standards set by DHS, but the audit says FEMA’s chief hasn’t signed off on the plan yet.