Flood the Zone
Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina killed 1,800 people and devastated a region, there will be many reflections on the water that flooded New Orleans. Mark F. Bonner and Mathew D. Sanders take a look at another deluge: The money that flooded into the area after the waters receded. “Most Americans soon moved on, but the federal government did something extraordinary: It committed more than $140 billion toward the region’s recovery. Adjusted for inflation, that’s more than was spent on the post-World War II Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe or for the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11 attacks. It remains the largest post-disaster domestic recovery effort in U.S. history.” Those kind of resources should have given hope to residents to that NOLA would once again live up to its motto, Laissez les bons temps rouler. But while the money rolled in, the good times didn’t. “What instead emerged was the uncomfortable truth that America isn’t good at long-term recovery. If the reconstruction of Lower Manhattan and the Marshall Plan are hailed as triumphs of American exceptionalism, then the response to Katrina belongs in a darker corner of U.S. history: the Afghanistan or Vietnam of rebuilding — painful, expensive and, ultimately, a failure. It is now a cautionary tale for every place in America that will one day face its own disaster.” NYT (Gift Article): The $140 Billion Failure We Don’t Talk About.
+ Of course, the most vital initial ingredients of any disaster relief are empathy, decency, and a concern for other human beings. Those traits are out of favor these days. DHS moves to bar aid groups from serving undocumented immigrants. “Several disaster-assistance groups, FEMA employees and emergency management experts said the new requirements in the department’s fiscal 2025 aid contracts would make it harder for nonprofits to help the most vulnerable Americans in the aftermath of a disaster.”
+ A large group of FEMA employees sent a letter to Congress “warning that the Trump administration had gutted the nation’s ability to handle hurricanes, floods and other extreme weather disasters.” The response from the administration was to further gut the nation’s ability to handle hurricanes, floods and other extreme weather disasters. FEMA Suspends Staff Who Signed a Letter Criticizing Trump. With these guys, the only thing less popular than empathy and decency is the truth.
