Guest Columnist Jamala Rogers
There will be monumental events happening this week. Nationally, Barack Obama will accept his party’s nomination as president. This is the 45th anniversary of the historic March on Washington. Locally, there will be a commemorative march recognizing the 45th anniversary of the Jefferson Bank protest.
Amidst all of this, I don’t want us to lose sight of the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
Hurricane Katrina and man-made failures created one of this country’s worst disasters. Katrina hit seven states with winds up to 120 miles an hour. There were 1,836 known deaths (and many more if you count subsequent deaths due to health issues from the flood, including suicides). There are at least 700 people still accounted for, and those numbers don’t include homeless or other people disconnected from families long before the hurricanes hit.
Over 15 million people were affected by the hurricane directly and indirectly. About a half millions jobs vanished and nearly 300,000 homes were destroyed. Depending on whom you ask, damage estimates range from $100-110 billion making it the costliest hurricane in this nation’s history.
Shortly after Katrina and Rita hit, I visited New Orleans and took photos of the 9th Ward, the African-American community hardest hit. About a year later, I went down again and took photos of the 9th Ward. There were minimal distinctions between the two sets of photos because there were minimum rebuilding efforts by local, state and federal governments. This is both maddening and insulting. It is why I keep writing about Katrina because we are often consumed by our own daily lives. But we can’t let the government off the hook.
Congress has allocated $90 billion for rescue, recovery and repair and there has been about $40 billion in payments by private insurance companies. Billions later—why does the New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities and towns look like Faluja or Baghdad?
Oh sure, there were a few survivors that spent money on football tickets or a trip to Jamaica instead of house repairs. I count that as therapy for mental health.
We really need to be looking at the billions in no-bid contracts and this government’s criminal negligence. If we start with the top four corporations under investigation for fraud, they all have made political contributions to Republicans. Many hurricane victims are without a home and without a secure future yet billions of tax dollars have been squandered or pocketed by companies who have not delivered. It is pimposity at its highest level.
Bush will soon visit New Orleans for the 13th time since the 2005 disaster. The advance copy of his remarks speak of a “brighter day” coming. Maddening and insulting! Those people with the resources, know-how, political or social connections are making the most progress while the majority of poor folks have been scattered to the four corners of this country to fend for themselves.
The stories of Katrina are still coming to remind us of what happened. Hitting theaters on the east and west coasts will be Trouble the Water, a documentary about the trials and tribulations of Kim and Scott Roberts. Kim videotaped what was happening around her during her family’s nightmarish journey to sanity and civilization.
We’ve heard about how Gretna law enforcement used their armed presence to keep evacuees from crossing the Crescent City bridge and the killing of two innocent people at Danziger Bridge. Scott tells a similar story about how families went to a military base, already evacuated, hoping for some relief. The beleaguered families were met with soldiers armed with M-16 rifles who loaded, cocked and aimed their weapons with purpose. Like the white so-called lawmen at Crescent City and Danziger bridges, they had orders to shoot to kill. The soldiers were later given commendations for their courage in defending the base.
Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain need to be made to speak to their plans for the Gulf Coast and how they will hold FEMA and Homeland Security accountable for fraudulent actions by contractors. McCain, whose birthday is also August 29, should not be allowed to have a birthday celebration at the expense of the Katrina victims (as he did in 2005 when he posed with Bush with his big birthday cake).
The waters will remain troubled until we as a nation bring peace and prosperity to the people of the Gulf Coast and justice to those who lost their lives in the watery holocaust.