LQ’s Katrina Files

Emergency Louisiana – New 06/05/07 can text, page, and email emergency information alert information. Parish OEP not yet on line. See state OEP site for Parish phone numbers.
Radio Preparedness Information – posted June 7, 2007
What the Media Didn’t Hype is from the ARRL website newsletters from 2005. This information is listed in reverse order in the pdf file by date. ARRL recently uploaded the info and it was listed as for members only. I’ve included the info here because there was not one media outlet that gave any credit to them for their accomplishments, and not many people know that the group even exists-that I’m aware of anyway. I’m likely not as well informed as most, but I’ve been under a rock inside Louisiana without communications.
Louisiana Speaks – Parish Recovery Information and Goals

Katrina Aid Program Is 2.9 Billion short

{Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), chair of the Senate disaster recovery subcommittee, has scheduled a hearing for May 24 to focus on what led to the shortfall and what might be done next.

She said that from the beginning of the effort, she “suspected that Louisiana received less than its proportional share” of the federal money spent to rebuild Gulf Coast housing. But she said it is too early to say what the federal government might be asked to contribute to fill any gap.

“I’m not going to go there,” she said.

….Powell said he wants to take a closer look at the figures before deciding what to do. He said the initial estimate of the number of destroyed homes was based not just on FEMA figures but on data from satellites and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.}

Preparing for Future “Katrina’s”Written in March 2006

After reading about the shortfall in the Washington Post, I wonder what exactly does HUD have to do with lack of appropriate insurance to cover rebuilding costs and how the Road Home Program is going to help rebuild the public housing lost?

Conclusion
The government may be unable to control nature, but it can and should take measures to minimize the damage it can cause and to allocate the costs for repair and reconstruction following natural catastrophes in a fair and efficient manner. The proposal advanced here would achieve these goals. The silver lining to the horrible events of 2005 is that they have created a unique window of opportunity for policymakers to address a problem that has long needed attention. It is time to seize this opportunity—before the next hurricane season.

This brief draws on a longer analysis, “Sharing and Reducing the Financial Risks of Future “Mega-Catastrophes.” http://www.brookings.edu/views/papers/200603_iiep_litan.htm (Not available)

ICIC New Orleans Briefing

Written in November 2005

This article lambasts the public at large for not “listening” to the hurricane warnings. With the October 11, 2005 article outlining the reasons for the catastrophe and the Brookings Institutions own study on the ICIC poverty in New Orleans who is this writer to lambast the ill- uninformed public. Did the author realize that the vast majority of people in New Orleans are NOT watching television. Did the author realize that the WWL simulcast Friday August 26th at 6AM was insufficient to note the location of the approaching hurricane? The simulcast is from the local EMERGENCY CHANNEL TV and its weather caster Margaret Orr did not give the vocalized location of the hurricane in the Gulf swiftly approaching. She was too busy watching her prompters and neglected to verbalize that detail for her radio listeners. A simple, but costly mistake for many who listen ONLY to the radio and DO NOT WATCH TELEVISION. DUH.

Concentrated Poverty in New Orleans and Other American Cities

Written in August 2006

A good emphasis on the current and previous underlying situation in New Orleans.