Many Questions Remain Unanswered One Year After the Hurricane Katrina Disaster

NEW ORLEANS — A small orange Halloween pumpkin lay among the debris of one damaged house in Hurricane Katrina-devastated New Orleans. Part of the house had collapsed and everything was covered in dust. The pumpkin must have been used by the occupants of the house in Halloween celebrations in past years. Sadly, one assumed there would be no celebration at the house in 2006.

Due to the hurricane, nearly 80 percent of the city was flooded in August 2005. The hurricane was the costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States and it raised many questions about the federal government’s response.

More than 108,000 houses were damaged or destroyed, nearly a million people lost their homes and hundreds of others and animals died, according to media reports. The U.S. government was criticized for delaying help for the victims.

The media carried commentaries claiming that although the government could spend a lot of money for the war on terror, it hesitated to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Within days of Katrina’s landfall on August 29, 2005, public debate arose about the local, state and federal government’s role in the preparation for and response to the storm. Criticism was prompted largely by televised images of visibly shaken and frustrated political leaders and of residents who remained in New Orleans without water, food or shelter. There were reports of deaths of several citizens due to thirst and exhaustion and of violence in the days after the storm itself had passed.

A lonely sign of life as it was, this Halloween pumpkin appears to be waiting for its former owner to come home. Photo by Kyaw Min Swe

After one week, many people were rescued and temporarily moved to the Superdome. The authorities and some NGOs helped to arrange food, drinking water and emergency health care. But some residents and journalists said that when the military arrived in the city, they did nothing for the victims because they were placed on standby.

“We have a duty to save people’s lives during natural disasters. We must help to save people immediately. That’s our responsibility,” Luis R. Diaz, a deputy public affairs officer with the United States Coast Guard based in Miami, Florida, told WPI in a briefing one year after Katrina.

The offices of The Times-Picayune, New Orleans’ well-known daily newspaper, were also flooded and damaged. But the newspaper was able to publish, keeping record of the situation and informing the country about what was happening in New Orleans. Due to the efforts of the newspaper, it was awarded two 2005 Pulitzer Prizes, for breaking news and public service.

The Times-Picayune’s coverage was carried for days only on the newspaper’s blog, http://www.nola.com, because the newspaper lost its presses and evacuated its building as water rose around it. The blog became an international focal point for news by local media, and also became a vital link for rescue operations and later for reuniting scattered residents as the Internet site accepted and posted thousands of individual pleas for help.

“We did our best not only as journalists but we also helped the victims of the hurricane,” said David Meeks, city editor of The Times-Picayune. His house was also flooded and damaged.

On the first anniversary of the disaster, the streets were still lined with many vacant homes, each bearing a scummy yellow water line several feet off the ground. Dead grass and trees littered yards and medians where derelict cars and mounds of garbage rotted in the sun. According to one estimate, only 60 percent of the city’s utilities were running.

There was widespread criticism that the federal government cut the budget for levees to be built to prevent the overflowing of the Mississippi River. Levee failures were found to be primarily the result of system design flaws combined with the lack of adequate maintenance. Those responsible for the conception, design, construction and maintenance of the region’s flood-control system apparently failed to pay sufficient attention to public safety, according to an investigation by the National Science Foundation.

David Meeks said a lot of people were afraid to return and basic services were lacking. But some residents of New Orleans believed their neighborhoods would be rebuilt and volunteers were trying to help as much as they could. They collected donations of clothing, water and other essentials for victims.

Many New Orleans residents would be celebrating Halloween 2006 away from home. No one knew whether that one lonely Halloween pumpkin would ever be useful again.