Katrina Update

Hosted by The Global Dialog Project

Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Gulf Coast: What's the Big Picture?

Join our email lists: -updates and alerts only -discussion, ideas, solutions ## ISSUES AND TOPICS REBUILDING New Orleans the Gulf Coast Financing it: fiscal tracking FEMA ISSUES AND MALFEASANCE Cronyist appointments and loss of experienced people Reneging on pledges to re-do no-bid contracts Do our structures work? What would a workable approach look like? Human Nature: do we need to change how we think, perceive, and prioritize? Community self-sufficiency and planning |
| ## THE LEVEES: On its own, rebuilding the levees in New Orleans to the level state and local leaders want is expected to cost $20 billion or more. ## FEMA FISCAL MALFEASANCE FEMA Reneges on Pledge to Reopen No-Bid Contracts "Despite a month-old pledge, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has yet to reopen four of its biggest no-bid contracts for Hurricane Katrina work and won't do so until the contracts are virtually complete. A promise to hire more minority-owned firms also is largely unfulfilled." Hurricane Katrina proved devastating to the Gulf Coast, but it may prove to be invaluable to our understanding of how to handle inevitable further disaster. It has shown us weakenesses in our systems, and fallacies in our planning, thinking, and understanding of how to deal with out future. Perhaps most importantly, it presents us with tremendous opportunities to rebuild in a more intelligent way, and with an eye to long-term consequences that have previously been ignored. We can, and should, use Katrina as an example and a case study of how to handle future catastrophes. Such basic issues as prioritization, communication, contingency planning, and fundamental aspects of human nature have all been brought to our attention in ways that cannot be ignored except at the risk of furhter stupidity. Let us not ignore the lessons Katrina carried with it, but instead accept its gifts. We can no longer operate as though 'the Big One' will not hit, or as though we will be taken care of, or as though we ourselves should not claim our own creative and motivated ability to plan, coordinate, cooperate, and innovate.