New Orleans: Blacks Still Mad At Bush Over Katrina But Reelected Their Democratic Mayor

Bush comments on Katrina sound sour in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — President George W. Bush can defend the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina. But to Gertrude LeBlanc, the view from her home in the city's Lower 9th Ward is all the evidence she needs to believe it was a failure.

A row of concrete foundations is all that's left where her neighbors' houses once stood.

"Bush didn't give a damn what we got," said the 73-year-old, who says she rebuilt her bright yellow house with the neat yard with help from a church group and the "little bit" in federal aid she got from the state-run program meant to help hurricane-affected homeowners, Road Home.

"To me, black folks weren't handled right, but we can't worry about it. We have to do the best we can."

When Bush leaves office next week, New Orleans will still show the scars of Hurricane Katrina, which slammed ashore on Aug. 29, 2005. LeBlanc's neighborhood is still largely uninhabited, with weeds tall around some decrepit houses and roads cracked and warped. In some neighborhoods, apartment buildings and businesses are empty. Some houses still bear the haunting markings left by search teams in the frantic aftermath of the storm.

Bush, in some of his last comments before leaving office, said Monday at a news conference that he stood behind the federal government's response to Katrina, even though he admitted once again that some things could have been done differently and acknowledged there's still more work to do. Those words stung for people still living in the aftermath of the storm, still waiting for neighbors to come home.

"More people need to have their own home there," Bush said. "But the systems are in place to continue the reconstruction in New Orleans. You know, people said, 'Well, the federal response was slow.' Don't tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed."

The comment drew an at-times exasperated response from residents like LeBlanc and government leaders, some of whom believe federal bureaucracy is still choking recovery efforts.

The Katrina response "is still a national disgrace, and New Orleans, in many places, still looks like a war-torn city."

This argument is all about framing.  As long as people focus upon "5 days of Bush" and about the city that has yet to be rebuilt the KEY point will be missed:

The fiasco known as the "Botched Rescue Effort After The Storm Passed" is 100% about the DEADLY AND DEVISTATING EFFECTS OF FLOOD ZONE ZONING IN WHICH POOR PEOPLE WERE ALLOWED TO LIVE IN DANGERIOUS AREAS WITH LIMITED ABILITY TO ESCAPE FROM DANGER.

That's it.  Start and Stop.

There are two competing theories on this story though.  One is the more compelling story told by Spike Lee and others with a political backdrop.  The tale of human suffering in the wake of uncaring government.  Certainly a political score is made in this tale.  If it were not for BUSH - the suffering might not have happened and the city would be gleaming like new just a few short years later.

The other narrative can be found on The Discovery Channel, The History Channel and as of a few weeks ago "The Weather Channel" - "When Weather Change History".   These more scientific approaches detailed the facts about the storm, the storm surge and the man made water protection systems that failed to retain the water of the most powerful water way in North America.  

If you allow Spike Lee and others to tell it - the government having FAILED to rescue the people and the government FAILING to rebuild the homes IN THE SAME DAMNED ZONE OF DANGER is all that we need to talk about.  The people were largely poor and Black and thus it is RACISM that is the underlying motivation for all of this.

I am begining to wonder WHO should stand as criminally liable for allowing these people to return to an area that is known to produce such deadly outcomes over time?  Ironically these same proponents are also those who accept Global Warming and the subsequent rise in sea level that this will provoke.  By allowing the low lying areas of New Orleans to be rebuilt they are setting the stage for yet another "botched rescue effort" some time in the future.

It is amazing that after 8 years of hearing how certain operatives placed POLITICS OVER SCIENCE this tendency knows no ideological or partisan bound.

I ask that every person that is demanding that these houses be rebuilt in the flood zones commit their name to a certain contract.  30 years from now it will assist us in filing a lawsuit against those who are responsible for the next round of death in the "100 year flood" that now comes every 30 years or so.

New Orleans and Katrina - a story that is never going to die - not until the next storm it seems.