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We're live, talking about Hurricane Laura and the impact of Hurricane Katrina, 15 years later.
@MayorLandrieu @theharryshearer @LeveesOrg and @andydhorowitz join us. http://wamu.fm/3hzNtQn
@MayorLandrieu @theharryshearer @LeveesOrg and @andydhorowitz join us. http://wamu.fm/3hzNtQn
We're starting with the latest on Hurricane Laura.
"There's just nowhere that is well-equipped to stand up to these types of storms," @andydhorowitz says.
"There's just nowhere that is well-equipped to stand up to these types of storms," @andydhorowitz says.
Coastal Louisiana is very mossy and boggy...the oil and gas infrastructure there doesn't hold up very well to storms of this magnitude, @LeveesOrg says.
"Many people stayed in New Orleans to stay with their pets," @LeveesOrg says, because at the time, FEMA didn't accommodate families with pets.
"Being able to get out of town in short notice...we don't think often enough about how the government has subsidized a huge evacuation infrastructure for people with cars," @andydhorowitz says, while public transit options weren't comparable.
"The flooding of New Orleans was caused by mistakes in the levees that were built by the Army Corps of Engineers," @LeveesOrg says.
She says that there was a false impression that people who lived in New Orleans at that time were a burden on the nation.
She says that there was a false impression that people who lived in New Orleans at that time were a burden on the nation.
But she says it was the Army Corps' fault all along.
"When the [levees] melted eastern New Orleans flooded., in some places as deep as ten feet," because levees were being built cheaply.
"When the [levees] melted eastern New Orleans flooded., in some places as deep as ten feet," because levees were being built cheaply.
"Wealthy and white people were disproportionately able to return to the city, while poor people and Black people were not," @andydhorowitz says.
One example: New Orleans and HUD used the storm as an opportunity to demolish all public housing in New Orleans, @andydhorowitz says.
Find the maps @leveesorg was just talking about on the air: https://wamu.fm/32uSiUT
For those in the path of Hurricane Laura: https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1298987336542257153
A listener with a long career in disaster response wrote to us that his experience in Cameron Parish in the wake of Hurricane Rita was the worst one he worked on in 35 years.
"Katrina seems much less like an isolated incident than a harbinger for what 21st century America is," @andydhorowitz says.
Laura is the biggest storm that we've seen this state since the 19th century, @MayorLandrieu says.
He was lieutenant governor when Katrina hit.
He was lieutenant governor when Katrina hit.
"We do have a stronger levee system [now] than we had before," @MayorLandrieu says.
But he says that the impact of Hurricane Katrina was a man-made engineering failure.
But he says that the impact of Hurricane Katrina was a man-made engineering failure.
"Every single person who came back used their own resources and what few resources they could get from the government...it was a grassroots recovery built by the people who loved the city enough to engage with it," @theharryshearer says.
"They were late, it took too long, and it wasn't enough," @MayorLandrieu says, of the federal aid offered in the wake of Katrina.
"This country will never ever be able to achieve our real potential unless and until we embrace each other as being fully equal," @MayorLandrieu says.
