Among the worst ever...

[Wilson]

http://www.accuweather.com/news-story.asp?partner=&article=0

So which storm was worse, Katrina or Camille? In terms of total damage and lives lost, Katrina gets top billing. On the other hand, in terms of shear intensity, Camille was the most extreme with sustained winds as high as 190 mph at landfall. In regard to size, Katrina was a much bigger storm spreading destruction across a much broader section of the Gulf Coast. You make the call as to which was worse. Personally, I wouldn't want to be in the way of either one.

In any case, today is the day Katrina made landfall on the central Gulf Coast. The storm became the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in United States history. The total damage has been estimated at over $90 billion, and more than 1,800 people lost their lives. The deadliest hurricane of all time was the Galveston storm in 1900. That horrific event claimed the lives of more than 6,000 persons most of whom had no idea what was coming. Katrina was one of the largest and strongest hurricanes ever to exist in the Atlantic Basin. While over the bath-like water of the central Gulf of Mexico (http://www.accuweather.com/news-story.asp?partner=&article=0#), the storm developed sustained winds of an almost unheard of 175 mph. That is comparable to the strength of an F3 tornado! Katrina produced an unprecedented amount of damage along the central Gulf Coast the worst of which was in New Orleans where the levees protecting the city failed.



Story by AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist John Kocet.

[ernie]

I wonder how the rebuilding of the areas that w promised these folks is coming along.

[Candleman]

I wonder how the rebuilding of the areas that w promised these folks is coming along.

My guess would be slow, since they are too lazy to help themselves, and their local and state politicians are crooks and clueless. I guess it is hard to rebuild something, nevermind clean up when you are sitting fat and happy in Texas living off of our dime.

[Wilson]

My guess would be slow, since they are too lazy to help themselves, and their local and state politicians are crooks and clueless. I guess it is hard to rebuild something, nevermind clean up when you are sitting fat and happy in Texas living off of our dime.

There were more than 1 million evacuees and the last report I read stated 90,000 are still in Houston. It's a double-edged sword... stay in Texas or head back to Louisiana, rebuild, and then be ridiculed for it when the next Hurricane comes through.

Seems like celebrities are having more success with the rebuilding effort, rather than the govt.

[Wilson]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20490384/

"The performance by the president and the federal government in the immediate aftermath of the storm — and some residents’ lingering sense of abandonment since — severely dented Bush’s image as a take-charge leader....

As on other visits, the president and his team arrived here armed with facts and figures to show how much the Bush administration has done to fulfill the promises the president made two-and-a-half weeks after the hurricane...

In fact, there is some good news here. The city’s population is rebounding, and a few neighborhoods thrive. New Orleans has recovered much of its economic base and sales tax revenues are approaching normal. The French Quarter survived Katrina, and the music and restaurant scenes are recovering.

But much of New Orleans still looks like a wasteland, with businesses shuttered and houses abandoned. Basic services like schools, libraries, public transportation and childcare are at half their original levels and only two-thirds of the region’s licensed hospitals are open. Rental properties are in severely short supply, driving rents for those that are available way up. Crime is rampant and police operate out of trailers."

[FamilyGal]

I'm doing my part to support NOLA. We already made our reservations for Mardi Gras! :p

[eaglesprings]

My fear is that the "tourist" industry, what people "see," is what will be rebuilt. Heck, already has been rebuilt! "The image" is what makes the news.

"Get off their butts?" Many of them didn't own property to begin with! Do you think tenants are going to go and work for a place that might not be theirs? Duh! People will work to restore their own, but nobody is going to work for something that can be taken from them, in fact, may have already been taken from them!

New Orleans is a large city, and you just can't group the whole lot of that population into a "tidy little definition!" Heck, I wouldn't go back! After two years, I'm pretty sure I'd have found a better life elsewhere!

[FamilyGal]

The tourist part of the town wasn't destroyed. We were in NOLA a few months after Katrina and you couldn't even tell anything had happened. On Canal Street, there were a few hotels with plywood up, but you would just think they were remodeling. You couldn't see water damage or anything you had seen on TV. The French Quarter had NO damage. Some places were closed, but that is about it.

I doubt I would go back if I had fled the hurricane. These people have rebuilt their lives somewhere else. I doubt they want to uproot their children again. Surely they miss their "hometown" and neighbors, but once you are settled somewhere, it is very hard to pick up and leave. Even if you really want to. Not to mention the cost. Most of these families came over with NOTHING. They were handed everything they had. If they are working, I imagine it is paycheck to paycheck. How would they have the money to move back? The rent and prices of home in NOLA has skyrocketed since Katrina. And, there are far less low income properties available. (Most were wiped out and they don't rebuild low income properties right away.)

I don't support people living off of the government, but I have never lived in these individual's shoes. I imagine they feel stuck wherever they are.

[eaglesprings]

Husband and I ran into a Katrina evacuee up in Eureka Springs last April. She waited our table at the restaurant where we were eating. I don't know if she waited tables in New Orleans or not. She mentioned she missed her home, but she was not unhappy living and working in Eureka Springs! (Heck, I could go for that myself! Minus the hurricane, of course!)