New Orleans – It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Signs are emerging that history is repeating itself in the Big Easy, still healing from Katrina: People have forgotten what happened after the last hurricane and again believe the federal government is constructing a levee system they can prosper behind. In a year-long review of levee work here, The Associated Press has tracked a pattern of public misperception, political jockeying and legal fighting, along with economic and engineering miscalculations since Katrina, that threaten to make New Orleans the scene of another devastating flood. Dozens of interviews with engineers, historians, policymakers and flood zone residents confirmed many have not learned from public policy mistakes made after Hurricane Betsy in 1965, which set the stage for Katrina; many mistakes are being repeated. A recent University of New Orleans survey of residents found concern about levee safety was dropping off the list of top worries, replaced by crime, incompetent leadership and corruption. The Department of Defense will hire an independent engineering company to review allegations that pumps installed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina weren't adequately tested and might fail during a hurricane.

NEW ORLEANS — The Federal Emergency Management Agency has paid nearly $3 billion in hotel bills and rental assistance for the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita — by far the costliest emergency housing effort in the nation's history, according to government statistics. On the cusp of the storms' three-year anniversaries, more than 14,000 families remain in FEMA-funded apartments across the Gulf Coast and as far away as Alaska. The spending continues today because three years of labor and planning across the Gulf Coast has not replaced enough of the homes and apartments the storms destroyed. The price tag far outdistances housing costs after any other U.S. disaster, FEMA statistics show. The agency spent less than $250 million on housing for the previous six hurricanes combined, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.