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New Orleans residents will be allowed to return to the driest
areas of the storm-battered city at the end of this week, many for
the first time since Hurricane Katrina hit nearly a month ago,
according to a new timetable announced on Wednesday by the city's
mayor.
Under the plan by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, only areas still
flooded, specifically the city's hardest hit Ninth Ward, will
remain off limits to residents by the middle of next week. Everyone
else can go home for good.
Nagin's initial plan to repopulate the city soon after Katrina
struck on August 29 came under criticism from federal officials as
premature. That plan was postponed last week due to the Hurricane
Rita.
Now New Orleans residents have been pleading to be let back
in.
"We're doing it as quickly as we can, and we're doing it as safely
as we can," the mayor said at an appearance in Baton Rouge.
He said progress has been made to restore city services, including
some electrical power. But he instructed residents of some
neighborhoods to continue boiling their water.
"We're getting things done. For those who say we're not ready, take
that," he said. "I'm frustrated that every time we get to the point
of talking about re-entry, another official comes out and says
we're not ready."
Under Nagin's timetable, residents can return on Friday in areas
that did not flood or flooded very little. Those include the
historic French Quarter, the Central Business District and uptown
neighborhoods, including the elegant Garden District.
How many will return?
It's unclear how many of the city's estimated 1 million displaced
residents will return.
"So far we lost a lot of people who don't want to come back. Maybe
they'll change their mind," said Georges Keedy, a worker in the
Central Business District.
The mayor said houses have been inspected and those deemed
structurally unsafe will sport red stickers and people should not
stay in them, he said. Most problems returning residents will
encounter will be structural.
By Wednesday, he said, people should be able to return to every
location except the lower Ninth Ward, which is still underwater
from renewed flooding from Hurricane Rita.
So far, most residents have been allowed to visit limited parts
of the city to assess damage, but they could not stay. In the
Algiers section, which did not flood, residents have been allowed
to move back home.
"It's been a month. Some people have to have closure. They have to
decide life-altering decisions," said Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, New
Orleans city councilwoman, whose district includes parts of the
Ninth Ward.
On Thursday, businesses will have nearly full access to the areas
of the city that did not flood, Nagin said.
As the mayor made plans to rebuild the city, Louisiana Gov.
Kathleen Blanco began lobbying Washington for support to rebuild
the storm-battered state.
Blanco declined a chance to respond in Congress to comments by the
former head of the federal disaster agency blaming her for problems
in the response to the storms. She said she would rather focus on
her economic request.
Blanco focused on economic relief
"Today I came really to talk about job creation," she told the
Senate Finance Committee.
She has said the state needs nearly $32 billion in federal aid to
help rebuild the state's infrastructure.
"This country and its economy must have a vibrant commercial center
at the mouth of the Mississippi River, its most important
waterway," Blanco said. "Katrina and Rita brought our economy to
its knees."
In Erath, Louisiana, farmer Jimmy Domingues surveyed his 3,200
acres of sugar cane, which Hurricane Rita covered with four feet of
water, and said it was the worst damage he had ever seen.
"If we don't get any kind of help, we're bankrupt," Domingues said.
"There's no two ways about it."
Elsewhere in Vermilion Parish, houses were moved 100 yards from
their foundation and dead cattle and horses littered the
landscape.
Blanco said an array of incentives, from a fund to spur business
development, to tax credits and hurricane recovery bonds, are
necessary to help Louisiana. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita left
71,000, or almost 41%, of the state's businesses shuttered or
displaced.
She vowed to rebuild the state with more secure levees, which
breached during both hurricanes, and stricter building codes.
The governor's appearance followed dramatic testimony on Tuesday by
former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown,
who called Louisiana "dysfunctional" after Hurricane Katrina
struck, and said he was stymied by differences between Blanco and
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.
Congressional Republican leaders promised on Wednesday to look for
ways to cut spending to help pay for the huge costs of
post-hurricane rebuilding. Congress has approved $62.3 billion in
aid after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in late August.
Early estimates of the total eventual federal bill run as high as
$200 billion.
Katrina and Rita, which hit on Saturday, devastated the Gulf Coast
from Texas to Alabama. Katrina killed at least 1,122 people and
ruined New Orleans. The storms forced more than 2 million people to
evacuate and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage.
