Outsiders stunned by damage's extent
By The Washington Post
NEW ORLEANS — Visitors of all kinds — tourists, volunteer crews — come away today shaken by the scope of Hurricane Katrina's destruction and its lingering aftermath. Despite extensive television attention, it is one of the few U.S. natural disasters that may have been understated by the coverage. The extent of the wreckage is too far-reaching to be captured in video clips.
"Halfway through every tour, there is silence like a funeral," said Isabelle Cossart, whose New Orleans tour company used to focus on the French Quarter and other historical sites. It now gives people a 3 ½-hour glimpse of the devastation. "Even if they've seen every bit of television coverage, they all say, 'It's so much worse than we thought.' They're just so surprised that it goes on for miles and miles."
Some ask: How could so much of a major U.S. metropolis and the adjoining Gulf Coast have been abandoned for so long?
On one typical middle-class New Orleans street that was flooded, 10 of 15 families surveyed by The Washington Post said they have no plans to return this year, if ever. Only one family of the 15 has gone back so far.
The federal government is planning to spend at least $110 billion on the region's recovery. But even the cleanup has not been finished.
Nearly one-third of New Orleans' trash has yet to be picked up, according to federal Gulf Coast Recovery Coordinator Donald Powell, and there is some to be cleared in Mississippi.
Debris removal has been hampered by complicated regulations meant to protect against hazardous waste and the destruction of private or historic properties.
"We talk a lot about debris — it's the most symbolic evidence of things moving forward," Powell said. "You might say, 'Well, gosh, it's been a year.' But it's important to realize how large a catastrophic event this was."
The amount of insured damage from Katrina was more than $55 billion, greater than that from Hurricane Andrew in August 1992, the attacks on the World Trade Center in September 2001 and the February 1994 Northridge earthquake combined.
Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company
seattletimes.nwsource.com |
