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Show ^ ' ' Special Features 22 Wednesday, Aug. 30.2006 KATRINA - O N E YEAR From page 21 H U R R I C A N E Slowly returning K A T R I N A Still recovering One year after the deluge The pfe-Kalrina population in the Orleans Parish exceeded 460,000 people. The latest reports have that numbaf at loss than 200.000. • welve months alter Hurricane Katrina ravaged Now Orleans, the city is still largely in ruins. Less than hall the residents chose to return to the metro area's broken infrastructure. Only three out ol nine New Orleans hospitals have T! Orleans Parish 2,500-9,999 New Orleans metro area 120 iftouSTint) MISS. ] 10.000-99,999 | 100.000-250,000 I More lhan 250,000 Trailer*, Mobile homes FEMAald registrants Less lhan 2,500 Mobile homes and travel trailers, as of July FEMA-dcslgnated counties significantly affected by Katrina According lo !he Federal Emergency Management Agency, more ihan 1.7 million aid applications were received Irom Katnna-atiected slates 2 More lhan 100.000 families have moved Into trailers or mobile homes stationed either in the yards ol their damaged homes or In makeshift compounds. reopened and less lhan one-third ol the city's schools will enroll sludenls this tall. But the housing market Is showing signs of life and increased visitor travel lo Ihe area Is helping the economy recover. Aid applicants across the nation ProKatitfia "Given the scale and scope of this disaster, this is not something you rush into," Johnson says. "Do we wish it was done? Absolutely. But we're working as hard as we can to move ahead." Over the years, benign neglect has become part of the city, which has received $117 million in federal infrastructure assistance, is waiting for billions more in aid that was promised. "I'm quite frankly a little tired of planning," he says. Others argue that delays are to be expected. says Reed Kroloff, dean of architecture at T\ilane University and one of the experts tapped by Nagin to work on the first plan. "The real problem here is there is a lack of leadership." Nagin says he has done his part. He complains that 10/05 1,06 Homes for salo In Orleans Parish LA., 9-12-05 Arrivals at the International airport, as ol June 5O0 Uiousand 400 300 200 100 0 ProKatrma Manufacturing Aug. '05 June 06 86.4 38 6 Sept. r 05 123.3 46.5 27 2 H Leisure and hospitality Trade, transportation and utilities 2a o 63.0 Education and health services 79.1 10 Plaquemines 30 20 10 74.0 41.5 21.6 43.7 46.5 3 29.9 47.3 Unemployment rate — '" New Orleans — - ' Louisiana Unemployment rate lor returning and displaced evacuees 50% Nat. resources, Professional mining and and business construction services 39.5 0 8-06 905 HospltBls open by parish, as of July 100**1 Orleans —— Mississippi Returning evacuees oSOURCES FEMA. 606 Schools open by parish, as of Aug. With nearly 200,000 (ewer people employed in New Orleans' metro area, the overall workforce took a significant hit from Kalrina. While the labor force has grown in Ihe past six months, more lhan 7 percent ol workers in New Orleans are unemployed, higher lhan pre-Katnna conditions and higher than Louisiana and the U.S. as a whole. Employment In selected sectors, in thousands 1/06 605 NOTE D,l!a as Ol Aug 14. £006. FEMA CSlimatoslnjt one r e g i o n ! repffrwnts 2.5 peopio i Now Orleans Dnia CommiiriTy Center. BrooKniga Institution. 8'^cau of Lcbot Statistics get a workable plan together, investors will be hesitant to put money into the city, planners say. "A lot of people are holding their money back pending an affirmation that the city really has a broader idea of where it's going in the future. What kind of a city is it going to be?" says Ken Topping, a California planning consultant hired to help. Francis says it is also important for the city and the state to show Congress that it intends to spend the federal aid on well-devised plans. Otherwise, the risk is "the rest of the country turns its back on New Orleans." Topping says the real danger is that New Orleans will lose faith its ability to rebuild. For many, memories come every day, not just on anniversary THE WASHINGTON POST Residential building permits issued, as ol Aug. WASH planning say that won't do. "The citizens of New Orleans need to know what the plans are, so the citizens can make their plans on whether they should rebuild, repair or sell their homes," says Francis, chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, which oversees federal aid given to Louisiana. Kroloff says the city should offer incentives to people to trade flooded-out homes for ones in higher neighborhoods. "Any rational, sane person would have to agree we should encourage people to live in the highest, driest places," he says. "I mean, what madman would say, * Wahoo, here we go into the swamps!'?" If New Orleans fails to BY PETER WHORISKEY 4 5 thousand 4.0 35 3.0 2510.05 I/OS ALA. the city's Old World charm. Plaster peeling from brick walls, the musky smell of old wood, the outdated furnishings at mom-and-pop restaurants help cast New Orleans' spell. Some neighborhood leaders fear all this talk of master planning will snuff out the city's distinctive neighborhoods. "People are fearful we're going to be turned into something we're not. We're such a unique city," says Virginia Saussy Bairnsfather, a board member of the neighborhood association in Broadmoor, one of the sections proposed for green space in the original Nagin plan. Besides, she says, "We do have sort of a planless plan to just rebuild." Proponents of master BILOXI, Miss. — He doesn't seem the type to rattle easily. A gravel-voiced retired seaman with piratical swagger, Jim DeSilvey survived Katrina's 25-foot storm surge here by tying one end of an electrical cord around his waist and the other around a telephone pole. But these days when light winds begin to blow around his FEMA trailer, he springs to the window. "I just want to make sure the water isn't coming up," he says. Then he seems embarrassed. "You would, too, if you'd been through what I've been through," he adds. As people on the Gulf Coast marked the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on Tuesday, there are public memorial ceremonies and stoic promises to rebuild. President Bush toured neighborhoods here Monday. But many here say any remembrances of that day — many of which remain appallingly clear — still largely instill private flashes of nervousness, or guilt, or depression. For the tens of thousands of people who are still displaced by the storm, moreover, the possibilities of getting back home might now seem more remote than ever. Less than 5 percent of the thousands of destroyed homes are being rebuilt, local officials said. Most of the affected homeowners in Mississippi and Louisiana have yet to see any of the billions in federal money approved to help them get back home. "For the people who've been able to get back to their homes, there's a sigh of relief," said Biloxi City Council member Bill Stallworth. "But for those who haven't — and that's the vast majority here — there's a real panic. "People recognize that it's been a year and they're still where they were the day after the storm," he said. "Now the volunteer groups are drying up. The money to assist families is drying up. People don't know what they're going to do." Across a roughly 40-mile stretch of the Mississippi Gulf Coast from Waveland to Biloxi, the storm pushed ashore a wall of water 20 feet or higher, according to Mississippi State researchers. Along that portion of the Gulf, the fast moving water "slabbed" countless homes — that is, left nothing but the slab behind. Unlike the devastation of New Orleans, which resulted from the failure of manmade flood walls and levees, the devastation here is viewed more purely as a natural disaster. So while in New Orleans many vilify the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies responsible for flood control, many here simply blame themselves for not evacuating. 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