Recovery and Renewal

On August 29, 2011, the 6th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I asked Mr. James Perry to reflect on the significance of the day, and what positive developments he’s seen since the storm.

Feinberg says no claims filed on cleanup illnesses,” ran an erroneous Associated Press headline last week, stirring up more mistrust of the BP claims process among Gulf Coast residents.  It is simply not true that sick cleanup workers have not filed medical claims with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF), administered by Kenneth Feinberg.  Rather, Feinberg and the GCCF appear to be categorically

A diverse coalition of 154 groups, including Waterkeeper Alliance, United Houma Nation, Greenpeace and 69 different Waterkeepers organizations, representing hundreds of thousands of community members around the country, Mexico and China, sent a letter to EPA Administrator Jackson and HHS Secretary Sebelius demanding action on the growing public health crisis on the Gulf Coast.

On a beautiful late afternoon in early May, Dedrick Benison and Michael Calvin are quietly surveying the house that came crashing down around them just a week before.  On April 27th they were watching a movie here, a neighbor’s house on the catfish farm where the men live and work, near Forkland, Alabama.  Moments later a tornado collapsed the roof and ripped off the kitchen wall, sending furniture and splintered wood flying.

“I hate disasters,” Derrick Evans has said grumpily and repeatedly over the past several days.  As a resident of coastal Mississippi and a Gulf Coast advocate, Evans has been through situations like this before – Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike, BP, to name a few. 

I recently had the opportunity to speak with several neighboring friends and associates that are from New Orleans, but now living in Houston.  Two I met, and they became a part of my life, while I was residing in Houston after Hurricane Katrina.  I wanted to know, more than five years after leaving New Orleans, why were they still in Houston?  Did they consider themselves displaced?  What did they think about New Orleans and returning home?

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