Devastation of Katrina in ’05 still unimaginable

The worst natural disaster to hit the Mahoning and Shenango valleys lasted less than an hour and killed 10 people in Ohio and eight others in nearby Pennsylvania. That was May 31, 1985. A tornado touched down near the Ravenna Arsenal and plowed through Newton Falls, Niles, Hubbard and crossed into Pennsylvania, hitting Wheatland at 7:10.

The storm front continued through Pennsylvania, New York and into Ontario, Canada. Over six hours, it spawned 40 tornadoes and killed 88 people, injured more than 1,000 and caused almost a half-billion dollars in damage.

That was 30 years ago, and we still remember the loss and pain of that day. But it pales in comparison to the natural disaster that struck the Gulf Coast 10 years ago.

Hurricane Katrina didn’t strike once or do its damage in a matter of hours. It struck Florida’s east coast Aug. 25, 2005, then moved into the Gulf of Mexico, where it built strength before making multiple landings in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Katrina made landfall at New Orleans on Aug. 29. The city of 500,000 people – many of whom lived below sea level, presumably protected by levies – suffered the greatest losses in property and lives.

Today, New Orleans’ population is about 385,000. Some 100,000 people who fled the flooded city never returned.

About $180 billion has been spent in the rebuilding efforts, most of it in government money. But private money has been funneled into the city, too, perhaps the most unlikely being $100 million pledged by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the former ruler of Qatar.

About $15 billion has been spent by the Army Corps of Engineers rebuilding the levies that failed so disastrously.

But despite all the money that was spent, only 30,000 structures have been rebuilt, nearly 100,000 fewer than were destroyed.

In the Mahoning and Shenango valleys, rescue teams reached the tornado victims within hours, if not minutes, of the sudden storm. In New Orleans, despite advance warning, victims were stranded in their flooded homes and even in the Superdome, which had been converted into an emergency shelter, for days without adequate food, water and sanitation. While people waited to be rescued from the second floor of homes that were in 10 feet of water, they saw the bodies of men, women and children who were not as lucky floating by.

The death toll from Katrina is the third worst in U.S. history, but there is no absolutely accurate count. A generally accepted figure is 1,850, about 1,400 of whom were in New Orleans. About 700 are listed as missing.

FAILURES IN RESPONSE

Any storm as strong and as long-lasting as Katrina is going to claim human lives. But the debate continues today over whose failure to respond was worse: local, state or federal government. Those governments share the blame – perhaps not equally – but it will never be known how many hundreds of lives may have been saved if the response to the storm and evacuation of people isolated first by poverty and later by rising water had been handled properly.

And by properly, we mean in a way that anyone would expect a First World nation to respond to an emergency.

In the 10 years since, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi have rebuilt with varying degrees of success. There has not only been massive federal investment, but people from around the nation have given money and millions of volunteer hours in the rebuilding effort.

By any measure, New Orleans, the worst-hit area and the recipient of the greatest amount of help in rebuilding, has seen successes and failures. In 2005, two of every three schools in New Orleans was labeled as failing. The Louisiana Recovery School District – a charter school system – now has two-thirds of its schools passing state standards.

The storm was harder on the poor, predominantly black population than the more affluent white population. It was easier for more prosperous and mobile families to flee. And it has been easier for them to return. More whites than blacks either didn’t leave or have returned. But the poverty rate there remains at 30 percent.

Katrina wiped out hundreds of years of architecture and culture in the relative blink of an eye. It would be unrealistic to expect the rebuilding to be complete in a decade. But pausing at this 10-year mark provides an opportunity to assess what has worked and what hasn’t and to set goals for where New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast should be when the 25th anniversary rolls around.