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What New Orleans Looks Like Two Years Later [VIDEO]

By Robert Greenwald, Brave New Films. Posted August 29, 2007.


Tens of thousands of families in the Gulf Coast region are still without homes, and there is something very specific you can do to help.
Hurricane Katrina 2nd Anniversary

The video to your right was produced by Brave New Films. Here is a message from the video's website When the Saints Go Marching In:

It's been two years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast region, and still there are tens of thousands of families without homes. 30,000 families are scattered across the country in FEMA apartments, 13,000 are in trailers, and hardly any of the 77,000 rental units destroyed in New Orleans have been rebuilt.

We put together this short film, "When the Saints Go Marching In," to tell several heartbreaking stories. The Aguilar family lost their home and only received $4,000 from the insurance company. Mr. Washington, an 84-year-old man and former carpenter, owned three homes prior to the storm, but is still living in a FEMA trailer. Julie can't return to her job and normal life because the government won't open the public housing she lived in prior to the storm. There are thousands of stories like this.

There is something very specific you can do to help. Sign the petition urging the Senate to pass Chris Dodd's Gulf Coast Recovery Bill of 2007 (S1668).

The bill is expected to come to a vote soon. Its passage will be an important step toward rebuilding the infrastructure in the Gulf Coast region. In addition to S1668, please also encourage your Senators to go further in helping the public and low-income housing residents who lost their homes in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Please pass the video on and encourage people to sign the petition. It's important we all support the Gulf Coast region's right to return home and put the needed resources toward rebuilding these families' lives.

Digg!

See more stories tagged with: hurricane katrina, new orleans, poverty

Robert Greenwald is the director/producer of "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism," as well as many other films. He is a board member of the Independent Media Institute, AlterNet's parent organization.

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Anyone who was there.....
Posted by: mizipi on Aug 29, 2007 1:53 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
.....whether in New Orleans, the Mississippi Gulf Coast, or the rural areas of southeast Louisiana or southwest Mississippi knows that individuals and churches provided the best help and relief after the storm. The majority of people affected by the storm learned first-hand that poor rednecks and poor blacks do not matter to the government.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Brice Phillips, WQRZ
Posted by: gazooks on Aug 29, 2007 5:38 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Thanks to Brice Phillips, WQRZ managed to stay on the air throughout Katrina and its aftermath when most of the corporate owned and other commercial radio stations in the path of the storm went silent. He was featured on Bill Moyers Journal recent program on the consolidation of American media by corporate interests.

Despite losing his house and virtually everything he owned to the storm, Brice has persevered in a heroic effort to serve his devastated community at the "ground zero" of Katrina's landfall.

This guy represents the best of what service oriented Americans dedicate to when the chips are down, disregarding his own losses and committing to help his community with pertinent emergency information saving lives and keeping people connected.

The station is barely able to stay on the air, according to the Moyers report, and could use help from anyone able to send something to assist their survival. Contributions may be made at: ( the link is spaced after donate for posting)
https://www.networkforgood.org/donate /MakeDonation2.aspx?ORGID2=640943364

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» Thanks, gazooks! Posted by: porgygirl
Appearances.
Posted by: talkville on Aug 29, 2007 5:50 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What New Orleans today "looks like" is --- less black. More "middle class" and "gentrified". The imaginary of Jazz as opposed to Jazz. It looks boring and it looks suburban and it looks neo-liberal. It looks like a gated community. It looks like a depository of tax-payer funds to "contractors" who put $1 dollar in and take $20 dollars out. It looks dismal for New Orleans and it looks glorious to New New Orleans. This time, however, it will look well taken care of and perfect and tidy and comfortable. In a word, it looks dead.

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» RE: Appearances. Posted by: cacky
RE: When are the casinos going to open?
Posted by: cacky on Aug 29, 2007 10:23 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yes, but it wasn't inevitable. The levees were in a state of neglect and disrepair. Everyone from the national weather and disaster assessment people to the Army Corps of Engineers, had been screaming their heads off for years about a tragedy in the making. The Bush Admin. cut the Corps' funding every year since taking office. They have the same laissez-faire capitalist attitude that they have for all infrastrutcture, precaution, planning, quality of life, commomsense maintenaince of our Republic and our public spaces and duties: "what do we need THAT for?"

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BEWARE OF TELEVISION!
Posted by: magiquarian1969 on Aug 29, 2007 8:19 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There's that new show coming up this fall called "K-ville." I'm worried that it is going to be used to paint a picture of New Orleans that things are going WAY better than they actually are. I've seen ads for it for almost a year now. You NEVER hear on network television how things are progressing in New Orleans because the way it has been handled is an embarassment. Even in the face of complete distruction the federal/state/local government is still preying on the poor. Billions upon billions are going for alternate interests while our own people are going down. Anybody know of organizations where you can help remotely? Can you imagine if a hurricane hit Kenny Bunkport or The Hamptons? They'd be up and running better than before within 6 months. New Orleans is a perfect example of how are government views "we the people." WE THE PEOPLE are the only ones who can give us hope. New Orleans is us and we are them.

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Welcome To America's Future
Posted by: InsertNameHere on Aug 29, 2007 9:53 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If you want a picture of the future, here it is. When resources are running out and things start to get bad, most of America's cities will be ghettoized when they leave you to rot. Not only has the government proven that they are woefully ill-prepared, but also that they simply don't care.

The rich will hole up in hyper-secure gated communities and the working class will fester in polluted rot-holes that will be left over, the hordes herded into special zones to prevent wandering. Life will be worth squat. It will be like some bad Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi-action flick.

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petition
Posted by: cacky on Aug 29, 2007 10:30 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I didn't see anything on the link that said sign the petition.

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» RE: petition Posted by: silverwizard
Shame of the nation
Posted by: silverwizard on Aug 29, 2007 12:19 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Here it is folks...exactly what we can expect from the corrupt, useless leadership in our nation's capital. BTW...it isn't JUST the Republicans that we should be blaming here, it is ALL of them, both sides of the aisle.
The levees didn't fail because of G.W, they failed because of decades of neglect. Of course, an argument can be made that over development of the wetlands was a major contributing factor in the overall devestation...an idea which I firmly believe.
The main point here is that while the U.S. sends huge amounts of cash and other aid to other countries, almost nothing is being done to help our own people. When you factor in G.W.'s ego war on Iraq and maybe others, if we don't stop him, the equation makes even less sense.
Here we have one of our most historical and beautiful cities being left to rot by our government and we, the people, are doing NOTHING to change this.
This CANNOT stand! Wake up America! You might be next!
After all, the wealthy want to kill off the poor, the elderly, the disabled and anyone who will not just roll over and lick their boots.
Me? I don't lick...I bite!

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Right.
Posted by: lwbaby on Aug 29, 2007 8:41 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Because drive-bys, home invasions and stabbings are so much more lively!

I would love to know why safety, security and neatness are so maligned in liberal circles. I'd also like to know why so many people strive to achieve it.

White bread, neatness, cleanliness, scholastic achievement and what not are viewed as such negatives. They have no color! Yet, such values not only make the world go round but draw others to it.

?

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