Smart Growth America: REBUILDING AFTER KATRINA

Smart Growth America: REBUILDING AFTER KATRINA
”Devastated St. Bernard Parish working to come back, smarter
No jurisdiction was more devastated by Hurricane Katrina than St. Bernard Parish, a post-war suburb of New Orleans just across the city line from the Lower 9th Ward. Nearly every inch of the parish flooded, and only one structure, the parish jail, escaped without damage. Though tight-knit socially, in many ways the parish was emblematic of poorly-planned sprawl, a collection of out-moded retail corridors and slab-on-grade, ranch-house subdivisions that had been creeping deeper into the marshland that otherwise would serve as a break against tidal surge.”
”To read more about the charrette outcomes please see:
St. Bernard gets recovery going (The Times Picayune)
To download the final presentation, click here.
For a story on the charrette team’s proposals for temporary housing, click here.”
| Source: Smart Growth America

YES! Online: Post Katrina

Yes! magazine has compiled all of its Katrina-related feature articles in one place.

YES! Online: Post Katrina
"After the storm...
Katrina has not only altered the landscape of the U.S. Gulf Coast, it has altered our national character. Many of us have learned that we can no longer afford to be a nation of bystanders."

The Repopulation of New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina

"The population of New Orleans will likely reach about 272,000 in September 2008 ? amounting to 56 percent of the population of 485,000 before Hurricane Katrina struck in August, according to a study issued today by the RAND Corporation."
Summary (PDF; 0.1 MB) ||| Full Document (PDF; 1.0 MB)
(via DocuTicker.com)

Top Defense and Homeland Security Officials Shun Email

They Haven’t Got Mail - The Katrina hearings haven’t only revealed critical information about White House responses to the hurricane. They’ve also uncovered the online secrets of Donald Rumsfeld and Michael Chertoff: "...congressional investigations of government responses to Hurricane Katrina have revealed that two of the nation's key crisis managers, the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security, do not use e-mail...Spokesmen for the two officials maintain that Rumsfeld and Chertoff were kept informed during Katrina the same way as they keep in touch during other crises: through aides and a variety of other communications methods..."
House Releases Lengthy, Scathing Report on Govt's Flawed Response to Katrina, and other related postings on Katrina. Source: | beSpacific

Report on the Response to Hurricane Katrina

"GPO Access is providing a link to a preprint version of "A Failure of Initiative: Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina" that is hosted on the servers of the Committee. Users should note that this version is not final and is subject to changes and updates at unknown frequencies. The final, official version of the Report, expected in early April and coinciding with the delivery of the official printed version of the Report, will be hosted on GPO Access servers."
# Report on the Response to Hurricane Katrina (379 pages, PDF) | Source: beSpacific

Katrina Task Force Subcmte. Report From ABA

"The ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security, the ABA Section of State and Local Government Law and the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice have just released a report evaluating current legal authorities available to meet national disasters and emergencies. The purpose of this study was to examine the legal authorities available to guide the preparation and response to a catastrophic incident, whether from terrorism, accident or natural causes." (55 pages, PDF) | Source: beSpacific