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Article: When government shrugs lessons of Katrina.(construction work by Federal Emergency Management Agency)(Cover story)
- Article from:
- The Progressive
- Article date:
- September 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 The Progressive, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A year has passed since Hurricane Katrina turned New Orleans into the closest thing this country has seen to Pompeii. Although FEMA trailers dot more of the landscape than they did a few months ago, as homeowners have begun to dribble back, at least 60 percent of the city seems unoccupied. It will never be the same. Most of the markers of familiar life, the daily round, swept away, never to return. The beautiful Louis Armstrong song "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?" used to give me a little rush of wistful, sweet nostalgia. Now it makes me sob.
Most of my family lives in New Orleans. Nearly all of them were or remain displaced. My mother's ...