Beyond Katrina

Adopt A Hurricane Impacted Family for Christmas

Hello, Margaret Saizan here.  I am the publisher of Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane & Disaster Recovery. Since 2005 I have sponsored  a Christmas wish fulfillment/Adopt a Family program to help match donors to hurricane survivors. The program has  become very popular and I am especially pleased that the donors love it so much!   Unfortunately, I wasn't able to host the program  last year  for personal reasons. However, much to my surprise (and delight) I received many emails from  donors who were really disappointed about this. The Adopt-a-Family program has been an enormously  rewarding experience for both givers and receivers alike.    

Inasmuch as the gulf coast is still not fully recovered from the storms of 2005 and its citizens are now dealing with the aftermath of two additional hurricanes - Gustav and Ike - I am considering reinstating the program this year. Please let me know if you are interested in participating either by adopting a family, being a co-sponsor,  or otherwise.  At this point I am seeding ideas and  I welcome dialogue and input from readers and stakeholders in gulf coast hurricane recovery.

In times past the program has been wildly successful as an organic, self creating initiative and this seems to be congruent with the viral way in which  new media/social media moves. However, this year I am getting a little bit earlier start than usual and plan to be more intentional in my promotional efforts. Inasmuch as the deeper motivation for most who participate lies in  the satisfaction of a job well done, I would like to create a way to cross promote the businesses and initiatives of participating donors and sponsors.  In this way the benefits to all are multiple.

Please email inquiries, ideas, pledges to donate or sponsor, etc. to Margaret Saizan at  beyondkatrina@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Cheers,

Margaret Saizan
Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane & Disaster Recovery
www.hurricane-katrina.org

Katrina 3-Year Coverage: Building on community driven successes with the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act

The federal government and national organizations have failed to meet the needs of the Gulf Coast 3 years after Katrina hit. How are local communities coming together to build a new vision for resident-led recovery? Almost three years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the breakdown of Louisiana’s federally constructed levee system, the media, Congress, the White House, our Presidential candidates and even, surprisingly, the progressive community have for the most part moved on. Continue at Facing South>>>

Architecture is a political act: Three years after the storm

From Architecture for Humanity:

Dear readers,

It is a busy week in America. Tomorrow some bloke is giving a speech in a football field, then next week some other guy speaks in some convention center. Kidding aside, if you truly care about the natural and built environment it is vital for you to take note of whose policies will affect the United States. With crumbling education facilities, neglected infrastructure and outdated housing policies, put down your morning coffee and please register to vote.

This week marks the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Many families are still in trailers and crossing their fingers Hurricane Gustav does not hit this weekend (currently projected as a Cat. 3 heading for New Orleans). We are committed to seeing our last projects get built including The Guardians Institute. While there is so much to be done, we'd like to give a special thanks to all those community members and those who came to the coast and helped rebuild. These families would not be home without you.

Gulf Coast Retrospective

For everyone working on the Gulf Coast, the last three years have gone by quicker than a Jamaican Olympic track star. We've gotten to know and respect so many of the people and families we worked with in the rebuilding effort. Willie Maes Scotch House restaurant (awesome video), one of the very first projects we helped through a grant to Heritage Conservation Network to preserve this historic property and gathering place, is up and running. We slept on floors, in car parks, in cars (that one made it on Car Talk), in tents and sofas to help families home. All in all thousands of families lives were touched by Architecture for Humanity volunteers, design fellows and architects.

Our sincere thanks to everyone who contributed to rebuilding along the Gulf Coast. Here's a few of the projects, made possible by your time and your talents:

Housing Recovery:
Parker Residence, Biloxi, MS by Brett Zamore Design
Desporte Residence, Biloxi, MS by CP+D Workshop
Robinson Residence, Biloxi, MS by Huff & Gooden Architects
Odom Residence, Biloxi, MS by GCCDS with Jeanne Gang Architect
Tyler Residence, Biloxi, MS by Marlon Blackwell Architect
Tran Residence, Biloxi, MS by MC2 Architects
Nguyen Residence, Biloxi, MS by MC2 Architects
Guillen Residence, New Orleans, LA by David Briggs AIA
Mona Lisa Saloy Residence, New Orleans, LA by Maureen Nes, John Dwyer and Tracy Nelson
Ms. Kathy's Laundry Room, Waveland, MS by University of Minnesota

Community Design Studios and Construction Workshops
Gulf Coast Community Design Studio, Biloxi, MS led by Mississippi State University
Mike's Construction Workshop, Biloxi, MS led by Mike Grote, Architecture for Humanity and Hands On Network
Hands-On Preservation Workshops, led by Heritage Conservation Network
Design Studio at NENA, New Orleans, LA, led by John Dwyer, AIA

Community Rebuilding:
John Henry Beck Red HouseBiloxi, MS by GCCDS and Hand On Network
Biloxi Shade Structure by AFH Austin
Calhoun McCormick Gallery and Studio by Shelter Architecture
Calhoun Residence and Back House by Shelter Architecture
Guardian Institute, New Oreleans, LA by Rockwell Group

Even after completing all these projects, it's humbling to realize how much is left to do. Please take a moment, to help families buy furniture, household goods, and finish rebuilding their lives by making a donation. Note "Gulf Coast" in the designation field and we'll make sure it goes where it should. 

Many other groups are also rebuilding on the Gulf Coast and have shared their work on the Open Architecture Network. To see just a few of the projects, see the sidebar to the right.

Rebuilding After Disaster
Hurricane Katrina
The Biloxi Model Home Program

Design is only innovative, if it is shared. One of the projects we learned the most from was the Biloxi Model Home Program. So, we thought we'd share some of the hard won lessons of that project in a book. This 100 page book covers the birth, development and construction of the Biloxi Model Homes--from family selection and financing to sheer walls and windows. It's an honest look at what it really takes to rebuild after disaster. The first edition is ONLY available by pre-ordering from our website and newsletter. Proceeds will go towards the rebuilding effort.

Many thanks to all the participants who helped put these lessons on paper. We are grateful to you.

Over the summer we have written a book dedicated to the lessons learned in rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina and what communities can do to prepare themselves if disaster strikes. The first edition of the book will ONLY be available online and can be pre-ordered below. If Design Like You Give A Damn was a compendium of humanitarian work, this new publication is a field guide manual in getting it done.

As always there are plenty of ways to get involved, volunteer (see below) or donate. Even If you don't have two pennies to rub together, you can help by nominating us for the AmEx Members Project. We need to break the top 25 and we are currently in 33rd place with 990 votes and only 4 days left. So close... ...will we make it?

Finally for those in San Francisco next month we will be holding a design event for kids as part of the Architecture and the City Festival. If you are in San Francisco and have young'ins drop by our office at 848 Folsom St. on September 6th. Cookies and Creativity abound.

Cheers,
All of us at Architecture for Humanity

On Tap for the Republican Convention: Karmic Payback?

This is one way of saying pay back is hell...From the New York Times Blog:

And now, a brief word about the Republican National Convention:There is apparently a real chance that Hurricane Gustav could hit New Orleans next Monday — which happens to be the day that President Bush, Laura Bush, and Vice President Cheney are scheduled to speak. Continue>>>

Homeowners near N.O. levee want trees

A state judge in New Orleans already has rejected a separate bid by property owners to block the corps from removing trees from the levees. On July 6, Judge Kern Reese ruled that the government has a right to commandeer private property for public purposes."In  southeast Louisiana, there is no more paramount purpose than flood protection, a lesson painfully inculcated....Continue>>>

Call for Speakers/Ideas: Katrina Event in Houston, Texas

I am working on a Katrina/Rita related program or event for a Foreign Media Tour of Houston, Texas ---March 5-7. The theme is how Americans view health care, the economy, and immigration in an election year. Since Houston is a  major gulf coast city that has also been impacted by the hurricanes of 2005,  there may be room in the schedule for a Katrina/Rita related program.  If you are a Katrina survivor who has relocated to Houston, or an individual or group working on behalf of Hurricane Katrina recovery issues,  I would like to speak with  you regarding  ideas  for this event. This is a great  opportunity to support the cause - i.e. to brief the foreign media  and help them better understand  issues and challenges related to ongoing gulf coast hurricane issues as well as recovery and rebuilding efforts post-Katrina.  If you have an interesting idea or contribution to make towards this endeavor,  please contact me at beyondkatrina@gmail.com.

Margaret Saizan
Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane & Disaster Recovery
www.hurricane-katrina.org.

help foreign political reporters better understand the role of local and state governments, parties, and lobbying organizations in U.S. elections.  To deepen the reporters’ understanding of the 2008 contest, the tour will also focus on key issues that both parties and all candidates are debating:  the economy, immigration, and health care. 

Gulf Coast Fellowship Consortium

To Whom It May Concern:

We are law students and new attorneys dedicated to working together to rebuild the post-Katrina Gulf Coast, We are applying for legal public interest fellowships in the region and want to share ways to assist our efforts. We appreciate your ongoing commitment to the Gulf Coast and hope to partner with your firm to make substantive change in the region.

It has been more than two years since Hurricane Katrina, and yet the region remains in crisis.  With rental costs still 46-percent above pre-Katrina rates, affordable housing is at an absolute scarcity.  The per capita murder rate in New Orleans is ten times the national average, the incarceration rate in Louisiana is the highest in the world, and the criminal justice system in Orleans Parish is in a state of meltdown.

  In Mississippi the poverty rate is above 21 percent, making it the poorest state in the nation, and low-income homeowners are further hampered by the diversion of $600 million from a housing grant program to big-business development in Gulfport.  Tens of thousands of immigrants have flocked to the region, yet face risk of immigration raids, wage theft, toxic working conditions, danger of detention and deportation, and increased risk of criminal victimization with virtually no service providers to support them. Spurred on by these needs, we are committed to confronting the problems that existed before the storm and have been compounded since—we know that we must create a broad array of projects to address the wide range of need.

To maximize our effect, we look forward to working together and creating ongoing pro bono opportunities. We are well-versed in collaboration from working together in the Student Hurricane Network, where we coordinated over 3,000 law student trips to the region and implemented extensive programming to bolster the region’s capacity. Through our familiarity with the region and the strong working relationships we have developed with virtually every facet of the public interest community, we are confident that we will organize meaningful, ongoing pro bono opportunities for our firm allies.

We hope that you will consider the following ways to support our work to address the lingering and persistent needs in the post-Katrina Gulf Coast. If your firm sponsors an Equal Justice Works fellowship, please give particular consideration to Gulf Coast projects.

If your firm is not currently sponsoring an Equal Justice Works fellowship, consider supporting a fellowship or partial fellowship in the coming year. You can learn more about the Equal Justice Works Fellowship by contacting Equal Justice Works directly at (202) 466-3686 or mail@equaljusticeworks.org.

The private bar can affect systemic change by supporting the influx of talented young attorneys to the region. Yet even with an influx of public interest lawyers, it will take years to develop the infrastructure to meet the needs of residents in the long under-served Gulf Coast.

If you are interested in this idea, please find enclosed a list of our individual names, host organizations, proposed projects, and contact information.

We look forward to working with you in these coming years to rebuild the region.

Sincerely,

Gulf Coast Fellowship Applicant Consortium:

Josie Beets, Brooklyn Law School, Class of 2008
Email: josieerin@gmail.com, Ph: 917-805-1848
Host organization: Resurrection After Exoneration, an exoneree-run reentry program
Project: Provide legal assistance, supportive programming and community advocacy to Louisiana exonerees while developing a model of reentry services in other states.

Andrew Canter, Stanford Law School & Kennedy School of Gvt., Class of 2008
Email: andrewcanter@gmail.com, Ph: 202-251-1468
Host Organization: Mississippi Center for Justice
Project: Provide housing representation to under-served residents of rural Hancock County Mississippi, which bore the brunt of hurricane Katrina but has received relatively little attention and services.

Andrew W Cowan, Cornell Law School, Class of 2008
Email: andrew.cowan@transuranium.net, Ph: 319-594-0054
Host organization: New OrleansPublic Defenders
Project: Ensure access to justice by working with stakeholders to determine objective indigency standards and appoint counsel within 72 hours of arrest for indigent criminal defendants.

Amanda Golob, St. John's Law School, Class of 2008
Email: amanda.golob@gmail.com
Host Organization: Louisiana Justice Initiative
Project: Engage city officials, community leaders, associations of landlords, renters and homeowners to create a rent stabilization program and reform the warranty of habitability in the Greater New Orleans area.

Basima Hafiz, Brooklyn Law School, Class of 2008
Email: basima.hafiz@gmail.com, Ph: 917-273-2396
Host Organization: Louisiana Assistance Center (LCAC)
Project: Advocate for improved detention conditions, adequate access to mental healthcare and transfers to appropriate mental healthcare facilities for mentally ill capital defendants in Orleans Parish Prison. 

Laila Hlass, Columbia Law School, Class of 2006
Email: aila.hlass@gmail.com 917-817-6838
Host Organization: Loyola Law Clinic
Build capacity of the post-Katrina immigrant and immigrant services communities, through direct representation; public education; policy reform; and pro bono coordination and training.

Annette Hollowell, University of Mississippi School of Law, Class of 2008
Email: annette.hollowell@gmail.com, Ph: 662-216-0105
Host Organization: Mississippi Center for Justice
Project: Protect historic African American development on the Mississippi Coastthrough intervention in foreclosure sales and predatory land use practices and participation in community development planning.

Laura Settlemyer, School of Law, Class of 2008
Email: lsettle@law.emory.edu, Ph: 617-256-0631
Host organization: New Orleans Legal Assistance (NOLAC)

Morgan Williams, Tulane Law School, Class of December 2007

Email: morganwilliams@fastmail.fm, Ph: 202-486-2776
Host organization: Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center
Project: Increase the supply of accessible and affordable housing for people with disabilities in post-Katrina New Orleans, through coalition building, outreach, and litigation.

NOTE: Please feel free to pass along this information to other talented and dedicated individuals that have developed public interest legal projects in the region who might be interested in collaboration.

For more information about the Student Hurricane Network, see www.studenthurricanenetwork.org. The “partner organizations” link identifies the organizations with whom we have positive working relationships.

Levees Not War Open Letter to George Bush

http://LeveesNotWar.org/

 The following letter has been faxed to the White House (202-456-2461). Please see http://LeveesNotWar.org/ for a letter faxed to leaders in the House and Senate urging an override of the president’s veto. See our ‘Political Action’ page http://leveesnotwar.org/LNW_PoliticalAction.aspx  for fax and phone numbers of the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives. Help us press for a Congressional override of the president’s veto—it would be a first. Thank you. ]

November 6, 2007

 

Dear President Bush:

 

The nation was inspired by your speech from Jackson Square on Sept. 15, 2005, when you promised “we will do what it takes . . . we will stay as long as it takes . . . to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives” after Katrina. We wanted to believe you were serious.

 

Sadly, we have watched for over two years as you and recovery czar Donald Powell have assured us that money is coming. But the funds for rebuilding have been “too little, too late”—just like the U.S. response to the “federal flood” resulting from failure of the federally built levees and floodwalls. (You claim you’ve allocated $116 billion for the Gulf Coast, but at least $75 billion of that was for post-storm relief—much of it going to Halliburton and other friends of the Republican Party. Of the remaining portion, only about 40% has actually been spent. As New Orleans City Council member Shelley Midura wrote to you in August, “the only direct federal assistance this city has received from you has been two community disaster loans that you are demanding be paid back.”)

 

Now you have vetoed the Water Resources Development Act—the first water projects bill in seven years, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support—on an unbelievable claim of fiscal restraint. Water projects authorization bills are normally passed every two years, but none have been passed since you took office. The $23 billion that WRDA would authorize is burned through every two months in the endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. You have requested $196 billion for those wars in 2008 alone—on top of the $481 billion 2008 allowance for the Pentagon.

 

Your veto shows you are not serious about Louisiana and the Gulf Coast’s recovery, and you are not serious about the nation’s aging infrastructure. We hope that you only vetoed this bill as a signal of spending restraint for fiscal conservatives in your own party—a pretense that you knew would be overridden because of the strong support in the House and Senate.

 

We call on all members of Congress to vote again in favor of WRDA, and we urge the White House to wind down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and apply the money squandered there to strengthen America’s infrastructure, port security, schools, and health care system—to rebuild this nation that has withered under your administration.

 

You have visited New Orleans many times since Katrina. Please don’t come back until WRDA is passed and the Army Corps of Engineers gets the funding it needs to “be all it can be.”

 

Thank you.

_______________________

Mark LaFlaur

82-40 Austin Street #6J

Kew Gardens, NY 11415

http://LeveesNotWar.org/

Nonprofit Community Plays Critical Role in Recovery

For the complete text of the report, please visit:

www.rockinst.org/gulfgov or www.la-par.org

The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government today released a report on the important role the nonprofit community has played in hurricane recovery efforts across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. GulfGov Reports:Response, Recovery, and the Role of the Nonprofit Community in the Two Years Since Katrina and Rita examines the role of the nonprofit sector in the recovery, what impact hurricanes Katrina and Rita have had on the work of these organizations, and what changes they already have made to handle the next disaster that strikes.

In contrast to the criticism that seems to accompany almost every aspect of the governmental recovery effort, the consensus among local officials, residents, and outside observers is that the nonprofit sector has responded to the rebuilding challenge beyond all expectation.

“The scope of the nonprofit community’s work in helping the Gulf Coast region rebuild has been unprecedented,” said Jim Brandt, president of PAR and co-principal investigator for the GulfGov Reports project. “It has included everything from national foundations investing millions of dollars in the recovery to out-of-town groups making frequent rebuilding trips to locally based groups lobbying for policy changes. There is no question that the nonprofit community is helping to push the recovery forward.”

Immediately after the storms, organizations that had never been involved in disaster relief and recovery work looked for ways to help. Small churches that really were not equipped to handle sizable numbers of evacuees opened their doors anyway, and their congregations responded. Normally staid foundations cut through paperwork and procedures to get money out quickly to organizations and agencies working directly in the affected areas. Well-established nonprofits performed double duty, taking in their counterparts from the devastated areas at the same time that their client loads increased. As the immediate crisis passed and the affected communities settled in for the long recovery, the nonprofit sector moved with them.

This study finds that nonprofit, community-based, and faith-based organizations remain more important than ever in the recovery efforts. By examining the groups cited in this report, one gets a picture of the variety of these organizations and the different strengths they bring to the recovery. In addition, some common issues and concerns emerged from the research:

• The wide-ranging impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita required the nonprofit sector to be adaptable to rapidly changing circumstances. It was not so much the missions of these groups that had to be altered. Rather, it was the scope of the work that changed as the demand and the need for services exploded.
• The critical need for a disaster response and recovery plan was reinforced. Many nonprofit organizations did not have such a plan before Katrina and Rita. Now they do. Other groups that had plans found they had to revise them.
• Funding sustainability is a serious problem. More than two years after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, many groups are running out of the money they need to keep providing elevated levels of service.
• The role and coordination of volunteers are major concerns for state and local governments. Everything from work assignments to housing, food, and transportation must be coordinated so that volunteers can be sent where they are most needed. That encompasses both the response and recovery phases of disasters.

“Studying the nonprofit community’s response to Katrina and Rita and how nonprofit organizations worked with government at all levels offers us another opportunity to gain insight into how best to respond to disasters,” said Dr. Richard P. Nathan, co-director of the Rockefeller Institute and co-principal investigator for the GulfGov Reports project. “It is critical that we take heed of the lessons learned here so that we can be better prepared for the next time. This fifth report from our three-year study focuses a flashing red light on the need for mechanisms to enable a leading organization in disaster situations to pull things together to make and oversee working connections among nonprofit and community-based groups. This is a vital part of the hard work of managerial leadership on the ground. Laws should be in place so that such mechanisms will be established at the ‘get go’ with adequate financial support to maximize and coordinate the contributions of volunteer groups to help address both human and infrastructure needs.”

Nonprofit, community-based, and faith-based organizations are well-suited to help out in disaster response and recovery. They are flexible, they can adapt their missions, they can marshal resources, and they can get around stultifying paperwork. But even the most efficient, well-run, well-funded nonprofit group has a limited reach. For all of the work that the nonprofit sector has done and continues to do in the hurricane recovery effort, it is still more akin to a drop in the bucket rather than a giant wave.

The scale of the devastation is so vast in Louisiana and across the Mississippi Gulf Coast that only government has the capacity to handle significant rebuilding. The role of the nonprofit sector was not meant to replace government as the primary driver of the recovery. Rather, it was to buttress the governmental response, to fill in the gaps. For the recovery to proceed in a timely and substantial way, government must take the lead while nonprofit, community-based, and faith-based organizations play a strong supporting role with their focus on the human element of any disaster.

This report is part of an ongoing research project being conducted jointly by the Rockefeller Institute and PAR with the help of a grant from the Ford Foundation. In addition, the John C. Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University and the Center for Urban Planning and Policy Assessment at Jackson State University are partnering in the research network for this project, as are researchers affiliated with Louisiana State University, the Southern University Law Center, and McNeese State University. The Advisory Committee for the project is chaired by former Mississippi Gov. William F. Winter.

The report is available online at www.rockinst.org/gulfgov or www.la-par.org.

Previous reports also available online include:

• GulfGov Reports: One Year Later
• GulfGov Reports: A Year and a Half after Katrina and Rita, an Uneven Recovery
• GulfGov Reports: Education. An Examination of the Impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
• GulfGov Reports: Spending Federal Disaster Aid. Comparing the Process and Priorities in Louisiana and Mississippi in the Wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

Source: PAR

Incognito

Yeah, admittedly this one made my day. According to the Mail and Guardian, there was a protest march outside the United States embassy in Jakarta on Wednesday. "The protesters were demanding that the US government provide support for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1500 and forced thousands from their homes".  I've spent some time in Indonesia, and so being pretty familiar with  this culture,  this protest "thing" amuses me to no end. And to see a pic of a demonstrator peering through his rather interesting mask, check it out here. Kinky.