DHS: “24 billion went to rebuild the Gulf Coast states and provide survivors with a place to live, repair damaged infrastructure, and build houses and schools in 2007. Of the $114 billion allocated for Gulf Coast recovery, 84 percent has either been disbursed or is awaiting claims. FEMA awarded $8.3 billion in public assistance funding for education, criminal justice, public works, health and hospitals, and historic and cultural resources; education and public works receive $1.3 billion apiece. As of July 2007, over 95,000 households have received aid.”
View the FEMA rebuilding grants summarized by state or parish/county.
The Nation – Silent Witness by Ari Kelman: “…No names of the dead will be engraved on walls; there will be no Freedom Tower. Instead, those responsible for this unnatural disaster hope that we will forget the storm’s victims and survivors. For politicians, petroleum executives and engineers, there is little to be gained from our remembering Katrina–no wars to be ginned up out of this ruined city, no elections to be won by waving the stained garments of the dead. Meanwhile, New Orleanians are still on hold with insurance companies, busy hauling away moldy sheetrock or otherwise too consumed with sorting heirlooms encrusted with muck to scold us for ignoring them. What we have are scholars, memoirists, journalists and activists recalling the storm and foreshadowing what we’ll miss if we continue on our path of forgetting. Their books, for now, are the best memorials to Katrina we have.”
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