Obama
ends his Martha's Vineyard vacation Sunday and heads to New Orleans, five years
to the day from when Hurricane Katrina raged ashore, busting through crumbling
levees and flooding 80 percent of the city, killing more than 1,600 people.
Then-President George W. Bush's was harshly criticized in many quarters for not
responding aggressively enough to the disaster.
The
unfinished business of helping make New Orleans whole is Obama's responsibility
now.
On
Sunday, he will have the delicate task of commemorating the ravaging storm
while reassuring residents who may still believe the government has failed them
- both when it comes to Katrina and to the BP spill.
“He
inherited a legacy problem with New Orleans rebuilding just like so many
incredible challenges with the economy,” said Beth Galante, director of the New
Orleans office of Global Green USA, a sustainable building initiative active in
the city since the hurricane struck.
“It does
really put the burden on him to acknowledge the failures and make sure there's
a serious and ongoing federal commitment to righting those problems.”
Obama
will speak at Xavier University, a historically black, Catholic university that
was badly flooded by the storm. Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said Obama
would commemorate the lives lost in the flooding, celebrate progress made in
recovering, and “recommit the nation to the Gulf region and to all those still
working to rebuild lives and communities.”
Obama
will also discuss the BP spill, which spewed more than 800 million liters of crude
into the Gulf for three months, dealing a fresh blow to New Orleans' tourism-
and oil industry-dependent economy. The blown-out well was finally capped in
mid-July.
The
one-day visit comes at a sensitive time for the president, as he tries to set a
fall agenda heading into crucial midterm elections. He's also preparing for an
Oval Office address Tuesday on ending combat missions in Iraq that presents a
challenge similar to the one awaiting him in New Orleans. He'll be paying
homage to the troops for an action started by Bush that he has now taken over,
amid public concerns he is botching the follow-on action in Afghanistan.
New
Orleans residents are welcoming Obama's decision to highlight the Katrina
anniversary with a presidential visit. But many are also angry over jobs lost
from the deep water oil drilling moratorium he ordered in the wake of the oil
spill, and looking for more federal action to save precious wetlands that were
eroding fast even before BP's well blew. They will be listening for specifics.
“What the
city of New Orleans doesn't need is a booster talk,” said historian Douglas
Brinkley, who lived there during Katrina. “We had George W. Bush come to
Jackson Square and make all these promises that are unfulfilled. So I think
it'd go far if he would fill in what is the plan.”
Burton
said Obama was not expected to announce an early end to the drilling moratorium
in Sunday's speech, or make any new policy announcements.
It will
be Obama's 10th trip to the Gulf since taking office. Six of those visits came
after BP's leased oil rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and starting
the oil leak that was finally stopped last month.
His
administration's response to the spill was at times faulted as too slow, prone
to unrealistically rosy predictions and overly deferential to BP. But it rarely
drew the level of criticism aimed at the Bush administration after Hurricane
Katrina. Bush seemed at times unaware of events as poorly built federal levees broke
in New Orleans, nearly wiping out coastal parishes and stranding residents on
rooftops.
Five
years later, New Orleans' progress is mixed. Add in the recession to Katrina
and the Gulf spill, and the city suffered a triple whammy. But a report by the
Brookings Institution and the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center says
the metro area recovered more than 90 percent of its population and almost 85
percent of its jobs.
The Obama
administration points to accomplishments, including freeing up more than $2.25
billion in FEMA public assistance dollars for Louisiana, repairing more than
220 miles of levees and floodwalls and providing $250 million for repairs at
schools.
Residents
say there's much more to be done. Some believe the repairs under way on the
levees are inadequate and that the Obama administration needs a better plan for
restoring the coastal wetlands that are supposed to be New Orleans' first line
of defense but are disappearing at a rate of 34 square miles (88 square
kilometers) a year. Then there's the task of dealing with the oil spill moving
through the waters of the gulf, complicated by differing projections of how
much of it is still there and what the long-term impacts will be.
“I want
him to be informed. So many people are misinformed,” said Michael Homan, an
associate professor of theology at Xavier. “And also with just a little bit of knowledge
about what's going on with the wetlands, especially in light of the most recent
BP situation. I would hope he would acknowledge just how important it is.”
