NYT editorial: A year after Katrina, a tribute to the living

[DeepModem Mom]

Editorial
A Tribute for the Living
Published: August 29, 2006

After the church bells have been rung, the wreaths laid and the monuments dedicated to commemorate the drowning of New Orleans one year ago, it will be time to engage again with the tribulations of the survivors. Officials from the federal government down to city leaders must address the pressing needs of an exhausted, frayed populace.

It is hard enough to live among gutted or collapsing homes in eerily empty neighborhoods. But disruptions to basic services like water, sewage and electricity — not to mention the indignities of trash rotting uncollected on the curb and seas of weeds taking over public spaces — reinforce a feeling of abandonment for an already traumatized group of survivors. Much of the hopelessness stems from a sense that progress has ground to a halt.

After a year, the adrenaline is gone. There is improvement, but it is hard for locals to see at the end of a grueling summer. Burnout is setting in for many residents. While the crescent of high ground from the French Quarter to the Garden District is brightly polished and welcoming back tourists, people outside that lucky strip of territory say their quality of life is deteriorating.

Right now fewer than half of the 460,000 people who lived in New Orleans before the storm have returned. Their leaders cannot expect more to come back, or even that those who are here will stay, without proof that their trust, their investment and their sweat will not go for nothing. They are not looking for miracles, just consistent, incremental progress....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/29/opinion/29tue1.html?hp