Senator Maria Cantwell's Weekly Update for Washington State

Senator Maria Cantwell's Weekly Update for Washington State

Monday, April 24th, 2006

A Letter from New Orleans

More than seven months after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the recovery is still just beginning. Last week, I went to New Orleans and saw tremendous remaining physical, economic, and human devastation. Across the region, many people are working to rebuild their homes and families. But we have so much work still left to do and in too many communities the absence of progress is appalling. The conditions I saw are simply inexcusable.

Among the earliest challenges I noticed last week were so many families and communities struggling to meet even their most basic needs. We need more doctors, more medicine, and better access to quality health care. Losing that access has led to new and particularly acute risks in the aftermath of a hurricane whose destruction has created unique health challenges. Hospitals, medical centers, and pharmacies once served as anchors in their communities, but are still not fully functional today. Many doctors and nurses who left when the hurricane struck have not returned and some may never come back. Newly poor and struggling residents continue to stress a Medicaid system that has already been stretched too thin.

Last year's devastation has had a painful ripple effect. Again and again, I saw evidence that, in a million different ways, a million different individuals feel the hurricane's impact everyday. Children who deserve a quality education are falling through the cracks when they should be getting extra attention. Many local school districts, slowly returning to full operation, offer a learning environment marked by disrepair and desolation.

With limited manpower and resources, thousands of homes still needing to be gutted or torn down completely, continue to stand untouched. Debris and rubbish cover the city. And the 125,000 small- and medium-sized businesses that were disrupted along the Gulf Coast struggle to recover. Bureaucratic wrangling and budgetary shell games in Washington, D.C. keep critical funds and assistance from the people who need it most. As a result, thousands of families, businesses, consumers, employers, and employees remain in limbo, stuck without essential financial and institutional support.

I also saw with my own eyes that we have done far too little to protect the region from future destruction. We have done too little to restore Louisiana's three million acres of coastal wetlands and construct modern category-5 levee protection. With another hurricane season approaching and people's lives at stake, we must implement these vital security provisions as soon as possible.

We have made some progress: to date, Congress provided $62.3 billion in emergency funding for Katrina relief. Although the Supplemental Appropriations bill, to come before the Senate this week, does provide funding to rebuild the levee system, it is a small fraction of what is actually needed. We must make a real investment to properly rebuild this important infrastructure if we are serious about protecting the citizens of New Orleans and preventing future catastrophic flooding.

We must also accelerate the dispersal of resources for reconstruction efforts so that those residents who were displaced can return home. Currently more than 100,000 homeowners and businesses are waiting for loan applications to be processed by the Small Business Administration (SBA). Of those that have been approved, more than 60,000 are still waiting to receive funds. We need to identify the bureaucratic inefficiencies that have kept the SBA from delivering resources. And as we approach the 2006 hurricane season, agencies critical to response and recovery must revise their disaster plans to ensure their failures do not recur.

The current situation in New Orleans is indefensible and demands action today. I continue working hard in the U.S. Senate to make sure we confront these challenges with urgency. For New Orleans and our nation to thrive again, we must take a sober look at the conditions ahead, plan honestly and openly for a better future, and then work together to make it a reality.

http://cantwell.senate.gov/news/weekly_update.cfm