NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Nearly six years have passed since Hurricane Katrina drowned New Orleans in misery, but many residents haven’t forgiven the Federal Emergency Management Agency for its sluggish response to the storm. Now another delayed reaction by FEMA — a stop-and-start push to recoup millions of dollars in disaster aid — is reminding storm victims why they often cursed the agency’s name.

As a new hurricane season begins Wednesday, FEMA is working to determine how much money it overpaid or mistakenly awarded to victims of the destructive 2005 hurricane season. The agency is reviewing more than $600 million given to roughly 154,000 victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and is poised to demand that some return money.

FEMA already has sent letters to thousands of victims of other disasters, asking them to return more than $22 million. Letters to victims of the 2005 hurricanes could go out in a matter of months, but it’s too soon to tell how many people will be told to repay or how much money is at stake.

The effort isn’t sitting well with victims who spent the money years ago and who could need help again if another powerful storm hits. It’s of little consolation that FEMA says procedural changes since 2005 mean future disaster victims aren’t likely to have to deal with large recalls of cash.

Government forecasters are expecting an above average Atlantic storm season, with three to six major hurricanes that have winds of 111 mph or higher. While no hurricane that strong has made landfall since 2005, forecasters have warned that residents shouldn’t count on that streak to continue.

“When you get these high levels of activity the likelihood of a hurricane striking the U.S. goes up quite a bit,” said Gerry Bell, lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center in Washington.

Paul Wegener, whose New Orleans home flooded up to the gutters after Katrina, felt short-changed when FEMA gave him a $30,000 grant for a house that wound up costing more than $566,000 to rebuild. He applied for more through the state’s Road Home program but was told he didn’t qualify. The thought of having to return some of his federal aid only compounds his frustration.

“They’ll have to pry it from my dead hands if they try,” the 75-year-old said.

Continue at the AP

You are looking at a photo of Congo Square, in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, adjacent to and just northwest of the French Quarter. Slaves once gathered here on Sunday afternoons to dance and make music, and some say it is the birthplace of jazz. I’m certainly not going to romanticize slavery, but one has to admire the resilience of those forced to endure it, claiming a day and a place for themselves and their culture. More recently, Congo Square was the site of the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, until Jazzfest outgrew the space and moved to the fairgrounds.

I’m headed to New Orleans today to take part in the annual convention of the American Institute of Architects. As a non-architect, I take a certain pride in being invited into their circle. I’m looking forward to being on a panel with my friends David Dixon and Laurie Volk. And I’m also looking forward to returning to New Orleans, for what I think will be the third time since Katrina.

In honor of this trip, I’m going to be running three posts about the city, which—speaking of resilience— is proving to be a remarkably resilient, if also remarkably challenged, community. In today’s post, I’m going to look at New Orleans through the lens of the fabulous HBO dramatic series Treme, about the neighborhood and the post-Katrina lives of the musicians who live there. The show is infused with tons of authenticity–sometimes disturbing and sometimes uplifting—and incredible music.

I’ve spent a great deal of time in New Orleans over, gosh, four decades now, in many parts of the city. When various charities sprang up in 2005 as a result of the hurricane and flooding, the one that I gave to was a fund organized by legendary NOLA radio station WWOZ (well represented on the show) to help displaced musicians survive. I may care about music even more than I care about the environment, or at least it is closer to my soul. And that’s saying a lot.

Continue at the Atlantic

Five years after the devastating hurricane which decimated much of New Orleans in 2005, the city has bounced back, posting record tourism figures last year according to figures released this week.

The Lousiana city welcomed 8.3 million visitors in 2010, according to a study released by tourism officials, a ten percent jump from 2009’s total and the highest figure since 2004.

The figures also showed that the amount spent by those visiting hit a record high, reaching $5.3 billion in 2010, up over a billion dollars from 2009 and an average of $142 per visitor per day for tourists.

The figures were welcomed by officials of the city, which ranks tourism as its most important economic engine.

“Coming out of the strong economic downturn, and on top of the difficult perception challenges created by the BP oil spill, the city hosted multiple attendance record-breaking conventions, festivals, had strong leisure and transient results and ended the year as the number one fastest-growing destination in the country for hotel performance,” said tourism boss Stephen Perry.

In the year after Hurricane Katrina, tourism figures in NewOrleans fell to just under three million as the city struggled to rebuild following the worst natural disaster in US history.

Since then, numbers have risen steadily, helped in part by tens of thousands of visitors who visited with the intention of rolling up their sleeves and helping out while visiting – the city now boasts 300 more restaurants than it did in 2005, according to official figures.

Traveling to New Orleans to lend a hand has become so popular that the state has even set up its own “voluntourism” travel site, at http://www.volunteerlouisiana.gov/.

With the recovery well underway, visitor numbers to the city could reach 13.7 million by 2018, according to projections.

From the Independent

The City of New Orleans announced plans to re-instate a curbside recycling program for the first time since Hurricane Katrina.

The program will begin in the service areas covered by Metro Disposal and Richard’s Disposal.

Residents in those service areas can visit http://recycle.nola.gov to register for curbside recycling carts.

Carts will be provided by the City on request. Residents may also fill out the Recycling Service Notice manually and mail it to City Hall at 1300 Perdido Street, New Orleans, LA 70112 or fax it to (504) 658-3801.

Items accepted for curbside recycling will include:

• Paper products including office paper, newspapers and color inserts, magazines, catalogs, junk mail, paper boxes (including cereal boxes, 12-pack soft drink boxes), telephone books, and shredded paper;
• Plastic containers coded #1 through #7 (water, soda, juice bottles, etc.) and plastic pots from nurseries;
• Small metal cans; and
• Cardboard.

The curbside recycling program is slated to begin in the 2nd quarter of 2011, a little later than originally planned. It will supplement the City’s ongoing recycling and e-waste drop-off, which will continue to be held on Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at 2829 Elysian Fields Avenue.

Last week, the city put out a request for proposals to purchase 50,000 64-gallon recycling bins. More than 100,000 households are serviced by Metro and Richard’s.
The two garbage collectors agreed to begin curbside recycling, when they re-negotiated their sanitation contracts with the city last year, in an effort to save the city money.

Under the new deals, Metro and Richard’s will collect recyclables once a week, in addition to their twice weekly garbage pickup.

From Fox8