Katrina recovery has 'gross inequalities' -Oxfam

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Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts show "gross inequalities" in treatment of rich and poor, aid agency Oxfam America said in report released on Wednesday.

Oxfam studied three communities outside of New Orleans and found that neither Mississippi nor Louisiana had set aside enough money for affordable rental housing.

"For some of the region's poorest residents, things have only gotten worse in this recovery," Minor Sinclair, the director of Oxfam's U.S. regional office, said in a statement.

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The agency said casinos were favored over low-income residents of East Biloxi, Mississippi, that rebuilding had been slowed in Louisiana's Vermilion Parish because of confusing requirements and that independent commercial fishers in Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish had been largely starved of state and federal recovery funds.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22274188.htm

[evlbstrd]

1. Could anyone be surprised?

Having watched it on my teevee as it happened and after seeing Spike Lee's most excellent "When the Levees Broke," I am so appalled at this country's lack of response. Shall we just call it ethnic cleansing by neglect?

edited to tone it down a bit. I am an angry person these days.

[Alacrat]

2. As if we didn't already know, all levels of gov failed

This happened on bush's watch, and IMO shit rolls up hill, but politics aside, all levels of gov failed, starting with the city, and moving on up. The city, state, fema, all knew it was coming, and they knew the consequences of a storm of this magnitude, they had plans and never followed them. I lay the blame for poor prep square on the cities, local govs, and the state. The failure during the aftermath is on jerkoff, brownie, and bush. I refuse to believe they didn't know. No admin could be that out off touch. I believe they didn't care. Katrina was a lesson for all, 1) people need to heed warnings, and evacuate when told 2) the city should have ordered evacs earlier, and followed their pre incident plans, ie.. taken measures to evacuate the poorest, and disabled etc.. 3) The state should have requested NG assistance sooner, and put their egos aside 4) The feds should have had food and water air dropped if need be within 24hrs(they did it in malaysia in 48hrs).........The hell with it, the list of failures is far to long, and it's late. The point is everyone with a shred of responsibility failed, and this has become the premiere lesson in what not to do, and how not to respond to a disaster. I take that back, the police chief, and General Honray(?) edit for spelling, the Gen kicked ass and took names, the police chief did all he could with what he had, cudos to them. Sorry for the rant, the whole thing has repissed me off. I'm a 16 year veteran firefighter, and I know I could have run this way better than any of them, excluding the chief and Gen.