How New Orleans Coped With Gustav | Newsweek The Global Elite

Red State Stimulus
Howard Fineman 2/10/2009 12:00:00 AM
The vast grid of streets here in New Orleans, laid out long ago on grassy bottomland near a waterway, remains eerily devoid of houses. Modest bungalows were ripped from their moorings by the foul, murderous floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina three and a half years ago. Eventually, the storm-tossed homes were torn down and carted away. Today, cinderblock foundations dot brush-covered lots like archeological remains. Live oaks line sidewalks upon which no one walks to school, or rides a bike, or runs to the corner store.
TELEVISION
Hell and High Water Couldn’t Stop Him
Adam B. Kushner 1/3/2009 12:00:00 AM
Hurricane Katrina didn't just wreck 82-year-old Herbert Gettridge's home in New Orleans's Lower Ninth Ward; it leveled his entire world. The Frontline documentary "The Old Man and the Storm," which premieres on Jan. 6, chronicles Gettridge's defiant, solitary effort to rebuild the house he lost. Director June Cross's telling is heavy-handed, but Gettridge gleams through as a wondrously cantankerous icon of the city's spirit.
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
Thicker Than Water?
Catharine Skipp 9/5/2008 12:00:00 AM
On Thursday morning, assessment teams from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers fanned out along the banks and bridges of the Industrial Canal in the eastern part of New Orleans, the waterway that had proved to be the weakest link in the city's storm defenses during Hurricane Gustav. Officials had watched anxiously as water surged into the channel, lapping perilously near the top of the floodwalls and sometimes pouring over into the adjoining neighborhood of Gentilly Woods. The engineering teams were scrutinizing levee walls and floodgates to determine the extent of the damage. "Here, you can see there was some scouring," said Randy Cephus, a corps public-affairs officer, pointing to an area at the foot of one floodgate where the rush of water had eroded the soil. Elsewhere, chunks of floodwalls were missing—they'd been struck by barges that had come unmoored during the hurricane (though they lay within another layer of floodwalls that remained unharmed).
NATION
Gustav’s Wallop
Gretel C. Kovach 9/1/2008 12:00:00 AM
As Hurricane Gustav struck central Louisiana on Monday, nervous officials gathered at the Claiborne Avenue Bridge in the eastern section of New Orleans. Directly below was the Industrial Canal, one of the weak points in the city's storm defenses since it has yet to be fully retrofitted. As tropical-storm-force winds battered onlookers, water lapped dangerously near the top of the floodwalls, sometimes spilling over. In bordering neighborhoods like Gentilly and the Upper Ninth Ward, streets were already beginning to flood.
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
'A Big, Ugly Storm'
Catharine Skipp 8/31/2008 12:00:00 AM
As New Orleans prepares for the arrival of Hurricane Gustav, the streets of the French Quarter retain little of their usual revelry. Most residents have cleared out. The raucous Southern Decadence gay parade has been canceled. An occasional tourist trudges past lugging his rolling suitcases, heading for a bus that will whisk him out of town. One of the few places that are still hopping is the Oceana Grill, which is doing brisk business in crab cakes, barbequed shrimp and booze. "We won't close," says general manager Moe Bader, who estimates they've got enough provisions to last a week. "The police allow it because it gives them a place to eat as well." The place stayed open during Hurricane Katrina three years ago, and its clientele survived just fine. "Gustav doesn't scare us," says Bader.
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
Bracing for Gustav
Catharine Skipp 8/31/2008 12:00:00 AM
Almost exactly three years after Hurricane Katrina pummeled New Orleans, another tempest is bearing down on the city. Hurricane Gustav grew into a Category 4 monster on Saturday, with 150-mile-per-hour winds that lacerated the western end of Cuba. The storm, which caused scores of deaths in the Caribbean, was expected to weaken before striking the Gulf Coast, most likely west of New Orleans. On Saturday, city leaders ordered a mandatory evacuation, and residents streamed out of the Big Easy in cars, buses and trains. "You need to be scared," New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said. "You need to get your butts moving out of New Orleans right now." The storm is also having a political impact. Republicans, haunted by memories of the response to Katrina, are weighing whether to shorten or delay their convention in Minnesota, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have canceled appearances there—and Sen. John McCain and his new running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, are expected to stop in Mississippi on Sunday to check on hurricane preparations. In New Orleans, $2 billion worth of upgrades to the city's levees and floodgates have bolstered its defenses, but the city is still unprepared for a so-called 100-year storm—the sort expected to occur only once per century. To learn more about the city's ability to handle another hurricane, NEWSWEEK's Catharine Skipp spoke with Stevan Spencer, executive director of the New Orleans Levee District and chief engineer for the district during Katrina. Excerpts: