Report Finds Katrina Kids Have Poor Health | Newsweek Scope

An Imperfect Storm
Adam B. Kushner 8/14/2009 12:00:00 AM
I never knew that a person could actually be bored to tears until I read Josh Neufeld's new graphic book about Hurricane Katrina. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge follows five real-life storylines in the lead-up to, and immediate aftermath of, the storm. The illustrations are acceptable, the narrative structure is unimaginative, the characters merit only the briefest (often reductive) treatment, and I whipped through it in an hour. And yet I wept. Twice.
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.
WASHINGTON
FEMA’s Turn To Get Saved
Mark Hosenball 12/13/2008 12:00:00 AM
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was widely ridiculed for its pitiful response to Hurricane Katrina, may undergo big changes under President Obama. Agency critics say the nation's disaster-relief efforts have been hampered ever since FEMA was lumped into the Department of Homeland Security—the slow-footed bureaucratic behemoth created by the Bush administration after 9/11. Last week, officials from the International Association of Emergency Managers, which represents local disaster agencies, met with Obama aides and urged them to break FEMA free from Homeland Security and restore its previous status as an independent agency.
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
Riders on the Storm
Catharine Skipp 9/19/2008 12:00:00 AM
As Hurricane Ike roared toward the Texas coast last week, Dennis Covington decided to disregard mandatory evacuation orders and stay put in his house in Port Bolivar, just east of Galveston. He figured the building was structurally sound enough to withstand the storm, but he soon regretted his choice. As Ike made landfall, a wall of water tore free a boat and crashed it into a piling under his home. The piling fractured, the house split in two and one half collapsed into the water. Covington was lucky enough to be on the side that remained standing; his little terrier, Lizzie, however, was on the other. "I just had to watch her go," he recalled later, burying his head in his hands and weeping. Fearing for his life as the water rose, he grabbed a life preserver, jumped out of the window and climbed up a tree, to which he lashed himself with a rope. "I was in that tree from the time the eye came until the back of the storm—a couple of hours," he said. Afterward, he was disconsolate over his loss. "This is all I own now," he said, gesturing at his jeans, his tattered green T shirt and the soggy red towel draped around his neck.
PSYCHOLOGY
The Holdouts
Catharine Skipp 9/12/2008 12:00:00 AM
Less than two weeks after Hurricane Gustav barreled across Louisiana, Hurricane Ike is now bearing down on the Texas coast. The storm traced a lethal path through the Caribbean, resulting in about 70 deaths in Haiti and seven in Cuba. On Friday afternoon, Ike was a Category 2 tempest, with winds of 105 miles per hour and a massive diameter that stretched across most of the Gulf of Mexico. It's expected to make landfall near Galveston, Texas, in the early hours of Saturday, potentially as a Category 3 storm with winds between 111 and 130mph. With reports of a coastal storm surge that could exceed 20 feet in some places, state and local authorities ordered a mandatory evacuation of Galveston and other low-lying areas. Yet, as always, some people vowed to stay put. To learn more about the psychology of holdouts and how officials are adapting their response to them, NEWSWEEK's Catharine Skipp spoke to Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness and associate dean for public-health advocacy and disaster preparedness at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Excerpts: