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• 1 media/f2f65b95b1c39f1891b2b0e9801c67cb.jpg 2017-05-03T23:12:10-07:00 Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and What Comes Next 9 plain 2017-05-04T16:14:15-07:00 Reflecting on what has transpired, current New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu wants everyone to remember that the death and destruction that accompanied Hurricane Katrina was neither an act of God nor of nature. In an event hosted by the Atlantic called “New Orleans: 10 Years Later,” Mayor Landrieu states: “This was not a natural disaster – it was an infrastructure failure.” Prior to taking office in 2010, in 2005, Landrieu said that the government’s response, like the engineering of the levees, was inadequate and as a result recovery has not been fast and is far from complete.
   
  Other figures like that of writer and filmmaker Lolis Eric Elie have expressed their frustration regarding the inequity that been prevalent throughout the recovery process. Elie claims: “I think our measures of progress are based on how quickly rich people are getting richer.” Evidence of such discrepancies is most translucent upon observing the stark contrast in the number of black residents who remain displaced versus white residents; the percentage of black residents without a place to live is significantly higher. In addition, while some affluent neighborhoods appear fully repaired, poorer sections of the city continue to bear Katrina’s scars. Another issue is the extant funding gap. For $150 billion in damages, the city only received $70 billion in aid from the federal government. To Mayor Landrieu’s dismay, he responds: “When you have that kind of gap, not everyone gets everything all the time.”
   
  The city has nevertheless continued to put up the good fight and persist, but there still remains much to be done. Until there is a New Orleans that is inclusive of all its people, needs will always be neglected and then you what you get is a French Quarter that looks unaffected and a Lower Ninth Ward that resembles a no man’s land.