“New Orleans is coming to life again.  The floodwaters have receded, and the smoke has cleared, and a massive rebuilding effort is in full swing.

 

One year ago, on September 3, the world was looking at a grievous situation along the Gulf Coast.  Americans were opening their hearts and their pocketbooks to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.  We in Southern Missouri were collecting supplies and donations and shuttling them to our neighbors to the South.

 

Our national consciousness was jolted by the pictures of the Superdome, full of refugees, and the stories of elderly medical patients, left in their nursing home as the staff fled the storm.  We were dismayed at the late and inadequate response to the victims.  A national embarrassment unfolded every night on the news.  I went to New Orleans the week after the disaster with a group of selfless Missouri volunteers.  While many of my colleagues in Congress and I have resolved to change the way our government prepares for and responds to this magnitude of disaster, it is the
people of the city of New Orleans who are leading the effort there.

 

House by house – and there are 134,000 of them to be repaired – the people of New Orleans are piecing their lives back together.  Right now, some 30,000 homes are being repaired or rebuilt there.  This fall, the city’s National Football League team will return to its Louisiana home.  The first conventions have trickled back to resuscitate the city’s tourism industry.  It is not the government that is rebuilding New Orleans; it is the people.  Things are just now starting to look up.

 

The change in New Orleans is all the more heartening when we look back to a year ago and see the tragedy through the eyes of the hurricane’s victims.

 

At the same time we in Missouri were providing to our neighbors in need, we were also thinking about the woeful federal, state and local response to this disaster.  We wondered, if an earthquake or another, similar disaster struck us here in Southern Missouri, would the response leave us in such dire straits, too.  And a test was coming for us.

 

This spring, we had a chance to find out when Pemiscot County was ravaged by a tornado.  Much the same response has been made by generous friends and neighbors to get these communities back on their feet.  The government response was much quicker, better, and more complete (though there have been some kinks). 

 

Thanks to strong leadership at the local level, the continued responsiveness of our first
responders, and the generous spirit of people who are proud of their Bootheel homes, Pemiscot County is also coming back.  The people of the County are fighting a winning battle to renew their communities and rebuild their lives.  A long rebuilding effort is still ahead of us, though.

 

Many homes have already been repaired.  More will be rebuilt.  It is all going to take hard work, perseverance, and the kindness of strangers.  Temporary housing is in place, basic needs have been met, and greater tasks are being tackled.  As the debris clears and the new structures rise, I think it is appropriate to look to New Orleans for signs of hope.

 

Signs of hope for Pemiscot County, from a Gulf Coast disaster we must never forget.”