New Orleans Provides Roadmap for Protecting Inhabitants from Natural Disasters

September 17th, 2015

The City of New Orleans has launched a roadmap setting out the way for future reforms to be undertaken in the coming years for New Orleans to continue its trajectory from disaster to normality. Commentators in the immediate aftermath had predicted that it would take 10 years for the city to return to its state prior to Hurricane Katrina and indeed the path has been long but today, in a week marking a decade since the disaster hit, the city authorities feel comfortable enough to announce plans to make New Orleans even more successful than before 2005.

The city has launched, in collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative, 41 points on which to work or that need enhancing to make New Orleans not only a safer place to live but also a centre for cultural and economic activity that can attract the very best in the United States and the world.

However, it also has a more symbolic purpose. If you read between the lines of the whole document, one discovers the willingness for New Orleans to serve as an example for the world. Just as Berlin serves as an example of reconciliation and reunification of separated families and peoples, New Orleans can serve as an example not only of strength in the face of adversity but also of the risks of humans’ actions on nature.

In brief, 10 years on from the disaster wrought upon the city by Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans remains scarred. More than 1,000 died and streets are still damaged or uninhabited. However, it is slowly getting back to its feet. After considerable reconstruction efforts, the fruits are starting to appear, and let’s hope that it becomes a beacon of hope for generations to come.

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See more at: http://www.cd-n.org/index.php?new-orleans-provides-roadmap-for-protecting-inhabitants-from-natural-disasters