Katrina Coverage
It's impossible, at times, to put into words what we've seen, felt and heard. What it's like to walk along the still desolate streets of the Lower Ninth Ward, the overpowering smell of formaldehyde fumes in one FEMA trailer after another, the utter desperation of some of the citizens of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Attorney Ranie Thompson says she sometimes has what she calls "black days." It's easy to understand why. Thompson represents about 60 clients fighting with FEMA over letters demanding they repay thousands of dollars in emergency funds.
Says Thompson, "It's all so exhausting because I don't know if anything I'm doing will make a difference."
Now that the two-year anniversary has come and gone many in the media who marked this week with stories will move on as well. On to 9/11, or the Next Big Thing. We promise not to do that. The human disaster that is Katrina, the toll that single storm took on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people is not about to be forgotten by this unit. As much as some of our stories had endings, they also left so many unanswered questions. What happens to all those people still stuck in some 70,000 trailers when the next storm hits? Will the Lower Ninth ever rebuild? If not, why not? Who is going to hold the insurance and mortgage companies accountable for the way in which they have treated their customers? Will we ever really know into whose hands billions of dollars in federal aid has fallen – and whether or not taxpayers got their money's worth?
I can't tell you whether or not we'll come with answers. I can tell you we won't stop looking.