Three Years After Katrina, New Orleans Levee System Still Vulnerable

Nearly two million people have evacuated their homes as Hurricane Gustav heads towards the Gulf Coast. The Category three storm is expected to make landfall by midday today with winds at one-hundred-fifteen miles per hour. The evacuations come just days after New Orleans marked the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than sixteen-hundred people after also making landfall as a Category Three storm. Gustav has already claimed nearly one-hundred lives as it tore through the Caribbean. On Saturday, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin announced the mandatory evacuation.

Most residents have fled from coastal Louisiana and New Orleans, but tens of thousands have also left coastal Mississippi, Alabama and southeastern Texas. Hurricane Gustav has also jeopardized this week’s Republican National Convention here in St. Paul. Republican officials are already scaling back the RNC program. The Bush administration drew widespread criticism for its response to Katrina three years ago. Republican candidate John McCain said today’s agenda will only include essential formalities.

For more on Gustav I’m joined on the line by Sess-Four-Five. He is a New Orleans activist and hip-hop artist. He is a founder of Nuthin But Fire Records and a youth organizer with Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana. And here in St. Paul I’m joined by Democracy Now correspondent Jeremy Scahill. He reported from New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

Sess 4-5, New Orleans activist and hiphop star. He is a founder of Nuthin But Fire Records and a youth organizer with Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana.

Malik Rahim, New Orleans Community Activist and co-founder of Common Ground Collective.

Related Links

• Common Ground Collective
• GustavSolidarity.org

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