ALSO VISIT

In early December, the Hurricane Katrina Survivors' General Assembly gathered in Jackson, Mississippi, saw evacuees from devastated Gulf Coast communities accuse the federal government of "criminal indifference" and demand reparations for damage resulting from government negligence. They also sought the "right to return" to their homes, even as New Orleans remains under a state of emergency, whole sections of the city still closed to residents who may seek to return, and much of Mississippi still languishing with little to no substantive federal aid.

The "People's Hurricane Relief Fund" is designed to allow hurricane victims to "take control of the funds being raised in their names" and to bring to light information surrounding the conditions undergone by evacuees and the still unaccounted-for manner in which many victims of the distaster died. An attorney working with the Advancement Project and representing the fund, Ishmael Muhammad, urged all members of Congress, to "seek out those voices" of the underprivileged and the displaced, which can tell the true story of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

He goes on to testify that National Guard soldiers were seen passing by Convention Center, bringing no aid, evacuating no one, guns drawn, aiming weapons at evacuees. One woman "interned" at the Center described "no water, no food and no shelter", police who "would not come out of their cars", and said "floors were black and slick with feces".

She said outside it was not "much better", describing "old and very young dying from dehydration". She said one helicopter dropped water, but "all the bottles exploded on impact". According to testimony from survivors at the Convention Center, it was "young men with guns" among the evacuees who organized the people trapped there, then acquired and distributed "food and water for the old people and babies".

When they attempted to leave the squalid, dangerous conditions at the Superdome, to cross the river to the west bank, they were allegedly forced back at gunpoint by police, who offered no relief, food aid or evacuation possibility. One witness testified that following that incident, "the first day four people died next to me, the second day six". According to testimony before Congress, she added "make sure you tell everybody that they left us there to die".

Testimony before Congress was full of reference to racist slurs, violence against citizens and evacuees, the perception among victims that the entire relief effort was orchestrated in a racist manner. Numerous complaints of disorganized response by the National Guard emerged, including testimony that no one ever knew where or when food or water were to be distributed and no systematic rationing was implemented to ensure that all received a share of the scarce aid made available. Many reportedly died from dehydration in the various evacuee collection centers or en route to them.

A 31-year-old survivor of the Superdome said she witnessed white tourists being hand-picked, one by one, from the crowd of evacuees, and taken to safety, while the majority, poor, black residents of New Orleans, were left there, with no regard at all to their state of health or wellbeing.

A 51-year-old woman reported being evacuated to higher ground in Jefferson Parish, only to be confronted with "a line of military police with M-16 rifles. They watched us, caged us, laughed at us, took pictures of us with their camera phones. I saw a young man get down on his knees and beg for water for his little baby, and I saw the child die right there on the concrete. This was murder. They wanted us dead; they just didn't think so many of us would survive."

Another said she was pulled from her car with her two daughters, arrested and thrown in jail for several weeks while police hurled brutally racist slurs at her like "monkey bitch". Another witness said he and his family were forced by authorities to the leave the Superdome at "rifle-point", after refusing to be moved to a lower-ground camp where floodwaters remained, dead bodies were clearly visible and untended to, and numerous other health risks were apparent.

They were forbidden from returning to their homes, despite their neighborhood suffering almost no serious flooding, according to one witness. Residents of many public housing units have accused the government of inaction, unlawfully preventing them from returning home or otherwise aiding landlords who want to evict residents without cause.

80% of the city's residents have still not returned, and local officials say they simply don't have the federal funds promised that would allow them to carry out the necessary clean-up to make affected areas safely habitable. Reports suggest a significant proportion of those who have been allowed or are able to return have been affluent, and white.

Testimony before the Select Committee hearing also suggested that some parishes in the disaster zone, namely Jefferson Parish, were refusing to provide temporary housing for "certain peoples" affected by the storm, the flood and the evacuation.

One witness, a community leader from New Orleans, Leah Hodges, testified that at the "Causeway Concentration Camp", only "three minutes" from the airport from where evacuees could have been moved to dry cities across the country, was a contained area which evacuees were not permitted to leave.

She was repeatedly berated by Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), who was offended by the use of the phrase "concentration camp" and suggested the comparison was inappropriate, but she insisted that she knew of no other circumstance to which she could compare her experience to.

She answered the congressman's critique of her rhetoric by stating passionately that people "died from abject neglect; we left body bags behind", "pregnant women lost their babies" and evacuees were surrounded and guarded at gunpoint. "That is the point," Ms. Hodges testified, "that they broke up families and dispersed us. And they stood over us with guns and enforced their authority."

Various witnesses alleged "white and Asian tourists" were evacuated with priority, even as pregnant women and elderly African Americans languished without medical treatment or assistance. When asked about government response, Ms. Hodges testified that "FEMA has created a nightmare inside of a nightmare".

An attorney for the Advancement Project mentioned the report that an order was given that within the disaster area all deaths would be listed as 29 August and that no cause of death would be sought or listed. This issue was raised concurrently with the infamous "shoot-to-kill" order intended to curb looting, which has led to widespread allegations of police shooting civilians, while authorities allegedly took no action to document the killings or properly autopsy the bodies.

The official death toll hovers around 1,300 confirmed dead, but many feel the numer is a gross understatement of the disaster. According to USA Today, Newsday, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the National Center for Missing Adults, a total of 6,600 people are still missing and unaccounted for.

Some of the unaccounted-for names on the lists may relate to inadequate government efforts to locate and confirm the fate of some survivors, admitted one witness, but for many, the majority of the missing are feared dead, and families complain of having no news of many of the missing, now several months after the storm and flooding.

New Orleans survivor Leah Hodges told Democracy Now that she fears that the total lack of information as to the whereabouts or fate of her brother, who was a skilled swimmer, suggest he may have been the victim of one of the many reported, but never officially investigated, shootings of civilians by police and military personnel.

She said "a company" contacted her family seeking DNA samples for missing relatives. Her nephew —who suffers from a medical condition—, 3 step-siblings, her brother, and at least one cousin and her 3 children are still missing, their names reportedly not appearing on any list Ms. Hodges has been able to locate.

The Chairman of the National Black Chamber of Commerce claims that FEMA has organized a "cartel" of defense contractors to take on "no-bid" contracts in events like Hurricane Katrina. The 82nd Airborne, he said, can "deploy anywhere in this world in 24 hours", but "it took them 8 days for them to travel 600 miles to New Orleans".

He called for action to investigate and correct inappropriate contract peddling and "end this nightmare". As he ended his testimony, he added "fortune favors courage", meant it seems to motivate legislators to take the initiative in forcing federal agencies to address the many crises related to Katrina.

The stunning revelations brought before the Select Committee now pose to the federal government a very complex process of inquiries, ongoing relief work, postmortem investigations, urban planning and reconstruction, and evaluation of serious civil rights issues across the region and related to government response. [s]

• Democracy Now coverage of hearing

UPDATE:
BUSH PROMISES TO FULFILL MONETARY, AID PLEDGES TO REBUILD NEW ORLEANS
16 December 2005

Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans visited the White House yesterday, where Pres. Bush announced his intention to follow through on plans to rebuild the devastated city. The mayor has been vocal in calling for action from Washington, where he says political "constipation" is putting the future of his city at risk. [Full Story]