Whereas, on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina inflicted
catastrophic damage as a Category 3 hurricane and caused damage estimated at
$81,000,000,000 in the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and
Florida;
Whereas Hurricane Katrina is 1 of the 5 deadliest
hurricanes in United States history with a recorded 1,822 fatalities, including
1,577 in Louisiana, 238 in Mississippi, 14 in Florida, 2 in Georgia, and 2 in
Alabama, according to the National Hurricane Center;
Whereas more than 1,200,000 people were under some type of
evacuation order, including New Orleans’ first mandatory evacuation in the
city’s history;
Whereas 785,000 Gulf Coast residents were displaced, and
many remain displaced to this day;
Whereas hundreds of thousands were unemployed as a result
of devastation to businesses;
Whereas tens of thousands of homes and businesses from
Louisiana to Florida were destroyed by the flooding;
Whereas 3,000,000 people were left without electricity for
weeks;
Whereas major highways were destroyed, including the
Interstate 10 Twin Span Bridge connecting the cities of New Orleans and Slidell
in Louisiana;
Whereas the Louisiana Superdome sheltered 26,000 evacuees
and suffered roof leaks and other significant damage from strong winds;
Whereas neighboring cities and States took in thousands of
displaced residents and provided medical care and shelter at make-shift
hospitals, such as the Katrina Clinic at the Astrodome/Reliant Center Complex
in Houston, Texas;
Whereas the United States Coast Guard rescued more than
24,273 people and assisted with the evacuation of 9,462 patients and medical
personnel from hospitals and nursing homes;
Whereas the United States Armed Forces orchestrated one of
the largest domestic rescue operations in history, with command centers at the
Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the Louis Armstrong New
Orleans International Airport in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Naval Air Station
in Pensacola, Florida, and Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg, Mississippi;
Whereas the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity,
Salvation Army, America’s Second Harvest (now known as Feeding America),
Emergency Communities, Catholic Charities, PRC Compassion, Southern Baptist
Disaster Relief, and other charitable organizations provided crucial food,
water, and hygiene products to victims;
Whereas countless first responders, such as police
officers, emergency medical personnel, and firefighters, from across the United
States worked around the clock to provide care for and to protect the safety of
the residents of the affected communities;
Whereas more than 70 countries and international
organizations pledged monetary donations in excess of $854,000,000, including a
pledge of $500,000,000 by the State of Kuwait, and $100,000,000 by the State of
Qatar, which awarded 109 full tuition scholarships to Tulane University
students affected by the storm and restored 100 homes for low-income victims in
the historic Tremé/Lafitte neighborhood of New Orleans;
Whereas Louisiana’s Piggyback Program was created to
support affordability for low-income residents in areas receiving Gulf
Opportunity Zone Low Income Housing Tax Credits;
Whereas the greater New Orleans Small Business Development
Center helped more than 500 fishermen secure recovery funding through the
Technical Assistance for Small Firms program;
Whereas following the devastation of
Hurricane Katrina, medical residents and faculty, as well as grassroots
organizations quickly mobilized to provide immediate health services and have
since developed as a group of 25 organizations with over 90 sites and this
group has built a unique, high quality, efficient, community-based primary care
network for the greater New Orleans area and now serve as the primary source of
health care for approximately 290,000 people;
Whereas the Healthcare Recovery Training System (HeaRTS)
at the Southwest Louisiana Area Health Education Center provided health care
training to more than 2,300 people, including 500 participants in the program
who were displaced by the storm;
Whereas the Jefferson Parish Chamber of Commerce and
nonprofit Café Reconcile in New Orleans offered culinary arts training for
at-risk youth;
Whereas the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration improved its storm tracking guidance by adding 8 Caribbean
observation buoys and expanding its satellite communication system network to
include 25 coastal Weather Forecast Offices;
Whereas in 2005, Congress directed the United States Army
Corps of Engineers to deliver a plan to Congress for providing coastal
Louisiana with Category 5-equivalent hurricane protection;
Whereas the United States Army Corps of Engineers has not
yet provided Congress with a concrete set of recommendations to achieve this
level of protection;
Whereas Louisiana loses approximately 25 square miles of
coastal land each year and coastal restoration efforts along the Louisiana
coast and barrier protection at the mouth of Lake Pontchartrain to protect
against storm surge are necessary components of achieving Category 5-equivalent
hurricane protection for South Louisiana;
Whereas the United States Army Corps of Engineers has been
constructing stronger levees by replacing failed I-Wall design floodwalls with
stronger T-wall or L-wall design floodwalls and reinforcing the most vulnerable
undamaged I-Walls and surge protection closures;
Whereas these improved levees are an essential aspect of
providing Category 5-equivalent hurricane protection;
Whereas the convention and visitors bureaus across the
Gulf Coast attempt to restore tourism, particularly the New Orleans
Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, which won the bid to host the
Super Bowl XLVII in 2013;
Whereas colleges and universities in the
hurricane-ravished communities continue to struggle due to low enrollment and
have been forced to restructure and reduce their programs; and
Whereas social, economic, and mental health effects are
compounded due to trauma suffered from the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and
Hurricane Katrina: Now, therefore, be it
That the House of
Representatives—
(1)expresses its support to the victims of
Hurricane Katrina;
(2)commends the
courageous efforts of those who assisted in the recovery progress;
(3)recognizes the
contributions of the communities in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and
Florida to the United States; and
(4)reaffirms its
commitment to rebuild, renew, and restore the Gulf Coast region.