[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 13224-13226]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF HURRICANE KATRINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Louisiana?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, August 29 of this year will mark the 10-
year anniversary that Hurricane Katrina struck ground, causing massive 
devastation throughout southeast Louisiana, as well as other parts of 
the Gulf Coast, Mississippi, and Alabama.
  Mr. Speaker, tonight, we are going to talk about the devastation that 
was caused by Hurricane Katrina, and of course, it starts with the more 
than 1,800 lives that were lost, people from Louisiana, Mississippi, 
Florida, Alabama, and Georgia who all lost their lives through this 
devastating storm.
  Mr. Speaker, we are also going to talk about something else, and that 
is the strength and resiliency of the people of the Gulf Coast who 
persevered, who rebuilt. Ultimately, Mr. Speaker, we are going to talk 
about the recovery of the people of the Gulf Coast from this 
devastating storm.
  First, I will yield to my friend from the great State of Alabama, Mr. 
Robert Aderholt.
  Mr. ADERHOLT. Mr. Speaker, I want to just mention to you that it is 
hard to believe that it has been 10 years ago, in the early morning 
hours of August 29, just a month from today, that Hurricane Katrina 
slammed into the Gulf Coast as a category 3 hurricane.
  With sustained winds up to 140 miles an hour and a storm surge over 9 
meters high in some places, the impact to the gulf region was very 
devastating.
  While the economic cost of the storm is very difficult to measure, 
some estimates have put the damage over $100 billion. Hundreds of 
thousands of refugees scattered across the country. Most importantly, 
no price tag can be assigned to the loss of the nearly 2,000 lives that 
were lost.
  In the aftermath of the tragic storm, there were many hearings; there 
were many inquiries, studies, investigations, reforms, and policy 
changes that were conducted, and most of those were for good reason.
  The initial emergency response to Katrina was far less than what 
should be expected of our Federal, State, and local governments.
  However, this evening, I do want to thank my colleague for his 
allowing this, putting together this time. As he said, we are not here 
to talk about the failures, so much as we are here to talk about the 
spirit of the people that were affected.
  It is easy to sit back and to point fingers and to place blame, but 
this evening, we want to talk about and bring attention to the spirit 
of the people that were affected, both directly and indirectly by 
Hurricane Katrina.
  In the days after the hurricane, when it became clear that thousands 
of people would not be able to return to their homes, work began to 
find permanent shelter for these individuals.
  Thousands of refugees from Louisiana were given housing in 
manufactured housing that was purchased by FEMA and was stationed, 
actually, in my home State of Alabama in the State parks.
  The outpouring that came the following days of support from the local 
community was, I think, best described as just overwhelming. As soon as 
the people found out that the refugees were headed into our area, 
supplies were starting to be gathered together, and drives were started 
immediately as they were being organized.
  A member of my own staff organized one of those numerous drives on 
his own initiative. Thousands of pounds of food, of clothing, and 
personal hygiene products were collected. They were distributed to the 
people, and these people that were helped had little more than just the 
clothes on their back.
  I am also proud that, after this show of support, that many of the 
refugees decided to make the Fourth District, the district I represent, 
their home. In one particular case, a refugee from Louisiana ended up 
working for Desoto State Park, where she had been housed.
  Finally, the resilience of Alabamians who lived along the Gulf Coast 
was also inspiring as well.

                              {time}  1845

  Though the Gulf Coast of Alabama was not the hardest hit of the 
region, the Gulf Coast of Alabama was severely impacted by Hurricane 
Katrina.
  While there is still some healing that needs to be done, the Gulf 
Coast is not only back in business, but it has returned to life as 
usual and it is thriving.
  New shipyards are being constructed, new businesses are opening up, 
and tourism has returned to the region. This, I believe, is a testament 
to the spirit of the people of the State of Alabama as well as our 
neighboring States, Mississippi and Louisiana.

[[Page 13225]]

  As we move forward as a country and as a region, I hope that we will 
not only look to the lessons we have learned from the failures of this 
response, but also to the lessons we learned about kindness, the 
lessons of charity, being a good neighbor, and, actually, the spirit of 
this great Nation.
  So I want to thank my colleague from Louisiana for putting this time 
together to draw attention--again, not to place the blame on the 
individuals or organizations that we could point blame to this evening, 
but to the spirit and to the greatness of all those that were involved 
and to the kindness, the charity, and the spirit that arose from that 
occasion.
  Mr. SCALISE. I thank you. I appreciate my colleague from Alabama's 
(Mr. Aderholt) comments.
  Of course, Mr. Speaker, so much of the national attention on 
Hurricane Katrina focused on the city of New Orleans.
  We all remember the pictures, the visuals, of people that were 
displaced, of floodwaters that sat, in many cases, for 2 or 3 weeks.
  But then, of course, we also remember the many things that happened 
along the way for people who rebuilt, who came back, who persevered.
  My colleague and friend who represents the city of New Orleans along 
with me obviously was deeply involved in a lot of those recovery 
efforts.
  I want to yield now to my colleague from New Orleans (Mr. Richmond).
  Mr. RICHMOND. I thank the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), who 
represents the neighboring district from me in part of the metropolitan 
area of New Orleans.
  Let me just start off by saying something about New Orleans and the 
people of New Orleans. Now, the people of New Orleans are a very, very 
resilient people, and it started from the beginning of the history of 
New Orleans up until today.
  We started off--you can go back to 1788, when there was a fire in New 
Orleans that burned 856 of the 1,100 buildings that made up New 
Orleans. So that was 80 percent of the city burned. Then 6 years later 
another 212 buildings burned.
  But the good thing about the people of New Orleans is that we always 
pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and continue to do the work to 
rebuild and make a better life.
  Then you can go to 1853, when we had a yellow fever outbreak and 
epidemic. In 1853, almost 8,000 people died of yellow fever.
  And if you look at the time between 1853 and 1905, 41,000 people in 
the city of New Orleans lost their lives due to yellow fever. But again 
the city picked itself up, dusted itself off, and worked to make a 
better New Orleans.
  Then fast-forward to 1965. That was the year that Hurricane Betsy 
devastated the city of New Orleans. That was the first storm to rack up 
a cost of $1 billion in damage.
  And then, of course, I will talk about Hurricanes Katrina and Rita 
that hit New Orleans and devastated the entire Gulf Coast, but 
significantly damaged New Orleans.
  Let me just say for the record, even after we picked ourselves up and 
dusted ourselves off and started to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, a 
few years later then comes the BP oil spill.
  And again the people of New Orleans--we picked ourselves up, dusted 
ourselves off, and we started to create a better New Orleans and a 
better Louisiana.
  Now, going back to Hurricane Katrina, which my good friend Steve 
Scalise already talked about, the total loss of life in Hurricane 
Katrina was over 1,800 people, and 1,577 of those people were from 
Louisiana.
  Let me just break down some of the causes of death: 40 percent of the 
deaths were caused by drowning; 25 percent by injury and trauma; and 
heart conditions caused another 11 percent.
  If you remember the devastation and destruction on the TVs that 
covered it, you will understand the anxiety that the people that were 
down there suffered.
  Let me take a second before I go into some of the other statistics to 
just say many people always say that Hurricane Katrina was the largest 
natural disaster in the history of the United States.
  Well, I appreciate the sentiment. But, factually, that is just not 
correct. Hurricane Katrina was the result of a manmade disaster 
combined with a natural disaster.
  The Army Corps of Engineers had great notice that the levees that 
protected New Orleans and the metropolitan area were not sufficient. 
When the storm hit, the levees washed away.
  Then there was something called the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, 
which we call MRGO. It was designed by the Corps of Engineers to allow 
ship traffic to the great Port of New Orleans all the way up to 
America's heartland. It was designed to be almost 100 yards wide to 
allow ship traffic.
  By the time Katrina hit, almost 30, 40 years after it was built, it 
was not 100 yards wide anymore. It was almost a mile wide in its 
largest sections. And that water coming out of the Gulf of Mexico 
caused a lot of the devastation.
  So I wanted to clear up the fact that this was not a natural 
disaster. It had a large part to do with mankind having their hand in 
it and inadequate building by the Corps of Engineers.
  Before I finish and yield back to Congressman Scalise, let me also 
say that, when Katrina hit, although the government response was 
lacking, the American people stood up, recognized the situation, and 
opened their hearts to the people of Louisiana, the people of 
Mississippi, and some of the people of Texas.
  Baton Rouge alone handled 300,000 to 400,000 displaced individuals 
from the New Orleans area.
  Houston, Texas, handled right around 250,000 people in terms of 
bringing them into shelters and other places so that they could be safe 
and have some housing.
  Now you still have 111,000 people in Houston that are from the 
greater New Orleans area. I remember traveling to Houston after the 
storm and going to the shelters and watching the extraordinary work of 
Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green to provide for New Orleans and New 
Orleans-area evacuees.
  100,000 evacuees in Atlanta, in shelters and in homes, with Hank 
Johnson and the Honorable John Lewis helping. Now Atlanta still is home 
to 70,000.
  San Antonio, Texas, held almost 35,000 people at the time of the 
storm, and now they still hold 15,000 to 18,000.
  Then that brings me to Birmingham which right after the storm housed 
20,000 people, and now they house in between 1,500 to 13,000.
  So the magnitude of this storm was great.
  I just want to cover the population decrease. And then the other 
things with Hurricane Katrina I will cover more in depth with my good 
friend and colleague from Mississippi, Bennie Thompson, whose district 
was also impacted.
  But I will just say the population of New Orleans was 484,000 before 
Katrina. Right after Katrina it was right around 230,000 people. And 
that is a decrease of almost half of the city's population.
  So when you look at that damage and you look at the fact that we lost 
134,000 housing units, 70 percent of all occupied housing units of the 
city, you will understand the magnitude and the depth of the 
devastation that our district suffered.
  But once again the people of New Orleans and the people of 
Louisiana--we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and we start 
building a better New Orleans and a better future.
  However, we still have many needs. We still have many things that we 
need to right that didn't go right during the storm.
  But, as of now, I just wanted to talk about how resilient the people 
of New Orleans were during the storm and the outpouring of love from 
the rest of the country.
  Mr. SCALISE. Thank you, Congressman Richmond.
  Of course, as the gentleman talked about, the devastation and those 
1,833 lives that we lost throughout the Gulf Coast still live with us. 
We still remember the people who gave their lives, who lost their 
lives, in this devastating storm.

[[Page 13226]]

  But, Mr. Speaker, some of the things that you saw from the people of 
southeast Louisiana--I know I saw firsthand the strength, the 
resiliency, of the people back at a time not long after the storm hit 
when there were people questioning whether or not the city of New 
Orleans would be rebuilt or should be rebuilt. You saw that 
conversation start around the country.
  But, Mr. Speaker, that didn't last long before you saw the Nation 
come together and make a commitment, and you saw the people of New 
Orleans make a commitment that the city would be rebuilt.
  But I think this is where the story of recovery comes out so bright 
and strong, Mr. Speaker. That is how the people of the Gulf Coast, how 
the people of New Orleans, responded.
  People didn't say they were just going to rebuild what was broken. 
You saw people demanding, demanding, Mr. Speaker, that we rebuild 
better, stronger, more efficient. People started demanding that 
government work differently, that government work better.
  Those levees that failed, Mr. Speaker, caused so much of that 
devastation. People said: We need to reform the way that levees are 
built. You saw a citizen uprising, in fact, that led to dramatic 
changes in State law.
  I was a State representative at the time. We actually changed the 
constitution of Louisiana to require that people who serve on levee 
boards actually have experience in things like engineering, hydrology.
  You saw citizen groups like Women of the Storm emerge, where over 
50,000 people signed a petition not long after that demanded that laws 
be changed, Mr. Speaker, to make those kinds of reforms in levee 
boards.
  And when you look at the levees that were rebuilt today with the help 
of our colleagues up here in Congress and the work of FEMA and other 
agencies--when you look at those levees, they are dramatically better.
  The flood protection systems are better in southeast Louisiana. That 
didn't happen by accident. That happened because the people demanded 
those kinds of changes.
  You look at the political reform. As we all know, every State has got 
its problems. But Louisiana had a bad history of political corruption 
going back over 100 years.
  The people of Louisiana demanded a better political system. You 
actually saw citizens picking up the telephone, calling the FBI if they 
saw an ounce of political corruption.
  There became a zero tolerance for political corruption in the city of 
New Orleans and the surrounding regions. People went to jail.
  But it was because the public said: We demand better. And, 
ultimately, that helped lead to the recovery that we see today 10 years 
later.
  Just look at the school system, Mr. Speaker. Before Katrina struck, 
New Orleans had one of the most failed and corrupt public school 
systems in the country.
  There were kids that were graduating--we had a high school 
valedictorian who couldn't pass the State exit exam.
  After Katrina, again people said: We are going to rebuild, but we are 
going to demand a better public school system.
  And you saw sweeping reforms move through the State legislature, 
setting up a system of charter schools in the New Orleans area that are 
now touted as the model for reform for urban education systems.
  That didn't happen by accident. That happened because the people 
demanded better from government. We saw government fail at every level, 
Federal, State, and local. It is well documented.

                              {time}  1900

  The story of New Orleans today, 10 years after the storm, is the 
story of a strong and resilient people who said: We absolutely will 
rebuild, but we are not going to rebuild the same way that it was 
before with all of the flaws and problems that existed; we are going to 
demand better.
  You can see better today, you can see the recovery. It is not over. 
There are still some neighborhoods that are working to rebuild, but 
there are so many neighborhoods that are stronger today, that are more 
thriving today. Young people coming in from other States to be a part 
of this renaissance, to be a part of this recovery.
  It is an exciting time to be in the New Orleans region today; but 
obviously, as we reflect upon the devastation of Katrina 10 years ago, 
we know how far we have come and how much it took people pulling 
together, working with groups like the Pastors Resource Council, 
pastors from all around the country that came together to say that, 
while government had its failings, individuals, communities came 
together, churches came together, faith-based groups stood up like we 
have known that they do in so many other disasters to help get food to 
people, get shelter to people, and help people recover.
  We, obviously, reflect on and pray for the lives that were lost and 
remember the devastation that was so horrific, but we also celebrate 
the recovery that is still so evident in the people of Louisiana.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________