Man's flaws, and greatness

It may be too little, too late for many from Louisiana, but the description of how the aid package to LA came about is striking because it describes how one person was open to change:

from the New York Times

With Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and Mayor C. Ray Nagin at his side, Mr. Powell announced that the president would seek $4.2 billion more for Louisiana to compensate homeowners — even those in the flood plain.

Mr. Powell's epiphany came after hours of listening to Louisianians: the decision makers; the woman who cleaned his room at the Sheraton; Victoria Reggie Kennedy, the wife of Senator Edward M. Kennedy (whom he called after hearing she was a Louisiana native); the inspectors examining high-water marks in homes. As he drove through New Orleans with Mr. Bush on March 8, he pointed to a small restaurant in the Ninth Ward and rattled off the owner's real estate woes.

"He had a learning experience," said Walter Isaacson, vice chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. "It's the most amazing thing for somebody of his stature. It's because by himself, he walked around. He walked around and talked to people."

Mr. Powell says walking about in the region incognito, in blue jeans and boots, is becoming a bit harder now that people are starting to recognize him. "I went with no preconceived thoughts," he said. "And I realized that while Mississippi was an act of God, Louisiana was an act of God and man. There were some flaws. The levees breached."

Katrina brought everything out into the light that had been hiding in deep dark places: racism, extremes of poverty and wealth, poor city planning, poor emergency planning, people being let down in large and small ways every day in the city of New Orleans...but it also brought out poetry, music, and life, in ways we've only just begun to see. I visited a few weeks after, and life is tenacious. It's also fragile -- I just hope we don't have to learn all the same lessons, all over again, in a few months. Hurricane season is almost upon us.

Great book about the underlying causes of the extreme damage Katrina visited: Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast, by Mike Tidwell.