Tsunami workers shocked by state of New Orleans
Published: Sunday, 25 June, 2006, 10:29 AM Doha Time
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NEW ORLEANS: Asian tsunami relief workers touring New Orleans were shocked
yesterday by the devastation and slow pace of recovery nearly 10 months
after Hurricane Katrina struck.
The relief workers were in New Orleans to share information about recovering
from natural disasters.
"It looked a lot like Aceh six months after the tsunami," said Tom Kerr, the
publications director of the Thailand-based Asian Coalition for Housing
Rights.
The tsunami, which hit near the Aceh region of Indonesia in December 2004,
killed nearly 230,000 in the region and left more than 43,000 missing. More
than 1,500 in Louisiana died after Katrina hit on August 29, 2005.
Katrina flooded 80% of New Orleans and only about half of the city's
residents have returned. In the Lower Ninth Ward that the relief workers
toured, many houses were smashed or knocked off foundations and few have
been repaired.
Somsook Boonyabancha, director of the Community Organisations Development
Institute in Thailand, said she was shocked at the lack of progress in New
Orleans.
"I'm surprised to see why the reconstruction work is so slow, because this
is supposed to be one of the most rich and efficient countries in the world.
It is starting at such a slow speed, incredibly slow speed," she said. -
Reuters