Since then, the city has mostly recovered and tourism is booming.

But the big concern now is whether soon to be Hurricane Isaac will devastate the area once again. Still, ...]]> NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast seven years ago this week, triggering one of the most devastating chain of events that left New Orleans flooded, hundreds dead, and thousands of residents without a home.

Since then, the city has mostly recovered and tourism is booming.

But the big concern now is whether soon to be Hurricane Isaac will devastate the area once again. Still, New Orleans leaders past and present are confident their city has what it takes to overcome.

The famed French Quarter in New Orleans is once again filled with music, art, and people — the hub of the city’s rebirth following Katrina.

“Now I look at it and I see the population growing. I think in the last report, 97 percent of the people are back. Unemployment is at historic lows. Construction is everywhere,” former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told CBN News.

An Unforgettable Scene

The city has come a long way from August 29, 2005, when destruction was everywhere. Hurricane Katrina hit, leaving failed levees and flood waters in her wake.

“Katrina first came on board here. This is where the eye of the hurricane hit, Plaquemines parish,” bayou resident and oysterman Byron Encalade recalled.

He remembered watching the storm as it wiped out his life’s work.

“This boat was here, and it winded up a mile up on the other side of the levee, the front levee close to the river in the trees,” Encalade described to CBN News. “The levee was full of boats turned upside down, broken up.”

Mayor Nagin ordered the evacuation of the entire Crescent City, then scrambled to save those left behind. In the end, an estimated 700 residents died.

“I did not sleep much for a long time,” he recalled. “As a matter of fact, I have been out of office now two years, and I am just back to the point where I am sleeping decently. It was quite a toll.”

Help from Above

Nagin shares his story in the book Katrina’s Secrets: Storms after the Storm. One secret is where he turned for guidance to start over.

“I am trying to figure out how do you recover a city that is almost totally devastated? I am checking the Internet, talking to experts,” Nagin explained. “Guess where I find the answer? Nehemiah. When Jerusalem was destroyed,” he said.

“So I go and I start reading Nehemiah,” he continued. “And it gave me a road map for how to approach the rebuilding of this city.”

“For me, God was definitely involved every step of the way because there is no way we could have recovered this city without His hand being involved in it,” Nagin added.

The story of New Orleans’ recovery is still being written.

A new report estimates 8,000 properties were repaired or rebuilt from September 2010 to March 2011. And for the first time in seven years, the city no longer tops the list of the most blighted in America.

“Certain sections of the city, there is quite a bit of crime,” Nagin admitted. “So we’re still dealing with our struggles. But for the most part, we are pretty much back.”

Struggles of the Lower Ninth

There are many bright spots to New Orleans’ recovery. But at the same time, there are still some dark spots, like the difficulty in rebuilding in its historic Lower Ninth Ward.

“I grew up in the Lower Ninth Ward. It was a very, very proud neighborhood. Everybody knew everybody,” Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter told CBN News.

Luter also pastors Franklin Avenue Baptist Church just blocks away from the area.

CBN News first visited Luter after Katrina buried his sanctuary in more than 9 feet of water. It took two years to rebuild his church home.

However, back in the Lower Ninth Ward, overgrown weeds cover the lot where Luter’s childhood home once stood.

“It hurts my heart and sometimes brings tears to my eyes when I think about the fact that a lot of things that were my beginnings and made me who I am today are no longer there, physically,” Luter said.

“And I can only think about the memories of them. So it was a tough time,” he said.

It will take even more time to bring people back to that part of the city, which doesn’t surprise Nagin. He said he “absolutely” has some regrets looking back on it all, but he’s optimistic about New Orleans’ ability to continue to bounce back.

These days, Nagin avoids the spotlight and the city, but he admits there is no place he loves more.

“[Hurricane Katrina] just strengthened me in my faith,” Nagin said. “I am always praying, but I prayed even more during Katrina and the aftermath. And it sustains me to this day.”

Via CBN.com

WHITE BEAR LAKE – Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin wants everyone to know that the city he led through Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath is back.

“I’m going to tell you about a city that did not give up,” he told an audience Thursday night in Century College’s West Campus ...]]> By ERIK SANDIN – Stillwater Gazette

WHITE BEAR LAKE – Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin wants everyone to know that the city he led through Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath is back.

“I’m going to tell you about a city that did not give up,” he told an audience Thursday night in Century College’s West Campus Theater.

More than five years after Katrina battered and flooded New Orleans, Nagin said the city’s population is up to 75 percent of its pre-Katrina level, goods are flowing into its port and the tourism industry has rebounded.

“New Orleans is a tourist city. Now our tourism industry is enjoying its best years in some time,” he said.

But the good news, which Nagin calls “rainbows,” did not come without hard work to solve problems caused by one of the worst storms in U.S. history.

“There are certain catastrophes that happen that you aren’t prepared for,” he said. “This could happen anywhere.

One problem Nagin pointed out was that Katrina’s track proved difficult to predict. He said the hurricane passed over Florida at a Category 1 storm, then quickly strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico.

“It was probably the most deceptive storm we’ve ever seen,” he said. “It wasn’t until 24 hours before landfall that we got clarity that it was going to hit New Orleans.”

Another problem, according to Nagin, is that New Orleans geographically is a low-lying bowl surrounded by levees with its highest points along the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. Katrina’s storm surge overwhelmed the levees and inundated much of the city.

“We are surrounded by water. The bowls started to fill up. Eighty percent of New Orleans was underwater,” he said.

Although Nagin said 96 percent of New Orleans residents evacuated or were placed in shelters of last resort, conditions worsened days later when state and federal aid was slow in arriving to the stricken city.

“We had always done a plan and that plan was to evacuate, open shelters and hunker down and wait for the calvary to come – the state and federal governments,” he said. “After day two and three, conditions began to deteriorate. The new rhythm of my city was helicopters, Humvees and people groaning. We had dead bodies in the water and we were rescuing live people. We left the dead bodies floating in the water.

“Some people thought it was the end of the world,” he added about the storm aftermath.

Finally, political pressure built on President George W. Bush and then-Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco to act and get aid into New Orleans, Nagin said.

“It took seven days for the country to help us,” he said.

Nagin attributed the delay in aid to a political “tussle” between Bush and Blanco.

“The governor and president were tussling over control,” he said. “The president was Republican and the governor was a Democrat, so there was politics going on. She raised posse comitatus. That law said the president couldn’t send federal troops in without the governor’s invitation and she did not invite them.”

Nagin also said race and class had a role in the response to Katrina.

“Race and class plays heavily in disaster response,” he said. “The pictures of the people who were suffering were poor and black. I think race and class played heavily. And I’ll be honest with you. Things haven’t changed. I’m optimistic, but I’m also pessimistic.”

Once aid began arriving, Nagin said city officials faced having to rebuild most of the city.

“The core infrastructure was totally devastated,” he said. “The schools in devastated areas were destroyed. There was no economy. No Bourbon Street. No tourists.”

With many New Orleans residents dispersed to 44 states, Nagin said nothing was happening in the city post-Katrina.

“Where do you start? We had nothing,” he said. “There’s an African proverb that goes, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

Although it took more than two years for government aid money to show up in New Orleans, Nagin said city officials found $40 million in bond money, set up a revolving fund and targeted 17 zones for rebuilding.

“That’s where we focused our efforts,” he said. “That’s how we rebuilt New Orleans.

“There are rainbows all over New Orleans,” Nagin added. “We’re building green. Our schools have been totally reformed. We have more charter schools in New Orleans than anywhere in the country. Wages went up right after Katrina. There is an economic boom happening in the city. The good news, ladies and gentlemen, is that we did it.”

And Nagin admits that the storm “changed many people’s lives,” including his.

“It definitely changed my life. I made some controversial decisions. I’ll never run for politics again,” he said.

Via StillWaterGazette

http://www.een.be/programmas/de-laatste-show/ray-nagin

The progressive policy of Former Mayor Ray Nagin has led to a revival of the city of New Orleans. During his administration the city has an unprecedented economic growth and the city government has grown into a dynamic and competitive organization that work has made such poverty ...]]> Former Mayor of New Orleans, entrepreneur and Disaster Recovery Expert.

The progressive policy of Former Mayor Ray Nagin has led to a revival of the city of New Orleans. During his administration the city has an unprecedented economic growth and the city government has grown into a dynamic and competitive organization that work has made such poverty and housing.

In 2005, Ray Nagin world famous thanks to its assertive and coldly occur in the superstorm Katrina. He ordered a mandatory evacuation just hours before the storm came ashore. Then he accompanied the largest evacuation and reconstruction operations in U.S. history.

Through intense lobbying in Congress and President George W. Bush, he could release more than $ 20 billion for a new coastal protection system, a social housing program plus credit and compensation for the affected areas. Within 30 days after the disaster, he founded the “Bring New Orleans Back Commission”: a master plan to devise new ways to improve the infrastructure, economic development, planning, education, health care, efficient government, culture and tourism.

Ray is experienced as expert knows better than anyone what the catastrophic consequences of inadequate coastal protection. But while he is a prime example of how a vigorous policy to reverse the tide. His testimony about the lasting impact of the super storm on New Orleans, can be found in Nagin’s book: “Katrina’s Secrets: Storms After the Storm”. But especially for the conference “Super Storms. And how to protect us” Ray Nagin is it telling you in person.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&u=http://www.superstormen.be/&ei=VYGfTtGhLoXZ0QGOmpyeBQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CB0Q7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.superstormen.be/%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26prmd%3Dimv

The former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin has some advice for Australian governments struggling with last summer’s disastrous floods and cyclone: let local people own the recovery.

”I think New Orleans is a key study of a horrific catastrophe and how we struggled to plan and implement to get the city back to recovery,” ...]]>

The former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin has some advice for Australian governments struggling with last summer’s disastrous floods and cyclone: let local people own the recovery.

”I think New Orleans is a key study of a horrific catastrophe and how we struggled to plan and implement to get the city back to recovery,” he said. ”I will tell you that there are lessons for Australia governments in trying to recover and authorities could well look at us. One of the key things is to engage the citizens in a big way. They must be involved so they own the recovery.”

Natural disasters this year have cost Australia about $9 billion and various inquiries are under way to help prepare for future floods, cyclones and fires.

Mr Nagin’s exhortation to former US President George Bush and the federal government to ”get off your asses and let’s do something, and let’s fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country” after hurricane Kristina devastated his city attracted worldwide coverage. He said the recovery work following was greatly hampered by private and corporate sectional interests trying to make money, and government bloody-mindedness.

Interview with Martin Bashir MSNBC

Via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

C. Ray Nagin, former mayor of New Orleans, left office in May 2010 several years after rising to international notoriety for what is now known only as “Katrina.” Last month, Nagin released a self-published memoir of the days before and 30 days after the historic event.

“I really couldn’t do anything before I got out of office,” said Nagin, who ...]]> By Nedra Rhone

Via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

C. Ray Nagin, former mayor of New Orleans, left office in May 2010 several years after rising to international notoriety for what is now known only as “Katrina.” Last month, Nagin released a self-published memoir of the days before and 30 days after the historic event.

“I really couldn’t do anything before I got out of office,” said Nagin, who was re-elected in 2006. His focus after leaving office had been to put together a personal library. “When I got to the Katrina section, the story jumped out at me,” he said. With assistance from a few writer friends, “Katrina’s Secrets: Storms After the Storm” (CreateSpace, $17.99), became his first effort to share his personal insights into the complexities of managing a disaster.

On Thursday, Nagin will be in town sharing his insider knowledge with young leaders as part of the 2011 World Leadership Conference and Awards sponsored by Usher’s New Look Foundation. It is part of his desire to help younger generations understand the inner workings of politics and volunteerism, he said.

The book has had its share of critics with some accusing Nagin of being dishonest or portraying himself as a hero. Nagin said he was prepared for the maelstrom.

“There is a certain story line and narrative out there about who is to blame. I knew me coming out with a different perspective…would be controversial,” he said.

If helming a city beset with a natural disaster was tough, not even that could prepare Nagin for the challenge of writing a book.

“Writing a book is a lot more intense than I ever imagined,” he said. “First [it] was very therapeutic, I had to get a lot of things off my chest. But it was way too long. I had to do four or five different re-writes.”

Nagin took some time to chat about everything from his decision to self-publish to the HBO series “Treme” based on the neighborhood where he grew up.

Q: Your book is titled “Katrina’s Secrets,” which implies more than one, but what would you say was the most widespread or most misleading “secret” surrounding Katrina?

A: At Katrina’s peak, Google had 50 million search results. There were a lot of things that were accurate and some things that were not. The whole notion that the city was not ready and didn’t evacuate properly…we got over 80 percent of people out. When I made it mandatory for the first time in our history, we got 96 percent of people out of harm’s way. Most people don’t realize that.

I go behind the scenes with the President [George W. Bush] and the Governor [Kathleen Blanco]. I share some things people don’t know about those interactions. The Governor and I had our differences, of course, but there was huge struggle going on between the President and the Governor over who would control the resources after the disaster.

Q: Katrina has become one of the major events in American history. What sort of impact has the event had on the American psyche?

A: I think Americans really were shocked at what they saw after the storm – shocked from the standpoint of a little secret about the inner city having intense pockets of poverty. Americans were shocked that all levels of government were so overwhelmed that we couldn’t be effective to rescue people in a timely manner.

Q: Major publishers must have been interested in your memoirs. Why did you decide to self-publish your book?

A: I spoke with several agents and big houses and had some good conversations, but the thing about this particular story is I wanted to make sure I could tell it and maintain my voice. I was concerned that if I turned the manuscript over, they would have lots of leeway to change it.

Q: In the book, you talk about growing up in Treme. What do you think of the HBO series set in the neighborhood?

A: I think the HBO series is pretty good. Treme helped ingrain in me a deep love of the city and its uniqueness. It also helped me understand that New Orleans is a city of extremes. Extreme elegance and extreme wildness.

Q: Where do you see New Orleans in the future and what kind of role would you like to play?

A: I think New Orleans still has a long way to go, but we are moving to recovery a lot quicker than some people portray. We are only in year six [post disaster] and 80 percent of the population is back. We are one of the fastest growing cities in America. We have over $20 billion in construction going on [levee construction is about $14 billion, according to Nagin].

I plan to be behind the scenes. I don’t see myself getting into politics again unless God shines down on me from heaven saying thou shalt go back into politics. I am setting up a foundation with proceeds from the book going to senior citizens and children still recovering from Katrina.

Former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin is the latest prominent figure to choose to self-publish a book. Released on June 22, Nagin’s book, Katrina’s Secrets: Storms After the Storm, covers “the intense crisis ...]]> A Word from the Mayor
Ray Nagin tells—and publishes—his own story.
By Diane Patrick
Jul 08, 2011

Former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin is the latest prominent figure to choose to self-publish a book. Released on June 22, Nagin’s book, Katrina’s Secrets: Storms After the Storm, covers “the intense crisis period right before the hurricane and then 30 days after,” the author told PW.

In pre-publication appearances on national TV talk shows such as The Daily Show and the Today show, Nagin said that his main reason for self-publishing the book was to maintain control over “his voice” as well as control over the stories he wanted to tell.

When Nagin left office in May 2010, he wasn’t thinking about writing a book at all, he said. But as he worked to put together a personal library about his two terms as mayor (he was ineligible to run for a third) and, after rereading some of the accounts, he realized he needed to tell his side of the story. “I pitched [the book] to some agents—pretty big ones in New York and Los Angeles—but they had different ideas than I had about how it should be done. Some tried to coach me on what I should say and how it should be said. Others said I needed to tone some things down and embellish certain other things. Maybe I’m a control freak, but the big thing was maintaining my voice.” After reading about Amazon’s digital publishing program, Nagin said, “the information about the numbers and the volume and the royalties started to get my attention.” Nagin said he spoke to people at CreateSpace, learned more about the process and was impressed.

Katrina’s Secrets took about a year to write, Nagin said, and the project involved collaborating with an editor and a fact-checker, and using the CreateSpace package of editing services. Nagin added that he was especially excited about the digital possibilities for the book and its availability across all platforms. Talking to PW on the book’s June 22 launch date, Nagin said, “We’re already getting feedback from our aggregator that the book is starting to make some noise. Since it launched, we are the third book featured in the Apple iBookstore, I am told, and it’s risen to #11 on downloads.” Nagin laughed and said, “I don’t know what that means, but we’re pretty excited about it!” That day, Katrina’s Secrets was featured on the iBookstore’s New and Notable page.

As for the content, Nagin emphasized that he has “a very unique perspective on that whole Katrina experience—a front-row seat at the events before, during, and after. Mine was the ultimate insider’s point of view.” Nagin noted that he had interacted with officials on every level—from the military to law enforcement to Congress—during the disaster. “I ended up being the last person standing because Governor Blanco and President Bush were no longer in office,” Nagin said, in the long aftermath of the hurricane, which struck in August 2005.

Asked to provide a sample of “Katrina’s secrets” from the book, Nagin pointed to what he called “the chaos, what was really happening at the Super Dome—and I highlight some of the heroes and sheroes in the Coast Guard, the military, and some key people in local government.” Nagin said the book also outlines “what it took to restore a city that was 80% devastated by one of the worst natural disasters in history. How you stabilize it, how you clear up the debris and the mess, how you repopulate it, how you involve your citizens in the planning process, and how you get the money to rebuild.

“I want people to learn from our experience,” he continued, “because we haven’t fundamentally changed any laws or agencies since Katrina.” Nagin added, “It’s good to see the city on the verge of revitalization: $20 billion in construction activity, a totally revamped public education system, we are in a huge revitalization period.”

The one-time mayor is currently promoting Katrina’s Secrets on a multicity tour that he said will include stops in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and Memphis—places he calls “the diaspora cities, where the evacuees went.” Nagin said that for his appearances, he’s printed 1,000 copies of the book to have on hand.

Nagin is already planning to write another book. “There is a second book in the works that will cover the period from crisis to recovery. Now, I’ll have a [publishing] track record, so my hope is that some big publishing house will look at this and see some potential. After all, this is only half the story.”

Via Publishers Weekly