NEW ORLEANS  — When the Federal Emergency Management Agency mailed out 83,000 debt notices this year to victims of Hurricane Katrina and other 2005 storms, one of the letters showed up in David Bellinger’s mailbox. Bellinger, who is blind, needed a friend to read it and break the news that FEMA wants him to pay […]

Former Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice said that she “should have known better” than to leave Washington D.C. during Hurricane Katrina in her new memoir, “No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington.” Rice admitted that she was on vacation and shopping for shoes when the news of Hurricane Katrina came. See also: What […]

NEW ORLEANS — More than six years after Hurricane Katrina’s rampage, authorities have taken only halting steps toward identifying weaknesses in a nationwide patchwork of levees intended to protect millions of Americans’ lives and property during potentially catastrophic floods.

Writer Lawrence E. Adjah reflects on Hurricane Irene from abroad in India, and shares how it brings back old memories of the 2005 disaster, Hurricane Katrina. He writes: I remember Hurricane Katrina. Fortunately, I remembered it from a distance sitting in a New York City office with my eyes glued to the lobby TV. I […]

Six years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans and its surrounding communities, former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin says he regrets not calling a mandatory evacuation sooner in a candid sit-down interview with BET.com. According to Nagin, his outspokenness made him an easy target and a scapegoat in many situations. “I was […]

As the deaths and damage left by Hurricane Irene are added up, today marks the anniversary of one of the deadliest natural disasters in American history — Hurricane Katrina. Below is a post focusing on the Lower 9th Ward and its struggle in getting back to what it once was. Also check out these other […]

NEW ORLEANS — A federal jury on Friday convicted five current or former police officers in the deadly shootings on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina. Former officer Robert Faulcon, Sgts. Robert Gisevius and Kenneth Bowen, Officer Anthony Villavaso and retired Sgt. Arthur Kaufman were convicted of charges stemming from the cover-up of the […]

NEW ORLEANS — A former police detective testified Monday that he participated in a plot to fabricate witnesses, falsify reports and plant a gun to make it seem police were justified in shooting unarmed residents on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina. Jeffrey Lehrmann, a government witness in the federal trial of five current […]

NEW ORLEANS — A former police detective testified Monday that he participated in a plot to fabricate witnesses, falsify reports and plant a gun to make it seem police were justified in shooting unarmed residents on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina. Jeffrey Lehrmann, a government witness in the federal trial of five current […]

NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans police officers decided to “shoot first and ask questions later” when they gunned down two unarmed people and wounded four others on a bridge in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath, a federal prosecutor said Monday during opening statements for a trial spotlighting one of the epic storm’s most notorious episodes. The jury […]

NEW ORLEANS — On a brisk January morning in 2007, seven New Orleans police officers waded through a crowd of cheering supporters outside the city’s jail to face charges stemming from a deadly encounter with residents on a bridge in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath. Before they were booked, the grim-faced officers accepted hugs and handshakes from […]

NEW ORLEANS — Nearly six years have passed since Hurricane Katrina drowned New Orleans in misery, but many residents haven’t forgiven the Federal Emergency Management Agency for its sluggish response to the storm. Now another delayed reaction by FEMA – a stop-and-start push to recoup millions of dollars in disaster aid – is reminding storm […]