Latest news: August 30, 2011

New Orleans area is still at risk from storms: An editorial

By Editorial page staff, The New Orleans Times-Picayune. August 30, 2011.

“The New Orleans area is going through its first hurricane season with 100-year storm protection, a promise that cost $10 billion to fulfill–but when it comes to much stronger storms, those defenses are not expected to be enough…”

Poll finds national support for wetlands

Written by Mike Hasten, The News Star (Monroe, La.). August 30, 2011.

“BATON ROUGE — After Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil disaster shut down energy production in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in skyrocketing gasoline prices, most Americans now realize the importance of Louisiana to the national economy, a national poll shows…”

Remembering Hurricane Katrina

By U.S. Representative Cedric L. Richmond, Huffington Post. August 29, 2011.

“I’ll never forget Hurricane Katrina — the mix of a natural and a man-made catastrophe that resulted in the death of over 1,500 of our neighbors. Millions of folks were marked by the tragedy. On this sixth anniversary, I’m sending my heartfelt thoughts and prayers to those still struggling to rebuild–financially, emotionally, and structurally–from the storm…”

Oyster Population Plummets in Louisiana After BP Spill, Floods

By Christina Caron, ABC News. August 29, 2011.

“Today, on the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana and Mississippi are battling a sharp decline in the oyster population, which may not recover until 2013 now that a two-year influx of fresh water has killed off millions of the mollusks.

After the BP oil spill in 2010, water was diverted out of the Mississippi River to keep the oil away from coastal wetlands. In the process, freshwater flooded into oyster hatcheries, disrupting the delicate saline balance required for oysters to survive. When saline levels get too low, algae die, eliminating the oyster’s food supply…”

Katrina’s 6th anniversary finds Gulf Coast on mend

By Cain Burdeau, Associate Press. August 29, 2011.

“NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Gulf Coast mixed somber ceremonies with New Orleans’ signature flair to mark the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and honor those killed during the catastrophic storm that drowned much of the region’s dominant city and devastated coastal towns in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana…”

Gulf Coast marks a difficult 6 yrs since Katrina

By Joshua Norman, CBS News. August 29, 2011.

“Monday marked the passage of six difficult years of rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina for devastated Gulf Coast communities. In dozens of towns along the Coast in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, residents gathered to honor the more than 1,800 people who lost their lives to the storm and the catastrophic human failure to protect against it.

In addition to the human toll, Katrina is still the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, and rebuilding from it has been challenging, to say the least…”

Help or Harm? Scientists raise questions over diversions’ effectiveness

By Amy Wold, The Baton Rouge Advocate.

“An agreement signed Wednesday by the state and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signals an intent to move forward with Mississippi River diversions as a major component of coastal restoration…”