KATRINA, TWO YEARS LATER

While President Bush was observing a moment of silence Wednesday at a New Orleans charter school to commemorate the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the city’s mayor was at a different ceremony where ringing bells signaled the time water began pouring into the city. The conflicting silence and bell tolling is a small, but telling, example of the lack of coordination that has plagued rebuilding efforts.

As the president acknowledged more than two weeks after the hurricane flooded more than 80 percent of New Orleans, most expected the rebuilding to be slow and difficult. Devastation this bad required federal government intervention. It also meant that huge problems – the exodus of New Orleans residents, the failure of levy walls – needed to be remedied. With billions of dollars and dozens of government agencies dispatched to help, what was not expected was that so much would remain undone two years later.

“Tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people,” President Bush said on Sept. 15, 2005. “Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.”

The federal government has done a lot, providing more than $114 billion to the Gulf Region, according to the Gulf Coast Recovery Office, a branch of the Federal Emergency Management Agency that is coordinating recovery efforts. Yet, the Crescent City is far from rising again.

There are hopeful signs. The French Quarter, a tourist haven, is largely rebuilt as is the Uptown section. The Lower Ninth Ward, one of the hardest hit portions of the city, remains largely uninhabited. Many schools and hospitals remain closed.

Private business hasn’t fared much better than the government in rebuilding. Office towers remain vacant and stores are boarded up.

Rebuilding has been hampered by government ineptitude such as the Small Business Administration’s cancellation of nearly 8,000 loans for hurricane victims and FEMA’s paying out nearly $500 million to thousands of people who shouldn’t have gotten federal aid.

Lack of coordination among the many levels of government – from municipal and parish to a myriad of federal agencies – remains a problem.

Dozens of hearings and reports have detailed the federal government’s failings leading up to and immediately after Hurricane Katrina. Gulf Coast residents can’t wait for hearings and reports to uncover ways to improve rebuilding.