Katrina's Children: One Year Later
Friday, August 25, 2006
By: Marian Wright Edelman

It's been a year since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, leaving the entire world horrified by the images of desperate people left trapped by the storm. We saw then that even though our government promises to defend freedom around the world, it wasn't prepared to protect its own citizens before or after the storm. Twelve months later, how are Katrina's survivors doing?

It's been a year since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, leaving the entire world horrified by the images of desperate people left trapped by the storm. We saw then that even though our government promises to defend freedom around the world, it wasn't prepared to protect its own citizens before or after the storm. Twelve months later, how are Katrina's survivors doing? Shamefully, many are still struggling mightily to put their lives back together with far too little help from federal, state and local governments.

It is morally intolerable that a year after Hurricane Katrina, many thousands of children and families are still suffering and going without critical supports like health and mental health care and housing and schooling in the richest nation on earth. Experts testified at a July Congressional hearing in New Orleans that mental health needs are a critical concern for survivors. There are only ten mental health pediatric and youth beds available in New Orleans although the number of children with unresolved mental health problems has increased. There were 3200 physicians in Orleans and surrounding parishes before the storm; only 1400 are practicing now requiring many families to see unfamiliar doctors and to drive many miles for health care. Homelessness is on the rise, and thousands of people continue to live in shelters, trailer parks, and with relatives and strangers with no relief in sight-- just stuck on stuck, as a homeless state employee said.

Only 22 of New Orlean's 125 public schools reopened during the 2005-2006 school year and countless children lost much school time in that city and other cities. They hope to increase that number to 56 this year but are still struggling to find enough teachers to fill the 400 empty slots. Children are returning without schools or child care spaces or after-school programs, roaming the streets or remaining idle in barren trailer camps. More and more teenagers are returning to New Orleans without a parent or a permanent place to live. Juvenile crime is increasing. Concerns about youth violence and crime reached a peak when five teenagers were killed on a single night in June.

The Children's Defense Fund is doing everything it can to help through 15 CDF Freedom Schools programs which provided positive summer and after-school opportunities for children, six of which were enabled by the group of prominent women from Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. who joined us in New Orleans for a Katrina Child Watch visit in May. They also brokered funds for a new Mobile Health Van which is about to become operational. Their quick action and that from other organizations and the faith community have been bright spots in the city's recovery struggle. But these are tiny fingers in the dikes of need that cry out for effective government and private sector system response. The federal government needs to provide Emergency Disaster Relief Medicaid to ensure health and mental health care and emergency services to survivors. Children need more and better quality schools and after school programs and safe havens from New Orleans streets. And all Gulf Coast children need, as one young boy said,
"hope."

We need to make sure our nation -- their nation -- doesn't forget Katrina's children, ignore them, neglect them, and continue to leave them behind, invisible and uncared for, like the debris still littering the Ninth Ward and other devastated communities across the Gulf Coast. We need a forward looking national disaster policy and health and mental health care for every child now. The storm is still raging for many of Katrina's children a year later. Our children need hope and help now. You can help. Click here to learn more about CDF's efforts to remember the children of Katrina.