Katrina 2 Years Later: Even Worse News

Several news articles of interest during the past few weeks caught my attention. I file these under: "C'mon people this is AMERICA, why can't we do better?"

First, this article, saying that the mortality rate is up 47% in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina, mainly due to lack of doctors and hospital beds in the city. Some say the number may be even higher because evacuees deaths are not counted. This is a really sad thing to see happening here. We should be better than this folks, this is not a third world country.

Next up, it's been reported that the government's incomplete repairs to the levees might have made the situation even worse, leaving the city more vunerable than before Hurricane Katrina, and this on the precipice of another hurricane season.

And last but not least, we've talked about this before, but an update... an article says that Congress has identified 22,000 potential fraud cases from Hurricane Katrina. The Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force has referred half (11,000) to law enforcement agencies for futher investigation and possible prosecution. As a reminder, it's estimated that FEMA spent $1,000,000,000.00 ($1 billion) on "improper disaster aid."