The State of Recovery Housing in New Orleans After Katrina Hurricane, 2005

Year 2022, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 69 - 87, 25.09.2022

Muhammet Halit Alkadri

Abstract

The housing issue is considered one of the central and important issues in the recovery process after natural disasters in the short and long term. This paper discusses the location of the city of New Orleans, its urban planning, and the catastrophic errors that led to the housing disaster in 2005. Hurricane Katrina is considered the most devastating in the city's history. The city is in a swampy area and has been exposed to the risk of flooding over the past decades, and it was dealt with by building networks of sewage and dams along the coast. In 2005 AD, the city's protection systems failed, and more than 800,000 housing units were destroyed in whole or in part. Thousands of people fled the city.
This paper sheds light on the reality of housing in the city before the disaster, as the city was suffering from a shortage of affordable housing units for low-income families, and how it became more difficult after the disaster. In addition to the reconstruction plans over the years that followed the disaster and how there was no clear plan to deal with the disaster and reconstruction.
It also discusses the decisions taken after one and two years of reconstruction and what happened after ten years of the recovery process. As some neighborhoods were able to recover and most of the population returned to them. However, some others no longer have about half the population. And the role that FEAM played in dealing with the disaster, the slow response to dealing in the short term, the unclear reconstruction plan, and the organizational problems that faced the institution.

Keywords

Orleans, Hurricane, Katrina, Housing situation, Recovery, FEMA, Orleans, Hurricane, Katrina, Housing situation, Recovery, FEMA

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