New Orleans - Most Public Buildings Still Unusable, 70 Public Schools Closed

Nearly two years after Katrina, much of New Orleans's public infrastructure is under reconstruction and stretched dangerously thin. General infrastructure repairs, "which by law are to be funded by federal sources, continue to be mired in red tape." As of April, 298 "essential public buildings" remain unusable, as "bureaucratic hurdles impede the dispersal of allocated federal funds." For example, 70 public schools remain closed, crippling the ability of families to regain their footing. The area is struggling with only 64 percent of health care facilities open and no state-licensed hospitals reopening since Oct. 2006. The effects of a broken health care system permeate the city. With psychiatric hospital closures since Katrina causing overcrowded emergency rooms, Terry Ebbert, director of the New Orleans's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, sees "a crisis in emergency mental health care." "Of the 200-plus psychiatric beds that existed in the city prior to Katrina, only 20 are in service at the moment." Police and ambulance drivers now must wait "hours" with these patients to bring them adequate emergency care, "depriving the city of essential crime fighters and first responders." Subsequently, the murder and violent crime surged in the last year, "clearly outpac[ing] the city's population growth." [MORE]