By Frederick E. Jordan

KATRINA - the worst natural disaster in the history of America. This Category 5 Hurricane hit New Orleans and southeastern Louisiana on August 29, 2005, with winds up to 140 miles per hour, covering 80% of the entire City of New Orleans with floodwaters. 2.5 million people were displaced and over 1300 people died.

Six months later on March 10, 2006, I was “on the ground” in New Orleans to evaluate the lingering damage, determine the progress made and to assist in the revitalization of small and minority businesses in the impacted area under the organizing efforts of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. Much has been written about the Katrina disaster, but I couldn’t believe it! The devastation remains far beyond my imagination or expectation.

While there, the clean-up bulldozers were still finding bodies. Even the dead in the cemeteries were affected because the above ground mausoleums allowed the bodies to float across the city. A new city ordinance will require all buried bodies to have a name tag embedded in their ankles. Block after block, the 9th Ward, where Black folks lived, is a ghost town. The requirement for a critical mass of people to return to their neighborhoods or the neighborhoods will be bulldozed, is just another “big land grab.”

However, it was inspirational to unite “on the ground” with all the Gulf Black Chambers – New Orleans Regional Black Chamber, Baton Rouge Black Chamber, Lafayette Black Chamber and the Shreveport/Bossier African American Chamber. All of the Gulf Black Chamber Presidents lost their homes. Since the Bush Administration received so much criticism on the handling of Katrina, Brigadier General Robert Crear, a Black Corps of Engineers officer, is in charge of the clean-up effort. However, I couldn’t get him to give me the percentage for Black business participation in the Katrina clean-up. Last year, the Associated Press reported that only 1.5% of the FEMA contracts were awarded to minority firms. It was reported, however, that of the 15 8(a) minority contracts awarded, five of them were $500,000 each. Big deal out of the $6 billion spent to date on clean up! Ten of the politically favored large white firms were awarded $500 million to $1 billion contracts with “no bid.”

For me, the 9th Ward was deja vu all over again. I recall in the 70s how the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency bulldozed the predominantly Black Fillmore District in the name of blight. Today the “big land grab” of the Fillmore District is complete with the exception of one Black development - Michael Johnson and his Fillmore Heritage Center. Now the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency is proposing to place 1,300 acres, more than half of the Bayview District, under its jurisdiction for another “big land grab.” Whether it is New Orleans, San Francisco or any other big city, it is all the same. The disenfranchisement of the Black and the Poor continues…

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