[Ed Gordon:] From NPR News, this is NEWS & NOTES. I'm Ed Gordon. Three billion dollars. That's what the government is now promising the city of New Orleans to help rebuild its broken levee system. The new pledge came after a meeting between President Bush, Donald Powell, head of the federal recovery effort, and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Nagin says he hopes the promise of stronger levees will entice residents and businesses to come home and speed up what has been a slow and difficult recovery.
[Mayor Ray Nagin:] Now the Big Easy is not very easy right now. So when you come back to New Orleans, come back ready to work. Come back ready to rebuild and to help us to make the Big Easy the great international city that it once was.
[Ed Gordon:] In just a moment, we'll speak with US Congressman Elijah Cummings about the federal role in the recovery effort. He and other Congressional Black Caucus members met yesterday with David Paulison, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But first, for a perspective of life on the ground in New Orleans after Katrina, we're joined by Louisiana state Senator Ann Duplessis. She represents New Orleans' devastated Lower Ninth Ward. Senator, welcome.
[Senator Ann Duplessis:] Thank you.
[Ed Gordon:] Let me ask you, so much in the headlines today about what's being spent to shore up the levees. I'm sure that there are a number of people who are excited about that. But one of the questions is the immediate need of the people of the region and what kinds of dollars and the state that they are in today. Give a sense of what you are seeing.
[Senator Ann Duplessis:] You're absolutely correct with that. The resources that are now being provided to the region and to the city as it relates to levee protections are absolutely critical. But immediately my constituents and the people of New Orleans who were mostly devastated and impacted have one-on-one financial needs. You know, we have been forced to leave our homes, and we are not able to return, but yet the expenses are still there. The mortgages are due. The other bills are due. So at this particular time, we have been lobbying with our congressional leadership to create some legislation that would at least, on temporary basis, help individuals financially so that that would not be another devastating impact on their lives, having to lose the homes that they can't go back to or having to file bankruptcy or things like that. So we are working very hard to try and help create some legislation that would give some temporary financial relief on mortgage payments and debt.
[Ed Gordon:] When talking with your constituents, talk to me about the biggest concern that you are hearing from folks who want to return to New Orleans. You know, there's the debate that there will be some who will not want to return, but what of those who want to return? What are you hearing most from them?
[Senator Ann Duplessis:] Mostly we're hearing how will we be protected from future events such as this? Now what-the announcement that we heard yesterday is a very good starting point. To commit dollars to bringing the levee system back to a Category 3 is good, but I'm just not sure that is enough with all of the data and the information that we have gotten thus far. And so the commitment to a Category 5 or better or greater is what is really needed, and not only for our constituents to have some assurances and some security, but for the industries that we would depend on in those areas where they believe pose a risk.
[Ed Gordon:] Let me ask this. When you see the governor, when you see the mayor in Washington talking about the situation, are you satisfied that we are out of the finger-pointing that really got to some degree a big nasty and we can now move forward, or do you think there is still need for all concerned, from the federal government down, to still try to lay blame elsewhere?
[Senator Ann Duplessis:] You know, right now, this really-I don't think it's about blame. I think what is happening is that our leadership at the local level, the mayor, and at the state level, the governor, were inundated with a disaster that no one could have written a play-or there was no playbook on. We are still in a reactive mode here. So the finger-pointing that I guess-between our family, as I want to say, that the outside world saw, they did what they thought at the time was appropriate based on the information, the data and the intelligence that they had to make decisions.
[Ed Gordon:] All right, Senator. Thank you so much for updating us and give us a look on the ground.
[Senator Ann Duplessis:] Thank you.
[Ed Gordon:] Ann Duplessis is a Louisiana state senator. She represents New Orleans 2nd District, which includes the Lower Ninth Ward.