Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Faye Fiore: Katrina's Aftermath
The federal government has handled many disasters, but never a challenge like this: resettling hundreds of thousands of people uprooted within the nation's borders.
Dozens of federal agencies -- working with state and local governments and private charities -- are trying to improvise a safety net capable of helping support displaced people for months.
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Some historians look back to the Oklahoma Dust Bowl of the 1930s to find a comparison to the displacement created by Katrina. A prolonged drought on top of years of poor agricultural practices forced about 300,000 people to abandon the farms and communities that been the source of their livelihood. Many headed to California.
"There are a lot of similarities here," said Donald Worster, a professor at the University of Kansas in Lawrence who focuses on environmental history. "These are ecological or environmental refugees, running away from a disaster that is at least partly man-made."
The federal government responded to the Dust Bowl, but it saw its role as far more limited than the government of today. "They paid farmers not to plant," said Worster, author of a history of the period. "They set up resettlement camps. Nobody quite knew what to do; they had to invent it as they went along."
Some of those programs, such as the Farm Security Administration, became part of the New Deal.
Congress is expected to act soon on legislation to streamline the delivery of federal aid to the hurricane victims by making changes in dozens of federal programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, food stamps and the tax code.
On Wednesday, the House voted to eliminate a requirement that college students repay Pell Grants when natural disasters force them to withdraw from classes.
"We understand the impact of this storm," said House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). "We're going to expedite everything we can."
Dozens of federal agencies -- working with state and local governments and private charities -- are trying to improvise a safety net capable of helping support displaced people for months.
...
Some historians look back to the Oklahoma Dust Bowl of the 1930s to find a comparison to the displacement created by Katrina. A prolonged drought on top of years of poor agricultural practices forced about 300,000 people to abandon the farms and communities that been the source of their livelihood. Many headed to California.
"There are a lot of similarities here," said Donald Worster, a professor at the University of Kansas in Lawrence who focuses on environmental history. "These are ecological or environmental refugees, running away from a disaster that is at least partly man-made."
The federal government responded to the Dust Bowl, but it saw its role as far more limited than the government of today. "They paid farmers not to plant," said Worster, author of a history of the period. "They set up resettlement camps. Nobody quite knew what to do; they had to invent it as they went along."
Some of those programs, such as the Farm Security Administration, became part of the New Deal.
Congress is expected to act soon on legislation to streamline the delivery of federal aid to the hurricane victims by making changes in dozens of federal programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, food stamps and the tax code.
On Wednesday, the House voted to eliminate a requirement that college students repay Pell Grants when natural disasters force them to withdraw from classes.
"We understand the impact of this storm," said House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). "We're going to expedite everything we can."