VOA标准英语2012--Seven Years After Katrina, New Orleans Still Struggles to Rebuild

Seven Years After Katrina, New Orleans Still Struggles to Rebuild

In the aftermath of Katrina, the city of New Orleans was in ruins. One hundred twenty of the city’s 200,000 homes were destroyed. Eighty percent of the city was flooded.

“It wasn’t the hurricane that destroyed the city. It was the collapse¹ of its levees,” said John Bigounet, who writes books and plays about the hurricane and its aftermath. He blames the disaster on problems with the flood-protection system.

“You could see the flood line. And it was clear that the water hadn’t come over the top of the levees. Instead that they had collapsed² from the bottom. The reason that they collapsed from the bottom was that not enough steel was used," said Bigounet.

Fourteen billion dollars has now been spent to re-build the flood-protection system. Billions of dollars more have been spent on re-developing other parts of the city. But photographer Frank Relle, who has been documenting the city's recovery, said the results so far have been mixed.

“You have a new library that’s being built right here. But at the same time you have individuals that are struggling to rebuild. This house was knocked off its foundation by Katrina. Still got photographs on the floor. This is someone’s birth certificate,” said Relle.

Right after the disaster, many young professionals moved to New Orleans to help rebuild. Many decided³ to stay, including urban developer Milo Deamgan. 

“This is an interesting time to be in New Orleans. A lot of different urban work is going on, a lot of different policy work is going on, and you have kind of passed that point of recovery. They call it resiliency now. And doing a lot more long-term strategic planning,” said Deamgan.

Bigounet said New Orleans now has less poverty than before, but that’s because many poor people simply could not afford to return.

“The city is a bit richer, a bit younger and a bit whiter than it was before the flood. The city is in flux⁴ right now. And because of that many people carry the scars of what they’ve been through in the last six years,” said Deamgan.

Relle said that's now the story of the city.

“As a documentary photographer, it’s sometimes strange that you need a disaster to have a voice heard," he said. "But really for me the reason why I wanted to do the work that I wanted to do, was to talk about difficult things, but also to give people hope and awareness⁵.”

“I think like everyone who is writing about this, or photographing it, or painting it or writing songs about it, its changed who we are," said Bigounet. "We certainly have, I certainly have a different understanding of loss than I did before. I think the other thing that happened to us is that there’s a greater sense of compassion⁶ in those who survived.” 

Hurricane Katrina changed New Orleans forever. It erased⁷ large parts of the city and those that have been rebuilt still have a long way to go. But a new city is starting to emerge. 

“This was a place where my wife and I thought we could make the most difference in the world,” said Ben Jordan, a recent resident.

It's a city whose new and returning residents have a similar vision for its future.

1 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

2 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 flux   

n.流动；不断的改变

参考例句：

• The market is in a constant state of flux.市场行情在不断变化。
• In most reactors,there is a significant flux of fast neutrons.在大部分反应堆中都有一定强度的快中子流。

5 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

6 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。

7 erased   

v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；清除

参考例句：

• He erased the wrong answer and wrote in the right one. 他擦去了错误答案，写上了正确答案。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He removed the dogmatism from politics; he erased the party line. 他根除了政治中的教条主义，消除了政党界限。 来自《简明英汉词典》