The Congressional Leadership's otherwise ambitious agenda for the first hundred hours holds very little for those struggling communities on the Gulf Coast; in fact, it may already be too late.
In the wake of the diaspora that followed Katrina, businesses in coastal Mississippi and Louisiana have been struggling to find a reliable workforce. Many workers have chosen not to return; many of those that have are forced to deal with issues of inadequate transportation, housing, and infrastructure. Still others are coping with mental health issues of depression. Today's New York Times carries the heartbreaking news of a major employer- Oreck- that tried to do the right thing by the community, but can afford to wait no longer.
Ten days after Hurricane Katrina tore through town, the Oreck Corporation reopened the storm-damaged plant where it assembled its widely advertised vacuum cleaners. It hauled in generators to make electricity, imported trailers to house its workers and was hailed as a local hero for putting people back to work so fast.
But now, 16 months later, Oreck — which had employed almost 500 people at the factory — is throwing in the towel and moving its manufacturing to Tennessee. The company says it cannot get enough insurance to cover its plant here, and cannot hire enough skilled workers to replace those who never returned after the storm, mostly because they had nowhere to live.
"The decision to move this plant was a very difficult one, a very painful one," said Thomas A. Oreck, the company president. Late last year, Mr. Oreck said, "we came to realize that conditions on the Gulf Coast had changed in ways that made doing business here very difficult."
Issues of infrastructure are proving too big to be handled on a local- or even state- level. A viable, national, coordinated response is needed... and sorely lacking.