Obama to visit New Orleans ahead of Katrina anniversary

ORIGINAL POST: President Obama plans to visit New Orleans on August. 27 for the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Obama will on Thursday meet “Big Easy” residents and Mayor Mitch Landrieu and deliver a speech on the “region’s rebirth”, the White House announced Wednesday.

I need to create a login for digital access.

Five former New Orleans police officers deserve a new trial on charges connected to the deadly shootings of unarmed people amid the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, upholding a judge’s 2013 decision. New Orleans suffered the most casualties, as the levee system created to keep out flooding failed, leaving most of the city underwater.

The storm stands as the costliest natural disaster ever in the United States, having caused $135 billion in damage. In 2006, on the first anniversary, President Bush and former Mayor Ray Nagin ate breakfast with locals at Betsy’s Pancake House on Canal Street.

The news release said Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate and other FEMA officials will attend commemoration events in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas in the days leading up to the anniversary. Money has also been spent on mitigation projects to help protect against another major storm. “There’s no need to dwell on what you experienced and what the world witnessed”, he said.

The economy of New Orleans, which relies heavily on tourism and the oil and gas industry, had suffered a new setback earlier that year with the BP oil spill.