We continue to reflect on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Bobby Jindal represented Louisiana’s first Congressional district when Katrina came ashore leaving much of southeast Louisiana destroyed. Jindal remembers the outpouring of support from regular citizens, but the federal government was slow to react.
“We saw national charities, you saw people donate money and time across the country to help us rebuild. On the other hand, sometimes it was very frustrating. It felt like we had to fight our own federal government to get through the red tape,” Jindal said.
Jindal was sworn in as governor in 2008 and he remembers the battles with the federal government over recovery dollars. He says one example is the $474 million owed to the state to replace the closed Charity Hospital in New Orleans. The former governor says that money was used to build a new academic medical center in New Orleans.
“We rebuilt stronger healthcare systems, stronger educational systems, stronger flood protection systems better than what had been there even before Katrina,” Jindal said.
There are reports that $600 million in federal aid appropriated for Katrina remains unspent. Jindal blames government red tape.
He says the immediate aftermath of Katrina was a dark time for the state and the recovery was hard but gives a lot of credit to the people of Louisiana for making the Bayou State what it is today.
“So many people lost their lives, so many people lost all of their homes, all of their property, all of their businesses. What I remember most is just the strength, the resilience, the determination of our people to rebuild and to come back stronger,” Jindal said.
