Katrina Kids' Health: The Nightmare Goes On

The Bush Administration truly is the gift disaster that keeps on giving.  For how many years will we be assessing the true toll that the policies and actions of these past eight years have taken on American citizens (to say nothing of people around the globe)?

For the child victims of Katrina, the aftermath of the hurricane they survived apparently will live on in the form of longterm medical problems.

The children who stayed longest in government trailer parks in Baton Rouge are "the sickest I have ever seen in the U.S.," says Irwin Redlener, president of the Children's Health Fund and a professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. According to a new report by CHF and Mailman focusing on 261 displaced children, the well-being of the poorest Katrina kids has "declined to an alarming level" since the hurricane. Forty-one percent are anemic—twice the rate found in children in New York City homeless shelters, and more than twice the CDC's record rate for high-risk minorities. More than half the kids have mental-health problems. And 42 percent have respiratory infections and disorders that may be linked to formaldehyde and crowding in the trailers, the last of which FEMA closed in May.  Newsweek reports today "The "unending bureaucratic haggling at  federal and state levels over how to provide services and rebuild health centers for the Gulf's poor has made a bad situation much worse, says Redlener: "As awful as the initial response to Katrina looked on television, it's been dwarfed by the ineptitude and disorganization of the recovery."

The report concludes: Some kids may end up with permanent developmental and cognitive delays, but many can still be helped. The first step will be finding them. FEMA was supposed to provide Louisiana with contact information for the families that moved out of the trailers; it has not done so. The agency's case-management program also "has yet to provide any services for thousands of families"  and funding for the program expires in March.   Redlener is optimistic that funds will be extended at least through mid-2010, since all that will require is "a stroke of the pen" from the new administration. But he is less optimistic that serious plans to avoid another post-storm tragedy will be developed.

Shame.  There is nothing left for this administration but shame and yet, still we see no accountability and no remorse.  George Bush likes to say that it will be years before his true legacy will be judged.  Please, historians, don't forget to include these children of Katrina in your assessment.

Comments

[Amy]

Seriously, are you going to blame everything on George W. Bush. I am sure some how he made the hurricane happen as well. When will people take control of their own lives and responsibility for their problems and take care of themselves. You think Katrina was bad, wait a few more years until even more people are used to be taken care of and can't think or do for themselves especially after Obama starts hand outs and see then how bad a natural disaster will be. People don't know how to make decisions on their own or take care of themselves because they are used to the government doing it for them. It is only going to get worse people just wait and see.

[Janis]

Please check out President Bush' promises regarding recovery after Katrina and then judge whether he followed through with a competent federal government response to this huge tragedy. Who would you hold accountable for not following through with the commitments he made?

[Steve]

"When will people take control of their own lives and responsibility for their problems and take care of themselves."

I can't believe someone actually wrote that. I hope this person never has to deal with a disiaster of this magnitude.

Oh wait! I bet the writer is one of those compassionate conservatives!