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The aftermath of the levee break in New Orleans inspired a pair of radically different features. For CBS News Investigates, Armen Keteyian obtained a Children's Health Fund report on the disastrous state of the mental health of child evacuees living in 96,000 FEMA trailers, "a permanent state of limbo." Those children are four times more likely to be clinically depressed than before Hurricane Katrina displaced them. He visited Renaissance Village, a "sad, muddy" FEMA trailer park in Baker La, where families see no hope of returning home. FEMA has just renewed the security contract for the camp for four more years.
For ABC, Lisa Stark took A Closer Look at the state of the levees. The Army Corps of Engineers is warning that 122 of the 2,000 systems nationwide are "unacceptable," poorly maintained and eroding. "In the past the Corps has failed to force local governments to make needed repairs." Stark explained the Corps' leverage: if local municipalities do not pay for repairs, the Corps will withdraw its certification; as a consequence the land sheltered by the levee becomes designated as a flood plain; homeowners living in such zones are obliged to purchase flood insurance. So pay levee repair dues to City Hall or pay higher premiums on homeowner's insurance.
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