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Obama praises New Orleans' resilience

NEW ORLEANS - Visiting residents on tidy porch stoops and sampling the fried chicken at a corner restaurant, President Obama held out the people of New Orleans on Thursday as an extraordinary example of renewal and resilience 10 years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

President Obama greets residents of the Treme section of New Orleans while visiting the city with Mayor Mitch Landrieu (center) 10 years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area. Obama praised the progress but also noted much hard work remains. Story, A6.
President Obama greets residents of the Treme section of New Orleans while visiting the city with Mayor Mitch Landrieu (center) 10 years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area. Obama praised the progress but also noted much hard work remains. Story, A6.Read moreANDREW HARNIK / AP
    by Darlene Superville and Nancy Benac, Associated Press, Inquirer
    Published 

NEW ORLEANS - Visiting residents on tidy porch stoops and sampling the fried chicken at a corner restaurant, President Obama held out the people of New Orleans on Thursday as an extraordinary example of renewal and resilience 10 years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

"There's something in you guys that is just irrepressible," Obama told hundreds assembled at a bustling new community center in an area of the Lower Ninth Ward that was once under 17 feet of water. "The people of New Orleans didn't just inspire me, you inspired all of America."

He held out the city's comeback as a metaphor for what's happening all across a nation that has moved from economic crisis to higher ground.

Still, he acknowledged much work remains. After walking door to door in the historic Treme section of a city reborn from tragedy, he cautioned that "just because the housing is nice doesn't mean our job is done."

Parts of the city still suffer from high poverty, he said, and young people still take the wrong path.

There is more to be done to confront "structural inequities that existed long before the storm happened," he added.

Obama was a new U.S. senator when Katrina bore down on Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005. Nearly 2,000 people died, most in New Orleans. Video of residents seeking refuge on rooftops, inside the Superdome, and at the convention center dominated news coverage as Katrina came to symbolize government failure.

In his speech, Obama said Katrina helped expose inequalities that long plagued New Orleans.

The setting of his address at the community center spoke to the stark contrasts that remain. It sits near nicely renovated homes but also next to a boarded-up wooden house. The area is filled with vacant lots where houses used to stand, so overgrown that residents worry about snakes hiding in the grass.

Lisa Ross, an appraiser, said areas frequented by tourists have recovered tremendously, but many neighborhoods have struggled. "I think we have a long way to go," she said.