Director Demme brings a teen's face out of New Orleans' crowd

Jonathan Demme traveled to New Orleans to document the lives of residents still abandoned after Hurricane Katrina.

And he may have found a star.

While shooting this summer's PBS documentary Right to Return: New Home Movies From the Lower 9th Ward, about residents of the hardest-hit region of the city trying to rebuild on their own, he came upon Kyrah Julian, a particularly eloquent — and angry — teenager.

"She was talking about more than the power being off," Demme says. "She spoke about the ecological dangers, the personal losses. She was such a compelling image on camera."

So Demme cast Julian in next year's Dancing With Shiva, a family comedy starring Anne Hathaway and Debra Winger.

Special Election Scheduled for Louisiana House District

The U.S. House seat in Louisiana’s 1st District, soon to be vacated by Republican Governor-elect Bobby Jindal , will be filled in a special election process that will begin with party primaries on March 8 and end with a general election that almost certainly will be held on May 3. The election is unlikely to produce any shift in the partisan balance of power in the House, as the heavily Republican district is strongly favored to stay in that party’s hands.

Retiring Democratic Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco — whom two-term House incumbent Jindal will succeed after winning Louisiana’s off-year election for governor on Oct. 20 — issued a proclamation Tuesday that set the election schedule, which also includes an April 5 primary runoff date if no one wins a majority vote in one or both parties in the March 8 first-round vote.

The proclamation includes a proviso that the general election would be held April 5 instead of May 3 if no runoffs are necessary. But a runoff is almost sure to be needed on the Republican side, given the long list of candidates who are expected to pursue that party’s nomination.

The candidate qualifying period for the contest runs from January 29 to 31.

Jindal previously stated that he will resign his House seat Jan. 14, the same day he will be inaugurated as governor. His easy victory this year over a field that included 11 other candidates of all party affiliations entitles him to assume the office that he narrowly lost to Blanco in the 2003 state election.

Louisiana Representative Uses Racial Slur

I wonder how many people will be infuriated by this latest development. Will people vote for a white state lawmaker, who calls a black civil rights veteran 'Buckwheat'? According to the news story, Rep. Carla Blanchard Dartez, a Democrat, acknowledged that she ended a Thursday night conversation with Hazel Boykin by saying, "Talk to you later, Buckwheat." Dartez had been thanking Boykin for driving voters to the polls.

Buckwheat, a black child character in the "Little Rascals" comedies of the 1930s and '40s, is viewed as a racial stereotype.

Boykin, 75, helped desegregate restaurants and the parish school system in the 1960s. Her son, Jerome, is president of the Terrebonne Parish chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"I've never had no one talk to me that way, and I considered it a racial slur," Hazel Boykin said. "I know the meaning of it; it's just like the N-word."

On Monday, Jerome Boykin held a news conference asking voters to cast ballots against Dartez, who faces Republican Joe Harrison in Saturday's runoff.

Lessens Learned from Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina devastated the City of New Orleans, however, other cities will now learn from that devastation:

When members of the National League of Cities convene in New Orleans this week to discuss the most effective ways to run local governments, they will use the city as a living laboratory for an issue of paramount concern: how to prepare for and recover from disaster.

A delegation of 3,500 mayors, police chiefs and city council members from around the county will brainstorm Tuesday through Saturday on ways to reduce crime, promote public transit and strengthen municipal finances, which are strained in many parts of the country by the growing costs of health care and pensions.

While the gathering is not the largest to take place since Hurricane Katrina, it is an important milepost in the recovery of the tourism industry. The National League of Cities booked its convention in New Orleans before the storm, and it was one of the first to affirm its commitment to the city when few could predict how quickly hotels, taxis and restaurants would return.

Executive Director Donald Borut said cities around the country provided for New Orleans after the storm by sending emergency response teams, equipment and money. He said visiting city leaders will continue to participate in the recovery with a series of public service projects, including the construction of a playground at Joe Brown Park.


The host city generally underwrites the annual National League of Cities conference by donating space in a convention center or providing free bus rides and other amenities, but Borut said his group decided to pick up those expenses because New Orleans is still weak-kneed from the storm.

Flynn helps No. 2 LSU down La. Tech

Matt Flynn completed 14-of-26 passes for 237 yards with three touchdowns, as second-ranked LSU overwhelmed Louisiana Tech, 58-10, at Tiger Stadium.

Jacob Hester ran for a career-high 117 yards and one touchdown for the Tigers (9-1), who have reeled three straight wins since losing 43-37 in triple overtime to Kentucky on October 13. Flynn also ran for a touchdown and had two interceptions, while Terrance Toliver caught three passes for 119 yards. Brandon LaFell racked up 80 yards on five receptions.

With the victory, coupled with losses by Alabama and Auburn, LSU clenched the SEC Western Division Championship.

Highlighting Big Easy Chef 'John Besh'

Now that psychopath, Stan Barre is out of the restaurant business and heading to the federal pen, it is refreshing to highlight an award winning chef:

John Besh is the winner of a 2006 James Beard regional award. His Restaurant August in New Orleans has appeared on Food & Wine magazine's best-restaurant list. He also is chef and co-owner of Besh Steakhouse and Luke, both in New Orleans; and La Provence, an hour north in Lacombe, La. He's currently competing on "The Next Iron Chef" on the Food Network.

With the final episode set to air this Sunday at 9 p.m.,the best of the two finalists will join the pantheon of Iron Chefs, which currently includes Mario Batali, Cat Cora, Masaharu Morimoto and Bobby Flay.

The final show will be a battle between the two finalists in Kitchen Stadium, much like the battles they will compete in if they are chosen as the next Iron Chef. Throughout the show, the contestants have had to conquer challenges such as preparing an airline meal, cooking outside with only a grill and a cooler packed by another contestant, and preparing a dish with "underutilized" foods such as sweet breads or catfish. The final battle will be swordfish, and judging by the dishes presented by Chefs Besh and Symon in the previous episodes, it promises to be a battle of epic "portions."

Motion on 'Jena 6' Charges Is Dismissed

A judge rejected a motion to dismiss juvenile charges against a teenager at the center of a civil rights controversy. Lawyers for the teenager, Mychal Bell, left, one of six black teenagers accused of beating a white schoolmate, said that trying him again amounted to double jeopardy. “We contend that he can’t be tried for the same case twice, and he’s already been tried in adult court,” said one of the lawyers, Carol Powell Lexing. The judge, J. P. Mauffrey Jr. of District Court, rejected that motion. Ms. Lexing said they would appeal. Mr. Bell, 17, is the only one of the so-called Jena Six to stand trial. In June, he was convicted in adult court of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy. The convictions were later overturned, and the case was sent to juvenile court. Mr. Bell was ordered to jail last month for a probation violation in an unrelated juvenile-court case.

Charges against Jena 6 Defendant Reduced

Charges against Bryant Purvis, one of the six black students accused of being involved in beating a white student, were reduced to second degree aggravated battery during his arraignment Wednesday morning.

Purvis, who was facing charges of second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy, entered a not guilty plea to the reduced charges in the LaSalle Parish Courthouse in Jena.

Charges have now been reduced against at least five of the students in the racially charged "Jena 6" case. Charges against Jesse Ray Beard, who was 14 at the time of the alleged crime, are unavailable because he's a juvenile.

Civil rights leaders Martin Luther King III and Al Sharpton led more than 15,000 marchers to Jena -- a town of about 3,000 -- in September to protest how authorities handled the cases against Purvis and five other teens accused of the December 2006 beating of fellow student Justin Barker.

Repair Scams In The Big Easy

Five men have been arrested on charges they bilked New Orleans residents out of thousands of dollars by contracting to renovate houses and failing to do so.

The five suspects were identified by the attorney general's office, which provided this information:

-- Anthony Thomas was arrested Oct. 25 and booked with one count of felony theft, one count of acting as a contractor without a license and one count of theft from an elderly or disabled person. Thomas, owner of Thomas Dry Wall, is alleged to have accepted a down payment of $52,000 as part of a contract with a resident to renovate her home, and to have abandoned the job without fulfilling the contract.

-- Garlon D. Batiste, aka Lance Howard, doing business as Premier Global Renovations, was arrested Oct. 24 and booked with two counts of theft by fraud, two counts of injuring public records, exploitation of the infirmed, and providing false information during the booking process. He is alleged to have accepted a check from a New Orleans resident for $38,054.74, to be used for labor and materials for the victim's house renovations, and never returned to perform any work on the house. In a separate incident, he is accused of taking an $8,500 check from a disabled senior to renovate the victim's hurricane-damaged home, and never returning to perform any repairs.

-- Michael Noah, doing business as JDSM Enterprises, was arrested in LaPlace and was returned to Orleans Parish Prison on Oct. 24, where he was booked with one count of felony theft and one count of doing contracting work without a license. Noah is charged with accepting a $42,250 partial payment on a contract to restore a hurricane-damaged New Orleans home before abandoning the project without performing the required work.

-- Dennis M. Alexander was arrested Oct. 25 and booked with four counts each of felony theft of property valued over $500, operating as a construction contractor without a license, and theft from an elderly or disabled person. Alexander allegedly was paid down payments of between $5,000 and $46,500 by four New Orleans residents to renovate houses, and did not fulfill the contracts, the attorney general's office said.

-- Billy Myers of Cresson, Texas, doing business as Customers Choice Construction, was arrested Oct. 18 and booked with theft by fraud in contracting, misapplication of payments, engaging in a business without a license and exploitation of the infirmed. Myers allegedly contracted with an elderly New Orleans resident to make renovations to the victim's two hurricane-damaged homes and accepted a check in advance for $10,000. After allegedly performing only $1,000 worth of work, he failed to complete the job and reneged on a promise to refund the other $9,000 by leaving for Texas, Foti's office said.

This is a sad situation when other people's misery brings out the worst in people.
There is always some corrupt individual, lurking in the background, waiting to prey on others. We need to severely punish these indivduals in order to discourage this type of disgusting behavior.

Texans Support Bobby Jindal

Jindal, 36, won his bid, a historic victory that will make him the country's first Indian-American chief executive when he is sworn in next year.

He got there with the help of many Texans, who contributed nearly $400,000 to his campaign in the past year and more than $800,000 since 2003, Louisiana Board of Ethics records show.

Additionally, Jindal is putting people with Texas connections into his administration: His deputy chief of staff for policy will be Stephen Waguespack, a Washington lobbyist and former legislative aide to U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington.

No matter what his donors' motivations are, Jindal's leadership could have an impact on Texas -- perhaps luring back Louisianans who moved to Texas after Katrina, or perhaps just creating an easier working relationship on the local and national levels.

Attorney General Hopeful Under Attack

What is going on with Royal Alexander? Scandal, scandal, scandal: What else is new in The Big Easy?

While he was in Washington, Alexander's name surfaced in the scandal over former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., making inappropriate contact with underage pages. One of the pages worked in Rodney Alexander's office. Royal Alexander said his office notified Foley's office and then-Speaker Dennis Hastert's office as soon as he became aware of the situation. "I'm proud of how we handled it," he said.

Still, according to the page's parents, Royal Alexander also talked with them after finding out about e-mails, warning them that the media would call and that Democrats "would like to use something like this." A House ethics investigation found no wrongdoing by Royal Alexander, but the panel's final report said "some witnesses did far too little" to address Foley's behavior and protect pages.

Alexander also finds himself asked repeatedly about a federal lawsuit filed against Rodney Alexander's office by a former staff member. Among her allegations, Elizabeth Scott said that during her 2005-06 tenure in the Washington office, Royal Alexander harassed her with unsolicited leering, comments and physical contact.

Can Reform Occur In Louisiana?

Electing a governor possessing both integrity and competence is only the first step. The Governor-elect has said he alone cannot change the political culture. His 31 points on ethics reform must still be shaped into legislation.

Anyone familiar with the current ethics laws in Louisiana realizes they were designed to fail. They serve as a "fig leaf." The ethics system is capable only of catching jay walkers, not thieves. Changing the existing, badly drafted legislation into an effective legal regime poses quite a challenge. If the reforms prove not to be effective, however, Louisiana's citizens will eventually conclude that good state government is unattainable.

Even a good governor and good ethics laws will not reduce corruption much. Those who study third-world countries have noted that corruption is directly proportional to the percentage of the economy controlled by government. That observation more than anything else explains the level of corruption in Louisiana. Ever since Huey Long's governorship, Louisiana government has been the state's largest employer.

Will Vitter Have to Testify?

The attorney for the "D.C. Madam" asked Friday for a subpoena to force the Louisiana Republican to testify about his involvement in what prosecutors say was a high-priced prostitution ring.

Montgomery Sibley said he had asked the clerk of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to issue a subpoena to Vitter to testify at a Nov. 28 hearing that could spill salacious details of the scandal that has captivated the nation's capital for more than a year.

Judge Gladys Kessler ordered the hearing to determine whether Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 50, can proceed with her breach-of-contract lawsuit against a woman she once employed as an escort. Palfrey said she signed contracts with all her escorts promising they wouldn't do anything illegal and that Paula Neble broke it by engaging in prostitution.

Is New Orleans' Recovery Money Arriving?

Once about $453 million in state and federal aid, mostly tied to the city's effort to rebuild its shattered infrastructure, is taken out, the 2008 budget for the day-to-day operation of city government is $459.6 million.

That total represents the general fund, the portion of the budget under the city's direct control, which comes from self-generated revenue such as sales and property taxes, service charges, license and permit fees, fines and interest.

Pointing to multiple pools of recovery dollars that are finally within the city's reach, Nagin said he expects to launch between $250 million and $500 million in public works projects in 2008.

"This is the evidence that we are really at the tipping point," he said. "The checks are no longer in the mail."

As examples, Nagin cited a $300 million revolving loan fund approved recently by the state, $117 million in infrastructure money released by the Louisiana Recovery Authority, $75 million in city bonds and $54 million in Federal Highway Administration dollars for improvements to major streets.

After more than a year of planning that includes blueprints for 17 target "recovery zones," Nagin told council members to prepare "for some serious implementation" now that the city can access an unprecedented amount of cash.

"This recovery is poised and ready to move to the next level," he said.

Among the roads scheduled for resurfacing are portions of Tchoupitoulas, Toulouse and Frenchmen streets, Robert E. Lee and MacArthur boulevards, and Harrison Avenue.

Maintaining that "city government is not built for speed," Nagin said he will seek to expedite things with the appointment of a public infrastructure program manager to recruit and oversee an army of architects, engineers and contractors.

To monitor the ambitious brick-and-mortar program, Nagin plans to establish a "project delivery unit" inside City Hall. The unit will serve a dual purpose: to help project managers navigate the city's bureaucratic maze and to guard against waste.

Convicted Felon, Stan "Pampy" Barre Accused of telling lies to lessen his prison sentence

Federal investigators are probing an allegation that Orleans Parish School Board member and state House candidate Una Anderson accepted a cash bribe, delivered to her husband six years ago in exchange for her help steering a School Board trash-collection contract to two local garbage haulers, sources close to the investigation said.

Anderson said she does not believe she is the target of any federal inquiry. If she is, she said, that's because restaurateur and convicted felon Stan "Pampy" Barre is telling investigators anything he can in hopes of reducing his prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges related to a crooked City Hall energy deal. Barre faces sentencing in January.

"If Stan Barre is saying that I took a bribe, he is telling a lie," Anderson said. "I've done nothing unethical or illegal."

Jimmie Woods and Alvin Richard, the respective owners of Metro Disposal Inc. and Richard's Disposal Inc., the two trash-hauling companies that got the work, said through their attorneys that no bribes were paid to anyone.

"I'm aware that allegations may have been made," said Richard's attorney, Robert Glass. He added that Richard is "not a suspect" but that he is "answering questions from the authorities."

"All I can say is my client absolutely denies" paying a bribe, said Herbert Larson, Woods' attorney.

Larson also said: "If you want the real explanation, it is that Stan Barre will do anything, including roll over on Mother Teresa, to get out of 9 1/2 years in jail. He will say anything and do anything."

Larson's comment refers to the prison term Barre potentially faces. In June, one of Barre's co-conspirators, former city property management director Kerry DeCay, was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to the same charges as Barre.

The harsh sentence might have served as a wake-up call to Barre, a gregarious restaurateur, political operative and close ally of former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial. Barre, absent a kind word from the feds, seemed destined for a similar stretch in the penitentiary. |Read more|

No Charges Filed In Standoff On Bridge

This revelation come as no surprise. Where is the public outrage?

An Orleans Parish grand jury refused to indict a Gretna police officer Wednesday for firing a shotgun into the air as evacuees fleeing the post-Katrina chaos tried to cross the Crescent City Connection. The decision essentially closes the criminal case in New Orleans.

Officer Lawrence Vaughn, who could have faced a charge of illegal use of a firearm, was cleared of wrongdoing in the Sept. 1, 2005, incident spawned when authorities from Gretna, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office and the Crescent City Connection decided to shut down the bridge to pedestrians.

Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson said the decision also exonerates his department, which has been lambasted as racist for its part in the decision to shut down the bridge and keep desperate New Orleanians, most of them black, from leaving the city. Lawson and others have said police were forced to block the bridge to evacuees because no help was available on the West Bank. In addition, authorities were battling a fire at Oakwood Center mall in Terrytown, set by looters earlier on the day Vaughn fired the shotgun.

New Orleans D.A. Eddie Jordan Resigns

Reading the Times Picayune article on D.A. Eddie Jordan's resignation, made me reflect upon the terms discrimination and cronyism as how it relates to city and state government in Louisiana.

Racial discrimination is based on unfairness, bias and bigotry. Cronyism is partiality to friends that result in appointing them to positions in one's administration. Since I have lived in New Orleans for a very long time, cronyism has always existed in State and Local government. Although I believe that Congressman Jefferson is guilty of the charges he is facing, I do agree with the following statement he made as a result of D.A. Eddie Jordan's resignation:

As the first African American District Attorney, Mr. Jordan was overwhelmingly supported by the African American community. The staff of the out-going D.A. was overwhelmingly white. Mr. Jordan's effort to hire qualified people whom he knew or who were supportive of his campaign naturally meant that the pool of such applicants would overwhelmingly be African Americans. Every D.A. has been accorded the right to let go the prior D.A.'s personnel and hire his own. It is unfortunate that in this case Mr. Jordan's effort to follow this well-established practice ended with the appearance that he was discriminating against a segment of the population. I did not believe then, and I do not believe now that this was ever his intention."

The lawsuit against Eddie Jordan leaves me to conclude that: When a black newly elected official brings in his/her new administration, race matters. When a white elected official brings in his/her new administration, do what you want. The only thing you may be accused of is cronyism. Being accused of cronyism will result in less publicized scrutiny and no civil penalty.
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VIDEO OF EDDIE JORDAN'S RESIGNATION

New Orleans Recovery Director, Ed Blakely speaks out about Recovery Plans

Um...Slimy Mac-P smells money in Louisiana. Watch out recovery plan; Slimy Mac-P is figuring out how his family can dip into the cookie jar. Can a pending federal prison sentence stop him?

Beginning early next year, New Orleans police officers should begin to move out of the cramped trailers they've been using since Hurricane Katrina and into more comfortable surroundings, recovery director Ed Blakely said Monday.


Buoyed by $200 million in state-issued bonds earmarked for repairs to the city's storm-damaged infrastructure, Blakely said he hopes to reopen police headquarters on Broad Street around Jan. 1 and get the rank-and-file into permanent buildings by next spring.

Is Your Husband Cheating?

If you know he just bought a mercedes for a female, shouldn't that tell you something?

Wake up Barbie: Although you are 62 years old, you can still find someone else. Have a little faith in yourself.

California Wildfires cannot be compared to Hurricane Katrina

The response to the California wildfires -- the country's biggest disaster since Katrina -- has earned praise from officials nationwide.

President Bush, on a visit to the charred region on Thursday, lauded the efforts of local responders and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a fellow Republican.

"It makes a big difference when you have someone in the statehouse willing to take the lead," Bush said, in an apparent dig at Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat.

Bush was way off base with that statement. There is a very distinct difference between the two disasters.

Perhaps the one universal connection, however, is emotion: Traumatized residents forced to leave their homes while wondering what, if anything, they might find upon their return. And, certainly, an out-of-control fire steadily devouring a large area is as frightening as rising floodwaters inundating a major city.

By Friday, the fires had burned about a half-million acres, an area twice the size of New York City. Much of the burned area was forest, but the Californians who lost homes -- at least 1,700 and counting -- are as devastated as the Katrina victims left homeless by the flood.

Katrina's scale of devastation and its impact on humanity, however, was far greater. The number of homes destroyed or still threatened in California is about 10 percent of the roughly 200,000 left uninhabitable by Katrina and the often overlooked Hurricane Rita, which struck three weeks later.

In New Orleans alone, 140 of 180 square miles flooded, -- rendering uninhabitable a residential zone seven times the size of Manhattan. Across the region, its winds and rains wreaked havoc to a 90,000-square-mile swath of the Gulf Coast, an area twice the size of the entire state of New York.

And while the federal government response has been swift in California, it was unorganized and late in Louisiana, problems that cannot be blamed on state government. Indeed, a commander with the Arkansas National Guard who helped secure Convention Center Boulevard told reporters he did not even receive an order to go to New Orleans until two days after the hurricane.

Financial losses from the fires based on initial estimates are about 2 percent of the damage caused by Katrina and Rita, which so far stands at $91 billion. While damage estimates are still climbing in California, initial estimates are about $2 billion.

Katrina forced the evacuation of 1.2 million people -- 500,000 remained displaced after four months. Almost 2,000 people died in Katrina.

The death toll from the fires stood at seven as of Saturday.

"These fires are not the same disaster that we had in Katrina," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said this week. "There's so many differences."

Infrastructure still in place

Another major difference: The fires did not wipe out every remnant of infrastructure. Many California evacuees drove to shelters on roads unaffected by the disaster. Katrina and the subsequent flood obliterated power, water systems and nearly all traditional forms of communication -- cell phone towers, phone company switching centers and 911 call centers. The almost complete loss of communication for several days resulted in deadly consequences for many storm victims and first responders.

While the wildfires destroyed dozens of cell phone towers and land lines in California, causing service outages in isolated areas, companies have compensated with the use of mobile transmission equipment. Cell service and land-line use in San Diego, Anaheim and Los Angeles remain largely unaffected.

Once the levees failed in New Orleans, floodwaters swamped nearly every major road in and out of the city. Louis Armstrong International Airport shut down. Ground access into the city was largely limited to U.S. 90 from the West Bank and River Road on the east bank. Many supplies and support personnel had to be airlifted into the city by military aircraft, many of which did not arrive until well after the disaster.

The situation is more manageable in California. Most of the blazes are burning in sparsely populated areas. While the fires continue to pose some challenges to getting around in greater San Diego, the infrastructure of the city remained largely unfazed. Some highways have been closed, but the city's main interstate arteries and airport have remained open. The main San Diego airport is operating normally. Amtrak and regional commuter train service was restored on Thursday.

"There's a big difference - we have a functioning city," said Kevin McCoy, a crisis counselor from the Harbison Canyon Community Resource Center, who was among the hundreds of volunteers at Qualcomm Stadium this week. "When you walk out of this stadium you aren't stepping into 4 feet of water."

California evacuation

Both events forced massive evacuations. About 1.2 million people fled the New Orleans metro area ahead of Katrina, according to a Louisiana State University study.

Probably fewer than half that many southern California residents were displaced from their homes by the wildfires. According to a Los Angeles Times report Thursday, the number of evacuees at any one time in the region was significantly less than the 800,000 widely reported by officials earlier this week. Many residents began returning to their homes on Wednesday.

More reliable estimates of the number of people instructed to leave their homes put the number at between 350,000 and 500,000, which is still the largest evacuation in California history. A statement earlier in the week by the San Diego Sheriff's Office that more people had been evacuated in southern California than left in advance of Katrina has been dismissed as greatly exaggerated.

"It's unfair for a comparison to be drawn between the two," said Ken Higginbotham, spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency operation at Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego's largest shelter for wildfire evacuees. "Both were catastrophic events that affected a large number of people. That's where the similarities end. This is a different time, a different period, a different scenario."

Katrina's lessons learned

What's more, officials and first responders in California have applied lessons learned from Katrina relief efforts. For example, Menshek said the San Miguel Fire Department rewrote and updated its strategic disaster plan in the wake of Katrina. He said the city also re-evaluated its evacuation shelters and designated new ones.

In addition, Katrina spurred an overhaul at FEMA. In stark contrast to Katrina, when only a handful of agency representatives were on the ground in the first hours after the storm, blue-shirted FEMA officials descended on relief shelters in droves almost immediately after the fires broke out last weekend.

At the Qualcomm Stadium shelter, more than two dozen workers buzzed around tents and offered aid to anyone in need for much of the week. There were so many FEMA representatives that many appeared to have little to do, passing time by watching TV or monitoring the Internet.