J. Stephen Perry, president of the convention bureau, a member of several civic boards, former chief of staff of a previous governor...sat one recent morning in the lobby of the Capitol Annex in Baton Rouge and talked about what many are calling the "new New Orleans."

With a brisk shake of his head, he dismissed the idea of a willy-nilly demolition: "You need to be careful before you start tearing things down. The easiest approach is to bulldoze a neighborhood. That is not going to happen here."

Peter King, The Los Angeles Times
9 Oct 2005

Shortly after noon Monday, in the ruined moonscape of the Lower Ninth Ward, a track excavator's giant teeth bit into the top of a broken, displaced house, and the process of clearing this city's most devastated area finally began.

Adam Nossiter, The New York Times
7 Mar 2006

In dozens of letters to Grassley's office, former Red Cross employees and volunteers detail a culture of inefficiency in which poor communications, layers of bureaucracy and resistance to change contributed to waste and chaos after Katrina struck.

Typical of the complaints: Red Cross trucks rolling in with goods or sitting idle in parking lots, but not always accounted for; volunteers staying in hotels rather than shelters, holding them for use in case it was needed for someone "with more privilege in the organization"; orders placed for food well in excess of need; extensive travel paid for at retail rather than pre-negotiated volume cost.

Hope Yen, Associated Press
28 Feb 2005