The second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina which hammered the U.S. city of New Orleans has put this devastating disaster in the media spotlight again. Judging by the reports, the post-Katrina reconstruction and recovery efforts will hardly serve as an example of good practice to other countries which may have to deal with similar disasters but without the resources at the disposal of the United States.

The Washington Post recalls Bush's post-Katrina promise that rebuilding the region would be "one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen". But with large parts of the city still in ruins, Bush was met with strong criticism when he visited New Orleans a few days ago.

There are 115 "critical priority projects" on a list drawn up by city officials, but not one completed to date, according to USA Today. Only two-thirds of the population who lived in New Orleans before the catastrophe is back in the city and the Road Home fund which provides grants to people with insufficient storm insurance has only dealt with a fraction of over 180,000 applications received despite its full coffers, says the Post. Less than half the schools are back in business, the police headquarters and two police stations are still in temporary buildings, large areas of the city still resemble a wasteland and tens of thousands of people are suffering from depression, Britain's Times reports.

Opendemocracy.net says FBI figures show New Orleans was the country's murder capital last year.

As is often the case, it's the poorer parts of the city that remain in ruins. "The truth is it's a tale of two cities. The university area and the French Quarter are fine. Six blocks in the other direction it looks like the storm hit yesterday," Britain's Financial Times quotes Peter Ricchiuti of the Tulane University business school as saying.

And who's to blame?

Some point the finger at Bush. "He has basically handed New Orleans a modest chest of recovery gold that is sealed shut under an elaborate system of locks that help keep his administration's promise of rebuilding from becoming reality," Shelley Midura, a member of New Orleans' City Council, tells the Washington Post.

Others, like Clarence Page from the Chicago Tribune certainly think that the Bush administration and federal authorities deserve to be slammed for the slow pace of recovery, but the local and state bureaucrats shouldn't be let off the hook. The Times cites government auditors' reports which say a staggering $1 billion out of the first $6 billion chunk of federal money was wasted or lost to fraud.

In many cases, some of the people affected by the disaster took matters into their own hands. The Financial Times tells the story of Kim Stewart who used her savings to open a restaurant in the middle of an abandoned neighbourhood, hoping it would encourage others to open up businesses there. Pamela Pipes launched self-guided tours of Katrina-devastated areas. When she realised many of the street signs were still missing, she hired a sign painter and a carpenter to do the job that should have been done by officials.

"This is a citizen-led recovery," Pamela told the paper.

"We're working ourselves close to death. But we can't move it past further than what we have today. The government needs to step up," USA Today cites Scott Darrah, a New Orleans civic activist as saying.

But too much government money pouring into a region too fast isn't necessarily a good thing either. USA Today cites the example of the Japanese city of Kobe, which was struck by an earthquake in 1995. The government rebuilt it with $113 billion in today's money within 18 months. The sudden influx of cash had an unexpected result - five-years of economic depression.

"Government spending is a very powerful tool for recovery. (But) too fast is not so good. Too slow is also not good. Wise pacing is key to recovery." Haruo Hayashi, professor at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute at Kyoto University, is quoted as saying.

And, has anyone thought of abandoning the project of rebuilding New Orleans? The Chicago Tribune's Steve Chapman thinks the United States should reconsider "the extravagant project of rebuilding (the city)".

"New Orleans had long been a natural disaster waiting to happen," he says. "Most of the city lies below sea level, surrounded by water on three sides, and it's sinking. On top of that, it's steadily grown more exposed to hurricanes, thanks to the loss of coastal wetlands that once served as a buffer. It's a bathtub waiting to be filled."

Giving the affected people cash to rebuild their lives elsewhere would be a better use of resources than trying to secure such a place from future catastrophes, Chapman concludes.

Whether the authorities opt to invest money into new levies or abandon areas below sea level, people need a decision one way or another, says Douglas Brinkley, author of "The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast" in the U.S. magazine Newsday.

"The important thing is for America to decide whether the current policy of inaction is really the way we want to deal with the worst natural disaster in our history," he concludes.

Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.