APA's Response to the Devastation from Hurricane Katrina

Planning Foundation Funds Interns in New Orleans' Office of Recovery Management
APA's Planning Foundation provided support for four interns this summer to work in New Orleans' Office of Recovery Management. The recipients of the scholarships were Sean Almonte (Hunter College — CUNY, Master of Urban Planning Candidate), Krista Colson (UCLA Master of Urban Planning, June 2007), Rachel Robinson (University of Virginia, Master of Urban and Environmental Planning Candidate), and Angela Trinh (UCLA Master of Urban Planning Candidate). These scholarships were made possible by generous donations to the Planning Foundation.

Click here to make a tax-deductible donations to the foundation.

Click here to read Sean Almonte's essay about his experience helping to rebuild New Orleans last summer.

NEW Click here to read Angela Trinh's essay about her work in the City of New Orleans Office of Recovery Management.

APA Leadership in New Orleans. The APA board of directors and AICP commissioners were in New Orleans January 26 to 29, 2007, where they were briefed by local planners on the new Unified Plan. They toured hard-hit neighborhoods in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish.

Click here to read the story

Click here to see pictures from the tour

Donate to the Planning Foundation. APA encourages you to consider a gift that will be used exclusively to support the planning efforts that will be undertaken by APA and our Chapters in Louisiana and Mississippi. While we will be coordinating pro bono efforts of members, those efforts, and others, will require financial support.

Click here to learn more about tax-deductible donations to the Planning Foundation for Katrina relief

"Status Quo Won't Safely Restore Gulf Coast Communities." An op-ed article by Paul Farmer, FAICP, reiterates the principles and action agenda for guiding Gulf Coast reconstruction created last year by the American Planning Association, American Institute of Architects, National Trust for Historic Preservation, American Society of Civil Engineers, and American Society of Landscape Architects.

Click here for the article

Volunteer Planning Team Assists Henderson Point, Mississippi. A five-member APA Planning Assistance Team worked in Henderson Point, Mississippi, September 13-19, 2006, to assist with post-hurricane recovery planning. The volunteer team worked on identifying building concepts for the new Henderson Point Town Center, as well facilitating a town hall meeting on September 16.

Click here to read more

The Katrina Reader: Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma devastated the Gulf Coast in August 2005. A new web section brings together a wealth of reports from APA community planning teams, articles from APA publications, policy statements, and messages from APA leadership.

Click here for the reader

Gulf Coast Recovery Efforts Intensify. A multimillion dollar grant program for neighborhood planning in New Orleans, a special APA Louisiana chapter event, and an upcoming statewide recovery convention in Mississippi all demonstrate the important efforts of planners who are working closely with citizens to make well-informed choices that will rebuild hard-hit Gulf Coast communities into safer, stronger, healthier, and more vital places to live and work.

Click here for details on these efforts

Online Q&A on Rebuilding New Orleans. Last November, members of the Philadelphia-based consulting firm Wallace Roberts & Todd were asked by the Urban Planning Committee of the Bring New Orleans Back Commission to prepare an action plan for rebuilding the city. On April 5, 2006, WRT principals John Beckman, AICP, Richard Bartholomew, AICP, and Paul Rookwood, AICP, spent two hours online answering questions about their plan.

Click here to read a transcript of the Q&A

APA Volunteer Planning Team Assists City of Mandeville. A five-member APA volunteer planning team visited Mandeville, Louisiana, at the request of the city's planning department to offer assistance with post-hurricane recovery planning work. The team worked with the city's planners March 5-10, 2006.

APA's Planning Assistance Team was made up of expert planners who volunteered their time to help Mandeville continue its post-hurricane recovery and establish the foundation for guiding future development within the city. The team's priorities for the weeklong visit included satisfying the increasing demand for a variety of housing and complying with FEMA flood standards while maintaining the historic context of old Mandeville.

Click here to read about the visit and download the team's report

HUD Conference: Realizing the Promise
Faith-based and community based organizations as well as individuals from Gulf Coast States wanting to assist with rebuilding the areas affected by the recent hurricanes were invited to a free one-day conference on how to compete for federal funding through the HUD SuperNOFA Process (Notice of Funding Availability.) The conference was held February 14, 2006, at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum/Convention Center in Biloxi. The conference explained how the funding process works and answered questions on how to compete effectively for HUD's upcoming funding for 2006.

New Orleans Team Report. A special volunteer six-member team of planners assembled by APA visited New Orleans October 23-28, 2005, to assess the city's needs for developing and implementing plans to guide redevelopment in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The team has put its findings and recommendations into a report, "Charting the Course for Rebuilding a Great American City." The report includes short-and long-term recommendations for improving the city's planning functions to expedite the rebuilding processes. The report identifies the most pressing need is for additional planning staff resources.

Click here to read about the team and download the report

Policy and Legislation on Katrina. APA has participated in a variety of hearings, conferences, and meetings on the federal response to Katrina, including APA Executive Director Paul Farmer's October testimony on Capitol Hill. Read about APA's continuing work with partners on legislative advances. Please help us as we help our lawmakers in crafting legislation that assists individuals and communities in such dire need. Send us your reactions and ideas.

Click here to follow policy and legislative initiatives and comment

Online Q&A on Planners and Disasters. On January 5, 2006, APA Executive Director and CEO Paul Farmer hosted a two-hour online Q&A on the role of planners in helping those affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and mitigating disaster in their own communities.

Click here to read the online Q&A transcript

Planning magazine Viewpoint. APA Executive Director Paul Farmer wrote about the response of the planning community to the crisis in the Gulf Coast in a Viewpoint in the January issue of Planning magazine.

Click here to read Paul Farmer's January Viewpoint

Town Hall Meetings. APA and ULI took the lead on organizing Town Hall meetings for the Bring Back New Orleans Commission, so that dispersed New Orleans citizens in communities across the region could have a voice and participate in the plans for rebuilding their city. The town meetings were held in Atlanta, Baton Rouge, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, and Memphis.

Click here for all the details

APA/AIA Conference. A collaborative visioning conference for the long-range rebuilding and recovery of Louisiana after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita was held in New Orleans November 10-12, 2005. The three-day program was the beginning of the process that brings local and national design and planning professionals together with Louisiana public officials, civic groups and business organizations, to develop a body of principles that will guide Louisiana's long-range recovery efforts.

Click here to read about the conference

Find Resources on the APA Website. APA is providing this section of our website that will allow us to continue to add both educational materials and functions. We have added a collection of materials and articles available on the web.

Click here for a comprehensive list of resources

Click here for planning-related news coverage of Katrina

Click here for APA's responds to Hurricane Katrina — APA Board of Directors Statement

We will also continue coordinating our efforts with other professional organizations and associations. As planners at the local level are making contacts with local representatives of senators and members of Congress, our Policy staff here in D.C. will be making contacts as well.

Volunteer Your Services. Many APA members have work experience in recovery from natural disasters and can offer valuable assistance to their colleagues and communities on the Gulf Coast. If you'd like to offer services to the recovery effort, APA will help. We have developed an online resource to match volunteers who have specific disaster recovery skills (including grant writing, historic preservation, environmental cleanup, and facilitating public meetings) with situations where such expertise is needed.

Click here for information on how to volunteer planning services

AICP's Planning Assistance Teams. In the weeks and months ahead, AICP's Planning Assistance Teams will deploy small groups of planners to a number of communities in the affected area. Interested membership should fill out a resume at our online volunteer resume posting area below.

Click here to volunteer for AICP Assistance teams

Hurricane Recovery Task Force. This task force, with representatives from all components of APA, is charged with coordinating our response as an organization, and with assisting in our fundraising efforts. APA Immediate Past President Mary Kay Peck, AICP has been appointed to chair the task force.'

Click here to read more about the task force