By Elena Temple and Rhonda Spears Bell
September 11, 2006

It has been one year since Hurricane Katrina swept through and devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast area. This hurricane proved to be one of the worst natural disasters this country has ever seen.

More than a year later, the effects of this storm are still felt in the hardest hit areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. In fact, the effects of this storm have been felt all over this country as displaced residents are still scattered in various cities around the United States.

“As we have seen in recent disasters both in the United States and around the world, there are no more charitable and caring people than those in our cities and in our nation,” said then-Conference President former Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill to her colleagues in the first hours after Hurricane Katrina hit, as mayors across the nation rushed to respond to the devastation.

Just days after the hurricane hit and the subsequent breech in the levees, the Conference of Mayors dispatched a staff team to Baton Rouge (LA) to work directly with New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, and to help coordinate assistance for the many impacted cities in the region.

Over the last year, the Conference of Mayors has held four meetings in the Gulf region to assess the critical needs of the impacted cities as they began to rebuild.

“Mayors should be very proud of what their cities have done to assist in the recovery and rebuild efforts in the Gulf Coast region,” said Conference of Mayors Executive Director Tom Cochran. “While progress is being made, we recognize that there is still a lot more to be done to make these communities whole again. Just as we said one year ago, only days after this tragic event, the Conference of Mayors will stand with these cities to see them through as they regroup and rebuild. ”

In early September of last year, O’Neill and Cochran headed to Baton Rouge to meet with Nagin and other city officials to assess the needs for New Orleans as they prepared to rebuild. The following day, Mayor O’Neill and Cochran traveled to Gulfport, Mississippi, where they met with then-Mobile (AL) Mayor Michael Dow and other mayors in the Gulf Coast Region to assess the individual needs of those cities hardest hit by the hurricane.

In November of last year, the Conference held a Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD) meeting in New Orleans where local mayors had the opportunity to discuss design principles, priorities and strategies for rebuilding their communities with a nationally-renowned team of experts headed by Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., who founded the Mayors’ Institute on City Design in 1986 and led his city’s revitalization following the devastation of Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

And in May of this year, the Conference of Mayors’ Tourism, Arts, Parks, Entertainment, and Sports Committee, led by its chair, Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz, held a special committee meeting in New Orleans to help the city restore its arts and cultural programs.

In addition to helping raise cash donations, house evacuees, and send emergency response personnel to the impacted region, many mayors from across the country expressed an interest in establishing a direct, long-term relationship with a city in Gulf Coast Region.

The Conference of Mayors joined with the National Conference of Black Mayors to form the Adopt-a-City initiative to match up cities of all sizes from across the nation with cities in the impacted areas that need help. Through this partnership, 48 cities were matched. Today, many of those relationships still exist.

“The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina marked an historical moment for our nation,” said Conference of Mayors President Dearborn Mayor Michael A. Guido. “Just as President Bush said in Jackson Square in New Orleans a year ago, we cannot imagine America without the Crescent City. Likewise, we cannot imagine America without all the cities along the Gulf Coast that were impacted. The Conference will continue over the long-term to stand with mayors from the Gulf Coast cities as they move forward and rebuild.”