2006年VOA标准英语-Debate Looms Over Reconstruction of New Or

By Greg Flakus
New Orleans
16 January 2006

Jazz musicians of New Orleans  
  
In New Orleans on this Martin Luther King Day, marches and celebrations took place amid the city's ongoing¹ struggle to recover from the devastating² flood that followed Hurricane Katrina more than four months ago. Debate continues over how best to rebuild the city and protect it from future disasters.

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Some of the spirit of New Orleans is starting to return, along with the city's people. Thousands of former residents have come back in recent weeks, but the lack of housing is keeping many others away.

City officials and prominent citizens are working together on two fronts, trying to develop a plan for rebuilding stricken areas and pushing for a multi-billion-dollar project that would build levees capable of protecting the metropolis³ from even a category five hurricane.

Over the past week controversy⁴ has centered on the recommendations of a special commission that suggested some low-lying areas of the city might eventually be set aside as marshland parks. The commission also recommended a four-month moratorium⁵ on rebuilding in areas of the city that were heavily damaged in the post-Katrina flood. Many former residents of poor, predominantly black neighborhoods that are in low, flood-prone areas reacted with anger to that proposal.

Mayor Ray Nagin, who supports the commission's work in general, was quick to step away from the moratorium question.

"That is just a recommendation that the commission made," said Nagin. "If I were making a decision today, I would not be putting a moratorium on anything. I want this city to come back and I want people to start building."

But commission members and many urban planning experts argue that it would be counterproductive to allow rebuilding in areas that are likely to flood again. There are also questions about how many former residents will want to return to such areas. A RAND corporation study suggests that New Orleans is likely to have a population of only about 275,000 people a few years from now. That is around half of what the population was before Katrina.

But some community leaders say citizens should be given a chance to return and not have their neighborhoods marked with redlines on a map created by engineers and urban planners. Some local officials agree.

 
New Orleans City Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson 
  
In a VOA interview, says homeowners should be given a chance to rebuild.

Clarkson: "I think we should not red-line any part of our city. I think we should be careful at how we approach each stage. Private property rights should prevail at the end of the day and it should be a staged process and not a some-come-and-some-don't process. I think that was the wrong approach."

Flakus: "But aren't there some parts of the city that are so far below sea level that they are vulnerable…?"

Clarkson: "But any part of the city is vulnerable if we do not get flood protection. One degree further west and my part of the city, which stayed dry, would have been totally flooded out. You cannot say that one part of the city is more vulnerable than any other."

Ms. Clarkson is among the local officials and community leaders backing a proposal to substantially improve the levee system that protects the city and its many areas that lie below sea level.

Jackie Clarkson says any improved levee system developed here would also benefit other vulnerable areas along the Gulf⁶ of Mexico coastline.

"It is not about just levees, it is not about trying to keep this city afloat temporarily," she said. "It is truly about total comprehensive flood control: gates, locks, levees, coastal⁷ barriers. It is truly about creating a plan that will work for all America. This could happen all along the entire Gulf coast and we hope we are setting a precedent⁸ to protect [areas] from Texas to Florida."

But there is resistance in the U.S. Congress to spending additional billions of dollars on top of what has already being spent to help the city recover.

New Orleans and Louisiana officials argue that the money would be well spent, given the threat of future costly⁹ hurricanes. Last week, a delegation¹⁰ from the city and state governments, led by Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, visited the Netherlands. Around 60 percent of that European nation lies below sea level and its land is protected by a sophisticated system of dikes.

Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson did not go on the trip to the Netherlands, but she says she supports the idea of drawing on expertise¹¹ from other places in the world that are threatened by flooding.

"We relate to other parts of the world that are below sea level more than we relate to most of America that is not below sea level," said Clarkson. "If you can rebuild Tokyo, part of which is below sea level, or you can rebuild the Netherlands or Venice, why not New Orleans?"

Scientists say part of what is needed to protect New Orleans from future hurricanes is a restoration of wetlands and barrier islands off the coast, which, they say, did protect the city in the past. Any proposal to restore natural areas, however, would take decades to implement¹².

1 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

2 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

3 metropolis   

n.首府；大城市

参考例句：

• Shanghai is a metropolis in China.上海是中国的大都市。
• He was dazzled by the gaiety and splendour of the metropolis.大都市的花花世界使他感到眼花缭乱。

4 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

5 moratorium   

n.(行动、活动的)暂停(期)，延期偿付

参考例句：

• The government has called for a moratorium on weapons testing.政府已要求暂停武器试验。
• We recommended a moratorium on two particular kinds of experiments.我们建议暂禁两种特殊的实验。

6 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

7 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

8 precedent   

n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的

参考例句：

• Is there a precedent for what you want me to do?你要我做的事有前例可援吗？
• This is a wonderful achievement without precedent in Chinese history.这是中国历史上亘古未有的奇绩。

9 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

10 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

11 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

12 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。