2006年VOA标准英语-New Orleans - Shortage of Workers, Housing

By Greg Flakus
New Orleans, Louisiana
06 March 2006
 
watch Housing report

Six months later, housing in New Orleans is still uninhabitable  
  
Six months after Hurricane Katrina caused massive flooding in the city of New Orleans, much of the metropolis¹ remains² uninhabitable and far fewer than half its former residents have been able to return. As VOA's Greg Flakus reports from New Orleans, part of the problem is that workers are needed and yet there is no place for workers to live.

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In the main business areas of New Orleans, workers are on the streets every day restoring services and repairing damage.

Some workers live in mobile homes in camps set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.

 
Mark Misczak
  
But FEMA manager Mark Misczak says finding sites for such camps in and around New Orleans has been difficult. "We have certainly seen some resistance in certain parishes and municipalities who say, 'We are not going to allow you to place group parks here.' Sixty percent of the people we are dealing³ with are renters, not owners. That is a population that is more difficult to help whenever we have a limited ability to create group sites."

FEMA has had some limited success getting homeowners back to the city by providing them with mobile homes temporarily set up on their own property.

Mr. Misczak adds, "It is a way for us to say that in addition to any financial assistance we can provide to an individual, we can give them a unit to stay right there on the property while the work is being conducted."

This has worked well for people living in areas where the city has restored basic services like electricity, water and sewage.

But those services are still not available in most of the city. Only a few kilometers away from downtown, in the Lower Ninth Ward⁴, little has changed in the past six months.

Al Hulbert wants to come back   
  
This was once a thriving, mostly black community. Longtime residents like 69-year-old Al Hulbert want to come back. "My parents lived back over here and that is where I grew up. I went to grade school and high school and then went to a little college and then left for the military, came back out and got a wife."

He says his neighbors also want to return. "I've talked to a lot of them. They say they are coming back. All they need is a permit and they have contractors⁵ to build their houses back and everything."

Since there are no city services here, an activist⁶ group called Common Ground has set up its own rustic⁷ enclave to help people who want to camp out on their property while they restore their houses.

 
Jessica Niederer
  
Jessica Niederer is from Pennington, New Jersey⁸. She says her group is here to assist people who want to return. "It is not really a matter of us encouraging people to come back, it is a matter of listening to people saying what they want to do. People want to come back. This is their home. This has been their neighborhood for generations. The rate of home ownership is very high. This is where they want to be."

A special commission recently suggested that some low-lying, flood-prone areas might not be viable⁹. Some urban planners have suggested that such areas should be abandoned, but Jessica Niederer disagrees. "Two thirds of the Netherlands is under sea level, so it is possible to build these places back up again."

But she admits most residents of the flood-devastated areas are reluctant to return as long as conditions remain as they are.

"Especially in the neighborhoods that don't have electricity and water, clearly they are going to need that first and then they will come home. A lot of people are willing to do the work on their own to clean their homes out, but they need that to happen."

City officials say they are working to restore services, but that the task before them is challenging. It is now likely that many thousands of people from New Orleans will still be living elsewhere when the first anniversary of Katrina's destruction rolls around at the end of August.

1 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。

2 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

3 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

4 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

5 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

7 rustic   

adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬

参考例句：

• It was nearly seven months of leisurely rustic living before Michael felt real boredom.这种悠闲的乡村生活过了差不多七个月之后,迈克尔开始感到烦闷。
• We hoped the fresh air and rustic atmosphere would help him adjust.我们希望新鲜的空气和乡村的氛围能帮他调整自己。

8 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

9 viable   

adj.可行的，切实可行的，能活下去的

参考例句：

• The scheme is economically viable.这个计划从经济效益来看是可行的。
• The economy of the country is not viable.这个国家经济是难以维持的。