Column was unfair to New Orleans

While some of what Mona Charen wrote about New Orleans' pre-Katrina may have some truth to it, she chose to blame the victims of this government-made disaster, the federal flood.

No other city has seen this massive amount of devastation to its infrastructure and total destruction of its neighborhoods. We are not looking for a handout. We are fighting for federal dollars to rebuild a city that was destroyed by the admitted failures of that government, specifically the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

We are also trying to fight for better property insurance for everyone. In most instances, homeowner's insurance failed to pay our claims, saying everything was flood damaged. The National Flood Insurance Program has such low limits that most people could not come close to repairing their homes or replacing basic necessities.

And just try rebuilding or repairing over 200,000 homes with limited labor and construction materials and astronomical costs due to supply and demand.

We are helping ourselves, but when you've lost everything, it takes a little longer to spread that self-help around.

Take a hard look at the entire picture, learn from it and prepare yourself, as it is going to take the entire nation to right the wrongs of this government.

Ilene Powell

New Orleans, La.