The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them)

by Lucy Jones

The mobilization of federal resources to support recovery provided a great new vista for corruption. Billions of dollars poured into New Orleans, falling into cracks between the fighting city, state, and national governments. The public outcry against FEMA helped ensure that funds streamed in, but much of it got diverted. Mayor Nagin left office in 2010, but he was convicted in 2014 on twenty of twenty-one bribery and tax evasion charges. He has the dubious distinction of being the first New Orleans mayor to be convicted of corruption. The state of Louisiana suffered from corruption as well. A program administered by the state called A Road Home, intended to help people rebuild and return to New Orleans, received $1 billion in federal money. An investigation in 2013 found that 70 percent of this money, or $700 million, was unaccounted for.