By Eileen Fleming
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wwno/local-wwno-913423.mp3
New Orleans, La. – Mayor Landrieu's announcement about plans for a hospital in New Orleans East included remarks about the latest news from the Gulf of Mexico. It's evidence of how the disaster is affecting multiple layers of local government.
"There're things outside of our control, you know, that are beginning to dictate us. I can tell you this, there are no tougher people in the United States of America than the people of New Orleans and Louisiana and I can get an Amen on that. We have been through - we have been through a lot of stuff but I would note that yesterday was a good day. We capped the well and we bought the hospital, so things are trending up."
Landrieu later said that local governments will be dealing with the disaster long after the blown-out well is killed and the crisis drops as a national priority.
"We should expect that that's going to happen because that's what happened after Katrina, and the rest of the country will go on to other stuff. But the important player is BP, and the president, and I'm certain that the president is going to honor his word and say, you know, BP is going to give us every dollar that they owe us."
Landrieu says the clean-up needs to be stepped up and the claims process should be providing more compensation to people suffering economic hardships because of the spill.
For WWNO, I'm Eileen Fleming