Camarillo, Calif., Oct. 13, 2015 – CSU Channel Islands (CI) student Vanessa van Heerden, the daughter of a legendary figure in the Hurricane Katrina controversy, will be among the speakers at a day-long conference at CI called “Disaster on the Delta: The Tenth Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.”
Academics, scientists, authors, filmmakers and witnesses to the aftermath of the August 29 hurricane that sparked the costliest disaster in U.S. history will speak at the conference, which will take place in the John Spoor Broome Library from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 16.
Keynote speaker John Arena, who earned his Ph.D. from Tulane University in New Orleans, will speak about his research into the politics of public housing following Hurricane Katrina and his 2012 book “Driven from New Orleans: How Nonprofits Betray Public Housing and Promote Privatization.”
Former New Orleans resident and CI Assistant Professor of History Michael Powelson, Ph.D., believes one of the most important lessons to be learned from Katrina’s aftermath is that the government must be better prepared to help its citizens in the event of such a disaster.
Critics have charged that leaving reconstruction to the private sector is a mistake, and has left many people in lower socioeconomic groups without homes or schools.
“I was there right after the hurricane,” Powelson said. “We are constantly told the market is the way to solve all problems, but this is a good example of why that doesn’t work. The hurricane had not even made landfall and it was being used to privatize public housing and public education. We should be prepared with a state-directed relief effort.”
Powelson organized the conference because he believes all of us need to learn from the Katrina response and aftermath—especially here in California, a state vulnerable to all manner of natural disasters from earthquakes to fires to floods.
CI’s Environmental Science & Resource Management Associate Professor Sean Anderson, Ph.D. said climate change all but guarantees we in coastal California will face a weather event that will cause us to call on the same state and federal resources New Orleans officials needed after Katrina.
“All of the power plants in our county are a few feet from the ocean. The Santa Clara River has levees, Ventura has levees, and Camarillo has levees. Not to mention the San Francisco Bay Delta levees that protect much of the water piped down to us here in Southern California,” Anderson said. “The certifying agency for all those structures is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The same organization that certified those levees in New Orleans. This should give us all pause.”
Anderson and his research team will also be presenting at the conference. Every year since Katrina, Anderson and a group of student researchers visit Southern Louisiana to help replant and restore wetlands destroyed by Katrina and work to restore healthy communities in and around New Orleans.
The conference will be divided into three panels lasting about 90 minutes each. The first will panel will consist of first-hand accounts from New Orleans activist Michael Howells, Ph.D., who will speak via Skype from the French Quarter, and former Ventura County Star reporter David Montero, who is now a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News.
Montero reported on Katrina’s aftermath shortly after the hurricane struck.
The second panel will examine how the disaster affected public health care. Included on the panel will be CI Biology Lecturer Zin Htway, Ph.D. and a student research associate who will look at public health leadership in a crisis.
Vanessa van Heerden will speak during the third segment, which will consider lessons learned.
Van Heerden’s father, Ivor van Heerden, Ph.D. is former deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center. He attracted media attention after taking the United States Army Corps of Engineers to task for levee failures.
Then he took LSU to court for wrongful dismissal after van Heerden was fired. The case was settled for $425,000 and launched a storm of editorials in the Louisiana press, which were largely in defense of van Heerden and the need for academic freedom in American universities.
Public outrage over the response to Katrina prompted the 2005 resignation of Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Mike Brown and numerous others from the New Orleans police chief to the Governor at the time.
“Ten years later, Hurricane Katrina is not over for many residents of Southern Louisiana whose lives, homes and spirits are still strained,” Powelson said, adding that “learning from history is the best way to keep from repeating it.”
The conference is free and open to the public with lunch provided. Limited parking is available on campus with the purchase of a $6 daily permit; follow signs to the parking permit dispensers. Free parking is available at the Camarillo Metrolink Station/Lewis Road with bus service to and from the campus. Riders should board the CI Vista Bus to the campus; the cash-only fare is $1.25 each way. Buses arrive and depart from the Camarillo Metrolink Station every 30 minutes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday. For exact times, check the schedule at www.goventura.org.
To RSVP, email michael.powelson@csuci.edu with the number of guests attending.
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About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands(CI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more by visiting CI's Social Media.