ABSTRACT
Ultimately, only the historians of the future will be able to accurately assess the level of our national response to the catastrophe resulting from Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf region. Were the government and the private sector timely in their responses? Were those responses adequate? Most of the commentary to date has focused on the role and resources of federal, state, and local governments. The stakeholders, however, have not given much consideration to how geographical areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina, particularly areas of concentrated poverty, must receive substantial private-sector investment in order to realize wholesale economic gain.
