Post-Katrina rebuilders trust levees

[IDemo]

Many say they don’t have time, money to elevate their houses

By Peter Whoriskey
The Washington Post
Updated: 10:20 p.m. ET Feb. 25, 2006

NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Katrina revealed fatal flaws in the way this city is built. But as thousands of New Orleanians seek construction permits, many are planning to rebuild their homes in the same place, at the same elevation, without any guarantee that the levees will hold in the next big storm.

While residents say they have neither the time nor the money to elevate the homes they are rebuilding, experts say the rush of reconstruction could lead to a repeat of the disaster. Officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency are studying safe building elevations for the city, but the agency has yet to adopt new guidelines.

"This is an unhealthy situation," said Reed Kroloff, dean of the Tulane University School of Architecture and co-chairman of a rebuilding planning committee. "We all want people to be able to rebuild. But we want them to rebuild safely."

Most of the more than two dozen homeowners interviewed recently as they applied for building permits said they will not elevate their houses — even if as much as nine or 10 feet of water flowed in during the storm.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11568858/

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Same thing happens after lots of floods

I know - I think it's nuts, but I don't live in a flood zone.

[FloridaPat]

2. I wonder how high we could raise the entire city with 1 weeks worth

of money from Iraq invasion?

[ladjf]

3. How about building homes that are buoyant. Th lower

part of the structure would actually be leak proof causing the building to rise, following pier like vertical shafts upward as far as needed. Plumbing and electrical connection would be able to move with the float. It might could be done for less than the cost of building higher permanent foundations and it would have a better appearance. The system may never be pushed to the limit. But, even in the frequent small floods in New Orleans, many lose money on damaged rugs and furniture.

[AndyTiedye]

4. It's Either Rebuild or Sell the Property To Someone Who Will

Of course a lot of people are going to rebuild it the same location.
THAT IS USUALLY THE ONLY PROPERTY THEY OWN!
High ground in New Orleans has always been expensive (which is why so many poor folks live in the flooded-out neighborhoods),
and the prices have skyrocketed since Katrina.

For most, the only alternative would be to leave the city entirely.

If you're stuck with your existing lot, what do you do?
"Elevating" a small urban lot by 10 feet is not really feasable unless all of the ajacent lots are being elevated too.
Requires massive amounts of fill in any case, and no guarantee that it will stay put in a future flood.
The other alternative would be to put on another floor or two (and plan on moving upstairs if a flood is imminent!).
Would building up another story in that area be permitted?
Zoning rules usually limit that sort of thing.

Even if permitted, it could nearly double construction costs, which are already inflated to
the point that insurance won't cover the cost of rebuilding what they had in many cases.

[phusion]

5. We need more money put into the levees

Makes more sense than requiring code changes to every single house...

Of course, that would take political will at the Federal level, etc.

[SoulDrift]

8. Tough sell

How do you convince the rest of America that it's in their best interest to spend more money on levees so a select group of people can live in an inherently risky area?

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. Repeating previous experiments and expecting different results?

.
.
.

Wasn't there sumthing in that phrase about INSANITY?

And momma nature is getting nastier and nastier with us hoomans fecking up her balance

So anyone that rebuilds in a known hurricane area that IS BELOW SEA LEVEL and within a known flood plain

deserves what they get

That's my Canuk Opinion anyhoo . .

[SoulDrift]

7. Insanity prevails

I lived there, I still have family there, so I understand it--people have lived for generations in that spot, and in their view, shouldn't have to leave because the government built faulty levees. If you live for long enough inside those protective walls, and they work time after time as in the past, you start to believe you're entitled to them. Further, that area of the US is highly influenced by the European settlers from its French and Spanish colonial days, and isn't as antagonistic to government as many fellow Americans are. They believe in shared sacrifice for the common good, where many of their fellow countrymen have lost that value or never had it. (I'm writing about this on my blog..read a little more at: http://jpsgoddamnblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/being-catholic-from-new-orleans-and.html)

Ultimately they are going to see the same thing happen, so unless they raise their homes to an appropriate level or they'll end up leaving after the next catastrophic flood. The smart ones will either wait for the FEMA flood maps to decide HOW HIGH to build, or move. There's not any growth industries left there to support the people anyway!

[OneBlueSky]

9. Their levees . . . Our levees . . .

notice anything different? . . .

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0112-15.htm