I hate to say it, but NO needs a bold plan, one that many people might consider cruel. I think part of the lethargy is that trying to fix properties back to pre-Katrina levels just isn't logical, not by long-term standards. In the first place, I've never understood why people would build in flood plains or on vulnerable shorelines (such as areas along the coasts of the Carolinas that keep getting swamped and eaten away by storms/hurricanes)-- but they do, and why not, if the government is going to continue to give them cheap flood insurance. The same applies to NO, much of which has to be protected by a dike to keep the water out because it is so low even when it isn't storming. How stupid is that? Come on, this isn't Holland, which doesn't suffer hurricanes of the magnitude of Katrina, or be bordered by a river the size of the Mississippi. The area of NO that is below sea level should be condemned, with the government buying up all the properties at fair prices in excess of their original value. What would make sense to me would have been to bulldoze that entire low area into a huge inland lake, while restoring the natural barrier, if not extending it inland.
If you don't like my plan, come up with your own, because it is past time for people to start moving forward with SOMETHING. The big problem with my plan is figuring out which governmental unit is going to take the bull by the horns--the feds, the state, NO???.
Posted by Julie at October 15, 2007 06:03 PMNothing will happen as long as Bush is president, it's policy and the media goes along.
Posted by paradox at October 15, 2007 07:08 PM~sigh~ I know you are right, paradox. Meanwhile, they waste time and a few resources and a few lives and the health of many. Not at all like they handled the WTC debris, is it?
Posted by Julie at October 15, 2007 07:26 PMJesus this just makes my heart hurt.
Sorry but we can't figure out what to do with a devastated and still vulnerable city and people, just too complex a problem, also, just too busy with next war, kthxbye
/prez cheney
Posted by Sharkbabe at October 15, 2007 08:57 PM"I hate to say it, but NO needs a bold plan, one that many people might consider cruel."
No offense, but unless you can put your money where your mouth is, forgetaboutit. How long do you think us flooded out New Orleans homeowner families can wait for your new plan that finances our relocation? We've already waited too long. Could you afford to be out of your house for a couple of years? It is too late to implement some new plan. Flooded homeowners are rebuilding as best we can with insurance, grants and loans.
Remember, New Orleans' losses were not the result of a natural disaster. The federal designed and built federal levees failed catastrophically long before the water topped the levees - and in many places. New Orleans suffered the worst engineering disaster in history. The US Army Corps of Engineers admitted before Congress the levee failures and subsequent flooding was their fault. If you run your car into mine, who is responsible for my car's damages? If there was justice, New Orleanians would be compensated for their losses.
No one has offered us a better financial option other than to rebuild as best you can. Its really the only choice many of us have. We're trying to build higher, but not getting much cooperation from the feds.
We're not going anywhere. New Orleans is our home. We need our coast and wetlands saved so they can return to serve as our natural defense to storm surge. We need our failed levees replaced with sound engineering structures. We need our homes, schools and infrastructure repaired. We need help with our crime issues. We need hospitals. We need Jim Lenten to continue indicting every crooked politician he can root out.
Our most urgent need is for Congress to fund the shortfall in the State's Road Home Program. The program will run out of money in a couple of months and be unable to issue home rebuilding grants to about 50,000 homeowner families.
Posted by Ray Broussard at October 15, 2007 09:22 PMSorry, Ray Broussard, but your city needs more than someone to put his thumb in the dike...er, levee. It needs some innovative, long-term thinking. Re-building below sea level ain't going to solve the problem. I'm not sure it's right for the feds to impose a solution that works--- into the future-- on your area, so that leaves your state to propose a workable solution, even if it's the feds paying for it. And frankly, I suspect your state is glad to lose all those NO residents to other states. Talk about gerrymandering success. And, yes, you're fucked so long as Bush is president. Say, what's Hillary's position on Katrina damage?
Posted by Julie at October 15, 2007 09:58 PM"Re-building below sea level ain't going to solve the problem."
It is too late to solve the problem via your suggestion. The current plan is NO PLAN. A homeowner's fate has been left up to the homeowner. Tens of thousands of us have taken our savings, insurance money, grants & loans and have done the best we can to rebuild on the only property we own. Our government, so far, has not been willing to relocate homeowners. It would be cruel to force our already severely battered citizens out of their rebuilt homes. You cannot fathom the suffering our people have been enduring, yet coldly, you propose prolonged suffering.
I feel your suggestion is short sighted. Buyout or no buyout, in 50 years, developers will have somehow rebuilt housing in the flood zones. You know they will. We have property rights and personally, I refuse to sell.
If a New Orleans homeowner family cannot (or does not want to) move out of the flood zone, the next best thing is to build ABOVE the flood zones. Many of us are trying to do that. For example, I'm rebuilding my family's home about 5 feet above the flood line that resulted from the levee failure floods - yes, above sea level. See our home being built at the link below.
http://www.maritimenewmedia.com/katrina/lademo/
My home will be about nine feet higher than required by FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Program - they would have you build well below sea level. I built my basement's floor at the FEMA level.
No, we were not provided a financial incentive to build higher. Common sense dictated that we needed to build higher to protect our family, stuff, investment (and our lender's investment) and future. Our resulting mortgage principle is twice what it was pre-k and for thirty more years rather than the ten we had remaining. Is that fair?
I reckon you realize you propose the buyout of about 100,000 family homes. That would cost the US a lot more than to elevate and rebuild those homes. Most are about 50-75 years old and have never flooded before. The federal levees fell down like cheap movie props. The USACE (the Corps) admits our storm surge protection system was a system in name only. We were screwed out of everything we ever owned including a city's worth of family heirlooms. We deserve compensation for our losses, coastal restoration and the best storm surge protection system engineers can muster. Nothing less is fair.
You might not care if government buys you out and forces you to move from your home. Perhaps your home is not special or important to you. That is not the case for about 80% of New Orleans homeowners. We want nothing more than to go home. We don't want to live anywhere else and we don't care if you feel our city is not worth being rebuilt. We are rebuilding our city, help or no help. We know the value of our city.
My family first moved here 242 years ago. We've lived here under French, Spanish and American rule. The vast majority of us are tax paying law abiding hard working families who have never lived anywhere else. We are not leaving. It is ok with me if they tear down every levee south of Baton Rouge - that would restore our wetlands - but also cause many properties to once again become wetlands. I'm perfectly willing to live here on a boat if needed. This is our home and has been for centuries and fellow US citizens should not renege on the social contract to treat fellow US citizens fairly. If the US doesn't want New Orleans, then we should be invited to succeed from the nation. New Orleans is part of the United States of America. Love us or leave us.
Ray Broussard
New Orleanian
As someone who has family ties to Louisiana, I wish all the best to you Ray Broussard. I commend and support you in your effort to rebuild your home, and thank you for pointing out the deficency in the Federal system that is not serving it citizens equally. I'm sorry some people on this blog have such selfish and narrow, uninformed views of what the people of New Orleans and Louisiana have been through and are still struggling with post Katrina.
My family roots are as old as the Acadians, and I know what it means to carry on the struggle, with each generation standing on the shoulders of the previous one.
Condor, take your sympathy and shove it up your ass. That and a nickel will get you a tissue to wipe the phoney tears from your eyes.
The problem here is that the politicians aren't going to touch this one, because it is one huge hot potato. They'll be damned if they don't, but even more damned if they do, so they take the easy way out and do nothing. Katrina wasn't just a NO problem, it was a problem for what, like three states? And NO's problem isn't just a Katrina problem. NO was most vulnerable because of it's geology, being at the axis of the greatest sewer in the world and the ocean. I seemed to remember from decades ago hearing that NO is sinking, so I just googled it and found this CBS piece on NO which tells us that NO is likely going to be offshore in 90 years, in other words, under water. That just underlines that a long-range plan is needed, and before the plan can be developed, some science needs to be applied, so some models can be applied, in developing a plan. Is the Mississippi going to keep spreading out in the delta? Can all those bio-fuel farm chemicals pouring off Iowa and Illinois fields affect NO's future? Is global warming going to subject that part of the coast to more devastating hurricanes? What about rising sea levels? What can be expected over the next two hundred years? Can new and better levies solve the problem for the next two hundred years, or are they just temporary solutions?
Ray, I am glad for you that you had the resources and the will to transplant to a different, safer part of the area. But what is your plan for all the other people there who aren't so fortunate? If you don't have a plan for them, then who does? Whose job is this? What is your state doing, and why isn't it doing more? Who's going to pay for it? Because if you are going to need people in other states to fork over, they are going to want to know that this is a long-term solution. They aren't unsympathetic, or unwilling to help, but they need to know that there's a reasonable plan. Most of all, you need someone who will lead on this, and God save you all, it looks like it is going to have to be politicians who do it. Absurd, isn't it, that Bush can shake his finger at the Iraqi leaders and tell they need to come up with a political solution over there, but he can't do the same for you?
Fine, get pissed at me, because that's good. You people need to be mad, mad enough to start making some demands. If you don't, nothing is going to change.
Posted by Julie at October 17, 2007 07:46 AMJulie, you sure have lots of questions.
'Ray, I am glad for you that you had the resources and the will to transplant to a different, safer part of the area.'
You misunderstood. We rebuilt exactly in the same location, but built high enough to hopefull be out of reach of federal engineering negligence. I actually did not have enough resources to rebuild what we had - our old home was 1600 sq.ft. Our new home is less than 1400 sq.ft. and we now have twice our pre-k debt for a much longer term.
I've never had the 'will' or desire to relocate. There is nowhere within thirty miles of here anywhere safer than where we already are located.
'But what is your plan for all the other people there who aren't so fortunate?'
Again, I suspect you are assuming I am more fortunate than I am. My plan would be for flooded homeowners to receive Federal grants to help them rebuild higher.
'If you don't have a plan for them, then who does?'
This is America - we are supposed to be free to make our own decisions. As it should be, each family has their own plan. Actually, our city has been hammered to come up with a 'plan' before the feds would let us have any money. But, imo, that was just a mean spirited game to delay recovery progress and minimize federal spending. Nevertheless, through the selfless efforts of thousands of New Orleanians and outsiders, we developed a great city plan, a regional plan and a state plan, but so far they have not been funded. We are really really sick of the feds denying our recovery funding because of their constant demand for plans and more plans - which we provided. The federal plan to kill our recovery has been effective, but it won't work. Like it or not, we are rebuilding.
'Whose job is this?'
It should be the job of the party responsible for the damage - the federal government. The executive branch put a guy in charge named Donald Powell and despite his job description, he seems most interested in making sure we don't get the federal funds needed to rebuild. It is the job of congress to provide needed funding.
'What is your state doing, and why isn't it doing more?'
Blame the victim? The state put up a few billion towards our recovery and is attempting to administer the federal grant program for homeowners, but the feds severely under-funded that program from the beginning and homeowners have been shortchanged at every turn. The program needs a few more billion or the last 50,000 homeowners will not get a grant. The feds said Louisiana would have to show good faith and put some money towards that shortfall and New Orleanians lobbied hard to get our state to put up a billion dollars and they did. Please understand that when a disaster covers as much geography as this one, that local governments also became severely damaged and unable to perform as they should.
But, what you need to also understand is that the part of our state north of Interstate Ten, including the state capital, generally resents New Orleans and feels our recovery money should be spent in their part of the state. That is the situation.
'Who's going to pay for it? Because if you are going to need people in other states to fork over, they are going to want to know that this is a long-term solution. '
Again, we are getting very tired of having to justify our existence. We have jumped through enough hoops. You broke it, you pay for it. We deserve a recovery. We deserve fair compensation for our losses. As US citizens, we deserve your mutual respect. Our long-term solution is in place. It is reasonable and our recovery and protection are in your best interest. Our plans and long-term solutions just need funding.
'They aren't unsympathetic, or unwilling to help, but they need to know that there's a reasonable plan. Most of all, you need someone who will lead on this, and God save you all, it looks like it is going to have to be politicians who do it. Absurd, isn't it, that Bush can shake his finger at the Iraqi leaders and tell they need to come up with a political solution over there, but he can't do the same for you?'
Please stop demanding a plan we already delivered. We have learned from recent experience that your demand for a plan is a goose chase. Through our blood, sweat and tears, we developed tons of great plans covering nearly everything. We delivered the plans. You have the plan. Stop your tactics to delay and minimize our recovery. Send us our money before we all die. People are losing hope and dying of stress related problems everyday. Hundreds of thousands US citizens are suffering terribly because of this abuse. We are insulted and our feelings are hurt. Either act responsibly and do the right thing for your countrymen victimized by this man made disaster caused by the federal government or invite us to succeed.
Outsiders with their constant logical questions, always unaware that we have answered these same question a million times, need to admit they don't care about our answers - they just seek reasons to deny our recovery. Stop treating us like step children. We have a social contract. It has been severely broken. Do the right thing and stop with your excuses to deny our recovery.
Ray Broussard
New Orleanian