Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco speaks at a Rebuilding and Recovery Conference in New Orleans, La., Thursday, Nov. 10, 2005. Blanco talked about the effects of Hurricane Katrina and how the state would have to rebuild. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
Posted on 11/12/2005 7:01:26 AM PST by Libloather
Support for Category 5 Storm Protection in New Orleans Ebbs in D.C.
BY BILL WALSH And BRUCE ALPERT
Newhouse News Service
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco speaks at a Rebuilding and Recovery Conference in New Orleans, La., Thursday, Nov. 10, 2005. Blanco talked about the effects of Hurricane Katrina and how the state would have to rebuild. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
WASHINGTON -- In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the tattered Gulf Coast received an outpouring of sympathy -- and money -- from Washington. Congress appropriated $62 billion for relief and recovery, and President Bush vowed to rebuild New Orleans "higher and better."
But 21/2 months after the storm, such unequivocal support is hard to come by in the nation's capital.
When, for example, Louisiana's political leaders show rare unity in asking Washington for assurances that a rebuilt New Orleans will be protected from Category 5 hurricanes, they often are met with skepticism, ignorance and outright hostility.
Protection from the strongest hurricanes, state and local officials say, is essential to giving residents and businesses the confidence they need to return and rebuild.
But Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee overseeing federal spending, said he wasn't aware until Wednesday that Louisiana officials saw Category 5 protection as the key to redevelopment. The top-ranking Democrat on the panel, Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, said he wants proof that it will work. Senate Appropriations Committee member Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said that in his view, New Orleans could get by just fine with Category 3 protection for the time being.
"I think over time we should keep reinforcing it and eventually get to a Category 5," Burns said. "That way we can spread the cost out over time."
And in contrast to the clear commitment Bush gave in a speech in New Orleans' Jackson Square on Sept. 15 to "do what it takes ... stay as long as it takes" to restore the city, he now appears reluctant to signal his support for protection from hurricanes stronger than Katrina and Rita.
At a brief photo opportunity at the White House on Thursday, Bush repeated his commitment to rebuilding the Gulf Coast. But when asked if he supported Category 5 hurricane protection, he declined to answer.
The ambiguous wording is beginning to worry members of Louisiana's congressional delegation who have been struggling to keep Washington's focus on rebuilding the state even as other news -- a Supreme Court nomination, the White House leak scandal and congressional criminal investigations -- compete for attention.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is preparing a letter that she hopes Senate colleagues will sign that expresses their commitment to rebuilding the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said colleagues think he is looking for a blank check rather than merely a show of support.
"I think they are confusing, quite frankly, some sort of full authorization with that initial statement," Vitter said. "I'm trying to educate them that I'm not avoiding the normal stages of the process and just want a general, solid statement that leaves plenty of room for questions to be answered."
The 200-mile levee system snaking through metropolitan New Orleans was supposed to be able to withstand a direct hit from a Category 3 hurricane, which can pack winds of up to 130 mph and a 12-foot storm surge. But breaches in the levees that flooded much of the city during Katrina, a Category 3 storm, have raised questions about design and construction flaws.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which designed the levee system, has estimated that reinforcing them to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, with winds greater than 155 mph and an 18-foot storm surge, could cost about $3.5 billion. Extending that level of protection 72 miles south to the Gulf of Mexico would send the price up to $18 billion, according to the Louisiana governor's office.
But cost is not the only thing generating questions on Capitol Hill, according to interviews with more than two dozen lawmakers this week. Some members of Congress want assurances that the Corps is capable of building hurricane protection that can withstand a Category 5 storm.
"I want the science to be there," Obey said. "I don't want to approve something without knowing it will work. Otherwise we're just throwing (money) down a rat hole."
Others want some sign from state and local officials that enhanced levees will be part of a well-thought-out reconstruction plan.
"I think there needs to be a redevelopment plan that we can look to and understand what the scope and extent is," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. "That's when you will get buy-in from Congress."
Numerous commissions and planning authorities have cropped up in the wake of the storm, but there has been little consensus on how to proceed. There are disagreements about what areas should be rebuilt and how, what new building and zoning standards will say, what kind of hurricane protection is most appropriate, what should be protected and what shouldn't.
Even an enthusiastic supporter of rebuilding, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said she was confused about who is calling the shots.
"Someone has to be in charge, and I don't know who that is," she said at a hearing on hurricane protection Wednesday. "At what point does the rubber hit the road and someone says, `This is what we are going to do?"'
Montana's Burns said he doesn't agree that a congressional promise to build a hurricane-proof city is the key to repopulating the New Orleans region, as Mayor Ray Nagin and Gov. Kathleen Blanco have said.
"That's their opinion," he said.
Lewis, the House Appropriations Committee chairman, said he first learned at a hearing this week that Louisiana officials have made Category 5 levees their top priority. In an interview, he declined to embrace the plan, although he said Congress has a long-term financial commitment to the hurricane-battered region.
Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., has a warm place in his heart for New Orleans. It's where he proposed to his wife and where he sent his son to college. But he said the onus isn't on Congress alone to send signals to evacuees that it is safe to return.
"People coming back to New Orleans will depend as much on actions of local governments and how they plan for their return as what the federal government does with the levees," Isakson said.
There are a few hopeful signs on Capitol Hill. The Senate last week approved as part of a budget bill the dedication of $1.2 billion to work on Louisiana's coast and levees by 2010; the money comes from the sale of rights to television airwaves as the country moves to digital broadcasting. The House is preparing to take up its own version of a budget with $323 million annually for hurricane protection. But it is unclear whether the House and Senate will even agree to a final budget deal, putting all the financing in jeopardy.
House and Senate negotiators this week agreed to spend $8 million for the Corps of Engineers to develop Category 5 hurricane protection plans for all of south Louisiana. But the bill doesn't promise a dime for actually building it.
Nov. 11, 2005
How about giving them the assessed value [usually a bit low] plus 10%? I do not know property values in the Lower 9th Ward ... but somethow doubt that most of the houses were valued at $150,000 or anything near that.
Yes, the rate of home ownership is reported to be near 60%.
It has been reported that this plan was rejected because it would make it impossible to pump water out of the city with the gates closed. Excessive amounts of rain will cause flooding ... as well as actual overflow of bodies of water.
"The parts that comprise the city center never flooded."
I disagree. New Orleans floods on a regular basis, in all parts. I know from personal experience.
Houston floods on a regular basis too, not because it is under sea level but because it is flat. You get 5" to 10" of rain in a few hours (not uncommon) and you get flooding but in Houston it runs off in a couple of hours. In NO it has to be pumped out.
I wonder what if they take it again next year? Maybe we ought to wait and see? After all:
"Global warming is real, it's very real..."
"The polar ice caps are melting they're meeelting."
"Why don't we try something different, something RADICAL!"
"We are destroying the planet's ability to heal itself."
I believe the areas that flooded are indeed 12 feet below sea level.
"I broke the dam."
In Houston they have made the thoroughfares and freeways to be emergency storm channels. Whenever we get that kind of flooding we loose cars by the tens of thousands it seems like. Hate to think of a really messy rainy hurricane. We'd be in a heap o' trouble.
Do you live in Houston?
Fix Detroit, then advise other states.
I'll tell you what, you can join with me in calling for the Federal Taxpayers to stop throwing money down the rat hole that is Detroit, and you can also join with me in calling for the Federal Taxpayers to not fund a stupid bridge to nowhere in Alaska.
Sounds to me like you are a little sensitive when it comes to cutting unnecessary spending.
Also Michigan pays more to the Federal Highway trust fund than it gets back, in other words, we are not on welfare, unlike others.
What do you think of the benefactor who will pay the Kalamazoo kids college tuition? Was that the Upjohns?
I saw a headline about it, but did not read it. Sounds like someone is trying to be helpful. Is there something evil going on?
Kalamazoo has a lot going for itself. Looks like the locals are trying to keep it going. Self-help. Industry would invest more in their local communities if they weren't taxed so much, but that would impact the redistribution of wealth program of the Feds.
Well, wherever they can. Understand I am thinking about paying them a bounty, one large enough to buy/build where, today, they cannot afford to build. It would be cheaper than building dikes strong enough to withstand the flooding.
You the one! HA HA! Make Your Time, You Have No Chance To Survive!
Affirmativre.
The streets were planned to function as drains, which they do rather quickly as soon as the rain stops. Unless it is a street that catches back up from the bayous, then they could be under water until the bayou goes down( stay off I10 between the loop and downtown for sure). If caught on a flooded street you can pull into someones driveway to wait. People are generally nice about it since they can't get in or out at that time either but that is why I drive a Tahoe. My truck is high enough to make it thru most flooded streets.
I'm sure that the 'Rats will try to manipulate the election with at least a couple of hundred thousand absentee ballots, but I wouldn't assume that Nagin will be the beneficiary. He's a real albatross to the LA Demagogic Party if they hope to recover (politically) from this and a lot of evacuees blamed him rather strongly according to some survey I saw awhile back. There may have to be a new 'Rat politico to carry their standard in NOLA.........
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