Posted on 01/30/2006 12:38:06 PM PST by UpTurn
New Orleans waits. While some heroic efforts at rebuilding are taking place, hundreds of thousands of residents have put their lives on hold until they know what the government's next steps will be, leaving the shells of their houses as placeholders. But the Bush administration has now rejected the most broadly supported plan for rebuilding communities while offering nothing to take its place.
It has been five months since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast and for many the norm is still the claustrophobic new reality of tiny trailers and multiple families crammed into single apartments. Louisiana is trying. You can hear jackhammers pounding and buzz saws whirring on Canal Street in New Orleans. Dedicated workers endure a grinding daily commute from points north, like Baton Rouge, as they try to make the city and the region whole again. But the mission is far from complete and the challenge is beyond the scope of a broken city and a poor state.
New Orleans's crisis has little relation to anything the nation has faced in modern memory, and traditional solutions will simply not help. Homeowners — many very poor people whose houses had been in their families for generations — had varying degrees of insurance before the disaster. When entire neighborhoods are devastated, their mildewed furniture and drywall piled on the roadsides, it's impossible to tell the people who are well insured to rebuild and hope that the houses all around them will somehow be reclaimed somewhere down the line.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
..sorta like Blanko's brain
I cannot resist:
How low can you go?
Translation - some were prepared and some were not. But let's set up a system to where those who bought insurance come out no better than those who didn't, just to make sure that no one bothers buying flood insurance in the future.
Limbo or Gumbo?
We expext some very extraordinary things from some very ordinary politicians.
Between Sacramento and San Francisco, out in the delta they are starting 5000 new homes - 6 ft UNDER sea level.
1 Overwhelmed Governor
1 Incompent Mayor
1 Lyin' Parish Commissioner
1 Corrupt Levee Commission
1 City below sea level
A dollop of Welfare State mentality
Decades of political corruption
1 inevitable hurricane
Assemble all dry ingredients. Add hurricane and allow hurricane to mix all other ingredients well. Serve with a side of federal incompetence.
"..hundreds of thousands of residents have put their lives on hold until they know what the government's next steps will be."
Would these be the same people who look to gvt for the solutions to all their wants and needs? If so, what does putting such a life "on hold" really mean? Was it getting ready to go somewhere otherwise?
I'm old. My references are old. It was a joked about the "Limbo" dance that was a craze back in the early 60's. It is apropos of nothing...just an aside.
And you can bet they are being paid to do it. In Mississippi, while we wait to see if any of our tax dollars will filter back down to us, we are busily rebuilding our own places. I have become a carpenter, plumber, floor tiler, and sheetrocker - I hate doing mudding!
Three in 44 days! Bet there was some chocolate that got hit too. Don't remember the NYSlimes crying tears for us.
Oh ... I forgot. Florida has a real live Republican government. One that works for the people.
You left out Ivan.
"hundreds of thousands of residents have put their lives on hold until they know what the government's next steps will be"
Pathetic. I am reminded of Little House on the Prarie. I wonder how long they would have waited for the governments next steps...
I hate to get back involved in this but I am getting really tired of these threads turning into a Louisiana bashing session. It gets extremely hurtful when I hear comments about who cares about those folks down there. The msm shockling does not report everything down here. There is good and bad. As for hey its under sea level these are the facts. Coastal erosion!!!! Rita showed how bad this was along the entire coast. Now we have been screaming for years for help on this issue as we spent countless billions on the big dig in Boston. If freepers here after lookiing at the map of Louisiana find that they have no love of their country below I-10 in LOuisiana and dont care if it all becomes the gulf please lets us know so we can vote in the proper ways to save ourselves. Also to the folks in Mississippi may I humbly suggest that we are in this all together. As two small Southern States I think that perhaps sticking together ,as we have to compete against another "poor college girl has disappeared" story every few weeks. as we try to show the nation our problems down here. Its not all roses in nola either.
Hmmm. Big Dig. Massive federal monies spent. Went waay over budget.
Lesson - be more careful throwing money at problems.
Apply lesson to Louisiana - right off the bat political leaders asked for $250 billion. Big Dig Spidey Sense tingles like hemorrhoid day after eating Mexican platter.
Now they want money to buy properties for redevelopment. What happens if no one buys properties? Taxpayer stuck with lots of swampland.
Why don't we figure out how to pay for this once and do it right?
Ia agree with you that money should be wisely spent. I am not for just pouring money in. However Coastal erosion is a major problem that take federal assistance to deal with. There is so much at stake here for the Nation and for it resources it boggles my mind that it doesnt get the proper attention.
We should be careful before rebuilding. I don't think people should be allowed to rebuild in low areas that are likely to flood so easily. Better to buy them up (probably cheaper) and have some nice parkland.
The race of the individual should not matter. Sound policies should work for the best policies for all.
Here is the problem as I see it.
Federal programs are what created the coastal erosion in the first place. The Mississippi no longer floods and spreads sediments to build up the land - because of levees. Meanwhile, the entire region is slowly subsiding.
So on one hand we have a need to allow flooding for sediment deposition, and on the other hand we have folks clamorming that we need Cat 5 levees around NOLA.
So we have opposing goals here.
Personally, I'm more inclined to agree with you - it is much more important to look at the long-term health of the entire Louisana coast than to protect the parts of NOLA that were well below sea level. The state has to make some really hard choices, instead of just wanting everything the way it was. And I don't see the political leaders doing the former - they instead want the latter, because that is what got them elected in the first place.
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