What were people told when they built or bought homes in NO?

[napi21]

Bernie Ward is discussing this now.

What if you were told BEFORE you bought a home 6' below sea level, that if something happened, you wouldn't be eligible for any gov't support? You might be able to buy insurance, but beyond that, it would be your risk and your loss.

His argument is similar to why do people build homes in a flood plane and expect not to be flooded?

It doesn't solve any of the problems now, but it does beg the question "Should those homes be rebuilt THERE?"

FYI, my son lives and works in Sicily for an American Co and is still an American citizen. A part of Sicily had a very bad flood about a week before Christmas. Many homes were destroyed! He was talking about the military housing that was destroyed along with all their Christmas gifts etc. and how sad it was. I asked "What about the Italian families that were affected?" He said, Oh the Italians just build those houses, they're not dumb enough to live there!

This got me thinking about some of the dumb things we Americans do here too. I'm sure it's wonderful to live close to the water. I'd LOVE to have a place where I could walk out onto my deck and watch the ocean, or Lake Ponchatrain, but I won't do it because I can't or don't want to risk loosing everything!

[Devlzown]

1. Most of the people who received damage

from Katrina weren't living on shoreline property. Eighty percent of New Orleans flooded. Here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, there was flooding in places where no one thought flood waters would ever reach. One of my cousins, for example, lives two miles from the beach and two or three miles from any rivers or bayous, yet he got three feet of water in his house. Sounds impossible, doesn't it? We're all still trying to understand it. The best way I can describe it to you is that the tidal surge was so great that it was similar to a tsunami. There just isn't much you can do to prepare for a disaster of that magnitude -- sort of like if California ever gets shaken by a 9.0 earthquake. The chances of these things happening are low, thank God, but sooner or later the odds catch up with us.

[napi21]

2. I understand about your cousins house, but are the stories

regarding the 9th ward of NO all BS? I really don't know, so please don't get upset with me. Everything I've heard sounded like it was a place where logically you really shouldn't build housing, yet most of it sounded like it was low income housing.

That tells me someone was either not told about the potential problems, or people with $$ bought this cheap property, built some cheap houses on it and just got richer by using poor people!

[Devlzown]

3. Oh, I see what you're saying.

I'm not as familiar with the history of New Orleans as I am with my own area. I do know that the 9th ward, along with other areas of the city, was swampy before they decided to build housing there. I also know that the 9th ward flooded during hurricane Betsy in the 60's, so people knew it was low and flood-prone. If those levees hadn't failed, things would've turned out much differently for the people of New Orleans. If the government had funded the Corps of Engineers to shore up those levees like they should have, we might not have seen such a horrible loss of life and property. But since they didn't have those levees in good shape, they should've at least had a good evacuation plan. They knew there was a large minority of people without transportation or means to evacuate yet there was no plan in place to get those folks out of there. Those people weren't killed because of where they lived, they died because of government failure and incompetence.

[napi21]

4. Do you see this as a failure of the Feds or the State or the

Army Corps of Engineers, or all of them?

I've heard that the funds were alloted to NO, but they were misused. I have no idea if this is just finger pointing or not. I guess there's still an investigation into weather the levees were even built right!

When I lived in SC, my best friends were NO natives, and they both said NO politics was the most corrupt of anywhere they've ever lived, and they lived 3 years in DC!!!! Scare!

I just feel link the residents of the 9th ward that has received most of the damage as far as I know, were somehow used. Because of their poverty status, or lack of education to realize that they were being used and convinced they would be fine living in an extremely risky place!

[Devlzown]

5. New Orleans is corrupt.

I don't know if it's more corrupt over there or if it's just more out in the open. I've lived in Mississippi all my life and there's plenty of back scratching going on here, too, so I can't really tell too many tales about my neighbors in Louisiana. People in Mississippi always talk about how crooked Louisiana is, but if you read the papers here, we've always got some judge or politician being indicted. As far as who is to blame, I'd say both the feds and the city are to blame. If the feds didn't give the money to the Corps, they should have. If they gave the money to the City of New Orleans, they should've known better. I think it was the city's responsibility to come up with an evacuation plan. If they needed help drafting a plan they could've asked for it. Personally, I don't think they gave a shit what happened to the poor in their city. So, I think the feds are responsible for the flooding -- they should've tended to those levees themselves. But the city is to blame for the loss of life -- the city was responsible for protecting its citizens and what was their big plan? Cram as many people as they could into the Superdome. If the voters over there aren't fed up by now, I'm afraid there's no hope.

[frustrated_lefty]

6. a few thoughts

"His argument is similar to why do people build homes in a flood plane and expect not to be flooded?"

Why do people build multi-million dollar homes in California along eroding coast lines or adjacent to major faults? Are they dumb, or is dey jus' plain igna'int?

"Should those homes be rebuilt THERE?"

Why not, if the levee system is built to specs?

"I'd LOVE to have a place where I could walk out onto my deck and watch the ocean, or Lake Ponchatrain."

Fifty percent of the adult population in NO was unemployed. People had their reasons for living there, but walking out on their deck wasn't one of them.

[napi21]

7. Thanks for your response. Please understand, my

comments about why people build in flood planes was NOT only directed to that catagory. I also include in that question people who build multi-million $ homes on the Ca. coast, and in Fl. too! I find it incredible that people build a $1,500 home on the Fl coast, it gets destroyed by a hurricane, they get the ins. $$, rebuild it, and it gets destroyed AGAIN, AND the cycle starts AGAIN!

As to my comment "I'd love to have a place where I could walk out onto my deck and watch the ocean...". I grew up in Pgh, which is certainly nowhere close to a coast, but we did have 3 major rivers. Some people lived in homes along the river that were flooded every year during the spring thaw because the housing was cheap, and it's all they could afford. Some others were different. I worked for the Fed. Reserve Bank a LONG time ago, and my boss lived in a nice house along the river. It was 250 yards from the shore line. Every year, during the spring thaw, his home was threatened by flood waters, and he would agonize over how high the level was going to go. Most of the time, he didn't have a problem. Once every 10-15 years, his 1st floor would be destroyed, and he'd have to redo it. I asked him "Why don't you just move?" His answer was, "It's worth it to me to take the risk of flooding, in exchange for me to be able to sit on my back deck and watch the water and the sunset every night!" THAT'S whwere my comment came from. He's not alone! Listen to some of the wealthy in costal towns after a disaster. Most of them say, I'm going to rebuild, I LIKE it here!

I guess the bottom line is, should people be permitted to build homes in high risk areas? If you answer yes, should there be restrictions? ie: You can't buy cheap land to build cheap housing that you can rent to poor people just to make a profit but expect the general population of the US to take the risk for you. or If your home is destroyed by a flood, you can rebuild ONCE, but can never get insurance on it again! The risk is ALL YOURS!