Rebuild New Orleans

[Morgan Palmer]

What about going with a Venice theme? That would be lots of fun.

There's already a Venice just down the road from NO, and in much worse shape, I am sure. :cry:

 

[Justin Turcotte]

I don't think that alot of you realize what exactly rebuilding will involve. Almost every single building in the affected area will have to either be demolished or completely stripped to the frame and rebuilt. By the time that the rebuilding process can begin, with the floods and exposure due to roof and window failure, so much mold and rot will be in place that this will be the only possible solution. The entire flooded area will have to be cleaned up for hazardous waste, chemicals, petrolium products, and human and animal remains. Multiple cities infrastructures will have to be completely rebuilt, including power, sewer, water, and road and highway systems. Then, all of the business that will have gone bankrupt during the rebuilding time will have to be replaced. The cities main source of revenue, tourism, is gone for an undeterminable period of time. And this is just a few of the problems facing the rebuilding effort. And before any of this can begin, you have to stop the water from coming in, and get it all pumped back out.

I agree with Chris on this one. Every building in town is flooded and will be that way for quite some time. The wet buildings will be cooking in the hot sun festering some really nasty mold and other interesting critters. Most homes will be a total loss. I don't know how many houses are there but let's say 100,000. Now if we assume $100,000 per house we're talking $10,000,000,000. That's ten bilion with plenty more to be found in the burbs. Throw in the apartments and businesses and that figure should easily double. It's time to cut the losses and move. If possible, save the historic buildings and move them to the new plat. After this is done the levies can be permanently removed and the area can ecologically restore itself which will limit future storm damage. All this will cost a tremendous amount of money carried largely on the backs of the taxpayer but not much nore than to 100% rebuild in the current location. This is the opportunity to build a better, cleaner, safer city.

 

[Amos Magliocco]

An LSU scientist speculated earlier on CNN that a massive tent city will go up on the North Shore of the lake. More than a million people will have no place to live for a very long time, and they won't all want to leave the area entirely; most won't have the money to relocate far away in any case. Many of the New Orleans residents I know would never consider living anywhere else. They love their home and their region, like most of us.

It would not surprise me if a new city doesn't emerge from that "tent city," much like new Palestinian towns grew in and around the refugee camps there. This could be a possible 'new' New Orleans. Who knows.

 

[Rob_Davis]

I can't imagine rebuilding in the traditional sense. In fact, any attempt to do so would be incredibly stupid and a collossal waste of money. If they are going to "rebuild," it shouldn't even be considered unless they are going to literally raise the city on a thirty feet of bedrock and sand. The whole "bowl" situation must be abandoned, and the current city buried forever.

The question is, can the insurance industry survive this?

 

[B Ozanne]

The question is, can the insurance industry survive this?

Insurance companies don't insure against floods that come from the ground up...like in New Orleans. Only the federal goverment insures against this through the National Flood Insurance Program.

The big question is if they rebuild will anybody re-insure the area?

 

[Jeff Snyder]

That's an interesting point... Aren't most "dollar figure damages" that we see associated with storms for the "insured loss"? For example, Andrew's ~$25 billion, wasn't that for insured losses? If so, assuming most of New Orleans isn't insured for flooding, won't the dollar figure amounts of damage from this hurricane be hugely understated in comparison to the actual amount of loss, seeing how almost all of New Orleans damage will likely be flood related.

 

[B Ozanne]

That's right. Most of the figures you see are for insured losses. Actual losses are obvioiusly much higher and far reaching.

 

[Rob_Davis]

Insurance companies don't insure against floods that come from the ground up...like in New Orleans. Only the federal goverment insures against this through the National Flood Insurance Program.

A significant portion of the destruction has nothing to do with flooding. It's "hurricane damage," not to mention the fire, vandalism, and other causes of loss.

 

[B Ozanne]

With insurance it doesn't matter. Damage caused by wind, rain, and fire will be covered by your policy. Damage caused by flooding will not be covered. I don't know how they sort out the difference, but they do. Unless of course you participate in the National Flood Insurance Program.

I'm not sure about looting. Destruction caused by war and riots is often not covered. Looting may be considered a riot.

I don't know the details about every insurance policy, but I do know what they generally cover.

Storm surge would also not be covered by a standard policy, you would need to be in the NFIP to be covered for that.

 

[Gabe Garfield]

Maybe it's human nature to feel like we haven't been beat by nature, and to take pride in our culture/society. But, isn't that pretty foolhardy? Haven't we learned our lesson? The forces of nature are much stronger than our pride, as was evidenced by the many who perished simply because they did not heed the warning.

The city of New Orleans has been humbled and brought to its knees. It is time for them to think circumspectly, and rebuild on higher ground.

Gabe

 

[Jeff Lawson]

Well, when you think about it, the city is still there. It just happens to be underneath several feet of water. Once the water has been removed (assuming it can be removed), you'll be left with a city that's relatively intact. Yes, many structures will be unsalvagable, but the infrastructure remains. Razing large swaths of the city and rebuilding will no doubt be a massive undertaking, but it's within reason.

Of course, the question is: who will return? As Amos points out, many will insist on remaining no matter what. But, consider that many of the refugees no longer have homes to return to. They have no workplace to return to. Their lives have been indefinitely and dramatically interrupted. If I found myself in such a situation, I'd be giving serious consideration to taking whatever assistance the federal government had to offer and getting the hell out of Dodge.

I'm mobile, however. That is, I have the means to pack up and start over elsewhere. Many New Orleans residents don't have the means to go elsewhere. Honestly, I don't know how you assist these people. Does the government step in and help relocate them en masse? Do they wait out their time in refugee camps as New Orleans is rebuilt?

And, of course, if the city is rebuilt, will there be jobs for these people? Will companies continue to do business in New Orleans? Will employers return? To what point will the local economy recover?

There's a disturbing social aspect to this, whereas the mobile workforce (i.e., educated and highly trained) could almost entirely relocate to other parts of the country, leaving the non-mobile (i.e., the poor, sick, and elderly) behind to pick up the pieces alone.

 

[Miriam Lawrence]

I'm not sure about looting. Destruction caused by war and riots is often not covered. Looting may be considered a riot.

I heard an insurance industry trade group representative interviewed on NPR this morning. He said that looting is indeed covered by most policies, as is interruption of trade.

If you're actually interested, you can listen to the segment here.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...storyId=4825688

 

[Chris Sokol]

Looting may...and I stress may...be covered by theft also, but I am not really sure.

 

[Karen Politte]

I mentioned this on another thread just about 5 minutes ago, but to me it seems blatantly obvious that the GOVERNMENT are the ones who must bear this logistical nightmare for the PEOPLE. That is why we have government speak and act for us in a manner they see fit - for the betterment of the country's people as a whole.

In the medium-term - I foresee some kind of government-funded prefabricated housing scheme for these people in some available area around N.O.

These people need more than any "dome" can offer, right now - let along in a week's or a month's time.

KR

 

[Rob_Davis]

I mentioned this on another thread just about 5 minutes ago, but to me it seems blatantly obvious that the GOVERNMENT are the ones who must bear this logistical nightmare for the PEOPLE.

What makes you think they are not doing so? Were you there?

There are three FEMA facilities in the North Texas area which hold thousands of trailers just waiting to be sent to disasters such as these. It's not like you're the first person to ever think of this.