I keep reading over and over how New Orleans will rise again, but does it make sense to rebuild without making changes?
I read somewhere in the last few days, and I can dig up the article if anyone is interested, that to avoid flooding, Galveston Texas raised the street level 17 feet, after the hurricane of 1900, by pumping millions of cubic yards of sand into the city from the Gulf. As I type this, there is a huge ongoing fight between insurance companies and customers about what their hurricane coverage actually covered. Insurance companies are saying that their coverage only covers wind damage caused by hurricanes. They claim that flooding was never part of that policy and thousands are finding that they are not covered. As a result, homeowners still have a mortgage, but no home - and most of them now have no job. They are still expected to make payments and now they are in the position that they will have to find alternate housing - on top of their current mortgage. The cost to mortgage companies (and creditors in general) from bankruptcies will be astronomical. Has anyone read if any creditors are giving hurricane victims a break of any kind? I can't imagine why any bank, financial institution or insurance company would invest a penny in rebuilding New Orleans without requiring some sort of change to ensure their investments won't wash away with the next hurricane or levy failure. I guess another component to consider would be the trend of hurricanes. Is this year just an anomaly? Quite a few scientists are saying this is the beginning of a trend of more frequent and stronger hurricanes. A couple of good articles... Washington Post: A Sad Truth: Cities Aren't Forever http://makeashorterlink.com/?U21414CDB A snippet from the article... When Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert said that it makes no sense to spend billions of federal dollars to rebuild a city that's below sea level, he added, "It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed." In the face of criticism, he hurried to "clarify" his remarks. But according to Washington lore, such a flap occurs when someone inadvertently tells the truth. Another good article, from The Oregonian: http://makeashorterlink.com/?O23452CDB A snippet... Banks and mortgage holders want a revived city to salvage their investments. The physical situation of New Orleans -- potentially the nation's deadliest natural disaster -- will make the physical reconstruction much harder and more costly than Chicago in 1871 or San Francisco in 1906. But the same forces of man and nature will be at work in 2005 and many years beyond. So where will all this effort lead us? A re-creation of the vibrant port of the 19th century or the tourism and petroleum city of 2005? Economic interests with global reach may decide the world can do with a smaller, less important New Orleans. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
