It's not household garbage removal, it is wholesale hauling, mostly handled with big equipment. Picture big yellow machines and huge dump trucks. And the outside companies don't want to come in without huge guaranteed contracts, which I hope they never get.
The National Guard actually has these capabilities, and is prepared for this type of large debris removal. I'm not advocating standard rates, but the prices being suggested are completely unacceptable (to me, to the people in charge, and to every person in New Orleans I've talked to). The locals that are working on the job are doing a great job. I can still picture one pile down there about a mile long , 40 feet high, and about 80 feet wide. They had that pile taken down and removed two days later when I drove back by it. You can rent a backhoe for about $680 a month, and get a permit to start hauling. If you can partner with someone who owns a big truck, you have a license to print money. I know 3 people down there who are doing that now part-time (they have rules about how much you can work per day, so many people still have regular jobs). There is also a lot of problems with hauling. If you don't have permission of the owner, and can't find them to get it, you can't touch the house unless it is condemned. Which has been fought repeatedly in court, and is still a huge issue. They cannot even move the abandoned cars due to laws and regulations without permission from the owner. I am amazed at how much HAS been cleaned up (and am constantly amazed every month as I get updates). The biggest problem I still see there is the lack of definitive decisions about rebuilding. Where is it allowed, what will the insurance be, and most importantly, what building codes will be used where. People are ready to rebuild. Hell, even in the lower 9th, you can see people fixing their houses by hand every day. But until they get some decisions about the above issues, there is no incentive to rebuild, yet. On 8/29/06, Cameron Childress <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I've got to say that if anyone expects to pay someone "standard rates" > under circumstances this extraordinary, they deserve to have giant > piles of garbage all around them. > > And anyone who thinks that the government is going to do anything > efficiently or cheaper is delusional. The National Guard is not > "free", it's not cheap, and it's not a garbage service. I would much > rather private industry take care of this problem, even if it's a > little more expensive than the garbage service here at my house. > > Or.... we can all pretend we are all government employees and sit > around on our golden toilet seats arguing over the best way to flush > tax money down our golden toilets. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:214467 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
