The Rebuild

[bfg9000d]

In order for New Orleans to ever get back on its feet again.

I have studied quite a few years in the past about how nations rebuild from natural disasters. A couple of things need to happen.

Here's the facts

1. I-10 needs to get fix. Without I-10 no rebuilding can occur.

2. They need to fix the flood problem and make major modifications to the levees and walls for it to withstand much stronger hurricanes

3. They need to start making make shift shelters around the city running on full back up generators and have a supply line of fuel to keep the generators working.

4. After they get the make shift shelters up they need to start slowly moving people out of the astrodome and other places and back into the make shift shelters in LA. Where they are now does not help them in the long run. Eventually they will be all just sitting idle. Waiting to go back to new Orleans to get their feet on the ground and collect what little they have that survive the storm.

5. Get central electricity restored to the most important areas of the city and to the make shift shelters.

6. Have earth movers come in and start clearing the lots of land for rebuilding houses.

7. Have construction workers come in from all parts of the U.S to start constructing new homes and repairing roads.

8. Banks need to be rebuild or at temp locations so people will have some access to their accounts.

9. Wal-marts need to be the first places that need to be repaired and reopen.

10. At the temp shelters have insurance adjusters come in set up a booth and have the people who have insurance get their insurance money. Those who don

[Heights2Bastrop]

The first two steps I would take are:

1. Get a new mayor.

2. Get a new governor.

[editor]

One of the news channels was saying the other day that Carnival might send a couple of cruise ships for use as dormatories for the workers rebuilding the city. I think that's a great idea. In fact, that might be a good way to bring the people back to New Orleans from Houston.

[Heights2Bastrop]

So much has been made of the delay by the Federal Government in getting aid to the victims. I don

[DJ V Lawrence]

One of the news channels was saying the other day that Carnival might send a couple of cruise ships for use as dormatories for the workers rebuilding the city.  I think that's a great idea.  In fact, that might be a good way to bring the people back to New Orleans from Houston.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Didn't Jackonville use cruise ships for their tourist boom for the Super Bowl earlier this year? Wouldn't that also be a good idea for Houston and Galveston to get more of the evacuees out of the crammed Astrodome and Convention Centers, and into something more habitable?

[bfg9000d]

Yes While Texas has done a great job on housing the refugee's in are vacant domes and arena's its not fair to them or us if they remain there for a long extended period of time. The goal is to get them back to New Orleans. Because in the end known of those people will be able to get on their feet if they don

[DJ V Lawrence]

Now to throw in one opinion. I believe once things get back to some sort of normalcy I believe quite a few of them will choose to stay.  Right now nobody wants to go back because New Orleans is totally trashed. I assume as things start getting rebuilt the people that lived in New Orleans will gain interest again to go back.

But back to the facts. The Fact is one way or another they will need to go back on either charters, boats or whatever when new shelters that have A/C and water etc. get built in New Orleans. Having them in the Astrodome and Reunion Arena in Dallas is only temporary at best the keyword being temporary.

Lets keep this topic going.  Lets put no spin on this topic lets keep it straight nose and hard line. So this will be a constructive talk about the rebuilding of the area

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They're gonna have to tear down and rebuild most of the homes by the time the water completely leaves New Orleans grounds. That alone will probably take at least 18 months to do ,and that's only counting the upper class.

Remember 27.9% of that city alone lived below the poverty line prior to the storm. Because of this, I find it highly likely that many people there may not have had adequate insurance. That may cause a delay in itself. This comment has nothing to with status prejudice. This is just fact. SOMEBODY will have to pay for their homes to be rebuilt if they decide to move back to the damaged Gulf Coast without good home insurance before the storm.

Long story short, Astrodome and our convention centers, yes, are temporary homes. But how temporary? Our city, state of Texas, and the government need to start planning NOW where everyone can stay for a time period of at least two years. Rick Perry announced earlier that 18,000 apartments may be available to the evacuees across Texas. That may not be enough for at least 100,000 people without a home.

If the city of Houston or the State of Texas wants to make an effective difference for that time period, it may now be time to start discussing building new apartment complexes or housing to make Louisiana-only neighborhoods, buy a few buildings and renovate them into schools (I think we closed down a couple recently that we could open back up for them temporarily), the universities will have to find new venues for their students, and help them set back up New Orleans's businesses here temporarily so more jobs are available for the evacuees, and we can actually HELP New Orleans's 27.9% get better income then they were before they moved here.

Only question now is who would decide to pay for all of it? Will it be us? Tough question, but it needs to be answered soon.

[bfg9000d]

Well putting them in apartments at this point in time will not fix the problem and will just add onto and compound the situation into bigger problems. Because now you will have everybody displaced all over Texas. We need to try to keep everybody in a centralized location for now.

The fact is The only people that are going to be able to rebuild the city are the people that use to live in the city.

Another fact is Lets get one thing straight as Texans its not are job to take on Louisiana

[Heights2Bastrop]

It may well be that many residents in New Orleans were there because they have been there forever and never had the ways and means to live elsewhere.

Baton Rouge is now the largest city in Louisiana. Why don

[bfg9000d]

It may well be that many residents in New Orleans were there because they have been there forever and never had the ways and means to live elsewhere.

Baton Rouge is now the largest city in Louisiana. Why don

[westguy]

Who the heck should live on a toxic waste dump? It's a bit late when sewage and chemicals will have months to permeate everything. Of course we know the levees could've been stronger, but I doubt that work will ever get done. The damage is done and I think it will be next to impossible to clean it all up.

[arche_757]

I agree New Orleans must be re-inhabited, to not do so would be absoulute lunacy. To expect the other cities of Louisiana too take in 500,000+ people is asking way to much of them. New Orleans was devistated - but Im going to play the optimist and say that there are still many homes and structures not nearly as affected by flood waters as some of the poorer wards.

Westguy - Im not sure I see where your going. Are you saying that New Orleans should be abandoned? Or are you refering to something else?

[bfg9000d]

I agree New Orleans must be re-inhabited, to not do so would be absoulute lunacy.  To expect the other cities of Louisiana too take in 500,000+ people is asking way to much of them.  New Orleans was devistated - but Im going to play the optimist and say that there are still many homes and structures not nearly as affected by flood waters as some of the poorer wards.

Westguy - Im not sure I see where your going.  Are you saying that New Orleans should be abandoned?  Or are you refering to something else?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well some good will come out of it and that will be it will provide allot of jobs in construction not only for the people of Louisiana but for people from other states as well. It will be a group effort from all over the United States. To get the town backup. If enough people work on it anything is possiable. Maybe if the town was out in the sticks I say yeah it would be ok to abandon it. But my god this is a major city and their is a major interstate that runs through that major city. Not fixing anything would hurt Houston transportation out of the state and into the state. Up here we have notice that some shipments are 4 to 5 days behind. At are local walmart. I think for anybody to think to not rebuild is nothing short of nuts. Yes it might take several years to get it back to what it somewhat use to be. But it wont take nearly that long for it to come back to where the city is atleast operational.

[Heights2Bastrop]

I have heard it stated that some 80% of New Orleans is under water. Given the time it will take to drain the city, most of the houses and apartments in that area will be uninhabitable and unsalvageable and will have to be razed. A number of businesses will have to be torn down as well. What you will end up with is, basically, a blank slate on which to rebuild the city.

Now, if you had the power and the means to plan and build a major city anywhere in the US, the last place you would choose is a huge bowl below sea level in the middle of a swamp right in Hurricane Alley. It makes no sense whatsoever.

However, if anyone is foolish enough to do so, then have at it. Build whatever you want wherever you want. But don

[arche_757]

I just don

[Heights2Bastrop]

You sadden me.

And it saddens me that we are having to go through this horrible disaster. If we rebuild the city back the way it used to be, we will go through this disaster all over again, and for the same reasons. New Orleans is a disaster waiting to happen

[RedScare]

I just don

[VicMan]

If I was the planner of New Orleans, I would raise most of the city (the parts wiped out by Katrina) to above sea level and build a large seawall.

[eelimon]

I just don

[Heights2Bastrop]

What if this was Miami Beach?

Hell what if this was Corpus Christi?

One of Texas overlooked city that sits on the cost, a city highly populated by one minority Hispanics. You know who cares about all those Mexicans that live there. <--- obvious sarcasm I am Mexican.

Well it makes me mad. No it angers me to think that race, poverty, and prejudice. Could possibly slow down the rebuilding of one of Americas greatest cities

First of all, Miami and Corpus are not below sea level.

Secondly, why in the hell are you trying to turn this into a racial issue? That is very racist of you to even suggest that my reasons are based on race.

Now I'm mad!

If I was the planner of New Orleans, I would raise most of the city (the parts wiped out by Katrina) to above sea level and build a large seawall.

I'm not sure it would be worth the effort since New Orleans has been sinking for years, and will continue to sink in the future. But that

[arche_757]

I think this section needs to be closed - or certain posts deleted.

[eelimon]

I think this section needs to be closed - or certain posts deleted.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I am just unsubsribing to this thread if yall have never done that before here is how:

My Controls >Subscriptions >View Topics >find the topic you want to unsubscribe and check the box on the far right >then at the bottom pulldown menu select "unsubscribe" >then push the button next to the pulldown menu that says "with selected"

[ssullivan]

Guys, as a reminder, please keep the discussions civil. As Editor has pointed out before, this section of the forum is for verified news and information, not for rumor, speculation, or heated debate. Politics, disagreements, and personal beliefs aside, the original poster's point in this thread was to discuss things that needed to be done to make the city habitable again. As the discussion has started to degrade and get off that topic, I am closing this thread.

Let's keep it calm and civilized, and focus on what we, as Houstonians, can be doing today and over the coming days, weeks, and months to help the flood of visitors from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama that have come to our great city seeking refuge and safety. This is not an issue that's going to go away tomorrow; we are going to have a lot of these individuals with us for a long time to come, and they are going to need our help in many ways.