Rebuild New Orleans Or Not?

[DJ V Lawrence]

or further inland?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Indeed, dude.

At least so the city doesn't have to depend on levees to prevent the city from going under. Whoever decided to do that in the old days was on crack.

I'm praying for New Orleans to recover and be stronger after this is all over...which will be possibly a decade from now unfortunately (architecture wise)

[bruce_oneal]

i am thinking more like 15-20 years.

[houstonsemipro]

right, but i wonder how many people are actually here in houston.  the total number.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Mayor Bill White said it's at lease 100,000 people from Louisiana and Mississippi. People drove here in their cars, and planning on starting their lives over here in Houston.

[UrbaNerd]

Heh, perhaps we could colonize part of the east or north side, and make it..New New Orleans!

And then, we could annex them!

[N Judah]

Or just import the rubble of the historic parts and rebuild them here. And just let the rest of the city sink into the water (after rescuing the people first).

[houstonsemipro]

i am thinking more like 15-20 years.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And I'm thinking more less than 60-90 days for they get ship back to louisiana shelters. As long they stay here, the more crime it will be.

[bruce_oneal]

And I'm thinking more less than 60-90 days for they get ship back to louisiana shelters. As long they stay here, the more crime it will be.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

well there has to be a plan. you cannot just REMOVE an entire city without some kinda long range social planning including job, job training, psychological and perhaps drug counseling. these people are refugees with basically nothing left of their lives except the items they came here with.

i cannot imagine being told to LEAVE my home and go somewhere... anywhere. what the hell would i do? for a week, a month, a few months? i'd really have to look at LIVING wherever i went and looking for work, school for kids, a permanent place to reside, etc.

[GovernorAggie]

Given that so many people there may be immobile and they may be the transit dependent, I think this should also be a time that we think of ways that transit would help in this type of situation. If we want so many people to give up their vehicles--where would they go if a disasterwas upon them and the very transportation links that (we may have been instrumental in teaching them) are depended on fail?

I heard the guy on CNN frustrated that FEMA and other entities are taking to long to get them out, to bring supplies, etc. While at the same time, he downplayed the violence that is going on there. So I see two choices--the feds are gonna have to go habeas corpus on anybody they suspect in order to expedite the process, or those people are going to have to set some of the situation in order themselves.

[pineda]

some people have already decided that they're not going back...

[kjb434]

A city been completely supported by levees isn't that strange. What do you call most of the Netherlands? They have massive levees that protect against storm surge all the time. Rain is not as much an issue like New Orleans though.

[RedScare]

Aside from the levee problems, the task of rebuilding New Orleans looks more daunting every day.

[RedScare]

A little satellite perspective on the scal of the disaster.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/hurricane...od/katrina.html

[editor]

Doesn't really show all that much from that altitude. We'll have to wait for some aerial photography to do some good comparisons. I understand some of the first USGS pictures came in yesterday.

[MidtownCoog]

BBC had some good shots.

[Heights2Bastrop]

Aside from the levee problems, the task of rebuilding New Orleans looks more daunting every day.

Actually, there has never been a better opportunity to rebuild New Orleans.

There was an interview on (I think) CNN of the former (I think) City Planning Director of New Orleans. She stated that the solution all along has been to raise the level of the city, but displacing that many residents made the plan unfeasible.

Well, the difficult part has been taken care of. If they don

[HoustonianInColorado]

The difference with The Netherlands is that they are not lying in a hurricane target zone.

[RedScare]

Galveston did it, though it was for a fraction of the population. Does New Orleans, or more importantly, the Nation have the stomach for an undertaking such as this? Would it ruin the city? Was it only cool BECAUSE it was below sea level?

Who knows. Once the immediate human tragedy has abated, the national debate should prove interesting.

[kjb434]

Most people don't even know it's below sea level until they go there and see the ships in the river above their head when they are in Jackson Square. Now everyone knows it because of all the new coverage.

I think the housing projects and many of the abandoned dilapidated homes will not be rebuilt. In some ways the Huricane was positive and it will clean out the bad housing. It's kind of a sick perspective, but New Orleans had tons of abandoned and rental houses that were falling apart and attractive to drug dealers. Just like when Houston starting tearing down some of the abandoned homes to help neighborhoods. The daunting task is how much new housing will be built. Most home owners with the right insurance will get FEMA help and will be able to rebuild. Another section of homeowners won't get much.

I'm wondering if you'll see an apartment or condo building boom once the city is ready for construction to begins.

I was actually planning on retiring to NO one day, but I was planning to get a loft apartment in the warehouse district above the first floor or build my own house. My own house would have garage and pation on first floor with nothing of extreme value (except for my car) on the first floor.

[arche_757]

Most people don't even know it's below sea level until they go there and see the ships in the river above their head when they are in Jackson Square.

I venture to guess that even when "most people" see that the river is higher than the rest of the city - they still dont have a clue.

[bruce_oneal]

A city been completely supported by levees isn't that strange.  What do you call most of the Netherlands?  They have massive levees that protect against storm surge all the time.  Rain is not as much an issue like New Orleans though.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

and they certainly do not have hurricanes that far north either --although if they did, i guess they'd be called typhoons?

[houstonfella]

New Orleans is 267 yrs old. There must be a New Orleans. Most all of us have enjoyed New Orleans at one time or the other. American wouldn't be the same.

[bruce_oneal]

New Orleans is 267 yrs old.  There must be a New Orleans.  Most all of us have enjoyed New Orleans at one time or the other.  American wouldn't be the same.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

there have been many cities (think of the old west) that were abandoned for one reason or anotehr. why MUST there be a new orleans? perhaps they could rebuild further inland? and it would be the new new orleans.

[editor]

and they certainly do not have hurricanes that far north either --although if they did, i guess they'd be called typhoons?

I think typhoons are Pacific Ocean.

[bruce_oneal]

I think typhoons are Pacific Ocean.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

hmm .... okay.

so i guess then it would just be a really big storm.

[westguy]

The North Sea does experience storms with hurricane-force winds. Also the storm surges in the Netherlands can be extremely severe. They also have to protect a whole country - not just one city.

[editor]

There are lots of cities that have been raised after a catastrophy. Seattle and Chicago are first in my mind. Even Houston did it. The Spaghetti Warehouse is a great place to see it first hand. Stand on the sidewalk and look through the metal grates and you can see the old street level with windows and everything.

[DJ V Lawrence]

There are lots of cities that have been raised after a catastrophy.  Seattle and Chicago are first in my mind. Even Houston did it.  The Spaghetti Warehouse is a great place to see it first hand.  Stand on the sidewalk and look through the metal grates and you can see the old street level with windows and everything.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As Texans, though, we can't forget what happened to Galveston. It was one of the premier cities in America before the big one hit them. As Americans, we can't allow ourselves to forget about New Orleans and Gulf Coast relief just after all the evacuees leave New Orleans or wherever they may have come from.

I'm requesting to everyone here on HAIF to try to keep this a hot topic until at least the people who made it to Houston from the disaster areas have a permanant home. If we don't keep talking about this, and we don't keep pushing the government through the media or public discussions like this, I'm afraid the rebuilding process may take even longer than it may have to.

[arche_757]

Im trying to remember what exactly happend ot Seattle and when? The disaster that affected New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama gulf costs are two different things.

Not to down play the Mississippi and Alabama disaster area but they esentially experienced a really bad hurricane. The rebuild will begin as soon as possible within a couple of weeks, hopefully power can be restored for them soon.

New Orleans cannot even begin to rebuild until the levees are restored and flood waters drained away - once that is done the city will have to "clean up" (bodies, trash, oil, other toxins/chemicals, sewage) and only then can the city start to rebuild. Pressumably many older and in some cases newer homes/buildings will have to be torn down due to flood damage, hopefully that number will be fairly small (although perhaps its better to simply tear down old homes that have been flooded and build new more resiliant and better designed structures). Hopefully the highrises in the CBD havent sustained to much damage - other than superficial - and certainly hope the French Quarter and Garden Districts survive realitivly intact. I think its safe to say the Superdome is basically going to be demolished and the Saints will get a new stadium after all is said and done. The transit systems will get a complete overhaul - I-10 and other area freeways will be redesigned so they dont flood as easilly.

[bruce_oneal]

Im trying to remember what exactly happend ot Seattle and when?  The disaster that affected New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama gulf costs are two different things.

Not to down play the Mississippi and Alabama disaster area but they esentially experienced a really bad hurricane.  The rebuild will begin as soon as possible within a couple of weeks, hopefully power can be restored for them soon.

New Orleans cannot even begin to rebuild until the levees are restored and flood waters drained away - once that is done the city will have to "clean up" (bodies, trash, oil, other toxins/chemicals, sewage) and only then can the city start to rebuild.  Pressumably many older and in some cases newer homes/buildings will have to be torn down due to flood damage, hopefully that number will be fairly small (although perhaps its better to simply tear down old homes that have been flooded and build new more resiliant and better designed structures).  Hopefully the highrises in the CBD havent sustained to much damage - other than superficial - and certainly hope the French Quarter and Garden Districts survive realitivly intact.  I think its safe to say the Superdome is basically going to be demolished and the Saints will get a new stadium after all is said and done.  The transit systems will get a complete overhaul - I-10 and other area freeways will be redesigned so they dont flood as easilly.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

amen. and amen. i think you hit the nail on the head. but we forgot one component of all this. the human tragedy. i think many people are in shock at what happened to them (heck, i know i would be) and will take many months (years to recover).

tell me, is i10 the freeway that goes over lake ponchatrain? the really long bridge? or was that something else?

[westguy]

Aren't the freeways in Houston supposed to turn into rivers during floods? How is everyone supposed to evacuate with the damage done?