Plans would turn over control of hard-hit areas

The Times-Picayune ^ | Monday, October 31, 2005 | Gordon Russell and Laura Maggi

[caryatid]

Government would make repairs that property owners can't afford

Faced with tens of thousands of heavily damaged homes in the New Orleans area, and a cloud of uncertainty about whether their owners want or will be able to repair them, lawmakers and other leaders are floating radical ideas that would give the government broader control over private property.

[caryatid]

If New Orleans Democrats are iffy about the idea, it's even less popular among Republicans.

[Brilliant]

I suggest that we put this to a vote of the American people. I can't believe we're even talking about it.

[Red Badger]

This is a HOT potato for whoever has it. The houses must be torn down to the foundations. Mold, mildew, rot and sewage hav emade them hazardous and unfit for human or animal habitation. The question is, Who Pays?.....If the Local Gov takes on the responsibility, they can't afford it and they will be blamed for slow/shoddy results. If the Fed takes over, the local Gov will blame them for everything. If the task goes well, then the local gov will get no praise or votes..........

[TCats]

The ideas here are tantamount to Gov't bailout in toto. I was struck by the following:

"the government expropriating properties from people who can't fix them through no fault of their own"

The plain, unvarnished fact is that everyone had the option for additional flood damage insurance and couldn't or wouldn't pay the price for it. Now the Gov't proposes a bailout for the consequences of these individual, poor choices.

'Compassionate'? Maybe. Bad policy? Most certainly.

[isthisnickcool]

Usually, FEMA/NFIP after such a flood anywhere else would require that all new structures be built above the flood plain. That's a problem in New Orleans. A place that FEMA/NFIP have been selling insurance at laughably low rates for many years.

Having humans live in a hole next to water is dumb. Rebuilding many of these houses does not make sense. Especially since New Orleans is sinking.

Maybe the best thing to do is to take the houses in the lowest areas and just bulldoze them. Then give the owners either insurance money if they have it or if they just have to give away taxpayer money give the folks enough to move somewhere else.

This is going to cost a fortune if they try to just rebuild houses as they were before. And eventually the same thing will happen again. new orleans will flood.

Part of the solution has to be not allowing the same thing to happen again. Which means that large parts of the area must be vacated forever.

[caryatid]

Beverly Evans as she rides through her neighborhood in the Lower 9th Ward for the first time since it was destroyed. The city provided 9th Ward residents with the opportunity to take bus tours for a brief look at their community. Fri Oct. 28, 2005
AP Photo by Robert F. Bukaty

[isthisnickcool]

I now how she feels. Our family had a property in Houston that flooded. That's one reason I know a little about this stuff. The wet walls, the mold, ripping out wet carpet, cleaning out mud, etc.

I don't see any easy solution. For example, why should the people in the 9th Ward be thrown back into the same situation they were in before? They are in a very dangerous place.

Check out these pics.