Posted on 09/15/2005 2:42:39 PM PDT by Altair333
WASHINGTON (AP) — Louisiana lawmakers outlined a detailed reconstruction plan for their devastated state Thursday, including full coastal restoration and economic development incentives to brings jobs and people back to New Orleans. Dubbed "Project Pelican," the plan was developed by all nine Republicans and Democrats in the House-Senate delegation. There was no cost estimate attached to the proposal and it did not address the issue of whether the reconstruction should be managed by existing federal agencies or by a new entity. ... The plan calls for $20 billion to speed up the repair and enhancement of New Orleans' levees; $14 billion to restore wetlands to reduce future damage from storm surges; and the dedication of a share of Gulf Coast oil revenues to long-term coastal restoration and infrastructure redevelopment. In the economic development area, the plan would provide incentives for employers to hire displaced workers and local businesses. It also would provide loans and tax relief for small businesses in the state, and federal assistance to help state and local governments meet payrolls and restore tax bases.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
The mayors of Detroit, Washington DC, etc. must be saying "Damn! How do we get a Cat 5 hurricane to come this far north ...
Would you please translate that for me?
??
LVM
A few excerpts from Bush's speech tonight:
I also want to know all the facts about the government response to Hurricane Katrina. The storm involved a massive flood, a major supply and security operation, and an evacuation order affecting more than a million people. It was not a normal hurricane – and the normal disaster relief system was not equal to it.
The government of this nation will do its part as well. Our cities must have clear and up-to-date plans for responding to natural disasters, disease outbreaks, or terrorist attack … for evacuating large numbers of people in an emergency … and for providing the food, water, and security they would need. In a time of terror threats and weapons of mass destruction, the danger to our citizens reaches much wider than a fault line or a flood plain. I consider detailed emergency planning to be a national security priority.
The work that has begun in the Gulf Coast region will be one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen. When that job is done, all Americans will have something to be very proud of – and all Americans are needed in this common effort.
And the Federal government will undertake a close partnership with the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, the city of New Orleans, and other Gulf Coast cities, so they can rebuild in a sensible, well planned way. Federal funds will cover the great majority of the costs of repairing public infrastructure in the disaster zone, from roads and bridges to schools and water systems. Our goal is to get the work done quickly. And taxpayers expect this work to be done honestly and wisely – so we will have a team of inspector generals reviewing all expenditures.
Tonight so many victims of the hurricane and the flood are far from home and friends and familiar things. You need to know that our whole Nation cares about you – and in the journey ahead you are not alone. To all who carry a burden of loss, I extend the deepest sympathy of our country. To every person who has served and sacrificed in this emergency, I offer the gratitude of our country. And tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes … we will stay as long as it takes … to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know: There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.
Okay one reason they will rebuild is simply, oil and gas. If you don't want to drive or use any petroleum based product then fine they won't rebuild. It's not as easy as you think to not be dependant on oil.
Or if you have a from a state that is in the midwest that is dependant on farming the products are usually shipped out through the Port of New Orleans. It requires workers to keep the oil industry and the port to function. That's why it will be rebuilt.
"Okay one reason they will rebuild is simply, oil and gas."
The urban ghettos which make up most of the town don't serve to extract one extra barrel of oil. The oil and gas workers will have other places nearby to live, such as across the river in Algiers and to the west in Gretna.
Exactly!! Are they too blind to see that NO is BELOW sea level? What part of that do they not get?
Let's see how the President sugar-coats it all tonight and who will he be playing to? The welfare crowd?
Sell it back to the French!
I doubt real seriously that those areas will be rebuilt for the ghettos. I am not that naive. If it is rebuilt, it will be the absolutely last thing built. You know take so long that they are hopefully in a different socioeconomic class.
As far as Algiers, and the non flooded areas, people already live in those areas. Are we going to displace them so that the workers can live there? Are you familiar with the area? The greater NO area has about a million people living there that is not including the population of New Orleans Proper. They aren't all ghettos either. The majority of the people in NO did work despite what the media has portrayed. Do you really think that a major US city could survive with only inner city ghettos?
I'm sorry, but this SUCKS. President Bush is bending over backwards to pay back something that WASN'T HIS FAULT, and because of a loss of life of 500 to 600 people in LA we are going to cripple the entire U.S. in debt - and for what?
Now retired Congressman Billy Tauzin of LA co-authored CARA, the Conservation and Reinvestmant Act, in 2000 which would have rolled all the previous acts into CARA and created a new funding act to fund coastal migation/restoration.
It was unique in that it tied a state'e portion of the Coastal mitigation money to its proximity to oil production on the continental shelf. It also created a funding formula that was resistant to politcal porking.
CARA failed and and most of those funds are going into Everglades restoration as well as the Chesapeake Bay and Columbia River Basin.
Where are the enviro-nuts on destroying the New Orleans wetlands? Don't we have laws that prevent draining swamps?
Where are the environmental impact statements?
Why can a farmer who fills in a puddle in the middle of a field be fined or jailed, yet the natural wetlands, recreated by Katrina, are being destroyed without comment?
Ah, I can imagine the U.S. without NO easily.
So those NIMBY's benefit from our oil industry even though they refuse to allow drilling off of their shores. We lose massive amounts of our coast so that the rest of the country can function. Well there was a price for that and NO paid it.
Amen.
A perpetual money machine!
I fear there are going to be a lot of unhappy FReepers tonight.
So that's what all that is. I've seen it from the air and wondered.
yes.
All of the Coastal and Lake states supported it and it had 2/3 of the vote in both Houses but a fluke deal derailed it.
It is still kicking around Congress but when it failed, they all negotiated a compromise for 5 years which will be expiring next year.
LA is tring to revive this as part of the solution to their financial woes.
It is interesting that early in Campaign 2004, Kerry was trying to bring LA into play and made two trips into LA promising them that he would see to it that they would would all the coastal mitigation money that they needed if he was elected. Nobody there believed him.
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