Rebuild New Orleans

Rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast?

by Beverly Caruso

Like you I have watched and prayed… Watched the scenes of destruction. Watched the rescues. Watched the frightened faces, the angry people, the grateful people. I’ve prayed too. For the injured, the homeless, those separated from their families. Most of us have at least given, still hilo b4 others have volunteered to help in the relief efforts, or taken in the displaced.

I’ve seen other places that have been destroyed by natural disaster. One of those places is the east coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. In 1946 a tsunami wiped out much of the city of Hilo, including a school, killing 159 people. Then in 1960 yet another tsunami struck the same place, this time killing 61. This was when the population there was small. Most of those who lost their homes and businesses had to rebuild at their own expense. They knew that another tsunami could hit their shores again. (Picture: old Hilo)

Did they rebuild, yet again, in the same place? NO! After 1960, the residents set aside a half mile of their beautiful shoreline against a future tsunami.

I’m disheartened to hear people talk, as though bravely, of rebuilding the destroyed areas of the Gulf Coast. That’s not bravery, that’s foolishness! Why don’t they learn the lesson the Hawaiians learned? Rebuild, but elsewhere.

Why don’t they learn? Because your taxes and mine will be given to them. There is a reason private insurance companies do not provide flood insurance – it is not profitable. The U.S. government is the only provider of flood insurance. Our tax dollars will rebuild public buildings, utility lines, roads. And they will pay for disinfecting and purifying contaminated areas.

Why should that hard earned money, yours, mine, and the evacuees’, be used to rebuild those cities and towns in the same places – directly in the path of the next hurricane? Or the one following? Will we then have to do it all over again, and again? Why should our money be spent raising the levees to protect a below sea level New Orleans?

There’s a better way. Learn from the Hawaiian people.

“There is a simple and tragic reason why downtown Hilo looks so appealingly low-key, with its modest streets and wooden stores: all the buildings which stood on the seaward side of Kamehameha Avenue were destroyed by two tsunami. After 1960, no attempt was made to Hilo now rebuild the “little Tokyo” that had housed Hilo’s predominantly Japanese population, and the sea front is now occupied by a succession of pleasant gardens.” Quoted from Pacific Garden Travel literature.

Of course the residents of the gulf coast cities want to go home. But home is not there any more. The coastal strip of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama will never be the same. Those communities will always be only a memory. Nostalgia for New Orlean’s French Quarter, or Mobile’s casinos, must not overpower common sense. (Picture: Hilo now - park area on the coast.)

Instead of pouring money, our money, into rebuilding, let’s use that money to help those same folks get settled in other parts of the country. Each family or individual could be given a certain amount of resettlement funds. It should be sufficient to carry them for a designated time, long enough for them to find housing, get jobs, and begin anew. Multiplied thousands of them would find a far better life than they knew before. They could stay in the southern States, or look for a life in a completely different community. Some may even choose to work together to plan and build totally new communities at a safe distance from their former homes.

Those who insist they have a right to go back to the land they owned, where they lived in nice homes that were destroyed, could choose to rebuild. But with the understanding that if they do rebuild and later their home is destroyed, it will be at their own expense.

I’m tired of people who know good and well that they’re building in destruction’s path doing so anyway because, “if it gets destroyed, FEMA will help me rebuild.” Let them buy private insurance for the right (luxury) to live “where they choose.”

It is true that there is far more commercial value in the land and existing buildings along the Gulf Coast than there was in Hawaii. But when one looks at the long term, rebuilding, followed the future destruction and repeated rebuilding simply doesn’t make sense.

The coastal strip could become a beautiful ten mile or so stretch, furnished with roads, parks, and parking lots and expansive beaches. Everyone could have access to them. New communities, a safe distance from the shore, at high enough elevations, could be built for those who want, or need, to live there. Hotels and restaurants could be built at a safe distance and shuttles could transport people to the beaches.

Hilo

There may be good reasons some things might be rebuilt near the shore. But they should not be the homes, hotels, and businesses that put lives in harm’s way, only to eventually require rebuilding after the next Katrina. Certainly it would be an important urban planning tool to keep residential and high value commercial properties out of potential flood areas. Will this happen? Probably not as much as we would like: It is unlikely the New Orleans, or the other municipal governments, could ever be that effective without a great deal of outside coercion.

In sum, I think a compelling case can be made for moving these cities, but there will be market forces for rehabilitation in these areas and the local governments’ inability to guide the reconstruction in a prudent manner.

We need to apply pressure at the federal level, however, to ensure that there is some prudence in the use of federal funds for reconstruction.

Others could certainly improve on my suggestions, but you and I both know the principle I’m proposing makes sense. Let the experts work out the defects.

If you agree with the principle behind what I’ve written, would you cut and paste the above (not this part) into a new email and send it to your congressmen, representatives, and others in influential positions? Or maybe write and send your own opinion to them?

To find their email address, go to:

http://www.conservativeusa.org/mega-cong.htm

http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

If you want to send this on to your own sphere of influence, please cut and paste it into a new email, don't simply hit forward.

* Be inspired by a Faith Builder from Around the World: http://www.across2u.com/devotionals.html