[StBernard] Lenient Rule Set for Rebuilding in New Orleans

[Westley Annis]

>From the New York Times


April 13, 2006
Lenient Rule Set for Rebuilding in New Orleans 
By ADAM NOSSITER and JOHN SCHWARTZ
NEW ORLEANS, April 12 - Federal officials issued unexpectedly lenient
guidelines on Wednesday for rebuilding the flood-damaged homes of New
Orleans, potentially allowing tens of thousands of homeowners to return to
their neighborhoods at costs far less than they had feared.

Under the guidelines issued here by the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
huge swaths of homes might still have to be rebuilt at least three feet off
the ground, or risk getting no federal reconstruction money or insurance. 

But the announcement, anxiously anticipated as a critical step in rebuilding
this still-ravaged city, was nonetheless greeted with some relief by local
officials and residents. They had feared that, in the wake of Hurricane
Katrina's catastrophic flooding, the government would demand that some
houses be raised as much as 10 feet, at enormous expense. 

The lesser requirement assumes that the area's damaged levee system will be
solidly reconstructed. To that end, federal officials also announced
Wednesday that most of the system's 36 miles or so of flood walls - which
sit atop levees in places where massive earthen structures are not practical
- would be replaced. The cost for that and other levee improvements is $2.5
billion, which the Bush administration said Wednesday that it would actively
seek from Congress. 

The announcement dovetails with a political climate in New Orleans in which
the idea of not rebuilding damaged neighborhoods has been taboo. In a heated
mayor's race that is now reaching its conclusion, no candidate has been
willing to say some areas should not be rebuilt because of flood danger. 

Now, the federal government - by making rebuilding requirements less
stringent than had been anticipated - appears to have concurred, though FEMA
officials did not say specifically why they chose the three-foot figure.
Some experts were critical of the decision. "It's wacky," said J. Robert
Hunter, a former director of the federal flood insurance program. "Three
feet - where did that come from? Why are we building up three feet, when the
water was up over the roof?

"What's that three feet going to do?" Mr. Hunter asked. "Instead of coming
up with real science, they're making it up. Which means that people are
going to be at risk, they're going to die again, and taxpayers are
subsidizing unwise construction with very cheap insurance."

In addition, though the upgraded levee system will guard against 100-year
floods - those that have a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year -
it will protect against the most powerful storms.

"One-hundred-year protection and Category 5 protection are not the same
thing," said Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the chief engineer of the Army Corps of
Engineers. 

At one point over the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Katrina was a Category 5
storm; when it made landfall along the coast last Aug. 29, it was described
as Category 3 or 4. The greatest flood damage occurred after the storm had
passed and the levees and flood walls gave way. 

Most officials here, though, said they were relieved that homeowners can get
on with rebuilding now that the federal house-raising requirement is known. 

"Over all, the new flood maps released by FEMA today truly do represent some
good news for the city and its rebuilding process," said Greg Meffert,
executive assistant to Mayor C. Ray Nagin. "Essentially, these new maps more
or less maintain the city to the already previously enforced 100-year flood
elevation standards." 

For months, Louisiana authorities have complained that FEMA was dragging its
feet in issuing new flood-elevation requirements, the first since the
mid-1980's. The delay caused uncertainty for thousands of people, they said.


Now mortgages can be applied for, and lives that had been on hold can move
forward. 

"I would view it as good news, and I would view it as information that we
can use to get on with planning our lives," said Sean Reilly, of the
Louisiana Recovery Authority, which will decide how federal rebuilding money
is spent. He agreed with Donald Powell, the federal official in charge of
Gulf Coast rebuilding, who said while making the announcement here, "The
good news is, it's not a dramatic-type elevation." 

As it is, many homes - even severely damaged ones - may not have to be
raised at all, if they already meet or exceed the three-foot requirement.
And since it applies only to homes that were destroyed or "substantially
damaged," which the guidelines describe as damage to more than half the
structure, the potential impact is further reduced because city officials
have been liberal in revising damage assessments downwards. In addition,
virtually all two-story homes in which the first floor was wiped out but the
second was untouched fall below the 50-percent threshold. 

"It's good news for a lot of people," said Matt McBride of the Broadmoor
Improvement Association. Broadmoor is a in a neighborhood that flooded
badly. "It's basically good news, in that people don't have to raise their
houses to exceed Katrina flood levels. For a lot of historic homes, this
doesn't change many things."

LaToya Cantrell, for instance, president of the Broadmoor association, got
five feet of water from Lake Pontchartrain, but because her house was
already elevated by four feet, she will not have to raise it.

Even in neighborhoods of newer houses, like those in eastern New Orleans,
which was severely damaged by Katrina's flooding, the federal government's
new requirement could be considered generous. "All of the two-story houses
in eastern New Orleans have less than 50 percent damage, and this doesn't
affect them," said Mtumishi St. Julien, a homeowner in that area who heads
the Housing Finance Authority of New Orleans. "It's not going to drastically
impact New Orleans, as some people suggest."

FEMA officials, in making their announcement, declined to say how many homes
would be affected, or whether the most popular, ground-level type of new
construction - slab-on-grade - might still be allowed. 

The announcement by the Army Corps of Engineers that the flood walls would
be replaced was the clearest admission yet by the corps that much of New
Orleans' levee system had long been flawed, and was not simply overpowered
by forces that went beyond what the system was designed to withstand. 

General Strock, the corps' chief engineer, said the entire system of flood
walls would have to be examined to determine what must be replaced. "We must
assume that because the foundations of these levees are pretty much the same
throughout the system" the problem is widespread, he said.

In a conference call after the announcement, General Strock said even the
system being planned would not prevent flooding in New Orleans in the case
of another hurricane like Katrina, "But it will not be catastrophic
flooding" caused by a breach in the system, he said.

Until the completion of the upgraded network of levees and flood walls,
planned for 2010, he said, "there is a heightened level of risk that will go
down over time." 

Still uncertain is the fate of lower Plaquemines Parish, jutting into the
Gulf of Mexico and severely flooded. Home to about 2 percent of the New
Orleans area's population, the parish would require an additional $1.6
billion to raise its levee system to FEMA guidelines, money the Bush
Administration has not promised to seek. 

Wednesday's advisory, as officials called it, opens the door to new
flood-insurance maps, which will come later this year. Even for those who
must raise their houses, the federal requirement could be good news because
elevating a house by as little as five feet can cost more than $100,000. Up
to $30,000 in federal money is available to homeowners for such projects. 

Whatever the opinions of outside experts, the new federal policy was viewed
favorably here.

"Over all, it's good news in that FEMA has agreed Katrina was only a
one-time event, and flood insurance won't be based on catastrophic events
but on common sense," Mr. McBride of the Broadmoor association said.