[StBernard] Plan allows entire Big Easy to be rebuilt

[Westley Annis]

What I find the most interesting point in this article is that Lynn Dean
states he is moving EBI out of St. Bernard/Plaquemines to Houma.  I wonder
how long ago he made this decision since I had seen a news article about 4-5
months back that he had donated a parcel of land or something to that effect
to the Terrebonne Parish School Board.

It's not shown as a direct quote, but the article says he has given up on
St. Bernard.

Westley

-----Original Message-----

from the April 14, 2006 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0414/p03s03-ussc.html 

Plan allows entire Big Easy to be rebuilt Flood plain advisory calls for new
levees for the city, but protection for outlying areas is less clear.
By Patrik Jonsson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor 

ATLANTA - For residents of New Orleans, especially the flood-ravaged lower
Ninth Ward, it was welcome news: By raising some homes three feet off the
ground, residents in the whole city can rebuild knowing they are eligible
for federal flood insurance in the event of another Katrina.

In a much-awaited move that has been painted as a key piece of the
rebuilding puzzle, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the
Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday released a new flood plain advisory for
the flooded areas that, along with a $2.5 billion proposal to build stronger
and taller levees, will make it easier for displaced residents to decide
whether to rebuild. The wait of such guidelines and worries that some homes
may have to be raised by as much as 10 feet have hampered the recovery,
experts say.

But the announcement may be worse news for destroyed communities outside the
city. Where New Orleans is likely to be better protected in the future -
thanks to plans for storm gates that will keep lake water from rushing up
shipping canals and straight into the city, as happened after Katrina, parts
of St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes would remain at risk during big
storms like Katrina, Corps of Engineers officials have said.

Meanwhile, some officials hailed Wednesday's announcement as a step in the
right direction, giving residents a crucial piece of information to help
them decide whether to return to close-knit communities that have existed
for centuries.

"This is not intended to give false confidence," says Dan Hitchings,
director of Task Force Hope, which is overseeing all of the Corps of
Engineers' rebuilding efforts in the wake of Katrina. "It's really about
trying to get people the facts and information they need so they can make
individual decisions."

Though the flood plain advisory is intended to assure people that New
Orleans will be rebuilt, many residents nonetheless feel distrustful of a
federal government that had built a levee system that failed miserably
against the terrifying storm.

"You've got two sets of forces [at work among residents]: One is desperately
wanting to come home, and the other is a distrust of the government," says
Stephen Klineberg, a Rice University sociologist who has studied how floods
affect people. "Most people still predict that New Orleans will not go back
to what it's once been."

In St. Bernard Parish, Wednesday's announcement was disturbing news to
members of a citizen recovery committee who had been told that homes would
have to be raised by two, not three, feet - a difference of perhaps tens of
thousands of dollars in construction costs. One committee member also noted
that the actual maps have not been released, only an "advisory," and that
flood lines may change. The maps are expected to be available next year.

"This is one more thing that's keeping people from coming home," says
committee member Ron Chapman, a Chalmette, La., boatbuilder who has decided
to stay. "Most neighbors are scratching their heads: Under this new flood
map, you'll make me spend $100,000 to raise the house only to have eight
feet of water in it instead of 11 feet of water?"

So far, fewer than 10,000 of 67,000 prestorm residents have returned to St.
Bernard Parish, says Lynn Dean, another boatbuilder and a parish councilor.
He has decided to give up on St. Bernard Parish and move his boatyard to
Houma, La., instead.

"When the government tries to tell everybody how to build houses, all you
get is political [maneuvering]," he says, adding that the new maps are a
politically expedient solution that leaves tens of thousands of residents in
the lurch.

What Mr. Dean would like to see is a new way of thinking about storm
protection, including manual flooding of some low-lying areas to allow
Mississippi River silt to build natural erosion protection. Reviving some
40,000 acres of dead cypress swamps, which served as an "expressway" for the
storm surge from the Gulf, would also better protect the area, he says.

So far, the US government is focused on the levees. Congress still needs to
debate the $2.5 billion request to reinforce them.