[StBernard] Betsy vs Katrina

[Westley Annis]

Westley,

I did live through hurricane Betsy and what you say is true about the scale
of it being nothing compared to Katrina.  You are correct in saying that
flood insurance did not exist, but that doesn't mean that people's
homowner's insurance paid for the damage.  It did not.  Homeowner's
insurance did not cover flood even back then.  People were on their own.  
They had to fix the house themselves with their own money or they could go
to the SBA.  Most people had to make SBA loans.  I don't know about a grant
money that was forgiven.  I have never heard that.  I was a child but I
remember my parents made a SBA loan to fix our house and they had to pay the
loan back and even had a lien on our house for the loan to make sure it got
paid back.

Laurie


>Since I was born in December 1967, I did not live through Betsy.  All 

>I've ever heard was that Betsy was a mean hurricane that flooded the city.

>

>Now, "city" was never defined in geographical terms, so I always 

>pictured it as having flooded everything that we might consider 

>metro-New Orleans, stretching from Kenner to Chalmette.

>

>Until GJS and someone else, sorry, I can't remember who, posted their 

>messages about water only running from the Industrial Canal to 

>Chalmette, I've always pictured everything from Kenner to Chalmette being

under water.

>Looking back, I can say I've had people tell me this house or that was 

>under water, but they were always in the narrow footprint of Lower 8th 

>Ward to Chalmette.  A much smaller foot print than Katrina, and a much 

>smaller number of people if you only compare the Betsy foot print.

>

>That was point one.

>

>Point two: Homeowners only had homeowners insurance. There was no such 

>thing as flood insurance.  As long as you had your homeowners 

>insurance, you were covered.  No bickering over whether damage was wind 

>or flood, you had a claim and that was it.  I'm sure there was still 

>some bickering over getting paid on the claim, but at least it was with 

>just one insurance company.

>

>Point three: From what I have been told, and perhaps you seasoned 

>citizens can enlighten us all, the Federal Government gave everyone a 

>$2,500 loan that was forgiven a year later, making it a grant.

>

>Using the Gross Domestic Product as a multiplier, that $2,500 today is 

>only worth $150.  If you want the same purchasing power today that they 

>had in 1965, the Fed's would have to give out $43,000.

>

>If you are repairing your home, are you able to do the entire job for 

>$50,000?

>

>How many people left their houses in the 9th Ward and relocated to St.

>Bernard?

>

>My main point in this email is to realize that while both Betsy and 

>Katrina flooded New Orleans and St. Bernard, they did so on a different 

>scale, the government reacted in a different scale (as much as an idiot 

>Lyndon Johnson was, the Federal Government still did what the President 

>told them to do without bickering over the damn "rule" book and having 

>Russell Long as a Senator could have only been a good thing), and the 

>number of people effected was vastly different.

>

>While comparisons can be made, we are talking about red apples and 

>green apples.  You can't use them interchangeably in the same recipe.

>

>Westley

>