Big Easy residents move back into homes that remain in danger's path

Ready Orleans Not

While officials continue to debate the best way to rebuild New Orleans, those who lived there just want to go home. But as residents slowly but surely return, many are reinhabiting houses that may not stand up to severe weather and returning to areas planners think should be abandoned, some of which were submerged in 20 feet of water when Hurricane Katrina hit a year and a half ago. New federal flood guidelines say "substantially damaged" homes must be raised on foundations up to three feet off the ground, but homeowners are finding ways around the requirement, which can cost $50,000. "It's terrifying," says civil-engineering professor Robert G. Bea. "We're doing the same things we have in the past but expecting different results." The city's levees are not guaranteed to withstand another strong hurricane, and buffer wetlands continue to erode, but residents like Vincent Gangi are willing to take the risk. "Something like Katrina happens only once in a hundred years," he says. Let us all hope.

straight to the source: The Washington Post, Peter Whoriskey, 04 Jan 2007

ADVERTISING POLICY

Comments: (2 comments)

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have a Gristmill account, log in below. If you don't have a Gristmill account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

PM Harper Harps on About Environment

It is important to note where PM Harper's political base is situated, and that is squarely in the Alberta oil sands; gas and oil interests, the big polluters (and other regional neo-con players and corporations with a stake in upholding the status quo) greased Harper and his crew up for their oozy path to Ottawa.
The current Conservative Party-led government (Harper's govt.)is currently in a tenuous minority led situation in parliament- When you add it up, they are outnumberd by the other three parties represented in Parliament, those including the Liberal Party (for whom Stephane Dion, former environment minister is now the leader), the NDP (New Democratic Party), and the Bloc Quebecois; the cabinet shuffle is just treading water, buying time in the hopes that the Conservatives will continue to get by brokering alternating deals bowing to the Bloc's interests, or those of the NDP- this all smacks of a spring election, and a last-ditch effort at cowing to real Canadians' real concerns.
Hopefully Canadians will remember that Harper's government did away with the grants and/or incentives program that saw Canadians receive refunds or tax credits when properly winterizing or renovating their homes to be more energy efficient, and that until recently the party line was to continue denying the validity of science indicative of our influence on global warming/climate change... and that's just scratching the surface of a recently greenwashed cabinet.

"My cats' breath smells like rat poo."

by Hillbilly Goat Says Baa at 11:17 AM on 05 Jan 2007

cats and environmental virtue

Thanks, Hillbilly, this is an interesting comment. By the way, does the Bloc Quebecois have a strong environmental position?

The second of the linked Globe and Mail articles, which offers such homely and down-to-earth details about the principals in this story that it rather makes Canada look like a town of 7,000, mentions the Harpers' real commitment to the welfare of cats, including their being foster-guardians to homeless cats. That is a great and good thing. But I cannot help wondering if that experience in any way affects PM Harper's reaction to scenes of the slaughter of young harp seals in waters off Canada's Atlantic coast, carried out by Canadians.

It is noteworthy that Pope Benedict XVI is another famous aelurophile, though I doubt he has done as much for cat welfare as the Harpers.

Of course, aelurophilia sometimes has been played for irony: E.g., in the 1960s, in James Bond spin-offs, it was a bit of a cliche', almost a sight-gag, to have the arch-villain hold a beautiful little cat, to which he was clearly attached. To be sure, he was also very devoted to his pool of piranhas ...

But then, here is a not unrelated datum, of unclear significance: Immediately after the execution of Saddam Hussein, the US military nurse who had attended him while he was imprisoned mentioned in an interview that Saddam was always very polite, and liked to work in the small garden that adjoined his room; and he would save scraps of food from his meals, and feed them to the birds, which gave him great pleasure. What a sweet, lovable old grandfather!

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 10:01 AM on 06 Jan 2007

The comments of Grist users reflect the opinions of those individuals only, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Grist, its staff, its board members, their psychotherapists, or their aestheticians. Got it?