NOLA, Gulf Coast Resident Return Home To Mess

More than 170,000 New Orleans residents are going to be allowed to return to the less damaged areas of the city. That's about 1/3 of the city's former population.

State officials say at least 140,000 homes and businesses across southeastern Louisiana were so badly damaged that they must be torn down. The storms also left 22 million tons of debris, including 350,000 cars and trucks, said Mike McDaniel, chief of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

That's a lot of garbage and debris that will need to be carted away. It also creates an opportunity to go green - higher efficiency vehicles, durable goods, and rebuild to critical infrastructure stronger and with more efficient uses of materials. However, Gov. Blanco is still looking for handouts:

"Just as the nation knew that we had to create economic greatness in New York City after 9-11, the nation and the world needs south Louisiana," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said in seeking federal tax breaks, incentives and grants.

Many of those tax breaks never got used for their intended purposes. The Liberty Bonds, while helping get one building in Lower Manhattan rebuilt (7 WTC) and one in Midtown (the NYT headquarters), was used sparingly and the effects of those tax breaks are still being determined. We should be careful how to develop programs that would encourage people to return to areas that could easily be hit by future hurricanes. Do we really want to encourage people to move into areas that are unsafe due to regular and periodic flooding? My sense is that we're going to accept that higher level of risk, and the nation will pay for it. The country, however, will not pay for the entire slate of programs that Blanco and the La. delegation has asked for. At this point, the entire Gulf Coast has used about $17 billion of the $62 billion in appropriations thus far. Even with that huge sum, there are already questions over where and how that money was spent.

But New Orleans isn't just facing those problems. The police department is a huge mess:

Even as the city welcomed some residents home, the police department said it was investigating a dozen officers accused of looting during the lawlessness that engulfed the city after Katrina.

So far, there are 12 officers under investigation. I think that number is lowballing things and it doesn't even deal with the larger issue of officers going AWOL during the storm's aftermath. More than 15% of the force went missing, and abandoned their posts. That's inexcusable. And it puts everyone in NOLA at risk.

Arrests were made in Shreveport for fraud relating to impersonating Katrina victims.

Kenneth Hodge and Veronica Jaeger were arrested in Shreveport.

According to the Caddo Parish sheriff's office, the two were actually in Tallahassee during the hurricane and came through Louisiana on a bus trip layover.

Authorities say they claimed to be married at a church shelter for evacuees. They allegedly claimed on the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster assistance Web site that they lived in Slidell and lost everything to Hurricane Katrina.

That's a federal criminal act. Have fun at Club Fed! It seems that every disaster brings out the best in some people, but brings out the creeps too. These two are creeps - they're taking money out of the hands of people who really need it.

The death count continues climbing in Louisiana, but nowhere near the 10,000 figure that was cited by Mayor Nagin for New Orleans/Louisiana alone:

Katrina's death toll in Louisiana rose to 923 on Thursday, up from 896 the day before, the state health department said. Mississippi's toll rose to 221 Friday from 220, with confirmation of a body found under a collapsed motel, said Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove.

Radio Slidell is simulcasting on both AM and FM stations to assist people in the affected areas get timely information.

Reconstruction is going to be slow throughout the Gulf Coast in part because the very construction firms that worked those areas before the storms were themselves trying to figure out where they would live.

The difficulty of rebuilding could be exacerbated because Gulf Coast contracting has long been the province of small, independent companies without the deep pockets to recover quickly. That has spurred out-of-state contractors to pour into the region, increasing competition for labor and driving up prices.

When the region's contractors do get back on their feet, most of their time will be directed at repairing homes that are salvageable, not rebuilding ones that were destroyed, industry experts say.

About 9,000 contractors belonging to the National Association of Home Builders are based along the Gulf Coast. While there is no reliable estimate of how many of them were put out of commission by the storm, the group says it is likely in the thousands.

"They're not in a position to help right now," said Jerry Howard, the group's CEO.

And the costs for rebuilding will be increased over what prior construction costs were because of supply and demand. Fewer builders trying to do far more work than they can possibly handle and materials costs skyrocketing because of increased demand up and down the coast.

In Biloxi, Miss., building has resumed on houses that had been under construction. But the cost per square foot has increased from $80 to $99, real-estate agent Nancy Stone Bourgeois said.

The demand was obvious this week at a Home Depot in Gulfport, Miss., where customers' cars stretched from the entrance out to the street. Contractor Robert Mackley of Gulfport, with a pickup truck full of lumber, said people have to understand why contractors are raising their rates.

"It's supply and demand," he said. The increased cost of materials and strain put on the industry because of hurricane damage over the past two years in Florida "didn't help anything. It's going to drive everything up."

However, there is some really good news for Biloxi and Gulfport residents. Biloxi's water supply has been restored and Gulfport's water bills are going to be reduced/suspended for September because of disruptions caused by Katrina.

UPDATE:
Mayor Nagin is going to create a 16 person Commission to oversee reconstruction. Why do I smell patronage? Have I become too cynical? Not in the slightest. Not when there are numerous reports about how the various levee boards were using the positions to dole out pork instead of making sure that the levees were properly maintained (using whatever money that went to pork to improving or strengthening them against higher water levels for example).

According to several people who have seen the list of members, the commission includes a broad array of business leaders and community representatives, from Scott Cowen, the president of Tulane University, to Joseph C. Canizaro and Donald T. Bollinger Jr., businessmen with close ties to the White House. Also on the list is David White, a businessman often described as the mayor's closest confidant.

The commission's ranks are especially thick with chief executives and others hailing from the top ranks of the business world here. Those close to Mr. Nagin said that reflects the comfort level of a man who worked as an executive with Cox Communications, the local cable television system, prior to being elected mayor in 2002 - if not also the comfort level of the president and other top Congressional leaders.

Ah, trying to get the politics out of the way by snuggling up to the guys who would have you on your keyster. Smart play. Oh, and the NYT has to remind everyone that there's a race angle too.

UPDATE:
Teams of workers are looking over the Superdome and are cleaning up the building.

Teams were also decontaminating the Arena bathrooms and a biohazard team is picking up the medical waste, Menard said.

Ellerbe Becket, a design firm that has studied the Superdome in connection with upgrading it for the Saints, sent in an eight-person team of architects, engineers and construction professionals to evaluate the Dome.

“We had mapped out the Dome and had stored the information in our computer drafting systems here,” said Stuart Smith, spokesman for Ellerbe Becket. “We have the floor plan already in tow. The team that studied the Dome will have a head start in this situation.”

Experts will check all the operating systems including plumbing, electrical, audio, video and broadcast abilities. The structural components of the building will also be appraised.

“They want to know — did the storm weaken the building and if it did, can it be renovated and be as strong or stronger than ever,” Smith said.

The Office of Facility Planning and Control estimates $200 million in damage to the Superdome.

Is there really $200 million in damage or is that the amount necessary to upgrade it for the Saints? Seeing how they don't even know how much structural damage there is, this $200 million figure is pie in the sky - just like all the other figures thrown out by Louisiana officials.

UPDATE:
Here come the speculators. There is always someone who thinks that money can be made even in the worst of circumstances. The hurricane disaster areas are no different. Some people think that there's money to be made in real estate purchases of properties affect by the hurricane on the expectation that they can buy cheap and sell high as demand for the property increases as areas rebound and rebuild.

Technorati: flood aid; hurricane katrina; katrina aid; oil production; impeach bush; slidell; biloxi; gulfport; compass; nagin; blanco; barbour.