Gulf Coast Continues Recovery Five Years After Hurricane Katrina

It's been five years since Hurricane Katrina came ashore in the Gulf Coast and caused massive devastation between Florida and Texas, with nearly 1,800 people killed in the storm. The majority of those killed were in Louisiana as the eye passed near New Orleans.

The region has slowly been recovering since the storm came ashore, but the recent BP oil disaster and the recession has slowed the recovery considerably.

Slidell, Louisiana has dedicated a Katrina memorial while Habitat for Humanity has built about 500 homes along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, including in Pascagoula. Some tremendous strides have been made up and down the Gulf Coast, but quite a bit of work remains.

NOLA.com has a series of before and after photos - comparing the scenes of devastation following the hurricane and subsequent flooding and today. The Lower Ninth Ward, which was the hardest hit by the failed levees, still feels forgotten, but the Army Corps of Engineers has been working on building a comprehensive flood control system for all of New Orleans that addresses many of the key deficiencies in the levee system.

Despite all the improvements to the levee system, the Army Corps is a year away from completing its task of building the levee system to handle a 100-year storm. Miles of new levees have been built, new pumping stations have been built while others have been upgraded, and defense in depth has been incorporated in several areas.

Court Rules Katrina Damage Due To MR-GO Channel

The US government is going to be on the hook for billions based on a court ruling that came down finding that the flooding in vast portions of New Orleans was the result of the Army Corps of Engineers negligently maintaining Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MR-GO), a navigation channel.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval on Wednesday awarded seven plaintiffs $720,000, but the government could eventually be forced to pay much more. The ruling should give more than 100,000 other individuals, businesses and government entities a better shot at claiming damages.

Duval sided with six residents and one business who argued the Army Corps' shoddy oversight of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet led to the flooding of New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward and neighboring St. Bernard Parish. He said, however, the corps couldn't be held liable for the flooding of eastern New Orleans, where two of the plaintiffs lived.

'Monumental negligence'
The ruling is also emotionally resonant for south Louisiana. Many in New Orleans have argued that the flooding in the aftermath of Katrina, which struck the region Aug. 29, 2005, was a manmade disaster caused by the Army Corps' failure to maintain the levee system protecting the city.

"Total devastation could possibly have been avoided if something had been done," said Tanya Smith, one of the plaintiffs. "A lot of this stuff was preventable and they turned a deaf ear to it."

The 36-year-old registered nurse anesthetist lived in Chalmette close to the channel when Katrina hit. She was awarded $317,000 in property damages, the most of any of the plaintiffs.

Duval referred to the corps' approach to maintaining the channel as "monumental negligence."

Far from this being an issue of the Bush Administration screwing up, it goes to the institutional and pervasive failures of the Army Corps of Engineers to maintain navigation channels in and around New Orleans, the failure of which resulted in the massive devastation and deaths in New Orleans as the levees themselves failed following Katrina passing to the East.

Specifically, the court found that the MR-GO channel led to the disaster by funneling water into levees that were incapable of dealing with the water levels.

However, there are limits to the ruling:

Duval ruled, however, that WDSU-TV anchor Norman Robinson and his wife were not entitled to damages because the corps' dredging of the MR-GO did not affect the levee system that protects eastern New Orleans from hurricane storm surge. That probably means eastern New Orleans residents would not be able to collect on claims they've filed against the corps, said attorneys representing plaintiffs in the case.

Expect this ruling to get appealed to the 5th Circuit as the Corps' exposure to lawsuits based on this ruling could rise into the tens of billions of dollars.

However, the Corps is shielded from lawsuits based on levee failures as a result of a 1928 law giving the Corps immunity from such lawsuits. That means many of the nearly 470,000 claims against the Corps are likely to fail. However, those that can tie their damages to MR-GO are likely to pass muster.

Gulf Coast Still Struggling Four Years After Hurricane Katrina

The widespread devastation from Hurricane Katrina still leaves its mark across the Gulf Coast four years after the massive storm came ashore, killing nearly 2,000 people in the process. Many of those killed were never recovered, but my thoughts and prayers go out to them, their families, and their friends.

The storm completely changed entire cities and communities up and down the Gulf Coast. The devastation was total in many areas, and widespread flooding, particularly around New Orleans caused total devastation around the low-lying areas. Commemorations of the hurricane are taking place up and down the Gulf Coast and around New Orleans.

The slow pace of recovery has long been a sore point, and President Obama vows to speed the recovery, particularly around New Orleans:

Mr. Obama said he had coordinated the recovery effort across federal agencies and state and local governments. “No more turf wars,” he said.

“I have also made it clear that we will not tolerate red tape that stands in the way of progress, or the waste that can drive up the bill,” Mr. Obama said, adding, “Government must be a partner, not an opponent, in getting things done.”

He said his administration had put in place dispute-settlement programs in an effort to speed up the recovery.

In addition, he said, the government had freed up hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance that had not been distributed.

“As we rebuild and recover, we must also learn the lessons of Katrina, so that our nation is more protected and resilient in the face of disaster,” Mr. Obama said.

“That means continuing to rebuild hundreds of miles of levees and floodwalls around New Orleans,” Mr. Obama said, “and working to strengthen the wetlands and barrier islands that are the Gulf Coast’s first line of defense.”

Those levees are still not quite up to snuff.

In fact, nationally, levees are in poor shape because of design and/or construction defects such as those protecting New Orleans, threatening millions of Americans. For all the talk about improving infrastructure, levee and waterworks that protect millions of Americans is undercapitalized. Why this is the case is simply a matter of priorities. Politicians would rather unveil new construction projects than the tedium of constant attention that levees and other water protection projects require.

Then there's the issue of levee reconstruction, which has been hampered by natural conditions, including salty soil that inhibits growth of grass that stabilizes the surface of the levees that prevent erosion. The Army Corps was supposed to rebuild a section in Plaquimines Parish, but they didn't even think to test for salt content. They've missed reconstruction deadlines as a result, putting lives in danger.

Pumping stations that are supposed to divert water away from New Orleans aren't up to snuff either. There are questions about the costly system, and that hundreds of millions of dollars could have been saved using proven technologies.

Citing the corps' $430 million plan to replace the hydraulic pumps by 2012, just five years after they were installed, the special counsel concludes that a "proven" direct-drive pump design would have been less prone to corrosion and breakdowns. Based on an independent engineering review, the counsel says direct-drive pumps could have been purchased "more quickly, more reliably and without planning for pump … replacement."

Hydraulic pumps are powered by pressurized oil. Direct-drive pumps use solid drive shafts.

The findings, previously unreported, were sent to President Obama on June 12.

The investigation confirms "serious allegations about the reliability of the pumping equipment" that were raised in a 2007 whistle-blower complaint by corps engineer Maria Garzino, the letter says. The findings raise concerns about whether a major storm could overwhelm rebuilt flood controls that the corps has set up in New Orleans since Katrina hit four years ago this week.

The corps declined to comment, but corps officials previously have disputed the concerns raised by Garzino, who was a supervisor on the pump project.

"There are still questions about the contracting, design and safety of these critical pump stations," Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said about the special counsel's report. The corps must "demonstrate that these structures are indeed safe and will function properly," Landrieu said.

The special counsel's findings are the latest turn in a long debate over the pumps.

The Defense Department's inspector general has reviewed Garzino's concerns twice and ruled each time that the pumps, though not tested as well as they could have been, were a reasonable choice and should provide adequate protection until they're replaced with a more permanent system. Each time, the special counsel, an independent office that investigates whistle-blower complaints, has disputed the Pentagon's conclusions.

It must be restated once again that the disaster in New Orleans was the result of the failure of the levees that were supposed to protect against storm surges. Hurricane Katrina made a glancing blow against New Orleans, hitting further to the East, and the city escaped the damage from the storm as it passed. It was when the backside of the storm forced water back into the various drainage canals that the levees failed - primarily because they were inadequate to the task and improperly designed and constructed. The majority of those killed, and the tremendous damage in New Orleans resulted from the failure of the protection system put in place by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Hot Air also has additional coverage of the anniversary of the landfall along the Gulf Coast, and how much of what people know about happened is wrong.

Back Where We Started: Katrina Three Years Later

MSNBC, which has covered the rebuilding of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast better than any of the other national news outlets, reports that the levees under construction will not live up to the expectations of its designers since it's no better than the system in place before Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

The experts say that the new and "improved" levees will not protect against a storm like Katrina any better than the prior levee system. Construction projects are behind schedule and slipping. The Congressional mandate in the 1960s to build flood protection against a category 3 storm still has not been met, despite the billions spent on flood control.

Back in May, I noted that the Army Corps was busy making the same promises they've been making for decades about flood protection, despite the fact that tests were revealing that the levees being built have flaws that expose them to the same kind of failures seen during Katrina - seepage, not overtopping.

We're three years following the landfall of one of the most devastating natural disasters in the history of the US, and there are signs of progress. In Biloxi, there's tremendous signs of recovery, but the further West you go, the more signs of utter devastation remain.

But generally, the farther west one drives along the Coast, the worse conditions tend to be. In Hancock County, Ground Zero for the tragic storm, Waveland officials are still rebuilding a water and sewer system, and city government continues to function from a small fleet of trailers in a gravel parking lot.

In Bay St. Louis, the once-picturesque Old Town area struggles to hold up its battered head. A $90 million infrastructure overhaul has streets muddied and destroyed. Beach Boulevard remains rough and unpaved, with an arduous reconstruction expected to start in October.

Both cities have issued thousands of residential building permits between them since the storm, but officials acknowledge there is still a long, long way to go.

Across the new Bay St. Louis Bridge, Mayor Chipper McDermott points to multiple new construction projects in Pass Christian. The city lost many of its historic beachfront homes, but residential and business construction is now bustling. Work is expected to begin soon on more than 100 new homes.

Biloxi was able to bounce back because of the casino and tourism industry, which was able to pump large amounts of resources into the local community to get them restarted. The same can't be said of other areas, which helps understand the lag.

This is a good guide to see how things have progressed in Mississippi cities and towns most affected by Katrina when it roared ashore.

Judge Tosses Katrina Class Action Suit Against Army Corps

The Army Corps of Engineers may be immune from liability for the breaching of levees in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but it doesn't absolve them of their multiple failures to provide a secure flood control system. The Corps is immune under a 1928 law.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval acknowledged Wednesday that the agency failed to properly safeguard the city, but he ruled that the Corps was protected by the Flood Control Act of 1928. It shields the federal government from liability when flood control projects fail.

The Corps designed the levee system that was supposed to protect the low-lying city. But after Katrina stuck the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, steel-and-concrete levees eroded and failed in several areas, flooding about 80 percent of the city with water up to 20 feet deep.

In 2007, the Insurance Information Institute estimated insured losses for Katrina across Louisiana at $25.3 billion.

In his ruling, Stanwood said the Corps deserves blame for its role in the flooding even if it can't be held legally responsible.

Billions of dollars were spent on flood control measures in New Orleans, and by the Corps own admission, they were inadequate to protect against a lesser Hurricane, let alone Katrina. The Corps has been rushing to make improvements to the levee system.

Good Luck Bobby J.

Today is a historic day in Louisiana. Bobby Jindal was sworn in as Governor of Louisiana. He's the first Indian-American governor in the US. He also happens to be a Republican. Pretty impressive stuff for a state that is a bastion for Democrats. And corrupt-a-crats.

He's got a huge task ahead of him. Gargantuan even.

He's got to help the state recover from Hurricane Katrina. It's as much about changing the mindset as hammers and nails and concrete and steel.

Louisiana politics is long known for being a wretched hive of scum and villany (eclipsing even New Jersey). Politicians in Louisiana are corrupt, inept and have done the people of Louisiana wrong for far too long. The mess that was the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is living proof of the problems.

Jindal has made changing this his top priority.

"We have the opportunity — born of tragedy but embraced still the same — to make right decades of failure in government," Jindal said.

"In our past, too many politicians looked out for themselves. Too many arms of state and local government did not get results. And the world took note," the new governor said.

Jindal's election puts a new public face on Louisiana politics, often stereotyped as a haven for backslapping good 'ol boys who hold office for decades. The 36-year-old son of Indian immigrants, Jindal is the nation's youngest sitting governor, and many of his top administrators are new to the halls of the Louisiana Capitol.

He takes over from Democrat Kathleen Blanco, who had defeated him four years earlier but whose image was battered by the state's response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She did not seek re-election.

Blanco attended the inaugural ceremonies with three other former Louisiana governors. The state's only other living ex-governor is Edwin Edwards, who could not attend because he is serving a federal prison sentence on corruption charges.

I wish him luck. He's going to need it.

New Orleans Moves Forward On Improved Housing

The City of New Orleans held a City Council meeting at which they decided to finally shutter three crime-ridden housing projects and begin on a path to build new townhomes and low rise housing for mixed income tenants and homeowners.

It's a policy that has been followed in many other cities with great success. The urban projects of the last century turned out to be a huge failure - with crime and isolation breeding still more crime and isolation. Urban planners have realized this, and are looking to fix the problems.

That means that some of those who live in housing that was unaffected by Hurricane Katrina will be displaced, and housing stocks will temporarily decline as the projects are demolished to make way for new and improved housing.

The Times Picayune has more. HUD had been working with NOLA to shut down the old housing projects because they were crime ridden, and build new mixed income low rise and townhome style homes - just as has been done in other big cities around the country.

The riots today outside the City Council started because there simply weren't enough spaces for people to get in - 300 people could get in, and there were several thousand who wanted to disrupt things.

Protesters had planned to disrupt the City Council meeting, where members were expected to approve demolishing dozens of buildings—a move that would open racial and class divisions.

The council chambers seat less than 300. Once capacity was reached, people who were not permitted into chambers marched and chanted. Eventually violence broke out.

The City Council vote is a critical moment in a protracted fight between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and residents, activists and preservationists.

HUD wants to demolish the buildings, most of them damaged by Hurricane Katrina, so developers can take advantage of tax credits and build new mixed-income neighborhoods.

The council's approval of the demolition is required under the city's charter.

HUD says the redevelopment, in the works before Katrina hit, will mark an end to the city's failed public housing experiment that lumped the poor into crime-ridden complexes and marooned them outside the life of the rest of the city.

The Gulf Coast - Two Years From Katrina

I'm not sure what else I can add to the reports by MSNBC, the Times Picayune, and others who have reported from around the Gulf Coast that was utterly decimated by Hurricane Katrina when it came ashore in 2005. New Orleans is struggling to rebuild, and its crime rate remains out of control.

Mayor Ray "Whiplash" Nagin continues to run the show in New Orleans, despite his utter inability to get the job done. The Army Corps of Engineers continues work on a levee system that utterly failed the people of New Orleans and they sought to shift blame onto the storm, even as evidence shows that it wasn't the storm but human failures that contributed to the disaster in New Orleans. And the fixes being implemented by the Corps are insufficient to defend the city from future storms.

Indeed, the geology of the region continues to work against New Orleans. It continues to subside - sinking into the Gulf - meaning that the levees are sinking right alongside the city. With everything subsiding, you have to continually bolster the levee and flood protection systems or else the system would be overwhelmed by even minor storms before long.

Yet, there has been some progress to rebuild and clean up. The pace of the rebuilding depends on who's paying. That's been the issue from the outset (and not isolated to Katrina, but to all natural disasters regardless of the scale - Katrina affected more people, so the pace of rebuilding is thrown into stark contrast based on the sheer numbers affected). Some were better at compensating people whose property was damaged or destroyed by the storms than others.

President Bush sounded upbeat in his visit to the city today. I think there's quite a bit to go before you can sound upbeat, especially when the local officials have done such a poor job in using monies provided. The TP says that Mississippi got more money than Louisiana and are griping that they deserve more.

Others blogging: Seawitch.

When the Levee Breaks Again

Some of the most celebrated levee repairs by the Army Corps of Engineers after Hurricane Katrina are already showing signs of serious flaws, a leading critic of the corps says.

The critic, Robert G. Bea, a professor of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, said he encountered several areas of concern on a tour in March.

The most troubling, Dr. Bea said, was erosion on a levee by the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a navigation canal that helped channel water into New Orleans during the storm.

Breaches in that 13-mile levee devastated communities in St. Bernard Parish, just east of New Orleans, and the rapid reconstruction of the barrier was hailed as one of the corps’ most significant rebuilding achievements in the months after the storm.

Breaches in that 13-mile levee devastated communities in St. Bernard Parish, just east of New Orleans, and the rapid reconstruction of the barrier was hailed as one of the corps’ most significant rebuilding achievements in the months after the storm.

But Dr. Bea, an author of a blistering 2006 report on the levee failures paid for by the National Science Foundation, said erosion furrows, or rills, suggest that “the risks are still high.” Heavy storms, he said, may cause “tear-on-the-dotted-line levees.”

So, hundreds of millions were spent on repairs and the work done shows signs that it may yet fail again. It's a really good question as to whether the repaired levees are any better than the ones that failed in the aftermath of Katrina. There are still gaps in the levee system, repairs may have been incomplete, and the work could be undone by another glancing blow from a hurricane.

While the Army Corps of Engineers has done quite a bit of restoration and improvement to the levee system, the problems with the rebuilt system could just as quickly cause systemic failures as the old levee system. Making substantive improvements to the levees, including armoring the levees to prevent erosion, would provide improved security to residents who rely on the levees for protection against flood damage.

Bridge to Recovery

For the towns of Bay St. Louis and Waveland, the rebuilding of a bridge connecting the two cities cannot come soon enough. Currently, one has to drive more than forty miles around the bay that separates both towns that were previously connected by a bridge that cut the trip to mere minutes.

The new bridge will reinvigorate both communities. The contractors working on the bridge are trying to finish the bridge ahead of schedule to secure a $5 million bonus:

Contractor Granite Archer Western is racing to finish two lanes of the 1.9-mile concrete span over the Bay of St. Louis between Hancock County in the west and Harrison County in the east by mid-May to earn a $5 million bonus. State and federal officials will want to open the roadway as soon as it can carry traffic. That leaves the party planners scratching their heads about just when to schedule their gala, which they’d like to hold on the bridge itself.

Timing aside, there’s no shortage of ideas about how to celebrate.

“It’s a big party so let’s party,” said businesswoman Tina Stiglet, who serves on a Hancock County Chamber of Commerce committee that is planning the festivities. Stiglet and 20 other county movers and shakers gathered on a recent afternoon to brainstorm the event. Ideas ranged from military flyovers to marching bands and celebrity appearances.

Hancock County Chancery Clerk Tim Kellar offered his notion of “the joining of the entire coast again, hand-to-hand” across the bridge, perhaps using schoolchildren in a simple yet spectacular production.

Chamber Executive Director Tish Williams envisioned “a white-tablecloth party, just a huge party.”

The anticipation is fitting for a $267 million project that will cut 40 miles off the typical post-Katrina round trip between Hancock and Harrison counties. The bridge also will put shoppers in western Harrison County much closer to the rapidly recovering commercial sectors in Waveland and Bay St. Louis than they are now to the alternatives in Gulfport and Biloxi.

This bridge is a lifeline for these shoreline communities and will help the recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast.

The bridge is expected to be ready on the 16th and a celebration is scheduled for the 17th:

A ceremony will be held at 2pm on the Bay St. Louis side of the bridge. Classic Cars will be the first to cross over the bridge from the Pass Christian Side. A large celebration---free and open to the public---is planned from 4-8pm along North Beach Blvd to the Bay-Waveland Yacht Club. We are calling it Bridge Fest.

This is what the bridge looked like after Katrina. It had to be completely rebuilt - and it was built higher above the water to eliminate a drawbridge that marked the original span. Photos from the construction can be found here.

Similarly, the US 90 bridge in Biloxi is being rebuilt and is expected to be rebuilt by April 2008.

These transportation links are crucial to improving the economic outlook along the Gulf Coast - as they permit easier access to the region. Tourism and economic growth are sure to follow.

Elizabeth Edwards: Race Baiter

John Edwards' wife Elizbeth seems to think that President Bush rushed to the campus of Virginia Tech faster than he did to Louisiana and New Orleans because the people on the college campus were prettier.

Right.

At Virginia Tech, the mass murder was over in a matter of minutes and the horror revealed itself over a span of hours.

The situation in New Orleans was anything but secured within hours. The flooding of New Orleans occurred hours after the hurricane actually made landfall and the full extent wasn't felt for several days as the city was cut off from the outside world for all intents and purposes by the flooding and damage to roads leading in and out of the city plus damage to the airport and rail links. Having the President show up too soon meant taking away resources that were devoted to rescue and relief operations, when it was clearly apparent that there were thousands of people unaccounted for over an area of 90,000 square miles - and hit not just Louisiana, but Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Georgia, and points inland.

President Bush went to New Orleans on September 15, which was about two weeks following the landfall. The city was still largely without power and local law enforcement was struggling even with infusions of state and federal assistance plus the assistance of law enforcement from around the country.

Edwards complains that President Bush waited too long to go to tour the devastation done by Hurricane Katrina and now they’re complaining he went to Virginia Tech too soon. To these people, President Bush can do nothing right. Ankle biters.

Grand Jury To Consider Hurricane Katrina Deaths

A special grand jury that will decide whether to bring murder charges against a doctor and two nurses accused of administering lethal injections to four patients at Memorial Hospital was sworn in Tuesday, kicking off what could be months of testimony, Orleans Parish prosecutors said.

The Memorial grand jury will meet an undisclosed location, in an attempt to prevent the news media from staking out witnesses, said Dalton Savwoir, spokesman for District Attorney Eddie Jordan.

The grand jury, which includes fourteen jurors and two alternates, was chosen in mid-February and may not hear testimony for several days, Savwoir confirmed. It will deal exclusively with the Memorial case.

The murder probe was initiated last summer by Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti Jr., who ordered the arrests of Dr. Anna Maria Pou and nurses Lori Budo and Cheri Landry for allegedly committing second-degree murder during the sweltering days after Hurricane Katrina, when Memorial was marooned as Claiborne Avenue became a river.

Foti said the three women conspired to deliver lethal injections of sedatives and morphine to kill four patients shortly before the hospital was evacuated.

34 patients died at the facility in the hours and days after Katrina hit. These four cases may be the easiest to prove were the result of actions taken by the staff.

The discovery of patients that may have been murdered by staff at New Orleans medical facilities, along with the deaths at St. Rita's Nursing Home were shocking because these were people who relied on the staff for their care and expertise to keep them safe. They failed miserably.

Gov. Blanco Blasts Bush Speech, Ignores Webb

While I generally agree with the proposition that President Bush should have made mention of the ongoing efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast following the devastating 2005 hurricane season, Gov. Blanco slams Bush for not mentioning this situation while ignoring the fact that the Democrat rebuttal by Sen. Webb makes no mention either.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco angrily criticized President Bush on Wednesday for not mentioning 2005's destructive hurricanes in his State of the Union speech, and said Louisiana is being shortchanged in federal recovery funding for political reasons.

"I guess the pain of the hurricane is yesterday's news in Washington," Blanco said at a news conference.

Both sides of the aisle should be ashamed for not doing more to assist those who were affected by Katrina. However, Blanco's political panderings show why she was so ineffective during the height of the crisis.

UPDATE:
Via Best of the Web, opinionist Jennifer Loven also takes President Bush to task for not highlighting the plight of the Gulf Coast. I'd suggest that she get in line with all the other issues that did or did not get included in the speech. I, for one, would not have minded had Bush swapped the bit about the Palestinians and mentioned the Gulf Coast situation in its stead.

UPDATE 1/26/2006:
It has been pointed out to me in email that Webb did mention rebuilding New Orleans in his speech:

It would not be possible in this short amount of time to actually rebut the President’s message, nor would it be useful. Let me simply say that we in the Democratic Party hope that this administration is serious about improving education and healthcare for all Americans, and addressing such domestic priorities as restoring the vitality of New Orleans.

The problem is that it isn't simply New Orleans but the entire Gulf Coast that needs rebuilding. Hundreds of thousands of residents along the coast in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have been displaced because of the hurricanes, and no one has quite done enough to improve the situation.

Modular Solutions to a Difficult Problem

Is modular housing the solution to the housing crunch along the Gulf Coast? It can certainly provide a quicker build time than housing that must be assembled from scratch on a site and for a region that is still scrambling to find permanent housing for tens of thousands of people, this might be a good idea

But on East North Street recently, a swarm of workmen put the final touches on Gwen and Rudy Cardreon’s new home, a tan ranch house that sprang up, on 11-foot piling, in a matter of days. Constructed in three pieces in a factory hundreds of miles away, the house came equipped with carpets, curtains, even ceiling fans, but looks as if it were custom built in the Cardreons’ yard.

“Isn’t it gorgeous?” Mrs. Cardreon exclaimed, standing in her new kitchen as construction workers hammered on the wooden staircase outside.

Before the August 2005 hurricane, so-called modular houses like the Cardreons’ were almost unknown in Mississippi, where houses tended to be the traditional “stick built” on site or mobile homes. Modulars have been popular until now mainly in Northern states with short building seasons and high labor costs.

But since the storm, modular houses, which range from simple shotgun-style cottages to fancy minimansions, are starting to appear across the Gulf Coast, as public officials and private citizens search for ways to speed the slow pace of recovery and begin experimenting with new forms of shelter.

Modular houses have a number of advantages over conventionally built houses, their advocates said. For example, once they are delivered, modular homes can sometimes be completed in days, rather than months. They are relatively easy to perch up on stilts to comply with flood zone rules. They require less local labor in a region where there is more than enough construction work to go around. Some are less expensive than conventional houses — they range from $50,000 to $500,000 — and manufacturers say some can withstand 160-mile-an-hour winds.

The number of modular houses on the Gulf Coast is still small; perhaps 400 have been installed in Mississippi in the last year, said Fred C. Hallahan, a consultant in Baltimore who tracks the modular business.

So, with all the potential benefits, what are the drawbacks?

Wind damage is important, but so is the ability to withstand flood damage. Breakaway panels are often used in shoreline communities to let storm surges pass through the buildings without destroying them completely. You will still have flood damage, but it beats having to completely raze the structure. The breakaway panels are often used in conjunction with using the ground level as a garage/storage area, lessening the likelihood of permanent damage to living areas.

As for the drawbacks with modular units, the most important one has to do with building codes. The modular units are not easily inspected by local buildings inspectors who must sign off on the structures. Electrical and plumbing usually has to be visually inspected to be approved, and a modular unit will often have the sheet rock already applied. To get around that drawback, the manufacturer would have to have someone approving the structures before they leave the factory.

There's also a stigma attached to modular units, which some equate with the mobile home. While both are trucked into a site, the modular units are far more secure and can be customized with a wide range of finishes and design flourishes.

Still, local building codes need to be adjusted to take into account the kind of damage that various parts of the Gulf Coast suffered - whether it was storm surge, wind damage, or both. Localities are still battling with those issues, and it affects the pace of reconstruction and that has little to do with what the federal government can do.

St. Rita's Nursing Home Tragedy Update

One of the most tragic episodes of Hurricane Katrina was the recovery of 35 bodies at St. Rita's Nursing Home in St. Bernard's Parish. They were killed by the rising floodwaters. It soon became evident that the owners may have been responsible for the deaths because they knew to evacuate but did not take steps to do so. As a result, the owners were charged with negligent homicide for failing to take steps to evacuate the patients before the storm hit.

The judge hearing the negligent homicide charges against the couple who own the St. Bernard Parish nursing home where 35 people died during Hurricane Katrina ruled this morning that their trial, should they seek one before a jury, will take place in West Feliciana Parish.

Judge Jerome Winsberg, a retired New Orleans judge who took on the case after St. Bernard Parish's judge recused themselves, issued the ruling in a courtroom in Chalmette.

Mabel and Salvador Mangano, who own St. Rita's Nursing Home, face 35 counts of negligent homicide and 64 counts of cruelty to the infirm. The nursing home residents died when floodwaters from Katrina swamped the parish.

Although the couple's defense attorneys sought the change of venue from St. Bernard Parish, they objected Friday to the move to West Feliciana. They argued that West Feliciana's population is far more rural than St. Bernard Parish, in addition to having a dramatically different racial makeup.

U.S. Census figures from the 2005 estimate show that West Feliciana Parish's population is around 15,000, and half white and almost half black. Figures for St. Bernard Parish show a population of more than 65,000, that is 87 percent white and 9.6 percent black.

The trial date is set for April 16, 2007.

When the situation at St. Rita's first came to light, one had no idea why the patients and staff did not evacuate. Only after investigators started examining matters did they learn that local officials had asked whether the owners needed help in evacuating, but the owners chose not to act. It was the inaction that resulted in the criminally negligent homicide charges filed against the two owners, Salvador A. Mangano and his wife, Mable.

Lay of the Land

Just as NYC has continued to find remains of 9/11 victims more than five years after the Islamic terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center, Louisiana workers continue to find remains of victims of Katrina as they clear the rubble in the Lower Ninth.

The coroner's office has arranged to have volunteers from several city agencies search areas that have not been entered since Katrina, Gagliano said. The St. Tammany Parish search and rescue squad also will assist.

Coroner Frank Minyard told the City Council last month that the Michoud area of eastern New Orleans had never been searched for bodies since Katrina and should be investigated as soon as possible.

Minyard said he did not want a repetition in New Orleans of what happened in New York, where in October the bones of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were pulled out of a manhole near the World Trade Center that apparently had never been searched.

Firefighters on July 31 discovered one of the last Katrina bodies found in the city when they broke into a house in eastern New Orleans and removed skeletal remains. The house flooded after the storm.

Meanwhile, the Louisiana unit of Travelers Insurance is looking to cease issuing new business policies for New Orleans. There are a couple of angles to examine here. Insurance is a key part of any rebuilding in the region because the willingness to provide insurance is a gauge that businesses look towards to see how they can minimize their risk. If there are few insurers willing to do this, those businesses will look elsewhere to conduct their business.

St. Paul Travelers Cos. Inc., Louisiana's largest commercial insurance provider, plans to cancel all its commercial property policies in the New Orleans area next year, sparking fears that other insurers will follow and slow the region's economic recovery.

While the St. Paul, Minn., company refused to say how many commercial policies will be affected or specify where the cuts will be in South Louisiana, two insurance brokers who were briefed by the company this week say Travelers will not renew any property insurance for businesses in Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and eastern St. Tammany parishes. Cuts will also affect individual businesses in other parts of South Louisiana, including St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes.

"I said, 'May I tell anybody who asks that Travelers is withdrawing from the commercial property insurance market in southeast Louisiana?' " said Anderson Baker, president of the New Orleans agency Gillis, Ellis & Baker, who met with the company Wednesday. "The answer was, 'Yes.' "

Travelers spokeswoman Jennifer Wislocki said the company has "a high concentration of commercial policies in the hurricane-prone areas of Louisiana" and will not renew many commercial policies when they expire.

"To keep future losses to a more acceptable level for continued financial stability, we are reducing our exposure in some of these areas by non-renewing a number of small to mid-sized commercial properties," Wislocki said.

New Orleans has been operated incompetently for quite some time - even to the point of reelecting Whiplash Nagin over Landrieu because Landrieu was perceived to be even worse. That tells you something about the political situation in New Orleans and Louisiana in general.

The political leaders have failed to grasp this. It would also be instructive to examine what happened in Florida following Hurricane Andrew. There, political leaders recognized that the way the state approached natural disasters and disaster preparation had to change. Building codes needed to be improved in a big way. While there are still parts of South Florida that are deserted and show the scars of Andrew 10 years later, the areas that have been rebuilt are much more able to withstand storm damage.

The same cannot be said for New Orleans. Large parts of the city are still below sea level and reliant upon levees that are rebuilt but not strengthened past the levels they were when Katrina made landfall. A comprehensive levee management system has not been put in place because the locals don't want to cede their power and control to someone else. It will be at least four more years before the NOLA region will be able to deal with a storm like Katrina.

Officials with the Army Corps of Engineers expect New Orleans area levees to get higher and better every year, but they acknowledge four more hurricane seasons will pass before they can completely correct fundamental weaknesses responsible for much of the devastating flood -- and that timetable may be optimistic for the largest structures. Those long-term improvements include permanent pumping stations along Lake Pontchartrain to block storm surge from entering drainage canals, gates to keep surges out of the St. Bernard and eastern New Orleans area, and armoring the fronts and backs of levees and floodwalls with materials such as concrete to prevent scouring and erosion.

The biggest accomplishment to date is the installation of new floodgates along Lake Pontchartrain at the 17th Street, London Avenue and Orleans Avenue drainage canals in New Orleans. Floodwalls lining the 17th Street and London canals fell apart during Katrina, allowing a swollen lake to pour into the city for days.

The floodwalls are under repair where they breached, but federal officials feared that they simply cannot stand up to high water, and opted for gates to take all 22 miles of canal floodwalls out of play. The newly installed gates, stronger and anchored to far greater depths, are intended to prevent storm surge from ever again getting into the canals.

Had they been in place before Katrina, the gates could have reduced flooding in Orleans Parish by about 60 percent, according to Dan Hitchings, the corps' Task Force Hope chief, helping oversee Katrina recovery and system rebuilding.

So, instead of heeding the warnings by taking action to rectify the situation by improving the levees that a comprehensive management program would provide or taking steps that would minimize storm damage going forward, the politicians are likely to resort to the old tricks of imposing requirements on insurers or demand the creation of new government funded insurance programs to cover and spread the risk. A special session has been called to address this issue among others.

If Travelers does leave NOLA, other insurers may follow and premiums will rise as there are fewer options available to businesses.

Elsewhere, what has happened to those people who have been shed from the FEMA rolls for aid? That's not entirely clear as FEMA hasn't kept track of those people.

Finally, a special election to determine NOLA's Congressional Representative. It's a runoff election between William "Cold Cash" Jefferson and Karen Carter. Jefferson was found with $90,000 in cold cash stuffed in his freezer when investigators searched his premises in an investigation into fraud and other misdeeds. Will voters return Jefferson to Congress, or will sanity prevail and result in the election of someone who is not tainted by an ongoing bribery and corruption investigation where Jefferson was caught red handed with the cold cash? Given that Nagin was reelected, I'd put even odds on Jefferson being reelected.

Technorati: flood aid; hurricane katrina; katrina aid; hurricane rita; slidell; biloxi; gulfport; pascagoula; nagin; blanco; barbour; hurricane rita; hurricane wilma.

Indictments for St. Rita's Nursing Home Owners

In one of the most heartbreaking stories to come out of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the owners of St. Rita's Nursing Home have been indicted on 35 counts of negligent homicide.

Salvador and Mabel Mangano were initially arrested about two weeks after the Aug. 29, 2005, storm, but a grand jury was unable to convene for months because of damage to government buildings and the displacement of residents.

The couple, who remained free on bond Wednesday, owned St. Rita's nursing home in St. Bernard Parish, a coastal suburb of New Orleans badly flooded by Katrina.

Attorneys in the case were prevented from commenting by a gag order.

The Manganos were originally arrested on 34 counts of negligent homicide, but the grand jury added a 35th count in its indictment, representing a body that was found later. The grand jury also added the cruelty charges.

The indictment for cruelty alleges the couple "intentionally or through criminal negligence" mistreated or neglected 64 patients. It is believed to cover both patients who died and those who survived.

My earlier coverage of St. Ritas is here and here and here.

Five Years

NOTE: This post will remain at the top of my blog through September 11, 2006, 11:59PM EDT. For more current postings, scroll below this post.

Five years ago, the largest terrorist attack ever conducted culminated in the murder of nearly 3,000 people, the destruction of the World Trade Center, devastated Lower Manhattan, badly damaged the Pentagon, wreaked havoc on the airline industry, and marked the most audacious and deadly attack by Islamic terrorists against the United States in our history. Since that fateful day, we have been living with the repercussions and the horrors witnessed by millions who saw the attacks in person or live on television.

I happen to be among those who saw the horrific attacks unfolding in person, working in the West Village and I can remember exactly where I was on that day, and those recollections are as vivid today as they were on this day five years ago. I can recall everything from that day, from the sight of the empty sky to the awful smell that persisted in Lower Manhattan for months after the towers collapsed.

I wrote the following last year, and much of it is still relevant today:

Heroes will still be heroes - rushing into danger to save innocents without regard to their own safety. Politicians are still as inept and vainglorious as they were before the attacks. They play the blame game as they always have. The rebuilding of Ground Zero has been a monumental struggle, in part because PC has inserted its ugly head - we have to build a cultural center that includes anti-American groups like the IFC and The Drawing Center because people can't be allowed to mourn the murder and senseless destruction caused by Islamic terrorists. We have to hear from these anti-Americans that it was our fault.

All this comes back into full view as we witness the response to Hurricane Katrina. The heroes are still the heroes - rushing in to help those who can't help themselves. That hasn't changed. Firefighters and law enforcement rushing in to fill the breach. Politicians who blame bureaucracies that were part of their job description in the first place. Corrupt officials trying to cover up their misdeeds with misdirection and playing blame games.

Calls for investigations and commissions, which will not reveal anything that we didn't already know because they will overlook the real juicy bits for the sake of political expediency (Able Danger anyone?).

Anyone sense a pattern here? I do. Only the names and places have changed.

Thankfully, the IFC and Drawing Center were removed from the Ground Zero plans, but the 9/11 museum and memorial are still plagued by troubles including securing money through fundraising for the $500 million project. And yet, this past week we saw the opening of an interim WTC Tribute Center, which will serve as a museum and memorial until the permanent structures are built at Ground Zero. One has to wonder why it took so long to make this happen given the modest cost to produce what many have described as a truly emotional experience. Yet, thousands of artifacts being stored at a hangar at JFK Airport await a final home at Ground Zero, including major structural members, parts of the antenna that capped one of the towers, and personal artifacts large and small.

Ground Zero largely remains empty of permanent construction, but there is hope. The signature Freedom Tower is finally getting underway, as several insurers have relented to permitting the Port Authority to draw upon insurance proceeds due Larry Silverstein under his insurance policies. Foundation and prepwork has been going on at the site since March. Construction has begun on the foundations for the 9/11 museum and memorial along with the transit hub. Designs for the remaining office towers were released only this past week. The response to the three designs by Sir Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, and Fumihiko Maki, has been largely favorable. Construction at Ground Zero is not expected to be complete until 2012, 11 years after the terrorist attacks, but this is significant progress. The economic outlook downtown looks brighter, as inventory of rental space downtown continues to show strength, which increases the likelyhood that the three office towers will be built.

People are still trying to find ways to memorialize the events of 9/11 and the terrible toll. One such exhibit at the New York Historical Society recreates a storefront that became a shrine after 9/11 as the owner of a store a block from the Twin Towers turned his store window into a monument to those killed in the attacks by preserving the dust and debris that entered his store much as it was on 9/11 after the towers came down.

We find that the 9/11 memorial in Shanksville, PA continues to include significant elements based on Islamic designs and symbology despite an outcry by survivors. Meanwhile, you've got folks who are continuing to deny the heroism of those who died on Flight 93 when the plane crashed into the Pennsylvania countryside. I'm not sure why they think that those who rushed the terrorists to keep them from killing more people on the ground, most likely somewhere in Washington DC - either the Capitol or White House, are not heroes. Their sacrifice meant that others would live. Ace has the details.

We find that the death toll from the 9/11 attacks continues to rise, as several rescue workers have succumbed to illnesses that may have been due to their service at Ground Zero during the relief and recovery efforts. There are ongoing questions over how the federal government responded to the air quality at Ground Zero in the hours, days, and weeks following the collapse. Has the city, state, and federal governments turned the rescue workers and all those who toiled at Ground Zero during the days, weeks, and months following the collapse into the New Liquidators? I fear we have.

Airline security isn't what it should be, even after billions of dollars are spent on new policies and procedures. Security is uneven and presents opportunities to terrorists who might seek to exploit them either here in the US or abroad.

The threat posed by Islamic terrorism still isn't taken seriously by some on the left, who rather think that the current Administration or the US in general is a bigger threat to peace than Islamic terrorists and their sponsors in the Middle East whose goals are reestablishing a caliphate and imposing Islam on the world at the expense of the West and all that it stands for. Submission to Islam or death and destruction are the choices presented by the likes of the Islamists in Iran and the various Islamic terrorist groups including al Qaeda, Hizbullah, and Hamas. All the while, these Islamic terrorists and their spawn seek to destroy whatever is built at Ground Zero, the latest such plot was to flood the bathtub where the Twin Towers once stood, and where the new Freedom Tower, 9/11 Museum and Memorial, plus the other office buildings and transit hub would be located.

The Islamic terrorists have been fascinated with the World Trade Center site since the early 1990s, when the plan to blow up the Twin Towers was set in motion culminating in the 1993 WTC bombing that killed six and wounded more than 1,000 people.

Meanwhile, the far left thinks that the jumpers and other scenes from 9/11 and the collapse of the WTC are images that should be reserved for America's Funniest Home Video consideration. Curt at Flopping Aces has the vile details. Instead of placing blame of the attacks on the Islamic terrorists, they concoct conspiracy theories that put the blame on Bush, Jews, and everyone but those who have claimed responsibility - the Islamic terrorists themselves. Of course, videos showing Osama meeting with various 9/11 hijackers and planning the attacks undermine any such theories, but are treated as nothing more than CIA plants to throw people off from the real story.

Have we gone so far from 2001 that folks can use the events from that day for satire or bad humor? Apparently so, even as the threats posed by Islamic terrorists continue to this day. Yet, we've also seen movies that do not trivialize the events of that day including United 93 and World Trade Center. Also, there are very good documentaries and other media presentations that highlight the horrors of the day, both from the personal and emotional aspects to the science of the collapse of the towers. Ed Morrissey explores that issue more deeply. Meanwhile, CNN will be providing a full replay of its coverage from 9/11/2001 beginning at 8:30am edt and running straight through to midnight.

ABC is running a 2-part miniseries based on the 9/11 Commission Report, The Path to 9/11, which has received quite a bit of news because of its perceived bias against the Clinton Administration. Indeed, some of those officials, along with Democrat members of the Senate, called on ABC to either edit the scenes or can the movie while threatening ABC's broadcast license.

That's just the tip of the iceberg of media programming and other remembrances, as this story notes.

Finally, for those in the New York metro area, here's a guide to various events and memorializations around the area.

I've been continuing to cover the situation in my Battle for Ground Zero series (search).

UPDATE:
On this fifth anniversary, people are recalling the events of this day in ways large and small. Among those posting on this day: James Joyner, Hot Air (and here), Gateway Pundit, Michelle Malkin (whose blog marked the time of the attacks, the time the towers came down and has been blogging a torrent of postings all day - including a statement that she will not submit to Islam), AJ Strata, Old War Dogs, Bizzyblog, Sister Toldjah, Stop the ACLU, Ed Driscoll, Cold Fury, Pajamas Media, Tigerhawk, Joe Katzman at WoC, LaShawn Barber, Lorie Byrd at Wizbang, Jay Tea at Wizbang, Pamela at Atlas Shrugs, Don Surber, Uncooperative Blogger, Kim Priestap at Wizbang, Rick Moran, California Yankee, Ed Morrissey, and Discarded Lies (and here).

And for those who wonder about whether the hijackers ultimate destination, I think The Onion got it just right.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy, Freedom Tower, IFC, International Freedom Center, spitzer, silverstein, mount sinai, respiratory ailment, wtc cough, bloomberg, bush, whitman.

Additional Thoughts On Katrina Anniversary

Here are some additional thoughts to those I composed earlier this week. Red tape continues to hamper the relief and recovery efforts. No surprise there.

What is a surprise is just how many folks appear to conflate the amount of aid that the federal government allocated for the purpose of rebuilding and the amount of money spent. The former is the not equal to the amount of the latter. $200 billion may have been authorized by Congress to spend on rebuilding, but that does not mean that all that amount will go to New Orleans, or even that it has all been spent. Thus far, only a fraction of that amount has been spent across the entire region, and only a fraction of that amount has been drawn upon by Louisiana and New Orleans. Some of the money is being stalled by bickering between Gov. Blanco and Whiplash Nagin.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of other folks writing about the anniversary. Bob Owens still thinks rebuilding New Orleans in its current location makes little sense given the geological makeup of the region and subsidence rates. Paul at Wizbang makes the argument that Katrina actually saved lives because the levees were dangerous even under normal conditions and the hurricane meant that far fewer people were in the path of the raging floodwaters than otherwise would have been. He bases his argument on a video showing the first stages of a failing levee, and that the water levels in that particular area were not overtopping the levees, or even at their high water marks.

Paul's point about levee integrity is relevant even today. The levees still aren't built to withstand category three storms; the levees failed during Katrina when the storm was only a category one storm over New Orleans. The Corps is late in getting flood control projects completed, including new pumps that are supposed to work to pump water out of New Orleans when flood gates are closed. That loud sighing sound you heard earlier this week was that of the Corps administrators knowing they dodged a huge bullet.

Oh, and there are still issues with paperwork at the Louisiana state and local level. Red tape at the state and local level has finally been navigated so that construction of improved flood control can begin. And New Orleans isn't included in the areas where the bureaucratic issues have been resolved:

After several weeks of negotiations, amendments to existing cooperative agreements have now been signed between the corps and local governments that will let contractors begin lifting subsiding levees, do pump station work, and shore up some flimsy floodwall in East Jefferson, as well as finish building 11 miles of levees on the east bank of St. Charles Parish.

But none of the new work can begin in Orleans, St. Bernard Parish or on the West Bank of Jefferson Parish, and no new Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control, or SELA, projects in Jefferson or Orleans parishes can be let until local, state and federal authorities resolve remaining disputes and amend their Cooperative Project Agreements as well.

Constructing new wetlands barrier space is probably the best idea I've seen in a while. It's potentially far cheaper to create the wetlands than to build new levees, and it opens up ecological and wildlife areas that would be a boon to fishermen and outdoorsmen, not to mention birders and nature lovers. Wetlands can absorb and provide a buffer against storm surges, and lessen the impact of hurricanes. The downside is that they, like barrier beaches, are temporary and will flow and ebb depending upon storms. If done right, however, they could provide advantages that levees cannot.

President Bush, meanwhile, pledges a better government response. Well, what about the state and local level? As we've seen elsewhere, the ability to deal with natural disaster varies greatly and depends upon the abilities of the local leaders to actually lead. New Orleans and Louisiana suffered for the lack of leadership.

Brenadan Loy, who blogged the hurricane landfall and the aftereffects (and blogs on hurricanes generally), has much more, including an appearance in the Spike Lee joint on Katrina's effects on New Orleans. Oh, and he gives Spike a thumbs down on the fairness and balance of the 'documentary.'

Others blogging: DJ Drummond, Sister Toldjah, Hot Air, Gateway Pundit, and A Brief Period of Me.

Technorati: flood aid; hurricane katrina; katrina aid; slidell; biloxi; gulfport; pascagoula; nagin; blanco; barbour.

Deadlines in New Orleans

The New Orleans City Council thinks that setting a deadline for homeowners to gut or otherwise clean up their properties is a good idea. When exactly did they make this decision? That would be this past Friday, when they agreed to a certain number of exemptions as well.

Why would they set a deadline? Because those homeowners who didn't comply with the deadline would be subject to penalties, fines, and liens. So, on top of all the other problems facing homeowners trying to rebuild in the Big Easy, they have to deal with a 12th hour decision that could hit them in the pocketbook just as the height of hurricane season hits.

The Lower Ninth Ward, one of the neighborhoods hardest hit by Katrina, is exempt from the gutting deadline, although residents will be expected to take care of their damaged houses by an unspecified future date.

Others may be exempt, too, if they have an "acceptable" excuse, such as being on the list for a gutting service that hasn't gotten around to their property yet, according to the ordinance.

Enforcement could begin any time after Tuesday.

That bothers Patricia Jones, who works at a recovery center. She said many people remain displaced or are waiting for checks or direction from city officials before deciding what they should do. And she wonders how the city will handle the open-ended deadline for the Lower Ninth, where she lived before Katrina.

"The city hasn't even done their part in a year," she said, noting that many public schools remain closed and housing is still in short supply.

That's not an excuse, Lakeview resident Jim Roy said. Residents aren't being asked to rebuild by Tuesday, just to clean up and secure houses that could become health hazards. Roy said the city might be providing too many exceptions that may hinder the intent of the measure.

The City doesn't have enough inspectors to check properties, and hasn't managed to clear all the debris from city streets, and yet they want to hit up homeowners who might consider coming back to the city. Nice. Real nice.

We know where the City's political priorities lay, and they do not coincide with the needs of residents and businesses. That would go a long way in explaining why so many are reluctant to return to the city, and some of those that have returned have decided to move away.