Hurricane Isaac Surprises With Flooding and Storm Surge

Hurricane Isaac isn't the strongest hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast or near New Orleans, but it's creating havoc because the storm is moving so slowly. The winds aren't the problem with the storm, it's the flooding rains and accompanying storm surge while the storm is progressing at a crawl.

The storm surge is higher than models had predicted yesterday. As Jeff Masters notes:

Isaac is bringing large and dangerous storm surge to the coast from Central Louisiana to the Panhandle of Florida. At 10 pm EDT, here were some of the storm surge values being recorded at NOAA tide gauges:

6.2' Waveland, MS
9.9' Shell Beach, LA
3.0' Pensacola, FL
4.4' Pascagoula, MS
3.4' Mobile, AL

The 9.9' storm surge at Shell Beach, which is in Lake Borgne 20 miles southeast of New Orleans, exceeds the 9.5' surge recorded there during Category 2 Hurricane Gustav of 2008. Research scientists running a Doppler on Wheels radar located on top of the 16' levees in Plaquemines Parish near Port Sulphur, LA, reported at 8:30 pm EDT that a storm surge of 14' moved up the Mississippi River, and was just 2' below the levees. Waves on top of the surge were cresting over the west side of the levee. Needless to say, they were very nervous. Over the past hour, the surge has retreated some, and waves were no longer lapping over the top of the levee. This is probably due to the fact that we're headed towards low tide. A storm surge of 9.5' has moved up the Mississippi River to the Carrrollton gauge in New Orleans. This is not a concern for the levees in New Orleans, since the storm surge has now brought the river up to 2.5' above its normal water level, which was 7' low due to the 2012 U.S. drought. The highest rise of the water above ground level will occur Wednesday morning over much of Southeast Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the western Florida Panhandle, when the tide comes back in. It is clear now that this storm surge event will be as dangerous as that of Category 2 Hurricane Gustav of 2008.

Plaquemines Parish is reporting that levees in the area have been overtopped by the storm surge and caused significant flooding. The levees involved aren't part of the network of levees upgraded or built to protect New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

The parish levees on the east bank are about 8.5 feet high, and some estimates have storm surge at 13 feet. At daylight, the National Guard is expected to launch a larger rescue effort, coming into the east bank through St. Bernard. After the wind subsides, other water and air rescue efforts likely will launch.

While federal levees in the area appear to be holding, problems in Plaquemines Parish are occurring in areas not protected by the federal system, which was revamped after Katrina.

Guy Laigast, director of the parish's emergency preparedness, says that an 18-mile stretch of the parish east bank back levees might be overtopped from Braithwaite to White Ditch and that some points might be seeing 110 miles per hour winds. There are many varying reports of wind speeds, generally ranging between 80 and 110 miles per hour.

"The devastation of my house is worse than Katrina and the flooding in Woodlawn is worse than Katrina, so those things tell me that the damage on the east bank is worse than Katrina," Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said this morning.

So far, the New Orleans flood control systems are doing their job and protecting the city from the Mississippi River, the flooding rains, but this storm is going to take a long time before moving away from the region.

Law enforcement has been working to rescue those caught in the flood waters, but private citizens are also busy helping out their neighbors and others stranded by the flooding. One father-son team has already rescued 23 from the rising waters. Parts of the Gulf Coast could see up to 20 inches of rain with 7 to 14 inches falling over a widespread area.

The storm has left hundreds of thousands without power across the Gulf Coast,

Mississippi Ponders License Plates Honoring First Grand Wizard of KKK?

All states have vanity plates and specialty plates honoring everything from favorite sports teams to various social causes. In Mississippi, that extends to the Sons of the Confederacy, and they're hoping to have a plate honoring Nathan Bedford Forrest.

If Forrest's name rings a bell, it should.

He was among the key leaders in the Ku Klux Klan and served as its first Grand Wizard.

A new civil war is brewing in Mississippi over a proposal to put a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard on state license plates.

Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, notorious for leading a massacre of black Union soldiers and leading the KKK in its early days, would appear on the plates in 2014 if the group Sons of Confederate Veterans gets its way.

The organization is sponsoring a series of specialty plates over the next four years to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

This year's plate features the last home of Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

The state's chapter of the NAACP strongly criticized the call to honor Forrest, who led several battles in Mississippi during the war.

"He should be viewed in the same light that we view Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden," Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP in Mississippi, told The Associated Press, adding that the Klan was a "terrorist group."

"The state of Mississippi should deny any vanity tags which would highlight racial hatred in this state," he said.

He served as the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and was accused of war crimes for allowing his troops to massacre hundreds of black Union troops and Union loyalist troops after the Battle of Fort Pillow.

He has no place being honored on a license plate.

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.

ACORN Funding Investigations Open Across the Nation

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R) has cut funding to ACORN amid the widening scandal facing the group.

"I have instructed the State Fiscal Officer to conduct a comprehensive review of the state's relationship with ACORN, and all state agencies are to cut off funding for any current contracts with ACORN to the extent the law permits," Governor Barbour said.

Mississippi joins a growing list of states severing ties to the group after a video was released showing employees in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Brooklyn, N.Y., advising two undercover activists posing as a pimp and a prostitute to lie about the prostitute's profession, suggested they launder the money and advised how to hide underage prostitutes.

San Diego's Board of Supervisors might go back and audit the group's voter registrations. Nice. Isn't that a little late? Considering that the group has repeatedly been caught engaging in voter registration fraud - a separate and distinct issue from actual voter fraud - it should have opened an investigation long ago. The ACORN office in San Diego says that if their voter registrations should be audited, so should all the other registrations. Good point (even if broken clocks are right twice a day). Local and state elections officials have repeatedly shirked their responsibilities to confirm that those who register to vote are actually eligible to vote (including failing to cull the deceased from voter rolls). But, special scrutiny should be paid to ACORN-related registrations primarily because of the flexible moral and ethical conduct of ACORN employees as witnessed on the multitude of videos.

Maryland Attorney General has finally launched an investigation into ACORN activities, stemming from the video showing the Baltimore office's gross misconduct. That's after Baltimore officials appear more than willing to overlook matters:

Hours after the Justice Department's inspector general announced Monday that he plans a review of funding to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), Maryland's top law enforcement officer also moved to launch an investigation.

Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D) asked and received permission from Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) to investigate and, if necessary, prosecute "conduct involving" ACORN.

Gansler's investigation effectively usurps Baltimore City State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy. She had called the secret taping of ACORN employees giving tax advice to a man and woman posing as a pimp and prostitute illegal under Maryland's requirement for two-party consent for audio recordings.

"As time went on, it became clear that the local authorities were not going to look into it," said Raquel Guillory, Gansler's spokeswoman. "It's obviously something that needed to be looked into, and that's why we've taken this step."

Baltimore's more interested in prosecuting James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles than going after the gross misconduct at ACORN. Curious how that works. Instead of trying to deal with the huge mess that O'Keefe and Giles kicked over with their expose, Baltimore's prosecutor wants to hit the duo. Nice.

It's also good to see that the US Justice Department is finally opening an investigation. They're going to look for improprieties in any funding obtained through the Department. I would suggest that Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services likewise open investigations given that ACORN may have obtained funds through both of those agencies as well as part of their homeowner assistance programs and other community programs.

Such investigations are long overdue (going back years in fact), but there is no way one can possibly ignore the mess.

Hurricane Ike's Grim Toll

Hurricane Ike left a trail of misery and death from the moment it made landfall on the Texas coast through the Great Lakes with massive flooding. At least 40 people were killed outside of Texas by flooding from rains of the remnants of Ike.

However, we're still a long way from knowing what's going on in places like Galveston and shore communities up and down the coast. The death toll thus far has been thankfully low, compared to the dire predictions, but some, including Gateway Pundit, think that the toll is going to be much higher as search and rescue gives way to recovery efforts and attempts are made to get next of kin to identify remains.

Searchers in Galveston expect to make lots of grim discoveries. That's a prim and proper way of saying that they're expecting to find lots of dead people who chose to remain in Galveston despite the mandatory evacuation.

In this ruined city, reduced to such an unlivable state that its mayor wants all remaining residents gone, searchers made their way through 90 percent of the inundated neighborhoods. So far they have confirmed two dead, with four others undetermined. Thousands of homes have yet to be reached.

Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas warned that her city was heading toward a "downward spiral" and is not fit for habitation. Residents who evacuated are not being allowed back.

"There is nothing to come here for right now," Thomas said. "Please leave. I am asking people to leave."

Meanwhile, the hunt for survivors goes on. Searchers have accounted for 1,500 thus far in a house-to-house operation.

The death toll is expected to rise as the waters recede and searchers are able to cover more areas, said city officials, who brought in a refrigerated mobile morgue.

Devastation in places like Bolivar Peninsula is hard to comprehend, but it's on par with that which was seen in storms like Rita and Katrina.

Utilities are struggling to get power lines restrung and power restored to more than 3 million people. It may be weeks before power is fully restored, as utilities perform triage:

CenterPoint officials say crews focus on the repairs that restore power to the greatest number of customers in the shortest amount of time. That means repairing big feeder lines — the backbone of the distribution system — that can affect 1,000 customers or more.

The line fuses, which connect 100 or more customers, are next in line for attention. Transformers, which affect about 10 customers, are next, followed by line drops to individual homes.

Restoring power is key to solving other hurricane-related problems, including gasoline shortages, fresh food supplies, ice and water issues.

Blackouts persist up and down the Gulf Coast, including as far away as Mississippi.

Lafitte, Barataria, Crown Point, and Grand Isle, Louisiana residents have been allowed to return home, but utilities are out and there is widespread damage. Flooding remains an issue on major thoroughfares in and around New Orleans.

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.

Mississippi Legislators Declare War On Fat People

Dead on arrival:

Mississippi legislators this week introduced a bill that would make it illegal for state-licensed restaurants to serve obese patrons. Bill No. 282, a copy of which you'll find below, is the brainchild of three members of the state's House of Representatives, Republicans W. T. Mayhall, Jr. and John Read, and Democrat Bobby Shows. The bill, which is likely dead on arrival, proposes that the state's Department of Health establish weight criteria after consultation with Mississippi's Council on Obesity. It does not detail what penalties an eatery would face if its grub was served to someone with an excessive body mass index.

Nanny statism is pervasive among Democrats and Republicans, but to try and ban restaurants from serving fat people is just nuts. After all, these people have to buy their food from somewhere and you're not going to ban obesity out of existence just because there's a law on the books (that is unless you redefine the clinical definition of obesity).

Next thing we're going to hear is that someone will propose a ban on sales of items other than low fat yogurt and limit calorie counts per food order all in the name of your health.

HT: anonymous emailer

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.

Whiplash Nagin's Latest Gambit: Lawsuits

Don Surber points out the latest craziness proffered by the Mayor of New Orleans, Whiplash Ray Nagin. He wants to sue the Army Corps of Engineers for $77 billion.

The latest legal actions were submitted just as President George Bush made his first visit to the area in six months. Mr Bush made several stops across Louisiana and Mississippi, visiting homes rebuilt since the storm with federal grants, bearing the message: “The federal government still knows you exist.”

“I committed to the people of this part of the world and the Gulf coast that the federal government would fund recovery - and stay committed to the recovery,” he said.

But locals are frustrated that of the $110bn assigned by Congress in relief aid, only $53bn has actually been spent. Outside the downtown tourist area, large areas of the city remain disrupted with violent crime and murders on the rise and access to healthcare limited.

Wayne Baquet, owner of the cafe in New Orleans where the president ate, told the Associated Press: “If you don’t get New Orleans straight, the United States will never be the same. Everybody ought to be on the bandwagon trying to get New Orleans back.”

Let's get this straight. Tens of billions of dollars was set aside by the federal government for rebuilding areas affected by the Gulf Coast hurricanes, and while some areas have done a good job at using the money to rebuild, others have not.

New Orleans for example.

The state and local government in Louisiana has done an awful job of dealing with the situation. They've repeatedly reversed course on key decisions - which is why I've given Nagin the whiplash moniker.

They're still trying to get their hands wrapped around the situation and yet their lawsuit only calls for $1 billion of the $77 billion to go to infrastructure repairs. The rest is nothing more than a shakedown of the federal government to cover up the failures at the state and local level.

Meanwhile, the Times-Picayune has a story up showing that it took 6,000 years to build up Southern Louisiana's coastline, but much of it has disappeared over the last 75 years and we've got only 10 years to fix the problems. Much of the problems stem from one entity - the Army Corps of Engineers, which has been called on time and time again to ensure that flooding doesn't occur as a result of the Mississippi River. That means that the ACoE has straightened the channel, limiting where the sediment carried by the river goes.

Habitat for Humanity Admits Slow Rebuilding

Maybe they would do a better job if President Jimmy Carter were spending more time building houses and not writing anti-Semitic books that are poorly sourced and plagiarized.

Seriously though, I had held out hope that organizations like Habitat would do a good job in getting houses rebuilt up and down the Gulf Coast because of their expertise in building homes across the country. But to build only 416 homes thus far? That's seemingly inexcuseable, but the situation is more complicated than that:

But almost 18 months after storms destroyed more than 250,000 homes, Habitat for Humanity says it has built just 10 houses for poor hurricane victims here, 36 in New Orleans, and a total of 416 along the entire coast, from Alabama to Texas. More are under construction, for a total of 702.

That slower pace reflects, in part, the more complex houses that Habitat builds in the United States, as well as the mind-numbing issues — involving insurance costs and government regulations — that seem to have bogged down efforts to rebuild after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

But Habitat International is starting to face criticism that its procedures are slow, rigid and perhaps unsuited to helping disaster victims, however rewarding its efforts are for its volunteers. The organization is working through its independent local affiliates, which function like franchises and which have tended to build a dozen houses a year each.

How have other entities fared, including private companies, to provide a baseline for comparison. Well, other groups have done far more with far less:

...volunteers from Southern Baptist churches mucked out 12,000 houses in Mississippi alone, and have rebuilt or repaired 3,000, while volunteers from Mennonite congregations have repaired hundreds of houses and built 31 new ones last year. Even the small Southern Mutual Help Association, a nonprofit that reported revenues of $3.3 million in 2005, has helped rehabilitate or rebuild more than 500.

Habitat has been building homes from scratch, which is a different tact than those other groups. Still, one has to wonder what is the best way for the charity's leadership to utilize the vast resources at Habitat's disposal.

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.

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.

Rangel to Mississippi: Drop Dead

“Mississippi gets more than their fair share back in federal money, but who the hell wants to live in Mississippi?” Mr. Rangel said.

Classy.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) is likely to head the House Ways and Means Committee. He's going to decide just what money is appropriated in the new session.

Lots of class, that Charlie Rangel. Whatever kudos he got for telling [T]hugo Chavez off after calling the President a devil is gone. Rangel wants to be able to say those kinds of things exclusively. He's already said as much about Dick Cheney. And he's planning on saying drop dead to the military.

Now, after realizing that he's made a serious gaffe of his own, Rangel is trying to backtrack.

This is exactly the kind of thing people on the Gulf Coast don't need right now as they're still trying to put back together their lives after Katrina. Mississippi was among the most devastated part of the Gulf Coast - taking the brunt of Katrina's wrath. Entire towns were wiped off the map.

GOP and the City has more.

UPDATE:
Mississippi Congressman Chip Pickering (R) calls for Rangel to apologize. Good luck with that.

Technorati: rangel, mississippi, politics.

Make Great Falls a National Park

I'm all for making the Great Falls in Paterson, New Jersey a National Park, and the proposal has the bipartisan support of the entire New Jersey Congressional delegation as well as the support of Gov. Corzine. It's one of the largest cataracts East of the Mississippi, and at 70 feet, only the Niagara Falls are taller.



Yet, some of the rationale for the falls being made into a National Park are disturbing.

The National Parks Conservation Association, based in Washington, D.C., looked at Paterson's diverse community as one of the main reasons to designate the national park.

"Paterson can become the first NPS unit with strong Muslim-American support in a city that has the second largest number of Muslims in any American city," the association's Ronald J. Tipton wrote to federal officials.

What does the makeup of the community have to do with the application for the national park status? Either the site itself deserves classification and protection as a national park or it doesn't. I've noted previously that the economic vitality of Paterson has been in decline since the start of the 20th Century and national park status is seen as a way to revive the local economy, regardless of who actually resides there.

Paterson's Great Falls was home to the first hydroelectric plant in the country, and Paterson is called the "Cradle of American Industry" for all the manufacturing plants that sprung up to take advantage of the locale. That's the true legacy, and the only reason that any such national park status should be awarded to this, or any other site; not because someone thinks that this is a good idea to reward the Muslim-American community in Paterson.

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.

The Gulf Coast One Year Later

One year after Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast killing more than 1,500 people with a combination of failed levees in New Orleans, massive storm surge from Louisiana to Mississippi, and flooding and strong winds throughout an area of 90,000 square miles, the region is still struggling to regain its footing. The challenges facing the region are unprecedented in US history and the rebuilding efforts will be generational, not simply measured in months or years. Still, it is instructive to see what has been done thus far in the region to rebuild and recover from the disaster in the year since Katrina came ashore in the Gulf Coast.

Some people who came back to New Orleans are now choosing to move out of the city. The city is slow to deal with basic infrastructure and crime is still a headache. Perhaps Nagin should spend more time focusing his efforts on dealing with the basics than trying to deflect attention away from his shortcomings by showing how slow rebuilding has been at Ground Zero with insensitive remarks.

New Orleans is complaining about the difficulty in tapping federal aid because of the red tape involved. The city has to spend its own money in applying for the aid before it is disbursed; which is designed to cut down on fraud and misapplication of the funds to items other than those that should be funded by the federal government.

For every repair project, city officials must follow a lengthy application process — and spend their own money — before getting a dime of federal aid to fix at least 833 projects such as police stations, courtrooms, baseball fields or auditoriums.

Residents don't care much what the cause is. They're just tired of crater-like potholes, sudden drops in water pressure and debris-clogged storm drains.

"We're not asking for a lot. At this point, we're just looking for basic services: power, gas, water. Sewer that doesn't back up into your house would be nice too," said Jeb Bruneau, president of the neighborhood association in the Lakeview area. "Whatever the snafu was, the result is Joe Blow Citizen isn't seeing the effect of that federal money."

Louisiana eventually expects to get at least $25 billion in federal money for rebuilding projects, including everything from levee repairs to homeowner assistance. Of that money, $6 billion to $8 billion will be doled out statewide to repair broken roads, schools, water pipes and countless other problems.

But to get the money, the city — and other agencies such as the Sewerage and Water Board, the Regional Transit Authority and Orleans Parish School Board — must fill out worksheets for every construction project.

The worksheets are submitted to FEMA, which determines whether the project is eligible for federal aid. If approved, the federal government releases the approved money to the state, but the local government fronts the money to have the work done. After that, the local government can submit receipts for reimbursement.

Should this process be expedited so that the affected communities can rebuild faster? Well, given the problems associated with the FEMA disaster relief credit cards, where recipients spent the money on items completely unrelated to the disaster - from purchases of lap dances to sex change operations, some kind of oversight appears warranted. Yet some states did a better job in demonstrating that there were proper checks on the appropriations process. For example:

The money for the homeowner program was slower to arrive in Louisiana than in Mississippi because Mississippi was quicker to submit a plan that demonstrated checks and balances on the funding.

Many of the problems in Louisiana can be traced back to the 'leaders' in Louisiana - Gov. Blanco and NOLA Mayor Nagin. All the same, housing remains a major priority in Mississippi as it does elsewhere along the coast. Housing stocks were devastated by Katrina, Rita, and Wilma and hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced as a result of the storm damage.

While many media outlets push stories showing how the disaster affected the Bush Administration, less attention is put on the state and local governments that have to cope with the situation on a day-to-day basis. Yes, the Administration has suffered as a result of the slow perceived response, but that is exascerbated by the failings at all levels of government to deal with the situation and to be prepared for natural disasters. Billions in federal aid remains available to be tapped, but as we've seen, state and local government application for the money is varied in its efficiency.

The Sun Herald and the Times Picayune will have a running expose on life in South Mississippi one year after Katrina hit. So does the New York Times, New York Post, and other outlets like MSNBC whose Rising From Ruin series details the efforts of areas in the Gulf other than New Orleans.

Cehwiedel has been on top of the hurricane relief efforts with the Carnival of Hurricane Relief. There have been 52 editions since the hurricane came out, so check it out.

UPDATE:
The Army Corps says that it still hasn't completed repairs to the levee system and Governor Blanco has said that if a hurricane heads towards the city, New Orleans residents must get out because there's no guarantee that the flood protection systems will hold. This news comes on the heels that Tropical Storm Ernesto heads into the Carribean. The news that the Corps hasn't completed repairs comes even as the Corps missed the June 1 deadline for repairs and shows just how badly managed the flood control systems around New Orleans have been.

Mayor Nagin now claims he wishes someone else was Mayor? Well, doesn't that beat all. He could have chosen not to run, but did so. Nagin really ought to keep silent on these matters as every time he opens his mouth he does something to remind us how awful a leader he has been.

Meanwhile, ABC News looks at the economic fallout from Katrina a year later. One area of concern is the lack of progress in replacing the nearly 200,000 homes destroyed by the storm. Part of the problem relates back to the flood control situation, as well as insurance company issues and red tape. It's a slow process, and as someone who has visited Homestead Florida where Andrew made landfall in 2004, I can tell you that damage from these storms remains to this day in the form of empty lots, damaged buildings, and trees that still suffer the marks of that storm a decade later.

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

Return to the Gulf Coast

It's been a while since I posted updates about the Gulf Coast recovery efforts. There are still ongoing problems and concerns with the levee system in and around New Orleans, the pace of rebuilding is far too slow for most everyone, and the rebuilding in New Orleans is now being threatened by delays in the review process that puts billions of at risk. There aren't enough people to actually handle the review process.

Unless the New Orleans City Council authorizes more employees for its City Planning Commission and Safety and Permits Department, delays in the planning review process may force developers to scrap billions of dollars worth of projects, potentially dealing a blow to the city’s recovery effort, a slate of prominent business people told council members this week.

The group, comprised of developers, real estate brokers and architects, presented a list of 30 projects, including a Poydras Street hotel and condominium tower proposed by New York real estate magnate Donald Trump, that they said have been submitted to the city but not yet scheduled for a public hearing because of backlogs in understaffed city departments.

Because developers cannot keep projects alive indefinitely, especially in light of a 2008 deadline by which projects must be put into commerce to qualify for federal tax incentives prompted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, such a delay could mean the death of developments crucial to New Orleans’ revival.

“At this rate, the city cannot be rebuilt,” architect Peter Trapolin said. “Developers are going to back off projects if they can’t get the projects moving.”
The city also needs more planners to revise its comprehensive zoning ordinance to include recent changes to federal base flood elevation maps, said Zella May, a longtime member of the Downtown Development District board. More code inspectors also will be needed to make sure residents are complying with new rules, she said.

Problems could be averted and billions of dollars in investment salvaged if the council were to vote to spend several hundred thousand dollars to fill salaried positions left vacant after the city laid off 3,000 workers in the wake of Katrina, business leaders said.

Roads throughout the region, including New Orleans, are still in bad shape - especially due to all the new utility cuts to restore service.

Up the coast, the situation in Mississippi is somewhat improved, especially in casino country.

Rising from Ruin is a good roundup of the reactions from Mississippi.

Technorati: flood aid; hurricane katrina; katrina aid; kanye west; impeach bush; slidell; biloxi; gulfport; pascagoula; nagin; blanco; barbour.

Deaf, Dumb, Blind and Potentially Quite Dead

So, 25% of my fellow Americans wouldn't heed evacuation warnings should a hurricane be bearing down on them:

The most common reasons respondents gave for not evacuating were confidence that their home is well-built, belief that roads would be too crowded and concern that evacuating would be dangerous.

"Public officials have to realize a substantial group of people are going to remain and be very dependent on rescue efforts after a storm hits," said Robert Blendon, the Harvard health policy professor who directed the survey.

The telephone survey, of 2,029 people, was conducted from July 5 to July 11.

All participants were 18 and older and lived in counties within 50 miles of the coastline in the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Nearly 50 percent said they had evacuated because of a hurricane before. "These are people with a lot of experience with storms," Blendon said.

When asked if they would evacuate if government officials said a major hurricane was going to hit in the next few days, 67 percent said they would, 24 percent said they would not and the rest said they didn't know or it would depend on the circumstances.

If it turned out they later needed rescuing, 75 percent of those who would or might stay voiced confidence they would be saved.

The rescue findings were surprising, especially in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Blendon said.

Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, devastating southern Mississippi and flooding much of New Orleans. The storm killed more than 1,500 people in one of the largest natural disasters in modern American history.

It's noteworthy that 25 percent of the respondents who would not evacuate would not count on a rescue, said Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness.

"There are many people who have an extremely low level of confidence in the government," Redlener said.

There is good reason to have low levels of confidence in government coming to the rescue in a natural disaster, but that's no excuse for staying in the face of a natural disaster that can be avoided by moving inland to higher ground.

It appears that the lessons of Katrina have not been learned despite the loss of life and tremendous economic damages throughout the Gulf Coast from multiple hurricane strikes in just the past few years.

Choosing not to evacuate could end up being a fatal mistake for thousands, which will then require search and rescue teams risking their lives to try and save folks who should never have stayed in harms' way.