White House to seek $4.2 billion more for La. housing

[DeltaLady]

Now, if congress agrees, there will be finally be a viable plan for Louisiana :party:
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WASHINGTON — The White House announced Wednesday that it will ask Congress to approve another $4.2 billion to help rebuild Louisiana homes destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The additional money would increase the total in federal block grants for housing to $10.4 billion.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and other state and local officials made hastily arranged trips to Washington to join Donald Powell, the Bush administration’s hurricane recovery coordinator, for the announcement. The meeting was also attended by St. Bernard Parish President Junior Rodriguez, Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard, U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and U.S. Reps. Bobby Jindal, R-Kenner, Jim McCrery, R-Shreveport and Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman.

Louisiana was earlier targeted to receive $6.2 billion in block grants appropriated by Congress, but Blanco, Nagin and others had complained that the money would not be enough to deal with the more than 165,000 homes damaged by the storms.

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2006_02_15.html#113298

[twaddler01]

1. Oh well, it has only been how long now?

:eyes:

[DeltaLady]

9. Seems like forever and a day and then some! n/t

[movonne]

2. Mark my words, this will something else they won't do...

[DeltaLady]

10. I pray you are wrong but fear you are right. n/t

[Kagemusha]

3. How will that money get distributed? It's in a flood plain!

Supposedly FEMA has 25,000 pre-fab homes being stored around the country because its regulations prohibit the placing of homes in a flood plain like, oh, say New Orleans.

So how will this money even get spent?

[DeltaLady]

8. Here is the housing plan to date

http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1139851504244790.xml?nola

[rodeodance]

4. I hear Fema had to purchase 4,000 jacks to jack up the trailers sitting in

the Arkansas fields.

[DeltaLady]

7. Well, I've heard that good jobs are hard

to come by in Arkansas, but wherever did they find that many Jacks? (giggles and ducks)

All joking aside, this is the first I've heard of it, but neither would it shock and awe me. FEMA has already awed me speechless with their ineptitude.

One short piece I read tonight had a few words about the POSSIBILITY that our first responders may be able to use some. I suppose FEMA is considering how to get around their own red tape. It's the first article at the top of the page:

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2006_02_15.html

[Wordie]

5. Good news, DeltaLady!

:hi:

It must be a relief for you to see things moving forward, finally.

I'm just curious...do you know anything about plans for the wetlands and for rebuilding the levees? It seems to me that's such a crucial piece of the rebuilding plans, too.

Also, are you aware that DU has a Hurricane Survivors group? It's here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=360

[DeltaLady]

6. Just the hope of progress is elating.

As regards the wetlands and levees, Governor Blanco has threatened to prevent the upcoming offshore oil/gas auction set for August unless Louisiana gets a fair share of the revenues. Here is some background on it:

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-5/113886577878520.xml

They are currently repairing and upgrading both levees and pumps, with repairs expected to be completed before June 1, the opening of hurricane season. That would handle a category 3 hurricane, and is all that can be engineered for this season. With cat 5 levees in mind, we've sent a delegation to view what the Dutch have done to hold back the sea, and there is some speculation that further refinements in the levee system will be a coordinated and cooperative joint venture. They are willing to supply the expertise, so all we need is the capital.

Additionally, the houses that are demolished in a federally funded (FEMA) buyout plan cannot legally be replaced; per flood regulations nothing can be built on that land ever again. This will result in more parkland (and perhaps some neighborhood gardens). This will create more wetlands within the city proper, which should make bird watching a real joy :-)

[Wordie]

11. I'm just curious...

do the current plans at all work along with the plan proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers? Here's a link:
http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/prj/lca/

The report was prepared way back in 2004. I seem to recall reading that restoration of the wetlands would also help prevent flooding. Do you know what's being done on this, if anything? Is it a part of Nagin's plan?

The thing that I find worrisome is that reports now say that Katrina was only a Cat 3; a lot more needs to be done and quickly to provide real future protection, it seems to me.

[DeltaLady]

13. Below is a link for you,

there's a ton of information regarding specific plans and projects for the wetlands:

http://www.lacoast.gov/cwppra/

For more info about levee projects, you'll find this site useful:

http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil./

There's so much information and both plans are so complex there is no way to nutshell it for anyone. Whew, you have lots of homework!

Hope this helps answer your queries :-)

[Wordie]

12. On a related note, does anyone know about new McCain-Feingold water bill?

Here's some info:
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=61067

American Rivers: Feingold-McCain Bill Would Protect Communities, Taxpayers and the Environment

2/15/2006 6:01:00 PM

To: National Desk, Environment Reporter

Contact: Brad Devries, 202-243-7023 or Melissa Samet, 415-482-8150 (Calif.) or Eli Weissman, 202-347-7550 ext.3010, all of the American Rivers

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 /U.S. Newswire/ -- American Rivers today hailed legislation by Sens. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) that would protect communities, taxpayers, and the environment from ill-conceived water projects. The Water Resources Planning and Modernization Act of 2006 would overhaul the flawed process that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) uses to plan and build the nation's water projects.

"The legacy of bad Corps water projects has ranged from farce to tragedy, with the citizens of New Orleans paying the most recent price," said Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers. "The Feingold-McCain bill would reverse decades of bad practice by the Corps, and Congress should seize this opportunity to address the harsh lessons of Hurricane Katrina."

As the post-Katrina flooding of New Orleans tragically demonstrated, the Corps' project planning is fundamentally flawed. Corps actions directly contributed to -- and some would argue caused -- the post-Katrina devastation of New Orleans. Initial investigations strongly suggest that the floodwall and levee failures that drowned most of New Orleans were the result of poor design by the Corps. Corps projects also destroyed coastal wetlands that could have reduced the hurricane storm surge, funneled and intensified that surge into New Orleans through the misguided Mississippi River Gulf Outlet project, and encouraged the development of homes in high risk areas.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=61067

I'm suprised at this because I had thought the Corps were the good guys for trying to get the levees repaired and the wetlands restored.

There's also this:

Coastal losses greater than thought
118 square miles lost, report says
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
By Matthew Brown
West Bank bureau

Southeast Louisiana's natural storm buffer took an unprecedented blow from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that was even worse than previously reported, with 118 square miles of coastal marsh converted into open water, a new federal report says.

The extent of shredded wetlands, laid out in a U.S. Geological Survey report, is equivalent to more than 73,000 football fields, or almost twice the size of Washington, D.C.

Plaquemines Parish suffered the worst losses -- more than 57 square miles in Breton Sound and near the mouth of the Mississippi River, according to USGS geographer John Barras.

"Alarming is not the right term. It's frightening what's happened with Katrina," said Carlton Dufrechou, executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation. "The rule of thumb is that every two and a half miles of wetlands reduces storm surge by one foot."

The USGS report comes at a time when billions of dollars in federal aid have been committed Louisiana for disaster recovery and levee repairs, but none so far for wetlands restoration beyond pre-existing projects and programs.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-3/113998708880320.xml

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, it's just that I hope something will also be done about the wetlands, with an eye toward protection for the future. Maybe that new McCain-Feingold bill will help...

[DeltaLady]

14. I too trusted in the Corps

now I don't know what to think! This much I do know, Louisiana has been looking over the Corps shoulder from Katrina on. Many outright blame them for the levee failures. I think it was a combination of poor planning by the Corps and poor construction by payola, but that's just my take.

[Wordie]

15. I thought the Corps had a plan for upgrading that would withstand Cat5,

but they couldn't get it funded. I know I had read that someplace.