New Orleans Is Still Grappling With the Basics of Rebuilding
By Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times
This article was reported by Adam Nossiter, Gary Rivlin, John Schwartz, Eric Lipton and Jennifer Steinhauer and was written by Ms. Steinhauer.
NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 7 - Something once unimaginable has begun to happen here: the United Parcel Service is delivering again downtown. At Langenstein's grocery, celery and pork chops are moving out the door, and revelers spill out of the Magazine Street bars on Friday nights.
But just a mile away, workers are struggling to restore some flood protection to the city, which would barely stay dry in even a modest tropical storm. Tens of thousands of homeowners, facing six-figure repair bills for their rotting houses, are unlikely to get more than a fraction of that from the government. As phones ring in empty offices, even the shrimp business can barely find customers, and the economy remains comatose.
More than two months after Hurricane Katrina incapacitated this peerless, sultry American city, New Orleans has shaken off the shock of its collapse and has slowly begun to draw breath again. But as it moves from recovery into the more crucial rebuilding phase, it is only beginning to grapple with the elemental questions that will shape its future, many of which have arisen at the special session of the Louisiana State Legislature that began Sunday night.
Will New Orleans be granted a vastly strengthened flood protection system - at a cost of up to $20 billion - or will it be told to allow low-lying residential neighborhoods to return to marshland? Will the city have to take control of thousands of houses to restore them - at a cost that no one has calculated - or will it have to tell thousands of evacuated residents not to return?
Every major decision seems to rely on another decision that has to be made first, and no one has stepped in to announce what the city will do and break the cycle of uncertainty. Many residents and business owners will not return and invest without an assurance of flood protection, for example. But workers who could rebuild the levees and much of the rest of the city are hampered bythe lack of housing.
"We can't ask somebody to work for us if they have nowhere to live," said Robert Boh, president of Boh Brothers, a New Orleans construction company.
And construction of new houses, or the rebuilding of the old damaged ones, has been stymied by the high cost, the empty treasury of local government, and the debate over how to maintain the city's political and demographic base.
While some experts have warned that it makes little economic or environmental sense to rebuild low-lying areas like the Lower Ninth Ward, Mayor C. Ray Nagin and many other city officials have stated emphatically that the neighborhood will be rebuilt and protected, whatever the cost.
Developers have not yet received the kind of tax incentives that Washington provided to New York after Sept. 11, and local officials are preparing for the loss of up to half the city's 115,000 small businesses.
In rebuilding, timing and proportion are everything. Unlike New York officials, who seized their moment of national sympathy to nail down $20 billion in specific appropriations from Congress after Sept. 11, Louisiana delegates asked for a hefty $200 billion. After that amount was shot down, there was little clarity in the state's request, and two-thirds of the $60 billion approved by Congress for the Gulf Coast has not been spent.
"Louisiana lost its credibility by asking for everything," said Walter Isaacson, the former chairman of CNN, who serves as vice chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, a new state entity appointed by the governor to coordinate the reconstruction effort. "Now it is our job to say, we have some reasonable priorities for spending and we are going to be sensible and frugal about it."
Keeping the City Dry
Amid the city's divisions, there is one area of consensus: its levees and floodwalls must once again be able to protect New Orleans from swirling gulf waters before the city can fully recover. To date, however, the Army Corps of Engineers has performed only the most rudimentary of repairs, plugging holes and driving steel pilings to create a quick-and-dirty version of protection against Category 3 hurricanes.
That will not be enough to restore confidence in the city's future among traumatized residents. Virtually all city and state officials agree that flood protection must be increased to withstand a Category 5 storm.
"The comprehensive coastal restoration and Category 5 hurricane protection system is ourtop federal priority," said Andy Kopplin, the executive director of the recovery authority. "And having Category 5 hurricane protection in New Orleans is essential for its long-term recovery."
But that commitment, according to the state, would cost $10 billion to $20 billion and take up to 10 years to meet. Restoring the coastline would cost $14 billion. There is no sign yet that the administration is willing to write checks of this size.
Last week, President Bush submitted a spending request to Congress that included $1.6 billion for repair of levees and wetlands, and an additional $4.6 million to study the possibility of a levee upgrade. The proposal was immediately criticized as wholly inadequate by members of the state's Congressional delegation.
Even the immediate reconstruction work is moving slowly. The corps has advertised 49 contracts for engineering and construction work in the area, but so far only a dozen have been awarded, said Lewis F. Setliff III, who leads the corps' restoration task force.
Then there is the dirt. Even the most basic repairs will require about three million cubic yards of soil, the equivalent of a football field on which dirt is stacked 1,575 feet high, Mr. Setliff said. The corps has yet to find enough sites for the so-called "borrow pits" for the soil, which ideally need to be close to the construction sites.
Given these concerns, it is not clear that the corps will meet its self-imposed deadline of June 1 to return the city's flood control system to its pre-Hurricane Katrina strength, though that remains its intent.
"It may very well be in some areas it won't be what you call final protection," said Donald L. Basham, the chief of engineering and construction for the corps. "We may still be affording interim protection measures that if you want to walk away and leave that system for the next 20 years that's not the way you want to leave it. It won't be pretty."
A Roof Overhead
Thousands of New Orleans residents want to come home. But for many of them, there remains nothing to return to.
In Lakeview and Mid-City, middle-class enclaves in the western half of town, street after street of empty houses sit browned with mud six feet up. Throughout the impoverished Ninth Ward and in neighboring St. Bernard Parish to the east, hundreds of homes have been virtually leveled, and blue tarps stretch over roof after roof throughout the city. All told, roughly 40 percent of the city's homes wereflooded, and up to 50,000 homes are likely to be demolished.
"Housing is probably our most pressing issue right now," Mayor Nagin said in an interview. "Temporary housing for workers, housing that was damaged or flooded, the quick repair of that. There's just not enough footprint to accommodate the people who want to move back into the city right now."
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has begun to give tens of thousands of city homeowners financial assistance for rebuilding, but the grants are capped at $26,200 per household, not enough in most cases for major reconstruction. Tax incentives for developers and other forms of bailout money - all doled out in Lower Manhattan in 2001 - have been discussed in Congress but not passed. As a result, several ideas that might once have been considered outlandish are being considered to resuscitate the city's housing stock.
Under one notion that is being discussed by a leading member of Mr. Nagin's rebuilding commission, the city could take control of a house, fix it up and then lease it out. The original owner would have the right to come back eventually and re-establish ownership claims. The idea, based on an old Louisiana legal concept known as usufruct, has already encountered some political opposition, but proponents say that local government may have no choice but to step in.
Joseph C. Canizaro, a wealthy developer who sits on the mayor's commission, has proposed building new housing in City Park, the beloved New Orleans equivalent of Central Park, and letting some low-lying neighborhoods revert to marshland. Though the idea is politically hard to imagine, it is remarkable for being discussed at all.
Fear of political consequences, though, have begun to undermine the process of actually getting anything done. Many of the destroyed homes sat in areas that were blighted before a drop of rain from the hurricane fell, and plenty were located in areas that will be vulnerable in the next storm.
While the politics become untangled, the futures of thousands of people hang in a terrible balance. "We need to know what the city is going to do," said Oliver Thomas, the president of the New Orleans City Council, "so we can start planning our lives."
Looking for Work
As the city struggles to regain its physical shape, the spine of its economy is cracking.
Last week, Chase Bank reopened its main branch in a high-rise one block off Canal Street. Four tellers stood at their stations, and three other bank employees sat behind desks, in a branch devoid of a single customer at 2 p.m. on a Wednesday.
New Orleans has lost $1.5 million in tourist revenues every day since the levees broke, according to the Louisiana Office of Tourism, and only 25 percent of its 3,400 restaurants have reopened. In September, the unemployment rate hit 14.8 percent.
The loss of tourism to New Orleans reverberates throughout the region. For example, the fish and shrimp industries, hurting from damage to boats and infrastructure, need mouths to feed in the city.
"We moved 8.2 million pounds of shrimp last year, and 5 million of it went to the New Orleans area," said Dean Blanchard, vice president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association. The volume of ships using the city's port - the nation's fifth largest - is still 70 percent off its normal capacity, said John Kallenborn, the Port of New Orleans's board chairman.
Small businesses are struggling to survive because of the paucity of residents and the lack of tourists, and many large companies have yet to return. Before the hurricane, New Orleans was home to roughly 115,000 small businesses. "Losing half those businesses is not out of the question," said W. Anthony Patton, a member of the reconstruction commission.
The Recovery Authority is considering asking for $10 billion in grants to help small businesses, and Congress is now considering a proposal that would immediately set aside $450 million in small business loans.
The city has already lost 29 of the 70 conventions that had been scheduled in 2006. Its convention center, has yet to reopen, and will probably not do so until early next year.
Seen from the perspective of the French Quarter and select neighborhoods such as the Garden District and Algiers, the city can seem in surprisingly robust shape. Grocery stores are open on the West Bank, as are bank branches, many restaurants and movie theaters.
"It seems as if the city is breathing again," Mayor Nagin said, although he conceded he had no clue as to how many of those exhaling were people who actually live in the City of New Orleans.
But some of the city's largest high-rises, including One Shell Plaza and Dominion Towers, are still shuttered. Rubenstein Brothers, a clothing store on Canal Street for 81 years, opened to great fanfare last month, yet by midafternoon that day its clerks, well dressed and standing smartly at attention, had nothing to do.
When will the restof the world sip the city's coffee, take in free concerts by Rebirth Brass Band, nibble on po' boys and roam the French Quarter talking about something other than storm surge and FEMA? It could be many years.
"We've bottomed out and now we're beginning to claw our way out," said Scott Cowen, the president of Tulane University. "It may take three to five years to really build the model city we all aspire for New Orleans to be."
Adam Nossiter and Gary Rivlin reported from New Orleans for this article, Eric Lipton from Washington, and John Schwartz and Jennifer Steinhauer from New York.
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Roadtrip for Relief
Converge in New Orleans in a Showing of Solidarity! November 20-27 in New Orleans -- organized by Common Ground
Come lend a hand over the week of Thanksgiving until November 27th. That's less than four weeks away!
The folks at Common Ground invite you to join an estimated 300 volunteers from around the continent to converge in New Orleans the week of Thanksgiving. We want to encourage those in attendance to arrive with building & cleaning supplies, donated equipment and, if possible, funds that can apply directly to help rebuild and the 9th Ward.
Upon arrival, we will orient you to the long history of neglect and oppression in this area and offer tips on how to connect with the community in a respectful and effective manor. Then we will plug people into community projects in the 9th Ward, where we have just opened a new distribution center and where we are helping to coordinate efforts to challenge unjust city, state and national governments' policies and commercial exploits.
People who come can expect a life-changing experience and tasks ranging from debris removal to simply listening to those most effected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Common Ground is working dilegently to arrange for adequete shelter and food for all volunteers. please join us in the Roadtrip for Relief Forum Discussion or write Kerul Dyer at roadtripforrelief@gmail.com or call call 504.339.5885 to let us know where you are coming from, how many are in your convoy and when you will arrive!
Our efforts can illuminate that clean-up is possible and that we will stand in solidarity with people as they re-establish their lives in New Orleans. We will also bear witness to the dangerous policies of the city of New Orleans and keep a careful eye on the infamous New Orleans Police Department.
Continue reading "Road Trip for Relief! Reclaim the Gulf!"
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Real danger from hurricanes comes during the cleanup, not the storm
By Noreen Marcus
Staff Writer
With Hurricane Wilma's Florida death toll climbing to 30, seven hurricanes to strike the state in two years have claimed the lives of 201 residents. The leading cause of death: cleaning up after the storm.
More than one-quarter of Florida's hurricane victims who died lost their lives in the simple but stressful act of trying to reclaim their homes, yards and streets, according to a South Florida Sun-Sentinel review of fatalities from hurricanes of 2004 and 2005.
Accidents from cleaning up -- cutting dead tree limbs with chain saws, climbing atop shingle-stripped roofs, lugging heavy debris -- killed more people than howling winds and rising waters, and even more than traffic collisions on dark roads or fumes from generators left on indoors.
The average age of adults who died during cleanup activities was 57. All were men.
"The vast majority [of hurricane deaths] are the indirect deaths that come after the storm, made worse by people who have pre-existing conditions exacerbated by the stress or strain of the storm," said Dr. Stephen Nelson, chairman of the Florida Medical Examiners Commission.
Physical and emotional stress can take a toll on all types of people, making even someone who normally knows what he's doing more prone to fatal error. A man with a weak heart overtaxes it with strenuous cleanup activity in the heat; a tree-trimmer touches a downed tree covering an electrified power line; an experienced roofer falls from a ladder.
Arthur Levon Davis Jr., 56, died Sept. 27, 2004, two days after Hurricane Jeanne swept through South Florida. The West Palm Beach man was repairing the roof of Dixie Shoes when he fell two stories. "It wasn't anything that was new to him," his mother, Alethia Davis, said. "You're in a different frame of mind after a hurricane."
That might be one reason why the mundane can be so deadly in the aftermath of a storm.
The Sun-Sentinel examined and categorized storm deaths reported by medical examiners across Florida in the past two years. While medical examiners classify storm deaths only as accidental, natural and suicide, the newspaper examined more specific causes. The research affirmed the well-known admonition from authorities -- far more people die after a storm than during it -- but also revealed that cleaning up after a storm can be a highly dangerous activity.
Cleanup accidents accounted for 55 deaths, or 27 percent of the total. In this group, 22 fell from roofs, ladders or trees; 14 were hit by falling or moving objects such as tree limbs or a wayward backhoe; nine died from heart attacks; seven were electrocuted while clearing debris or repairing homes or power lines; and three died when a bulldozer or other machinery malfunctioned.
Thirteen of the cleanup fatalities were identified as hired workers in the medical examiner reports. Most were residents cleaning up their property and streets.
Those patterns are holding true for Wilma, though the death count from the most recent storm to strike Florida continues to rise.
"Some storm-related deaths unfortunately don't get detected immediately and a decision rendered as a storm-related death until sometime down the road," said Tom Berlinger, spokesman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. A storm victim could fall into a coma and die in a hospital a month later, for example.
So far, eight of the 30 deaths associated with Wilma, or just over a quarter, appear to be from cleanup activities:
>In St. Lucie County, a man, 59, collapsed and died after strenuous post-storm work, the apparent victim of a heart attack.
>In Collier County, a 55-year-old man repairing a storm-damaged gate was fatally injured when a concrete piling fell on him. A man, 65, collapsed from a heart attack while cleaning up debris and died.
>In Broward County, a 51-year-old man helping repair the roof of a friend's business stepped into a hole in the roof and fell 40 feet to his death. A man, 75, surveying storm damage in his yard was felled by a loose tree limb. A 24-year-old electrician restoring power to a building in Fort Lauderdale was found in the panel room showing signs of electrocution and died later in a hospital.
In Miami-Dade County, a security guard, 72, who was trying to open a gate that had been disconnected by the power outage was crushed when the gate, unsecured by its chain and motor, fell on him. A bulldozer operator, 52, who was removing trash and debris, was killed when the vehicle overturned, pinning him inside the cab.
People need to recognize their limitations, said Dr. John Lanza, director of the Escambia County Health Department and a veteran of Pensacola hurricanes.
"You don't want to run a chain saw if you're not able to," he said. "You need to figure that out beforehand. You don't want to learn how to use a chain saw during a hurricane."
Acknowledging medical realities is especially important, said Nelson, of the Medical Examiners Commission.
"If you've got a heart condition, you probably are not the best person to be cleaning up your heavy debris, as much as you want to," he said.
Raymond Shedd, 52, knew how to use a chain saw. Living in rural Clay County, he had grown up using one, his father said. So when Hurricane Frances left a tree leaning against his house trailer, Shedd and his brother set out to cut it down. A limb from the weakened tree caught a power line and pulled down a utility pole, striking the Green Cove Springs man in the head and killing him.
This week his father, John Shedd, said he does not know what could have prevented the accident.
"I don't know a thing in the world," he mused, "unless they left the tree alone."
201 Floridians died in seven hurricanes in 2004 and 2005.
Almost two-thirds of those deaths occurred after the storm. Causes of the deaths* after the storms include: Cleanup 55, Traffic 27, Pre-existing medical problems: 25, Poison gas, Flammable items: 19, Electrocution (not from cleanup): 2
*Results for Wilma may be incomplete.
Source: Florida Medical Examiners Commission, from reports of district medical examiners
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Thousands of Wilma victims line up to get emergency food vouchers
By Bill Hirschman
Sun-Sentinel and sun-sentinel.com staff
Thousands of needy South Floridians, out of work or burdened by hurricane-related expenses, lined up today to apply for a month's worth of emergency food stamps to help tide them over.
The Food For Florida Disaster Food Stamp program had long lines at most or all of the seven locations where it was taking applications in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Initial reports were that some locations were processing as many as 1,500 people an hour, with long lines that were continually fed by new arrivals. Applicants started arriving at the sites as early as midnight.
"The state people did not coordinate this well," Warren Newell, Palm Beach County Commissioner, said. Newell was at the John Prince Park location on Tuesday.
"The lines are in the thousands. It's been a real mess. It's tied up traffic."
Applicants are awarded the food stamps based on need, with a family of four eligible for $506 worth for the month. They will receive debit cards that can be used to buy food at supermarkets and other stores.
"It's like a blessing, a breath of fresh air," said Deborah Thornton, a waitress from Lauderhill who is out of work for six weeks because Hurricane Wilma tore the roof off the restaurant where she works.
Lucy Hadi, Florida's secretary of Florida's Department of Children & Families, visiting Broward as part of the joint state-and-federal program, said as many as 4 million hurricane victims around the state will benefit from the program.
To qualify, people must have been residents on Oct. 24 and not be a regular recipient of food stamps. They must meet income and asset requirements and also have hurricane-related losses such as damage to property or loss of income.
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