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carocrowOn CNN this evening, they had a bit on the "euthanasia" thing at the big Charity that happened days after the storm, during the desperate days before rescue. It is still hard to believe the things that happened actually happened here, in America, and not very far away from any of us. The pResident hasn't been down since October. I hope no one lets this Administration forget what they promised on national television in regard to NOLA.
There's also a five page article in the NY Times regarding the people who died, how many of them actually died in the storm, and how many died due to the flooding instead, how many in their attics, etc. Too many... but the interesting thing is that many of the elderly that died *did* have a way out of the city, at least according to families who were interviewed, they simply chose to stay for whatever their reasons were (and that's not surprising, there are always diehards in storm regions).
So here is another NY Times story. Down in the 9th Ward and Lakefront area, they are looking to start demolition.
By ADAM NOSSITER
NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 16 - The city will begin demolishing several thousand of the most severely hurricane-damaged houses in the next few weeks, marking the completion of an arduous door-to-door inspection of more than 120,000 structures that began months ago.
Officials here have provisionally identified about 5,500 houses as being unsafe to enter or in imminent danger of collapse. Of those, they have marked about 2,500 for demolition in the coming weeks, said Greg Meffert, the New Orleans official heading the inspections. He did not supply a precise date, but suggested that it would be soon.
The highest concentration of these red-tagged houses - so called because of the bright orange-red stickers the city's building inspectors have slapped on them - are in the Lower Ninth Ward and Gentilly, neighborhoods ravaged by levee breaks from the storm. The water's force pushed houses in these areas off their foundations, into neighbors' yards, and sometimes collapsed them altogether.
The sensitivity of demolishing houses here, a subject city officials mostly avoid discussing, is reflected in the fact that all houses tagged red are subject to a reinspection, to make certain they qualify. Some are likely to lose the red designation, city officials said, meaning that the figure of 5,500 will drop.
The vast majority of the inspected houses fall into a middle, or yellow, category, meaning they have some damage - for example, a flooded first floor - but are still structurally sound. That so many of the city's houses sustained this degree of damage reflects the extent of the flooding, which affected 80 percent of New Orleans at its height. Lakeview, a middle-class neighborhood bordering Lake Pontchartrain, contains block after block of houses in this category and remains largely uninhabited.
Many of these yellow-tagged houses "still represent a headache for the city," said Bill Pioli, an official of the Army Corps of Engineers who helped manage the inspections. Salvaging them will be difficult, considering the limited resources that many homeowners and the local government have for repairs. That quandary is captured in the cautious attitude New Orleans officials are adopting toward these dwellings, neither advocating their destruction nor suggesting that all can be saved.
"The city will not be making any unilateral demolition decisions," Mr. Meffert, an aide to Mayor C. Ray Nagin, said in an e-mail message on Thursday. "With the exception of those 5,000 homes that are collapsing and endangering others, the individual owner, in that yellow designation, will make the financial and personal decision of whether it makes sense to demolish or do a gut rehab."
Heaps of housing rubble, including Sheetrock and flooring, that line many blocks here suggest that some homeowners have already made that decision and are plunging ahead with rehabilitation, despite worrisome costs.
The swath of undamaged houses marked in green closely tracks the historic high ground of the city, along the Mississippi River. The elevation is imperceptible from the ground, consisting of only a few feet, and is the result of hundreds of years of silt deposited by the river. This slight rise was nonetheless just enough to keep these houses out of the "bowl," as it is known locally, referring to an area largely undeveloped in the 19th century. Even before Hurricane Katrina, those areas were subject to periodic flooding during heavy rains.
Out of 180,000 houses in the city, 110,000 were flooded. Half of those sat for days or weeks in more than six feet of water.
The Corps of Engineers will have responsibility for the demolitions, using track excavators. But in many cases, these huge pieces of equipment will have to do little more than scoop up heaps of rubble, because wind and water have already taken care of the demolition.
There's also a five page article in the NY Times regarding the people who died, how many of them actually died in the storm, and how many died due to the flooding instead, how many in their attics, etc. Too many... but the interesting thing is that many of the elderly that died *did* have a way out of the city, at least according to families who were interviewed, they simply chose to stay for whatever their reasons were (and that's not surprising, there are always diehards in storm regions).
So here is another NY Times story. Down in the 9th Ward and Lakefront area, they are looking to start demolition.
By ADAM NOSSITER
NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 16 - The city will begin demolishing several thousand of the most severely hurricane-damaged houses in the next few weeks, marking the completion of an arduous door-to-door inspection of more than 120,000 structures that began months ago.
Officials here have provisionally identified about 5,500 houses as being unsafe to enter or in imminent danger of collapse. Of those, they have marked about 2,500 for demolition in the coming weeks, said Greg Meffert, the New Orleans official heading the inspections. He did not supply a precise date, but suggested that it would be soon.
The highest concentration of these red-tagged houses - so called because of the bright orange-red stickers the city's building inspectors have slapped on them - are in the Lower Ninth Ward and Gentilly, neighborhoods ravaged by levee breaks from the storm. The water's force pushed houses in these areas off their foundations, into neighbors' yards, and sometimes collapsed them altogether.
The sensitivity of demolishing houses here, a subject city officials mostly avoid discussing, is reflected in the fact that all houses tagged red are subject to a reinspection, to make certain they qualify. Some are likely to lose the red designation, city officials said, meaning that the figure of 5,500 will drop.
The vast majority of the inspected houses fall into a middle, or yellow, category, meaning they have some damage - for example, a flooded first floor - but are still structurally sound. That so many of the city's houses sustained this degree of damage reflects the extent of the flooding, which affected 80 percent of New Orleans at its height. Lakeview, a middle-class neighborhood bordering Lake Pontchartrain, contains block after block of houses in this category and remains largely uninhabited.
Many of these yellow-tagged houses "still represent a headache for the city," said Bill Pioli, an official of the Army Corps of Engineers who helped manage the inspections. Salvaging them will be difficult, considering the limited resources that many homeowners and the local government have for repairs. That quandary is captured in the cautious attitude New Orleans officials are adopting toward these dwellings, neither advocating their destruction nor suggesting that all can be saved.
"The city will not be making any unilateral demolition decisions," Mr. Meffert, an aide to Mayor C. Ray Nagin, said in an e-mail message on Thursday. "With the exception of those 5,000 homes that are collapsing and endangering others, the individual owner, in that yellow designation, will make the financial and personal decision of whether it makes sense to demolish or do a gut rehab."
Heaps of housing rubble, including Sheetrock and flooring, that line many blocks here suggest that some homeowners have already made that decision and are plunging ahead with rehabilitation, despite worrisome costs.
The swath of undamaged houses marked in green closely tracks the historic high ground of the city, along the Mississippi River. The elevation is imperceptible from the ground, consisting of only a few feet, and is the result of hundreds of years of silt deposited by the river. This slight rise was nonetheless just enough to keep these houses out of the "bowl," as it is known locally, referring to an area largely undeveloped in the 19th century. Even before Hurricane Katrina, those areas were subject to periodic flooding during heavy rains.
Out of 180,000 houses in the city, 110,000 were flooded. Half of those sat for days or weeks in more than six feet of water.
The Corps of Engineers will have responsibility for the demolitions, using track excavators. But in many cases, these huge pieces of equipment will have to do little more than scoop up heaps of rubble, because wind and water have already taken care of the demolition.
