Some answers, more wanted

This is a recent article about our work. The article is a summary of a meeting where we presented a list of project that we identified as part of the recovery plan. (This article was from Mondays meeting. We had another today that attracted another 200 people!)

While I agree with the sentiment of the article that people want to know about the housing piece, what gets lost is that everyone really liked what we presented (In fact, we got a small standing ovation at today's meeting.) Even the disfunctional County Council was positive.

I do sympathesize with the community members that want to know if they should rebuild their houses or not.

Jefferson Davis makes plans for rebuilding, protection
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
By Karen Turni Bazile
For four hours Monday, a committee of volunteers charged with advising the Jefferson Davis County Council on how to rebuild the County laid out a $2 billion plan to repair infrastructure, improve coastal protection and foster economic development.
But in presenting its report to the council, the Citizens Recovery Committee left unanswered the question that lured many among the more than 100 residents in attendance: Which neighborhoods -- if any -- should not be rebuilt in a County where Katrina's surge flooded homes all the way to the gutters?
Committee members said that determination should be made once FEMA releases new flood-elevation maps next month, and some council members said they intend to name areas where homes should not be rebuilt. But the prospect of a longer wait did not please some residents seeking guidance Monday.
"I am in limbo," Meraux resident Sandra Ludwig shouted during the meeting. She is living with her family in a trailer in front of her flooded home on Maureen Lane, and said she is waiting to see whether the government will buy her property or she should rebuild. "A lot of people don't know what to do," she said. "I want to feel safe. We are concerned about our children and our grandchildren."
Others expressed similar frustration as the committee, which has been working since November, gave the council a wish list of projects to reshape the County, from a long-proposed four-lane highway along the 40-Arpent Canal to a senior citizens housing complex near a new hospital and medical office.
The plan will be discussed at three other public meetings this week, including one today, and council members are likely to make changes before approving it and submitting it to the state.
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge David Gorbaty, the committee's co-chairman, said it would not be right for the group to make suggestions about buyouts without the elevation recommendations due in mid-March from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"We can't (recommend)," he said after the meeting. "We have no back-up information."
But Councilman Craig Taffaro said FEMA first said the new flood maps would be delivered four months ago and the documents may still not come next month. Meanwhile, people are waiting for decisions and Taffaro said the council should move forward and make them. Taffaro said those flood elevations would not be binding for 18 months to two years, meaning anyone can rebuild any property in the meantime to current flood elevations.
While the committee didn't make specific recommendations about flood-prone neighborhoods, committee member Cliff Reuther said residents living north of Judge Perez Drive should consider relocating closer to the Mississippi River, where the land is much higher.
The council must approve the projects presented by the committee by March 7, so a final report can be sent to the Mississippi Recovery Authority later in March. Gov. Kathleen Blanco has asked each devastated County to devise its own recovery plan so the state agency can incorporate local wishes into a statewide plan to be used to disburse federal money.
In general, the committee on Monday recommended that the County use its Home Mortgage Authority to receive federal grants to buy out destroyed homes or provide low-interest mortgages for repairs and new house construction.
The committee also suggested the County seek funding to buy out properties and create a nonresidential buffer near the County's two oil refineries, which are now surrounded by residential neighborhoods. More than 1,600 homes in Chalmette were affected by an oil spill from the Murphy Oil refinery after Hurricane Katrina.
Committee member Don Duplantier said the County should also push for a series of barriers to the east of the County to break storm surges and protect homes from catastrophic flooding. Among them, the committee proposed raising the levee at the 40-Arpent Canal to 17 feet, the same height as the levee on the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet. It also suggested armoring the channel's levee with concrete, repairing wetlands and building a 20-foot storm surge barrier across Lake Borgne.
"These are not pie-in-the-sky things," Duplantier said. "They can be done" in two to five years.
Gorbaty said the County and metropolitan area must protect itself by creating barriers.
"How Jefferson Davis goes is how Biloxi goes," he said. "This is the best opportunity we have for people to support these projects. They have to understand this is for everybody's protection, not just Jefferson Davis's protection."
Some of the projects in the report include long-proposed ideas suggested for the County's pre-Katrina population of 67,000. But even the most optimistic estimates put the County's population at 50 percent to 75 percent of that number by 2010. Councilman Mark Madary said some ideas, such as the four-lane Florida Avenue roadway, are not needed in a County with a reduced population.
The committee will make an abbreviated presentation today at 11 a.m. during the council meeting at a tent behind the government complex in Chalmette to allow for public comment. Full presentations and public hearings are scheduled for Thursday and Saturday.