Moment of Truth
The moment of truth is coming soon for Jefferson Davis County.
Up until now people have been wildly optomistic about how many people will return. Some politicians claim the population will up to 50 percent of prestorm levels in a few months. For that matter, even the current population is a big question mark. I think it hovers around 7000. The government claims upwards of 15,000. Many former residents make optomistic statements about planning to return.
The moment of truth is coming soon, in the next couple of months. The State (with federal money) is offering up to $150,000 to help people whose houses were flooded. Residents must either chose to 1) renovate their house 2) knock down and rebuild their house or 3) move.
This will either be the savor for the county or the death knell.
I am worried that 90 percent of home owners will choose to move. You can't have a county with 6,000 people - if this happens, there will be no county. What's worse, if it becomes clear that most people are moving, residents that want to stay will move. What after all, do you do if you are the only person who wants to remain on the block.
Imagine that, a county of 66,000 where post disaster, the population settles at 6000. Perhaps the whole government will cease to exist and be merged with the neighboring county.
The reason I am worried is the lack of progress of progress, which will push more people to move. There are a couple of areas that has not been much progress. Almost no houses have been rebuilt. Debris is still everywhere. Phone and electricity and water are not available for large areas of the community. Most importantly, there has been almost no progress in deciding which parts of the community will be rebuilt and which will be bought out and turned to greenspace. Who wants to try to rebuild a life amid such uncertainty?
The state is finilizing the housing buyout/ repair program now, and they should soon announce the deadlines for signing up.
Then, the future will start to become clear.
Up until now people have been wildly optomistic about how many people will return. Some politicians claim the population will up to 50 percent of prestorm levels in a few months. For that matter, even the current population is a big question mark. I think it hovers around 7000. The government claims upwards of 15,000. Many former residents make optomistic statements about planning to return.
The moment of truth is coming soon, in the next couple of months. The State (with federal money) is offering up to $150,000 to help people whose houses were flooded. Residents must either chose to 1) renovate their house 2) knock down and rebuild their house or 3) move.
This will either be the savor for the county or the death knell.
I am worried that 90 percent of home owners will choose to move. You can't have a county with 6,000 people - if this happens, there will be no county. What's worse, if it becomes clear that most people are moving, residents that want to stay will move. What after all, do you do if you are the only person who wants to remain on the block.
Imagine that, a county of 66,000 where post disaster, the population settles at 6000. Perhaps the whole government will cease to exist and be merged with the neighboring county.
The reason I am worried is the lack of progress of progress, which will push more people to move. There are a couple of areas that has not been much progress. Almost no houses have been rebuilt. Debris is still everywhere. Phone and electricity and water are not available for large areas of the community. Most importantly, there has been almost no progress in deciding which parts of the community will be rebuilt and which will be bought out and turned to greenspace. Who wants to try to rebuild a life amid such uncertainty?
The state is finilizing the housing buyout/ repair program now, and they should soon announce the deadlines for signing up.
Then, the future will start to become clear.
posted by JNA | 10:36 PM
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