New Orleans public leadership, having failed in protecting their city from a major natural disaster, still struggles to come to grips with what happened to their city (and what they now need to do in response) as a result of hurricane Katrina.
An excerpt.
N.O. council stalls on elevation rules
Elevation rules stall in council
Friday, August 18, 2006
By Frank Donze
Staff writer
Enraged over what they say amounts to blackmail, New Orleans City Council members refused to take action Thursday on the controversial higher elevation standards that federal and state officials are demanding in exchange for millions of dollars in rebuilding aid. But the council appears to be locked in a battle it cannot win.
Whether or not it adopts the guidelines, members learned Thursday that effective Sept. 1, homeowners who have not yet secured building permits for post-Katrina rebuilding will be forced to abide by the advisory base flood elevations proposed by FEMA or be shut out of a share of billions in federal assistance earmarked to the state's Road Home program, designed to cover uninsured losses.
Those rules will require that new structures and those being substantially rebuilt sit at least 3 feet off the ground.
A failure by the council to act also could put at risk $58 million in federal money available to help homeowners raise houses that have flooded repeatedly, and millions more for infrastructure.
That was the blunt assessment of the situation offered by Paul Rainwater, director of intergovernmental relations and hazard mitigation for the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the state agency in charge of dispensing the federal dollars.
As they have many times before, council members ridiculed the proposed regulations, labeling them arbitrary and illogical. The law under consideration would exclude locally protected historic districts, meaning a large swath of New Orleans will be exempt from the new requirements. But it does not exempt properties on high ground outside those districts.
