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Thursday, April 13, 2006

Remember the "dodged a bullet" headlines

Here we go again.

NYT: Lenient Rule Set for Rebuilding in New Orleans

I'm sorry I must be reading this wrong.. but it looks like FEMA is going to require even houses above sea level to be raised at least a foot. (On average it costs about $40,000 to do this.) In areas where flood waters reached 8-12 feet, houses will have to raised 3 ft. This leaves the impression that such requirements seem to have been included simply for the sake of doing so. FEMA is saying, in effect, "Well we think you'll probably be protected from 10 feet of flooding where you are because they might fix your levees... but if the levee isn't up to snuff we want to be able to say that we told you to raise your house so go ahead and raise your house.. oh.. I don't know... 2 feet." Even if you're "grandfathered in" and escape the punitive raising requirement, the resale value of your property is now severely diminished.

All of this places a ridiculous, insulting burden on the victims of derelict federal flood protection. How can this possibly be described as "lenient"?

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