"At least you have the land"

At some point, someone has to raise the liability issue with regard to the ongoing madness.

After Hurricane Katrina, Williams put $34,000 of her own money into renovating the house. But when she returned from evacuating after Hurricane Gustav she got a phone call from her contractor she'll never forget.

"He said he didn't even know how to tell me -- that my house was gone. I thought he was clowning. I said what do you mean the house was gone?" said Williams.

She questioned how the city could tear down her house when she had a building permit, an elevation certificate and Road Home money coming her way.

"What am I supposed to do? Road Home is giving me money to fix the house that was there, but there is no house," she said.

Last week, Williams said she took the matter to the Safety and Permits department.

"The man was very nasty. He said it was emergency demolitions that they were doing around the city. It got torn down and there's nothing anybody could do about it. He said, 'At least you have the land,'" said Williams.