I can’t say I’m surprised by this, but I’m certainly disappointed. Of course, I’m not trying to plan the rebuilding of my house in New Orleans; if I were, I’d be thoroughly ticked. From NOLA.com:
Although federal officials said Monday that new advisory flood maps are critical in guiding thousands of local homeowners waiting to restore or rebuild their homes, they acknowledged they are unlikely to meet their self-imposed deadline of releasing the maps by the end of March.
The article yammers on at length about how careful they’re being, working to get everything right this time. While Polimom agrees that things should be done correctly for a change, it has been very nearly eight months since the big bad Katrina wolf blew the doors off of the levees.
Ahem.
EIGHT MONTHS! That’s a helluva long time to be sitting on one’s hands, waiting to know what the parameters are for rebuilding, insurance, and general survivability in the face of another storm, don’t you think?
While FEMA’s latest news isn’t particularly good on any level, there is some important information to be gleaned from the article. They appear to get it, for instance, about how scary – and dangerous – it might be to ride out a storm in one of those cute little white shoeboxes trailers:
A crucial factor, they said, is the large FEMA trailer population, a number that, officials said, is already above 93,000 families in Louisiana and Mississippi and will swell to more than 100,000 families by the time hurricane season starts.
Paulison described them as “facilities that should not, or could not, ride out even a Category I storm.”
Houston, you need to be reading between the lines here: there will be evacuations again this hurricane season. As long as everybody’s talking about building fences…. (Given all the “bus em all home” attitudes over thissaway, I’m expecting some people to really embarrass themselves on this one.)
The final kicker, though, is this [my emphasis]:
Although everyone stressed the importance of preparation and the federal government’s cooperation with state and local officials, Foresman said people shouldn’t expect federal intervention until the third day after the storm because of the difficulty of reaching disaster sites with enough supplies.
That has always been true, and it’s one of the real mysteries of Katrina why some people did not make enough personal preparations. If you’re gonna ride the storm out, dang it, get enough food and water this time! K?
The upshot? Hurricane season will be here in two months, people all over the Gulf Coast are living in housing that cannot withstand even a minor storm, and FEMA is expecting this to be difficult.
Oh. And people still don’t know whether they’ll be safe, or able to rebuild in New Orleans. This nightmare just never ends.