New Orleans Launches 'Repopulation' Plan

[buzzsaw_23]

New Orleans launches 'repopulation' plan
September 30, 2005 - 7:04AM

A month after Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans in ruins and less than a week after Rita dealt it a second blow, officials have relaunched a "repopulation" campaign to get the city back on its feet.

They threw open the doors for business owners in some neighbourhoods and planned to allow residents to start returning on Friday in a phased effort to bring life back to streets now largely abandoned.

In the city's Uptown area, store and restaurant owners used power washers to remove muck laid down by floods that had at one point swamped 80 per cent of the city and moved out goods and food that were now ruined.

<snip>

But federal administrators overseeing the recovery efforts agreed with Nagin's plans to repopulate some areas, while restricting access to low-lying neighbourhoods that still face flooding dangers in bad weather.

http://smh.com.au/news/World/New-Orleans-launches-repopulation-plan/2005/09/30/1127804632091.html

[rocktivity]

1. But is it environmentally safe?

is the air safe, what with all that dried muck turning into dust?

They said it was safe to go back to work in the WTC area, too--and then it turned out that the report about the air quality was falsified.

:headbang:
rocknation

[goforit]

2. Great question. I like the positive attitude ...but.

[pitohui]

3. oh for the love of pete

of course the air is safe, the air has never been cleaner, the storm really swept the crud out of the air, i'm seeing stars i haven't seen in yrs

as far as water, no one drinks the water in new orleans anyway, that's why we have kentwood & abita springs

we want to go back to our homes, heaven help the man who stands in the way

it's time

[Nihil]

9. Off you go then!

> of course the air is safe, the air has never been cleaner, the storm
> really swept the crud out of the air

George Bush is a wonderful President, FEMA were right there when NOLA
needed help, tax cuts to the rich & powerful are perfectly justified,
Saddam provided WMDs to the 9/11 hijackers, ...

> we want to go back to our homes, heaven help the man who stands in
> the way

If you're that set on it, off you go. Just please don't try to persuade
anyone else who is having doubts about returning. Darwin was right.

[pitohui]

16. do YOU own a home in south louisiana?

or do you just get off on trashing my home

no one said * is a wonderful president or even the president at all, new orleans voted for kerry

if you know nothing abt the area, stop talking it down

if everybody who didn't know what they were talking abt would stop talking, we might actually be able to get some useful information exchanged once in awhile

i'm already back, as are a great many other ppl i know

there is nothing good, & much bad, to come from delay & allowing the elements to wreak further elements on ppl's homes

no, i'm not a big baby afraid of a little mud, jeez

[Nihil]

19. Too far to commute

Some of us don't hide our profiles but, to save you the effort, I do NOT
own a home in South Louisiana. All I know of South Louisiana is what
I read about or hear about and of all that, only one person I've seen
claims:
> of course the air is safe, the air has never been cleaner, the storm
> really swept the crud out of the air

But like I said earlier, if you're that set on it,
by all means off you go ... I'm making the assumption that you are an
adult who can therefore be entrusted with decisions affecting their
own life. I'm not trashing your home at all. If you were unfortunate
enough to be in the low-lying parishes then Katrina has already done
more than I could ever do. I can also understand your emotion.

If you were luckier than that and living in the higher elevation sites
then I can quite believe that "the air has never been cleaner" and I'm
genuinely happy for you. I am just concerned that people will hear
the "Voice of the Lord" telling them to return to their Promised Land,
slog their way back and end up breathing shit for the months as THEIR
bit of the swamp is still under polluted water, toxic mud and decaying
organic residues.

> no, i'm not a big baby afraid of a little mud, jeez

Please point out where I suggested that you were?

Edit:
OK, it's a lot easier to see the danger from a distance so I'm sorry
for being so snippy. I can see that you don't want the carpet-baggers
to get your property but can't you see the risks involved for people
returning to the toxic areas? It isn't just a "hose it down" answer.
Peace.:pals:

[uppityperson]

5. That is a good question.

All sorts of crap and chemicals and dead things and stuff in that sludge. If it is safe, why does it smell so bad, reek so strongly? I understand wanting to go back home, but don't think it is safe either. I don't know how they are going to make it safe. How are they going to clean it up enough to be safe to get back in to clean it up?

Edited to add that I'm talking about the sludged area. Not to mention it drying and becoming airborne too.

[tanyev]

7. Good Morning America sent a water sample and a muck sample

off to a lab to be tested. Full of contaminants, bacteria, human waste, all sort of nasty stuff. The doctor they usually consult on-air made Charlie and Diane wear really high waders.

[Ignacio Upton]

8. And yet nobody has gotten in trouble for that

Christie Todd Whitman, supposed "moderate" EPA director did not utter a word, nor did....FEMA!

[Sgent]

4. Of course its not safe

there is at least one person currently in the ICU at East Jefferson Hospital with a blood infection from skin contact only with the muck. The disease she has, Vibrio vulnificus, is 50% deadly. Other cases have been reported.

Its a bacteria found in contaminated salt/brackish water which effects those with weakend immune systems and when given direct exposure.

[rocktivity]

6. That's what I suspected--once again, the truth isn't coming out.

It just so happened that I moved the weekend before 9/11--away from downtown Jersey City, across the Hudson River from WTC. When I reached my former landlord nearly three weeks later, she said everything was finally beginning to return to normal--except for the smell.

I can understand wanting to get back home, to get back to normal and to get on with one's life. But please don't deny your way into endangering your life all over again!

:headbang:
rocknation

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. So why isn't this a concern anywhere else in the Gulf Region?

Only in regards to New Orleans is everybody crying, oh no it's not safe. I think it should be up to the individual whether or not they want to go home, not us.

BTW: Infections are everywhere not just NO. I banged up my shin last April at a plant nursery, didn't even break the skin as far as I can tell and I still have an infection in my leg. Should I never go home or out in the garden again?

[Kailassa]

11. Good luck, pitohui, stay healthy.

The big problem is the possibly toxic industrial waste used as landfill under parts of New Orleans. It's my understanding that there was no regulation on what was buried there. As for the human waste we are warned about, well, as they say, shit happens. Everyone is potentially exposed to e. coli every time they poop.

If brave people like pitohui don't go back, is this going to leave New Orleans open for *'s mates to take over? On the other hand, we don't want anyone ruining their health to fight this.

[Sgent]

12. Because nowhere else

had standing flooding.

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. People are only being allowed back to the areas that have been drained

So the standing flooding (?) is no longer an issue or any more of an issue then normal. Keep in mind that lots of place flood in NO everytime it rains.

[Zynx]

14. You misunderstand; the water and mix were left to soak for weeks.

That's what created the chemical and biological nasties.

It doesn't matter that it's not flooded now, it matters that it was flooded, and stayed flooded for quite a while.

There's a reason anything that's been underwater for any length of time is considered a total loss. Every single building that was underwater in NO now has mold, and most are going to have to be torn down as uninhabitable.

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. Most of those buildings probably already had mold

I'm not saying there isn't nasty stuff in these places but a lot of it was there to begin with. It's still should be up to the individual to decide whether or not they want to go back and put up with the 'primitive' conditions. We still have 1000's of people in FL living under blue tarps since last year, I bet they've got a lot of mold too.

[pitohui]

18. vibrio is a concern EVERYWHERE on the coast

not just in new orleans, indeed, most cases i'm aware of were contracted by ppl eating raw oysters or else by by getting scraped while fishing

it is not something caused by the hurricane, you are correct, the chance of infection always exists, and on the coast, the chance of vibrio always exists in the warm months, we just have to live our lives and deal w. it

i am not aware of any bacteria species ever being wiped out by humanity, so if we are waiting for vibrio to be wiped out before we re-populate the coast, i suspect we'll be waiting a long time

[pitohui]

17. look there's always a chance of vibrio

there are several cases in any given year of ppl losing life & limb to vibrio, hell, you could never live on the coast at all if you wanted to live in fear of that, vibrio vulnificus is just a (rare) reality of life that has existed on the coast for at least two decades

if you are waiting for them to eliminate vibrio before you come home, give up and move to alaska now

[Laughing Mirror]

20. "the dead bodies I saw got nothing on that oyster cooler"

But them's the breaks, business is business, ain't that right, Art old buddy?