Reconstruction is an opportunity for more efficient housing designs.

[phantom power]

One of the few benefits I can see, in this kind of massive destruction, is that it's an opportunity to rebuild with the latest materials, designs, appliances, etc, for saving energy. There's no worries about the difficulty of retrofitting old structures, etc. Clean slate.

Of course that won't actually happen. But it's nice to think about.

[NMDemDist2]

1. but first you have to scrape out all the toxic sludge on the ground and

for about three feet down minimum.

Load the dirty sludge, find somewhere to bury the dirty sludge, haul in clean fill, then start over

{sigh} we'll see.......

[kitkatrose]

2. Where would we bury the sludge?

That's a lot of soil and crap to move to one location. I guess there's bioremediation for some of it, but I don't know about the rest. :( Thinking about the environmental problems on top of everything else is making me more depressed. We've fucked up big time on this. :cry:

[Boomer]

3. And who pays for this?

Many of the people who lost their homes can't afford to rebuild because they couldn't afford home insurance and won't be able to afford a new mortgage.

It's an opportunity all right, but not for them. It will be an opportunity for real estate sharks to sweep in, buy up land at fire-sale prices, then build new businesses and gaming enterprises.

And somehow I don't think "green" technology will be a priority in rebuilding.

[phantom power]

4. I'm not holding my breath.

Just saying it would be a good time to do it. If we had a government that gave a shit about it's people, or conservation, it would happen. Of course, our government couldn't care less about either.

[NNadir]

5. I don't know how attractive new New Orleans will be to rich folks.

We really have no idea what the real damage to the environment represents. The ambient smell in that climate even after the dead people are removed is likely to be unbearable for many years, as mold grows over the damaged structures. There is fuel oil leaked everywhere, one sees the patina of it everywhere. We have no idea about other toxins whatsoever. The rich generally like to locate the poor in toxic areas.

Other factors also may play a role:

Moreover nobody has done anything to stop the (much more vast) looting that the white guys in Washington are doing while the cameras are NOT following them around. It is not likely that there will be more rich people, more upper middle class. What is likely is more impoverishment. I think as a result of these events the age of McMansions may be ending. I also expect that events in this direction may move much quicker than people are used to seeing.

This is Mobutu capitalism, the concentration of the entire resourses of a third world nation into the hands of a few powerful families.