People are rebuilding in my neighborhood. They're pulling out the soggy carpet and puckered wood flooring, they're tearing out the limp, wet sheetrock. They're piling what used to be their furniture, cabinets, beds and sofas on the curb in front of their houses.
And it makes me sad.
People are gutting their houses here and there in my neighborhood, tearing it all out to the studs. They're leaving open all the doors and windows so that the two-by-fours and concrete slabs will dry out. All this in preparation to rebuild.
They are getting ready to rebuild just the same as they were before Katrina.
Is it just me? Or does this amount to a huge leap of faith? If you have a house that got 5, 6, maybe even 8 feet of water, doesn't that tell you something about how you should rebuild?
I can tell you what I will do. My house drowned in 7 feet of water, so unless somebody can guarantee that there will be no more storm surges that top our levees and floodwalls, or unless someone can guarantee that Congress and the President will send us the money to build better protection, and, unless someone can guarantee that those higher levees will be built quickly and correctly, I know what I have to do. I have to build higher.
The last catastrophic flood in New Orleans was 1965, so who knows, we might not get another major flood for another 40 years.
Or it could happen next year.
1 comment:
I give my usual disclaimer up front that what we experienced here in Beaumont pales in comparison to what happened in New Orleans. That being said, I am not the type of person who worries needlessly, yet, I am already dreading next hurricane season. I can't imagine living six months out of every year in the same location in a house that was once six feet under water because of a hurricane.
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