Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/03/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]-----Original Message----- > >And from last Sunday's Times-Picayune: > >http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/library-98/1143359481103860.xml?nola > >Tina > It's a pretty complicated situation and it depends on what part of town you are talking about. The 9th Ward and St Bernard Parish are in a lot worse shape than lets say Canal Street near the French Quarter. It also depends on the construction method of the structure. Woodframe homes suffered greatly, by being submerged under saltwater for weeks on end. The cinderblock or brick homes suffered less, but there are far fewer of these. The old shotgun houses, which are sometimes over a hundred years old, are particularly flimsy and I highly doubt that they can be salvaged. The saltwater did a lot of invisible damage to the nails and bolts holding the actual homes together. And the contamination by mold and filth is a serious health hazard. If a house could be salvaged you would have to strip a it down to its skeleton, renail it, treat the wooden frame for mold and then rebuild fom there. I hate to say it, but I think that some people are being unrealistic about the chances that their home can be rebuilt. The area was submerged under water for weeks and while structures may still be standing, they are severaly damaged. Then there are the insurance companies and as the articles mentioned, the whole thing is tied up in lawsuits etc. The impression that I came away with was that of a giant traffic jam in desperate need of a cop to straighten things out. No one knows what will happen this summer, when the hurricane season starts. Obviously the holes in the levees have been plugged, but that's only part of the problem. The whole canal system and the wetlands are a mess and need to be redesigned. Everyone is worried that if the city is hit with a category 3 or 4 hurricane, there will be a repeat of last years events. Feli --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feli di Giorgio feli2@earthlink.net www.elanphotos.com