NEW ORLEANS, LA—Seventeen months after Hurricane Katrina, Mike Collins from California saw first-hand the impact of the storm on neighborhoods in New Orleans through a Grey Line bus tour. "It looks like a holocaust," said Collins. "It is really sad." He wondered how the neighborhoods hardest hit by Katrina could rebuild with so much destruction.
According to Emily Chamlee-Wright an economics professor at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a successful return of residents requires them to simultaneously solve several problems, many of which are out of their immediate control. "Residents need a place to stay, a job, financial resources for rebuilding, schools for their children, transportation, and the services of utilities, area businesses and local government," says Chamlee-Wright in a recently published research paper on New Orleans recovery.
Some residents are personally experiencing the difficulty of rebuilding, even with the know-how and the necessary tools. After fighting for more than a year with her insurance company and trying to find contractors and supplies the restoration of Betsy Gleckler's house is almost complete. "This is not for everybody, dealing with the pressures of rebuilding," said Gleckler.
Electricians are hard to come by, and the one available left her house out of compliance with code resulting in another $1,500 to get in compliance. Gleckler found herself facing additional stresses associated with unemployment as the local university cut to contend with hurricane damage. She was not alone.
Chamlee-Wright's research suggests that private citizens are rebounding thorough creative efforts of helping hands of neighbors, churches, and other charities, business arrangements, and the restoration of cherished community resources. Parts of neighborhoods have come together because their school was being rebuilt.
For some residents, it appears that creative preventive means helps to reduce the risk of returning to New Orleans. Restoration of some houses has taken on a rather curious sight among their neighbors' ground level houses. Homes are being restored or rebuilt and then raised a story or more off the ground in anticipation most likely of future flooding.
"It is a great city and it is coming back slowly," said Brenda Singelman, New Orleans resident and chair of the Governor's Advisory Council on Disability Affairs. "I hope the lessons learned here do not go by the wayside." She recommends rent control measures and vision for rebuilding to include accessible and universal designs for an aging population.
"I have lived here 28 years and I wouldn't willingly live anywhere else," said Singleman. Yet, she misses the loss of the support that an extended family offers and their frequent social gatherings, as members of her family have not returned yet.
"I am an eternal optimist," said Charlie Tubre, a New Orleans resident. He believes his fellow New Orleans residents are coming back sooner rather than later. Tubre recently finished gutting, chemically treating for mold, reinforcing, and then rebuilding his one-story home. Insurance did not cover the costs, but that deterrent was one he could manage.
One year after the anniversary of Katrina 23 percent of the estimated 278,000 workers displayed by the storm still had not found employment, according to an August 2006 report from the Brookings Institution, by Amy Lio Matt Fellowes, and Mia Mabanta. Housing became less affordable than before, as it increased by 39 percent in a year, while suburban home sales prices spiked.
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