no different than your tax dollars being distributed to known hurricane or earthquake or tornadic (or tsunami) areas in any other state during your lifetime. i wouldnt say its a good time to suddenly be particular now that its your home state.
OH NO, please don't mistake what I'm saying. I just mean when it's all said and done, and plans are being drawn to recover. I certainly don't mean in terms of disaster relief. I purely mean in terms of rebuilding what I consider to be a futile rebuilding effort (long term.)
Speaking as an Engineer and graduate of THE finest institution in America for such disciplines, I am prejudiced :yelwink2: , I'll say this. The rebuilding of New Orleans will be an effort of unimaginable cost. Simply razing and rebuilding devastated areas like the Lower Ninth Ward and other severely flooded areas will not suffice without also building a 30-foot levee and restoring the barrier islands and coastal marshes. The entire Civil infrastructure of New Orleans is now unserviceable. The city's sewerage and water systems must be completely refurbished in many areas. Unfortunately, many insurance damage estimates and payoffs will attempt to bypass complete replacement & place a band-aid on many homes & buildings. Desperate & greedy owners may elect to do the same to make $$$. Regarding homes that were submerged, I'll say this. Simply removing sheetrock or plaster and replacing these items will allow mold & bacteria infestation to grow and that will eventually rot away structures. Home buyers beware! IMO, THE ONLY EFFECTIVE REPAIR SOLUTION is complete razing or piece by piece replacement of saturated wood members in homes where waters have not gone above the ceiling line. Insurance companies SHOULD write checks for complete loss on homes where water have gone beyond ceilings. Combination brick/wood homes will be tough to repair & costs will be prohibitive for lumber in the NO Area. You can expect to make real $$$ if you sell lumber in New Orleans over the next 5 years. As with any engineering call, each case for insurance payoff has its own merits. Tips for those affected: 1. Ensure that you get detailed photos of the damage, better with a videocamera that can be shared with insurance adjusters. 2. Insurance adjusters can be vicious and love to "DENY", "DENY", "DENY". 3. If your insurance adjuster seems like a completely tired and overworked prick without compassion, he probably is. 4. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER accept his initial offer, no matter how desperate you are, UNTIL you have made an itemized list of all your possessions lost and completely reviewed your HO policy. 5. Check carefully your cost & replacement value (each home has a maximum payout for loss). One more word of advice! Big $$$ will be made by those who wish to purchase hurricane damaged homes for cents on the dollar. Many will take the check (max payout for total loss) and sell their worthless homes for as much as they can and rebuild elsewhere. If you get a hurricane damaged home that must be razed or requires major repair, you are buying the property that it sits on.
Good post, Vaunted. We had to do mold remediation on our home here, and even though what we faced was nothing compared to the mold that will grow in homes that have been so heavily flooded, we went through a lot of crap. I also agree that if you buy in Nola, buy for the property, not the home. Right now, our plans are to bulldoze our home there, and just walk away for at least 5 years before we rebuild. The cost of building materials will be sky high. Not to mention the difficulty in finding a contractor and labor that can be afforded. I am lucky that I have my home here and can do that. Now, I need advice from some of you that work in the insurance industry. I agree with Vaunted about pics, documentation, etc. But what do I do being in Oklahoma and not even knowing when I can get back in to take pics? For me it isn't a 1, 2 or 3 hour drive. It was close to 11 hours before the hurricane.
A bunch of long term leases are now void. So if you can operate outside of N.O. Why Stay? You can commute or do business via the net so well now days. What is rebuilt in N.O.will be the most modern city in the world. It will surely be NEW Orleans.
Let your fingers do the walking, man. Call up that Insurance Company & have them notify you (at your OK #) before they assess your damaged home. Simple as that! You're smart to raze and wait in a good area like Lakeview where property is well over $1,500 sq ft.
:rofl: What the hell's in N.O. & Louisiana? Oil infrastructure, man!!!!! It's the hub of this nation's power! They'll rebuild, because they have to.
I don't disagree, but it's also a matter of scope of the rebuild. This is a conversation better suited for later, I suspect. But I'm just guessing that about 90% of NOLA was not employed in that industry.
