The Rebuilding of the Gulf Coast Needs to Be a Top Priority

A year after Hurricane Katrina devastated large parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, over a quarter of a million people have found it impossible to return home, thousands of destroyed residences remain in piles of rubble on properties that don't have running water, sewage, or electricity, and homeowners are caught up in a tangle of governmental red tape and battles with recalcitrant insurance companies that refuse to honor their contracts with their customers.

Meanwhile, reconstruction efforts are further hampered by regulations that disallow perfectly acceptable alternatives to conventional building materials.

We need to assess the damage and necessary rebuilding of infrastructure and utilities of the entire region in days, not months; we need to inspect properties for possible demolition, and clean up the home sites-in days, not months. We need to document the inspection and demolition process for the protection of homeowners, and we need to involve the homeowners in the entire process. It shouldn't be that hard; comparing the FEMA records of evacuees with the tax and post office records should allow us to contact most, if not all, of the homeowners of the properties in question. We also need to provide access to legal assistance to homeowners so they can protect themselves from negative government and insurance decisions.

Where homeowners wish to return home, we should provide them with plane or bus tickets, with on-site temporary housing, and with temporary water, electricity, and sewage. We should create a WPA-type program that provides residents with paying jobs, to help in the cleanup and to meet their basic needs. We can also create a training program that teaches residents how to inspect home, sewer, electrical and water systems, and then tackle the inspection process neighborhood by neighborhood.

We also need to think outside the box in terms of housing. Rather than limiting ourselves to supplying FEMA trailers, we can look into providing prefabricated permanent homes. We can also collect and recycle material from the demolished homes to use in the rebuilding process, and involve organizations like Habitat for Humanity on a larger scale than they are already involved. We can use unconventional building materials, as long as they meet the strength and safety needs of housing in that region.

Time to think outside the box! The jumble of local, state, and federal efforts isn't working; we need someone in charge who can direct all the relief and reconstruction efforts, and who can think in terms of creative and innovative solutions. I suggest Lieutenant General Russel Honoré, the three-star general famous for his "stuck on stupid" remark who managed to accomplish humanitarian aid and jumpstart evacuations after days of chaos in New Orleans.