Mark's Notebook


	If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him. They would ask him to dinner, and hear what he had to say, and make fun of him. - Thomas Carlyle

For Some Victims of Katrina, The Bulldozer Is the Answer

Washington Post

Monday 26 December 2005, 8:41 pm
Keywords: Katrina Hurricane Relief , News Articles

By Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post Staff Writer

In suburban, working-class, mostly white St. Bernard Parish, where the destruction was so complete that just 10 of 25,000 houses are inhabitable, there is a headlong rush to the wrecking ball. More than 300 houses have been tagged for a mass demolition project that will begin in the coming weeks, as soon as a monumental tangle of paperwork is unraveled. Yet that's just the start in a parish where the water rose so high -- 17 feet in some parts -- that nearly every house is considered a candidate to be knocked down.

Oil refinery workers and fishermen and suburban commuters line up each day, offering their stucco and brick and wood frames to be pulverized. The homeowners' enthusiasm is bolstered by assurances that they will be allowed to rebuild, a contrast with the situation just upriver in New Orleans, where leaders of the city's rebuilding commission have discussed abandoning parts of the city that suffered the worst flooding.

Ronnie Nunez offered his house to the parish as a guinea pig for its demolition project, helping officials determine exactly how long it will take to scrape away a house and how much it will cost -- probably about $5,000 per house, reimbursable by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, parish officials say.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/23/AR2005122301557.
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