Ravaged Gulf Coast forcing people to rethink, not just rebuild

LEDYARD KING

MUSKOGEE DAILY PHOENIX & TIMES DEMOCRAT

OCTOBER 15, 2005

WASHINGTON - Jessamyn Hogue doesn't want to come back to the same Biloxi she left the day before Hurricane Katrina hit.

Tougher building codes. Higher bridges. More buffers. Raised homes. Maybe a seawall. Those are the kinds of changes that need to happen because her Mississippi hometown should be re-engineered, not just reconstructed, the former Air Force staff sergeant said.

"If it's gone and you're going to have to build from the ground up, why not make it better?" said Hogue, 26, who's living with in-laws in St. Thomas, Pa., but plans to move her family back to Biloxi by the end of this month. "What if this happens again in five years? There's only so much money the government can dish out."

Hogue and hundreds of thousands of displaced Gulf Coast residents will have to embrace that kind of attitude if they expect federal taxpayers to come up with billions of dollars for reconstruction. As much as the nation supports making New Orleans and the Mississippi coast vibrant again, there's also an expectation that hurricane-ravaged areas be better protected to withstand the next big storm.

On Tuesday, a congressional panel will hold the first of three hearings to explore options for protecting the Gulf Coast from hurricane-force winds and accompanying storm surges. Like Hogue, lawmakers aren't eager to funnel billions to rebuild the area if fundamental changes to protect the vulnerable coastline aren't made.

"The main purpose of these hearings is not to find fault or point fingers of blame, but to try to see what needs to be done to be better prepared in the future," said Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn., who chairs a House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee holding the hearings. "And to try to make sure the money we are sending down there is not spent in scandalous or wasteful ways."

While the hearings will focus on the Gulf Coast, other shoreline communities could benefit from ideas offered.

People already are discussing ways of transforming neighborhoods destroyed by Katrina. In tragedy, they see opportunity.

Local leaders in Louisiana are examining ways to recreate New Orleans without the poverty. In Mississippi, architects and planners are meeting with 11 coastal communities to talk about redesigning town centers that aren't just better at withstanding high winds and flooding, but also improve the quality of life.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has brought in the Congress for the New Urbanism, a Chicago-based non-profit organization, which touts regional planning and walkable neighborhoods, to work with coastal communities on redevelopment. They're looking at relocating railroad tracks that hugged the coast, turning shoreline highways into appealing boulevards and rezoning downtown areas to make them more functional and aesthetic.

"They want this place to be very successful. They want Mississippi to stop being the poorest state in the country. They want to be looked at with admiration and envy," said former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, who heads the New Urbanism group.

The Gulf Coast will be altered, agreed retired Lt. Gen. Robert Flowers. As the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers until 2004, Flowers oversaw the nation's vast civil works program, environmental restoration, and assisted in natural disaster recovery.

"Anytime you have something terrible like this happen, you have an opportunity when you're rebuilding to make improvements in the way thing are planned out," said Flowers, who now works for engineering and consulting giant HNTB.

"The trouble is the further you get away from a disaster, the slower things tend to move. And the longer it takes to begin the planning, the longer it may take to begin the recovery process."

Change suits 62-year-old Helen Lymous, who evacuated her flooded home in New Orleans and now lives in Canton, Miss., with her mother and other family members. She hopes to return by spring.

The retired teacher said she supports construction of an earthen dam and the redesign of her neighborhood to prevent future flooding. More importantly, she's open to ideas.

"It cannot be the same way," she said. "Something has to be done to accommodate the people coming back into the city."