Post-Katrina Reconstruction of New Orleans
by J. Burton LeBlanc
September, 2006
A Little Bit of History
The other day I attended a session devoted to Katrina and possible recuperative efforts.
It is helpful if one knows something of the history of Louisiana in approaching the tackling of the problems that ensue from the devastating hurricane. For it revealed preexisting problems as if a curtain were drawn open.
During the sovereignty of France over the area, there was an indifference manifested by the French government in the appropriate development of the colony that is difficult to explain. It is usually ascribed to the preoccupation of the French government with European affairs, but it can also be described as a lack of imagination among the French authorities in not realizing the great potential of the territory, not only because of its natural resources, but also because of its strategic location. It was the prime location for the best entrance into the portion of the continent that was to be occupied by the American nation. It was the most natural entrance by sea from foreign lands.
Iberville and Bienville seemed to have the necessary prognostive abilities in which their successors proved to be lacking.
The Spanish, during their period of control of Louisiana, were much better administrators and undertook planning and built attractive buildings, including the Cathedral and the Cabildo.
After the occupation by the Americans, they, lacking the foresight of Jefferson, who had remarkable insight as to the possibilities of the area, rushed forward in haphazard development, with emphasis on profitable undertakings.
Plundering of Natural Resources
The American onslaught, with its concentration on profitability resulted in an unimaginable plundering of Louisiana’s natural resources.
Again, it is a lack of large scale planning that was the key.
In the first part of the twentieth century the virgin timber stands were decimated. Louisiana red cypress, a great construction wood that is impervious to the onslaught of insects and weather, has all but disappeared. It takes hundreds of years to grow, so it can not be replenished.
Because it is the locale where ancient rivers flowed into the sea, leaving behind porous underground strata filled with gas and oil, Louisiana is the source of a large portion of the nation’s energy resources. The development of these reservoirs has been hit or miss.
The development has been largely undertaken by out-of-State operators, who although they have paid Louisiana landowners good royalties, themselves reaped tremendous profits, and have abandoned thousands of wells, in deplorable condition, the sites of which will present environmental problems for generations.
The proliferation of the production of oil and gas led to the building of refineries and petrochemical installations on the Mississippi River in Louisiana. While they contributed to the economy, they have polluted the skies with their discharges. Tthe petrochemical complexes remain largely unprotected against any potential terrorist strikes, which could unleash vast quantities of toxins into the atmosphere.
New Orleans
The onslaught of Katrina revealed the morass that New Orleans had become.
Some of the problems were national in origin and some local. It was revealed that there was a large number of impoverished citizens, mostly black, residing in the city.
When Iberville and Bienville had planned the city, they planned for its location on the highest ground in the area.
Even during and after Katrina, this area, including the Vieux Carre’ and the Garden District, remained largely high and dry.
But, what had happened was that the residential influx had resulted in the building into low areas, even those below sea level.
Now, with the myriad problems posed by Katrina there is a great opportunity to rebuild the city and to fulfill the dreams of Iberville and Bienville.
First, there must be planning.
All the great cities of the world were conceived by one or more individuals who planned their development.
The primary obstacle to planning in New Orleans revolves around the fact that the political structure is an aberration. New Orleans is set up in the Louisiana Constitution and statutes as a separate entity, almost a State within itself.
This obstacle must be removed because the State and City of New Orleans cannot revive without adequate planning.
Funding will come from the State and nation, so there must be input into the planning of the use of the funds. This cannot be directed by local authorities with their myopia.
It was revealed that there was a large segment of the City, numbering in the thousands who were living with poverty incomes, and only surviving by such aid as they were receiving. It is as if they were living in a third world country and not in the United States. It is true that many of these folks worked and had small incomes, and lived a style of life based on the tolerant atmosphere of New Orleans, including its musical and other heritages, and made a contribution to the City. But, by and large there was a problem presented that could have burst asunder at any time.
It is possible that part of the populace that disbursed to various parts of the nation, many may not return.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. This was basically a national problem and requires a national response.
The overnight migration of thousands into Baton Rouge and Houston has created problems for those cities, which is a separate problem.
In any event, some provision will need to be made to handle those who remain in New Orleans or have returned who fit into this category, with some type of assistance.
There must be planning for the construction of facilities to provide housing for these persons. Also, there is, as yet, no plan for housing for what was previously a large number of the residents who could not afford to own homes and simply rented.
If the plan included a provision for the development of housing for the low income residents who relied upon public housing and for those who rented housing, this would go a long way toward diminishing the dissent of those opposed to any planning, and who cry out for restoration of what was the abysmal status quo.
The crime rates in New Orleans have starkly increased in recent months. Increased police forces and the National Guard, which will be on duty there at least through the end of the year, are only bandages.
The reconstruction of a City which will provide adequate housing, educational opportunities and libraries, functional hospitals and medical facilities, and other amenities, is the only solution.
The infrastructure of the City will have to be restored and upgraded.
This will provide a unique opportunity to improve the layout of streets and permit better traffic flow and additional beauty.
One prime example of such a new approach is provided by the fact that it is well known that the Port of New Orleans is hobbled by inadequate access. The streets accessing it are far too small and narrow to permit large trucks to easily migrate through them. The railroads leading to the Port are haplessly enmeshed and intertwined to the extent that the yards set aside to hold standby railroad cars, some containing toxic chemicals, are located near residences or in other unsatisfactory locations.
Displaced Businesses
Of course, there were many thousand State and City employees who were unable to return to work after the hurricane because their offices were wiped out, but the civil sector was also devastated.
While it is recognized that many thousands of homes was destroyed by Katrina, less recognition has been paid to the fact that there were some twenty thousand businesses that were rendered inactive.
A city cannot recover until its sources of income are replaced.
Some solution to this problem must be realized.
Arts
Every city is defined as much as anything by its provision for enjoyment of the arts.
This was more true of New Orleans than most other cities.
There was a theater district that was undergoing a process of revitalization. The attractive Saenger and Orpheum theaters were rendered inoperable. Built as movie theaters during the heyday of movie-going, they were both very attractive buildings: the Saenger with its unique sky dome, and the Orpheum with its coziness and pleasant architecture which made it a perfect home for the former New Orleans Symphony, now called the Louisiana Symphony. There is no appropriate theater left in New Orleans.
The Levee System
The redevelopment of New Orleans is dependent upon, more than any other factor, the security of its hurricane and flood protection system.
Historically, the planters, as they were called, who owned plantations in Louisiana along the Mississippi River, built their own levees in front of their plantations. This did not require high elevations, because along the Mississippi River, at many places there were openings, which permitted, during “high waters”, the River to overflow into them and prevent the River from cresting too high at any point.
The levees were largely maintained by private and voluntary efforts. My grandfather, who was a large sugar cane and rice planter along the Mississippi, received a gold handled cane from the residents of Iberville Parish for the efforts he had expended in mustering and directing workmen to raise the levees during the High Waters of the eighteen nineties.
In the late eighteen hundreds the State of Louisiana became involved and set up Levee Boards as Constitutional entities, with the power to tax the property owners in its jurisdiction. They were largely funded by the Swamp Lands Grant Act passed by Congress which conveyed to the State of Louisiana Federal lands to be sold for the purpose of financing levees.
These Levee Boards, although there were many well meaning and interested citizens who became members, became the subject of political patronage and functioned haphazardly. Particularly, in the New Orleans area, a plethora of Levee Boards was assigned responsibility for various segments of the levee system. There was lack of effective overall coordination.
The devastating High Water and Flood of 1927 changed the picture. After that the Federal Government stepped in and assigned control of the levee system to the United States Corps of Engineers.
Now, some of the smartest cadets at West Point are assigned to the Corps of Engineers.
However, in keeping with the training of most engineers, they are able to concentrate on achieving the specific intent of their projects, while ignoring peripheral problems that may arise.
An example of this was the planning for and construction of the Bonnet Carre’ Spillway, which was designed to protect the City of New Orleans by diverting water from the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain.
When I was a young boy my father would bring me to Mandeville, I would swim in Lake Pontchartrain. It was a blue water lake.
After the first diversion of waters through Bonnet Carre’ Spillway the Lake became a dirty, muddy one. I am not sure the Corps of Engineers thought of this.
Only in recent years has the Lake resumed some of its pristine splendor.
There is now talk of opening Bonnet Carre’ for the flowing of Mississippi River water to the oyster beds of Mississippi. This would be a disaster.
The primary miscalculation by the Corps of Engineers, however, has been in its basic concept that the key to the problem was to heighten levees.
It is now realized that, over the centuries, the natural overflow of the River, along its sides, and through overflow from estuaries into the Gulf of Mexico, had built up interior and coastal marsh lands, that provided protection against high waters and hurricanes.
What can be done about that is a major problem. Louisiana is still today, as it was in Jefferson’s mind, who pushed for its acquisition and Lincoln’s, who realized that control of Louisiana and the Mississippi River flowing through it, could well determine the outcome of the Civil War, a most important part of the nation.
Offshore Oil Royalties
When Eisenhower was running for President he agreed to push for assigning to Louisiana at least one-fourth of the royalties to be derived from the area in offshore Louisiana that exceeded three miles from the coast.
A political figure, Leander Perez, told Earl Long, then governor, that Louisiana would win in litigation of the issue and convinced him to reject the offer. As was to be expected, the Supreme Court, representing the whole nation, ruled against Louisiana. Louisiana is thus excluded from royalties in the most productive area which lies beyond the three mile limit, although Texas is deemed owner up to twelve miles from its coast.
Louisiana has many burdens connected with this offshore development, including, for example, education of the dependents of the workers.
The erosion of the Louisiana coast, which has taken place at astronomical rates in recent years, will ultimately be another national disaster. Allocation of some of the offshore royalties, at least to some of this restoration and protection effort, would seem to be a minimal contribution that could be made.
As one who was involved with Cameron Parish after the terrific Hurricane Audrey, the extreme devastation caused by Hurricane Rita in Cameron and the surrounding parishes must be noted. Cameron Parish is in the center of one of the most productive regions for oil and gas, but there has been inadequate assistance to this area. But again, that is a somewhat separate problem.
Construction of a New Levee and Protection System.
One of the primary responsibilities of the Corps of Engineers was the protection of the City of New Orleans from potential hurricanes. That their efforts failed was evidenced by Katrina.
A primary cause of the flooding in New Orleans was the failure of the levees along the canals leading from Lake Pontchartrain, particularly the one protecting the Ninth Ward. These levees may have been overtopped, but the essential cause of their failure was the disruption at lower levels of the levee.
The force of the water simply caused the levee or portions of the levee to slide.
In the case of the Ninth Ward protection levee it has been estimated that at that point the Hurricane was of only Category 3 force.
I am not an engineer, but I do know something about geology.
The Charity Hospital in New Orleans was a multi-story structure. Parts of the building collapsed. The elevators quit working because some of the floors dropped several feet.
It was only when the Plaza Tower was built and the engineer had recommended that pilings be driven to the Pleistocene clay, which is about one hundred feet in depth at New Orleans, that, following this example, taller buildings could be safely built.
All strata above the Pleistocene clay are mobile, which means that until there is a design that entails tying to the Pleistocene any levee constructed secured to any of the layers above it will be subject to horizontal movement by forces such as generated by hurricane water surges.
One effort seems to have been at reinforcing these levees through the use of large rocks or boulders. Even if they were to be reconstructed using large boulders, such as was employed by the Dutch engineers who designed the new mega structural islands for Dubai and used huge boulders, aside from the question of its great cost, the question would still remain whether any reinforcement confined to the upper movable layers would not slide when confronted by a Category 5 hurricane.
It should not be difficult to design a narrow steel connection from the bottom of any levee built to the Pleistocene.
Until that is done there will be no real security.
The Confidence Issue
DeLeseppes “Chep” Morrison, who was named after the designer of the Suez Canal, was a good friend of mine.
He told me how he had gone to Brazil and met with Henry Kaiser, who was visiting there at the time.
Kaiser had been planning the construction of two aluminum reduction plants, the plants that make aluminum from bauxite. He had planned to build them in Washington or Oregon on the Columbia River, and use water power as an energy source. These plants are enormous consumers of energy. Chep told me that he had convinced Kaiser to come to Louisiana and build the plants on the Mississippi River and use natural gas as an energy source.
Now, if an aluminum reduction plant is flooded, it could not be restored. It would have to be completely rebuilt.
I realized the significance of Kaiser’s decision.
Prior to that time no important industry had built along the Mississippi River where they had to rely on the levees for protection. They had only built on land, such as in Baton Rouge which lay above any flood stage of the River.
Since Kaiser planned to build at Convent and Chalmette, two sites that were much below the water level in the River in the Spring Rise, this meant that great confidence was being expressed in the integrity of the levee system and the United States Corps of Engineers.
As a consequence of this discussion with Chep, I began to buy properties along the Mississippi River downstream from Baton Rouge. I sold many industrial sites thereafter, including the sales to Geigy Chemical of the plantation at St. Gabriel which had belonged to the LeBlanc family since 1750. I sold Bagatelle Plantation to Stauffer Chemical. I had purchased a large plantation at Convent and sold it to a number of industries including Kaiser Aluminum. Numerous other sites were sold, all as a result of the confidence vested in the Corps of Engineers.
This confidence must be restored. No half measures will do.
That is why the levees protecting New Orleans from surges from Lake Pontchartrain must be tied into the Pleistocene in some manner. New design should reduce the cost, but the cost of building movable gates as were constructed in the Netherlands would be far more prohibitive.
But no significant inflow of capital can be made into the area until there is confidence in the levee system and its maintainers.
In that connection the Levee Boards will have to be reformed, but the function of the Levee Boards is only secondary to the Corps of Engineers who have the basic responsibility.
Appropriate Planning
All of the great cities of the world were planned by one or more talented individuals. Paris, St. Petersburg, Washington, you name it.
Bienville and Iberville had great designs for the City of New Orleans, but were not able to fulfill their dreams.
The Spanish, when in control of Louisiana, made some efforts in the direction of building a distinctive New Orleans, constructing some fine edifices in the Vieux Carre’.
New Orleans cannot be satisfactorily restored without robust and effective planning.
Hurricane Katrina left thousands of watermarks on buildings and poles throughout the City. This was the equivalent of an extremely costly survey and was at least one benefit received from the hurricane.
The marginal areas should require minimum elevations for building construction and the very low areas should be converted to green space.
Every great city has ample parks and the construction of attractive parks would be a great move toward attaining the goal of reconstruction of a blighted city, and restoring it to grandeur.